Farewell BFE Forum

Started by giftgrub, November 23, 2021, 09:04:37 PM

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giftgrub

A note to let everyone know the BFE forum is closing on November 30th

It has been a great resource and full of interesting information on Brittany Ferries and other ferries over the years.

Have a look while you can, when it's gone it's gone.

https://bfenthusiasts.com/bfe/


Andy
By Andy
15/11/21
It is with regret that after much consideration I have taken the decision to close the BFE website and forum at the end of the month - on 30th November 2021.

Back in 2001, before the advent of social media, BFE was able to bring the latest news and insight into Brittany Ferries. It brought together enthusiasts, travelers, francofiles, and even employees from across the globe who had a common interest in the company and travel to France and Spain.

Now over twenty years on it is incredible to look back at quite what we have achieved together - behind the scenes onboard events (including a particularly memorable Bay of Biscay crossing onboard Bretagne), national press coverage, discounted member day trips, and even helping to restore a route! Lifelong friendships have been forged, marine careers encouraged and of course many beverages consumed!

Fast forward to 2021 and we've seen the challenge of the pandemic and Brexit, which have understandably generated much debate. However the number of politically weighted posts and, sadly, mischief makers have made it increasingly challenging to moderate the site whilst encouraging open discussion and trying to maintain a welcoming environment for all.

To the near 7,000 members past and present, thank you for your contribution and support over the years. It's incredible that over 227,000 posts have been made!  An even bigger thank you goes to the moderation teams, past and present, who have tried to keep the website on an even keel over the years. A special thank you goes to Jim - he's been here from the beginning and has ensured we kept online behind the scenes. Finally, a big thank you the teams at Brittany Ferries for their support and of course providing the subject matter for discussion, without which BFE wouldn't have existed.

It is my sincere hope that those who have enjoyed reading and contributing to the site will continue to enjoy traveling to France, Spain and Ireland. Keep safe and well.

à bientôt.

ccs

BFE will be a big loss. Great for info on BF and on ferry travel in general.

giftgrub

Quote from: ccs on November 23, 2021, 09:16:13 PM
BFE will be a big loss. Great for info on BF and on ferry travel in general.

Sure is, great resource and plenty of interesting voyage reports on BF and other ferries.

A new forum has been created to take over some of the work BFE did

https://frenchferryfans.boards.net/

Kieran

BFE was the reason (what was!) we set up this forum and site, and I'll admit Andy and co were always miles ahead of what I am running here, I'm sorry to see them go.

Actually running a forum (and enthusiasts site), is actually a lot of work, while there has been a move towards Facebook groups, I don't think that's the best place for these discussions (it's difficult to search them, and they tend to block anyone who isn't a member).
There is also the issue as mentioned above where you can have troublemakers and off-topic discussion that can make things messy and difficult to control (or, worse, a defamation case).

giftgrub

Quote from: admin on November 24, 2021, 06:12:13 PM
BFE was the reason (what was!) we set up this forum and site, and I'll admit Andy and co were always miles ahead of what I am running here, I'm sorry to see them go.

Actually running a forum (and enthusiasts site), is actually a lot of work, while there has been a move towards Facebook groups, I don't think that's the best place for these discussions (it's difficult to search them, and they tend to block anyone who isn't a member).
There is also the issue as mentioned above where you can have troublemakers and off-topic discussion that can make things messy and difficult to control (or, worse, a defamation case).

Kieran keep up the good work, very much appreciated and keeps all us ferry enthusiasts off the streets ! Ireland is safer with us indoors.

marsav68

URL has changed to https://theferryforums.com/
All accounts and posts have been carried over, but you will need to request a password reset. Details are here https://frenchferryfans.boards.net/thread/185/current-forum-members-join-new

Steven

Quote from: admin on November 24, 2021, 06:12:13 PM
BFE was the reason (what was!) we set up this forum and site, and I'll admit Andy and co were always miles ahead of what I am running here, I'm sorry to see them go.

Actually running a forum (and enthusiasts site), is actually a lot of work, while there has been a move towards Facebook groups, I don't think that's the best place for these discussions (it's difficult to search them, and they tend to block anyone who isn't a member).
There is also the issue as mentioned above where you can have troublemakers and off-topic discussion that can make things messy and difficult to control (or, worse, a defamation case).

Agree with this, though I will say that Facebook groups have their advantages too - there's no way our "Ferries!" Group would be as busy if we had created a forum instead.  Tbh facebooks flakey search is the main issue we have really (leading to duplicate posts, even by the admins sometimes despite checking first).  We are very lucky to have an excellent admin team too, and they are backed up by our regular members who are quick to hit the report button if necessary.  We manually approve all new members though (unlike a lot of groups) which seems to keep things sensible!  If someone does play up we are quick to take action (and ban if necessary).

Regarding websites, it's very easy to underestimate the amount of work that goes in.  I put about 60 hours in one week into niferry a couple of weeks ago and added zero new content in the process, though we do have a slightly different look and things should be running much faster now!  I wouldn't even try to calculate how many hours have gone into the website in total (original content takes a heck of a lot of time), but needless to say it's all unpaid and has to be juggled around other commitments.  As well as a cost in terms of time (and your sanity ) popular websites also have a financial cost.  I don't know exactly how busy BFE was in terms of traffic but good hosting is never cheap (ours has just gone up about 15% too) and cheap hosting doesn't cope assuming, that's assuming they don't pull your account - hence why we had to swallow the bitter pill of running adverts on Niferry.   

TBH I think Andy did incredibly well to keep going for 20 years. 
Steve in Belfast (suburbia)

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