Andy

I can see the logic in this, but it's almost impossible to enforce. Taking an extreme example, someone could register dougie_lampkin@hotmail.com, register as user name Dougie Lampkin, post whatever they wanted and I'd have no way to prove that person wasn't Dougie Lampkin (unless they offer to buy a round - then I'd know there was NO WAY it was Dougie ) Do I ban them on the supposition they aren't who they say they are? Do I presume honesty at all times? It's a no-win situation. Apart from that, forcing the 2700+ already registered forum users to change their names would drive me to insanity I totally agree with r2w's point about location. There's a little box in your profile where you can enter where you are. It makes a lot of difference when people are trying to help you when you ask a question - particularly if they're pointing you in the direction of a dealer, importer, supplier etc if they actually know what country you are in! The next version of the forum software is out and in what we in the software industry call a dot zero release i.e. it's a major release just out of beta and not fully tested "in the wild". I won't upgrade to it until at least the first maintenance pack is out with bug fixes - I'm happy to let others do the donkey work and find the bugs! That version will be more flexible on what fields are mandatory on sign-up. I'll make location one of them. It won't sort the issue with existing users, but will force all new users (of which there are now around 5 genuine ones a day) to specify some kind of location. I would suggest if anyone sees a post from a user who hasn't submitted a location that you either reply saying something along the lines of "I could possibly point you in the right direction if I knew where you were located. You've not put a location in your forum profile, could I suggest you do so?" or PM them to that effect.

The prices I got last year (yes, I got that far!) with a little markup and postage costs would have meant about

It was on my to-do list last year and it was on my to-do list again this year. Both years time constraints have prevented me from doing it Maybe next year.

Going back a few years now, but some more of Markyboy's work...

The next generation of MotoGP machine is here in the shape of the Honda RC212V racing prototype. Built to conform to the new-for-2007 Grand Prix rules, the bike features an 800cc, V4 engine and a stunning all-new chassis built with mass centralization and ultimate handling in mind. Welcome to the future

I've just replied to your email without noticing you'd posted this! Ignore email

It was hard to do because it's new software to me. There are a lot of dependencies to set up so the questions you are asked are based on things like your location and the answers you've given to previous questions. With now over 260 responses I'm seeing a number of common themes coming through. There are some VERY good suggestions, a few crap ones and a lot that are making me laugh. There are also areas which I sometimes wondered were worthwhile maintaining like the events calendar and the classified ads, but responses so far indicate these are well used (with a far higher percentage of successful sales via the classifieds than I expected) and therefore worth me keeping on. I probably will do this again given how useful I'm finding the responses so far. I may also offer it up as a managed service to others such as manufacturers, importers etc. I'll be posting overall findings and the most popular requests once the submissions have slowed. Probably in a couple of weeks. If you've not done this yet - PLEASE do so. It won't take long and it's REALLY good info for me. <insert begging smiley here>

I feel guilty for not being there, but having been away so much over the past few months and having a house that looked like a bombsite due to lack of occupation I really need to spend some time at home. The upside is I've finally got the halogen downlighters installed in my living room that have been lying in a box for months, I've tidied the loft and FINALLY ripped down the teddy bear dado railing in the spare room and cleared it out ready to re-decorate (only been in the place two years...) Am I excused? PS. Pee'd off about missing the pies. Normally I hate Scotch pies, but the ones Rab turned up with two years ago were bloody good.

The overwhelming suggestion is "when can we see photos of Cota Kid in his Dougie Lampkin one-piece suit?"

I wish I'd done it yonks ago. The information and suggestions coming in are fantastic. Some complete bollocks of course, some have had me almost in tears laughing (mostly from guys who obviously know me!), but overall it's really useful

And I'm sure Perce's lad will be grateful The same guy you were bidding against behind his back. ****

It probably died of embarrassment after having you in your Dougie one-piece on it.

22 submissions posted and already some key information and good suggestions coming through. Absolutely keep them coming - this is great stuff.

I've set this as an announcement at the top of every forum, but I don't think it's too noticeable. If you can spare the time, I'd like everyone to take a few minutes out to run through a survey I'm running to help me gain a better understanding of my readership and shape the future of the site. Even if you just use the forums, please take the time to run through it if you can as the forums are a key area of the site. Full details here Thanks in advance Andy

The

Consultant for global software firm dealing with designing solutions around data availability and regulatory compliance. Basically I design data backup, high availability (clustering, mirroring and replication of data) and archiving solutions for enterprise customers. If I go any deeper into what I do it would bore you senseless. It pays the mortgage, pays for the scoob and lets me have this site - that's all that matters

I realised this is the first weekend I've had to myself for over two months so the answer is no. I'm catching up with stuff at home (DIY stuff and tax return ) and apart from that just chilling.

Photobucket - They even give you the correct code to put into the forum software to display your images, but you'll need to resize them down a bit from the links you posted on live chat. They're bleeding massive!

I moved the content of it into Mechanical. Too many forums.

My season was supposedly over, but I MIGHT (emphasis on MIGHT!) pop up to this on Sunday. Will big Rab have a tray of pies?

You'll get noisy images with pretty much any digital camera at low-end ISO levels. I never shoot below ISO 400. I'll up it when the light is good, but never lower it. I use a couple of 1GB cards in both the 1D and the 10D with a couple of 512MBs as backup. Each photo I take is between 3MB and 5MB. I don't use burst mode. As I keep telling Jake, that's for "hit and hope" photographers!

Can recommend The Digital Camera Company. Get a lot of my stuff from them (latest was a couple of compact flash cards just a week ago) and always good prices and fast delivery. The S5600 from them is

I don't think the Observer saw it, but there was another guy with him who told him what had happened.

Nah - that has to have been done by a chick!