That didn't last very long!!!

Mr Scott said; "I think you've got the wrong person". A problem with cloak and dagger posts.

Thanks for the reply.
My good wishes are still with you and some of my reservations remain!

Curious.
Where did Mr Scott go?
The plot thickens.

Mr Scott appears to have left the forum for some unknown reason.

Perhaps it is for a known reason?

I shall await developments with bated breath.

Quote :

Totally pointless post deleted by poster.

I saw this post before it was deleted and it was far from pointless. It made some very apt suggestions for a new local publication so why Mr. Scott should take the action he has is puzzling. As for using 'Guest' status, what is his point when he stated on another thread, in a effort to be transparent, that he is Thomas Scott? He's gone very quiet about his fantasy 'Community Hub' too, hasn't he?

Lothian Lass
I think you'll find that "guest" is what appears as the poster's name when they are no longer members of the forum either because they have decided they no longer want to participate or they have been booted out for whatever reason. Andy's comment suggests that Scott's departure was voluntary.
He will not be able to post but his previous posts will remain unless the site admin chooses to delete them. I think that's the situation but Andy will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong.
Like you, I'm not sure why Scott would suddenly choose to cut himself from this forum. The pen-y-cog websites are still up though there doesn't seem to be much activity. 9am Friday the Cuckoo is supposed to be publishing the council election results. If that doesn't happen then we might get to learn a bit more. If it does, presumably everything is OK.

Quote :

9am Friday the Cuckoo is supposed to be publishing the council election results.

The count begins at 9am on Friday morning.

Thanks. I must have misread what the website said.
It would be nice to think they are going to update the site minute by minute but I doubt they have the time to be doing that. (Not difficult with wordpress if they want to try!)

Unfortunately I missed seeing the "Totally pointless post" before it was deleted and did not know what had been said. However, Mr Scott did leave of his own accord. He also removed his details by himself and provided no reason for doing so. Therefore, now that the system no longer has a record of his user name it has automatically changed it to "guest".

Okay!

As author and deleter of the "totally pointless post", maybe I'd better speak.

It was a case of mistaken identity. I thought T. Scott was someone known to me - a relatively young bloke who already runs a successful business.

That lead me to wonder if he was planning to take his publication in a particular direction. I made some suggestions which seem to have struck a chord with Lothian Lass at least.

T. Scott then explained that he was someone other that the bloke I know - and that rendered my post "pointless" so I deleted it.

Okay?

(Maybe after reading so many many posts telling him his publication idea couldn't work, he simply died of shock when someone suggested that maybe it could.)

rubbereye
I saw your post and his reply and understood why you took it down.
I don't think there's the slightest doubt that Scott's idea could work, especially given the benefit of the internet to back up the "dead tree" version.
I'm just not sure that he (and his supporters/backers/volunteers) were aware of what would be needed to make it work.
Which is why I (and I think Lothian Lass as well) had some reservations about where this support might be coming from. There are plenty of people around with bright ideas but without either the know-how or the stamina to put those ideas into practice though they think they have.

I agree that you offered some good well intentioned advice for a project that is likely to be very difficult to get going. Also, once it does, it will need to be sustainable and like you I would like to wish him every success in his endeavours

Well, has anyone seen a copy of the newspaper? A few weeks ago Mr Scott (aka guest) wrote

"The online edition will be available on the 10 May and the printed version will be delivered on the 12 and 13 May if you live in one of the "delivery areas" which have still to be decided upon."

I've just had a look at the Cuckoo website - the countdown sits at zero but there is no online version to read.

No sign of the newspaper, but the Town Crier did arrive.

The Cuckoo countdown clock has been reset - at present it stands at one day, 22 hours 37 mins! Looks like a delay?

Hmmm.........

The clock wound down at 6.00pm, but there's nothing so far.

Let's not write the project off just yet though. Wait and see.

Okay, the countdown clock has gone and there is now a message saying that it will be published in the next day.

The Cuckoo's page has a screen shot of a very impressive looking first edition of the print version.
If the website can match that and keep itself up-to-date then this venture might be a winner.
The key is going to be the website.
I discussed this at the weekend with my daughter — a freelance and ex-print journalist and a lot more clued in about modern social media than I am — and her reaction was the same. In fact she was fairly blunt: in news terms anyone who doesn't have internet access might as well be dead. If the Cuckoo doesn't update its website than it will lose at least 90% of its readership within a week and I think most people would agree. There is very little worse (in modern communication terms) than a website that is out-of-date. It's bad enough when it's just providing factual information or being an on-line presence; when it is supposedly disseminating news and that news is obviously old news, it's the website that might as well be dead!
All I can say from this distance is if there's anyone that can get involved and keep the on-line news content alive and vibrant then please do it. Even if it does nothing but keep exiles like me informed (and I'm by no means the only one who would bookmark that site) it would be worth it. And it really would do a lot more than that.

One other thing that I noticed is that there is no mention of whether their advertising will be included on the online edition. If it isn't, it is something they might wish to consider, as the 'Monthly Edit' does.

Andy, if I was an advertiser I would be mightily peed off if I paid £240 a month to find that I was only in a print copy with a circulation of 1,000! That leaves about 5,000 houses in Penicuik (I don't know exactly how far out this thing is going: Auchendinny? Howgate?) that are getting the news but not seeing my ad. They're hardly getting their moneys-worth.

It's now out online at least.

And I'm sorry to say I am unimpressed.
News content is minimal. In fact, I can get more up to date Penicuik news by reading this forum - or even just standing at the bar of the Crown.

I thought I detected a degree of political bias both on the front page and in a "feature" on regeneration of the Town Centre (Apparantly now that the SNP is in control, something might be done. Bad and unwise. Advertisers want a publication that appeals to all Penicuikers. In a town as small as Penicuik, it can't be a good idea to alienate potential readers by allowing - even just apparent - politcal bias to creep in.)

It's a "NO" and a thumbs-down from me! Sorry.

Maybe it'll improve over time....... But now I've gone from wishing the project success to believing this just ain't gonnae work.

I've seen worse but it's not an easy read.
It looks like an example of trying to be clever because the technology is there to do it.
Ask why the Times/Telegraph/Mail don't use this technique. Because it doesn't make the reader's life easy, that's why. And if it's not going to be updated until mid-June then like rubbereye I've got a dozen other places where I can get my Penicuik news from (including you wonderful people ) and I don't even live there!
Nice try, sir, but no cigar!