deaddruid
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A very strange thing happened. I took the Beocom5 to a kind friend who allowed me to try to register it to his base, which again failed. I then went home, and forgot to take the phone out of my coat pocket. This morning I remembered it, put it on the charger, tried registration… and it worked straight away.
Before my initial attempts to connect the phone I had reset it to factory settings. It wouldn’t connect. Something seems to have changed by letting the battery go flat.
Very odd.
Mark
I think I’m going to have to find someone with a Beoline2 base so that I can try to connect the Beocom5. That way I’ll at least have a little more information – if it works, then the problem is my Beoline2, if it fails, then it’s more likely the phone.
Mark
I’ve now tried resetting the base. The Beocom5 still doesn’t talk to it.
I did save the phonebook to one handset, but ridiculously, there’s no way to copy it back!
🙁
Mark
Of course! That explains the gap at #3 – which was the phone where I pressed the INT button.
It now shows 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (since I added #5 this morning, as a test) so there should be plenty space for the Beocom5. However it still just says “”Searching base Wait…”.
🙁
Mark
Guy, thank you for your thoughts.
I originally bought the Beoline with one Beocom 6000 mk II from Denmark, a few years ago. I’ve since added three other 6000 mk II phones and then deleted one. The list of registered phones viewed from a 6000 mk II (pressing the INT button) has only three slots used (1, 2 and 4).
I’ve tried opening the Beoline for registration from one of the 6000 mk II phones, and when that proved ineffective, I switched the base off and then on again. No dice.
I have tried resetting the Beocom5, but haven’t tried resetting the Beoline yet, as I don’t want to lose all the programmed numbers unless I have to.
I’ve just tried adding a new Beocom 6000 mk II, and it went straight in as #5, but the Beocom5 still doesn’t communicate with the base. So the base will clearly take more handsets, implying a problem with the Beocom5.
So it currently looks like either the Beocom5 is faulty, or there is a software incompatibility.
Mark
Rats! Just realised that I missed the excitement of the draw.
Merry Christmas to everyone, and especial congratulations to the winners.
To Lee and the team – thank you for keeping this tradition going.
Mark
We seem to have strayed a little from Lee’s original question – partly my fault, I know.
It’s all good stuff, but the real questions would seem to be:
- Should Lee be paying for the prizes personally – No!
- Should the website be self-sustaining – Yes!
- Can we currently afford to run the draw – No.
I think it’s that stark.
So much as I enjoy the draw, it should stop until either income increases, or we find another way to run the draw.
We’ve all contributed ideas on how to increase income. Unfortunately each of them would require Keith to put in even more hours to add to the site. The priority tasks may therefore be:
- Find an assistant for Keith
- Collect more information on the effectiveness of each of our suggestions, perhaps by contacting webmasters who already use those techniques.
Then it might be possible to increase income, and return to a draw – or other incentives.
As always, just a few of my thoughts.
Mark
Actually, the annual message asking for support is a really good idea. The Internet Archive does this to raise funds, as does Wikipedia. It’s an opportunity to remind people of the work that the site does, and how much cash is needed to keep it afloat.
Mark
Just a thought, but how about encouraging donations by adding a “Buy Lee and Keith a coffee” button at the top of every page?
Mark
The economics have to balance. If the books cannot be made to balance, we’ll be looking at site closure – maybe not tomorrow, but soon. If subscriptions don’t cover the cost of the draws, then we need to increase income, or reduce the cost of the draws.
On increasing income: I became a gold member because I wanted to support the good work that Lee and the team were doing. To me, the small difference between the cost of Silver and Gold made the latter the obvious choice. Whether the cost is £30 or £35 would not make any difference. However a move to £40 might have caused me (if I’d just arrived at the site for the first time) to pause, and ask whether I really needed to pay that much. My guess is that those members who currently pay £30 are unlikely to baulk at £35.
On reducing the cost of the draws: We need to consider why the draws exist. I see this as two-fold: they are an exciting point in the year to look forward to, and they bring the Beoworld family together. They are good for the former, but not really so good for the latter. I think that the move from monthly to quarterly was a big change. A change from quarterly to annually (a Christmas draw) would have much less impact. A quarterly draw I often miss, but a once-per-year Christmas one would be special.
So as a minimum, I suggest £35 and an annual draw.
However it’s also worth looking at the issue from the other end – why someone might want to be a Gold member. Perhaps Silver could offer a limited number of downloads, whereas Gold is unlimited. Perhaps Gold could be marketed as the “true enthusiast” membership – same as Silver, but with a donation of £5, £10 or £15 (minimum £5) towards the work of Beoworld.
Similarly, if we look at the draw from the other end – it’s unlikely that someone would join Gold *just* to participate in the draw. It’s more the icing on the cake. Would it be possible to replace this icing with something else? I seem to remember in the dim and distant past that there was a meeting at the Kensington Roof Gardens. I have no idea how successful (or otherwise) that was, but it was thinking outside the box. How about an annual Gold meeting, funded by attendees, not by the membership fee. In addition to simply meet & chat, we could run a handful of tutorials – I’d be happy to run one on basic electronics, basic electronic fault finding, or even how to solder. I’m not necessarily recommending an annual meet as the right way forward, but more about not constraining ourselves to an undue focus on the draw.
Mark
WOW! I’m really, really, disappointed that I couldn’t be online to enjoy the Draw live. I never expect to win anything – certainly not the star prize. This site is a terrific meeting place, I’ve learned a lot from the helpful members over the years, and really value my Gold membership to support the site. Winning First Prize this evening is the icing on the cake.
A big thank you to all, especially Lee and Keith for all their hard work in keeping the site alive.
Mark
