Why is the forum so quiet? And advice on UK pensions from GaryC

[GaryC 394]

Is it just that nobody has anything to say or ask, or is it that nobody can create new posts or reply to old ones because of the IT glitch with the forum itself?

As suggested elsewhere, I have turned off Java for this site and am now able to post new topics and reply to old ones. I though the recent outages meant that the programmers were perhaps fixing things but appears not to have been the case. All very annoying...

[MadAxeMurderer 6,294]

It's over. Even if it springs back to life with JS, and adverts.
And an apology from EB explaining exactly what went wrong and a commitment to never fuckup again.

People just won't trust it, and expect it to die on a day's notice

[tor 17,438]

who the fuck is EB? :)

[HH_Sailor 3,655]

Editor Bob would be my guess.

But he sloped off quite some time back.

[MadAxeMurderer 6,294]

Who the fuck are JS, Tor and HH?

[Rushrush 301]

Couple of Reasons I can think of. People have moved to Reddit (newbies tend to be on FB) and as well the software glitch that makes it hard to post . You have to change a setting in your browser so that's a barrier to people posting. And I suppose mostly people are moving away from posting on social media. I used to be super active now I never or rarely post anymore.

[karin_brenig 712]

...moving away from "social" media in general, not just posting on forums.

I call it "ad fatigue". I feel I have to wade through loads of horse manure to find bits and pieces of actual "social interaction". I'm now texting more than ever before, one-on-one, or (sometimes) group messages with my peeps.

[Metall 14,557]

This forum is driving off the last remaining users (who held out against poor management and wacky to nonexistent moderation) by not fixing technical issues and by repeated outages. Some people can't post because they haven't deactivated JavaScript for whatever reason. The others don't care anymore.

Once you turn off JS, there are no ads on TT to wade through, so no revenue for The Local. Another reason why they should fix this place - if they still care.

Edit: EB is long gone. Good riddance.
This post puts the whole situstion in a nutshell:
https://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/topic/393253-packing-up-to-leave/?do=findComment&comment=3953607

[fraufruit 42,496]

"This forum is driving off the last remaining users (who held out against poor management and wacky to nonexistent moderation)"

Some of us weren't holding out. We just ignored all of the bullshit and carried on. Life's too short to get one's panties in a wad over stupid shit.

[Metall 14,557]

Whatever.

[Janx Spirit 11,331]

Kireg's help over at https://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/topic/393262-how-to-bring-back-javascript-on-broken-Toytown/#comment-3953829 may induce some to continue posting. Or maybe, just maybe, if we are really lucky, his help will help the interns at The Local fix the problem...

[kiplette 8,795]

Yep - if you are on Edge, the lock icon on the left is your key - 'permissions for this site' and disable Java script.

Thanks to those who pointed this out - I had already done it on my computer elsewhere and it made no difference at all, so that's definitely the way forward :)

Now back on - yeah!

[snowingagain 5,441]

Nice to see you. It is still crap though.

[Dembo 525]

Yaay I can post again. Thankyou kiplette.

Now if only I had something to say.

[emkay 10,320]

@GaryC…….are you available for a UK NI voluntary contribution question? Short story….despite a recent letter stating what I should pay, no 18 digit code given to me for online or telephone payment. 7 hours on hold today/cut off several times, Incorrect advice etc with the pension department and HMRC have turned my brain to mush! Codes they gave me were alpha/numeric….NI number followed by IC and then my surname. No, this isn’t accepted. Seems to have to be an 18 digit numeric code. Do you happen to know if there’s a better department to speak to that can advise correctly? I know what I want to pay, just don’t know how. Many thanks as always in advance.

[snowingagain 5,441]

They did a big purge of the Sweden and Swiss sites. Sweden then disappeared. Swiss one still there. But if you think TT is rubbish, just take a look at the Swiss one. It has (as far as I can see) nothing useful. And people have bitched about TT being ancient and nothing useful. Facebook has nothing. Almost no posts. Reddit. Try searching "German Tax" or "German Health Isurance" There is fuck all. You can say that many of the threads here are old an of no use. But there is nothing on FB or Reddit.

[kiplette 8,795]

Cripes, the people who bitch that TT are useless are merely people who don't need the information it provides.

Plenty of us get loads of relevant and useful information here.

I will hold onto it with my fingernails even if it's truly dying because there is info which is super hard to get hold of that you can ask about on here and either get answers or a signpost to the answer, all of which is grand.

Ask the same thing on FB and the info is dodgy at best. All sorts of rubbish passes off as truth on the various Brexit-pain FB pages, and you could properly end up in a twisted heap. Here if that happens someone usually comes on to explain what is crap and what is useful.

If Panda is still able to post, all is not lost :)

[snowingagain 5,441]

Someone actually posted today, that new people are looking at Facebook. I really do not believe it, and how does it even work? Think it was Rushrush.

[HH_Sailor 3,655]

@emkay wrote :
Codes they gave me were alpha/numeric….NI number followed by IC and then my surname

Now that's what I got as the "reference number"
I was given two bank codes - a UK sort code / account number
and the same in the form of an IBAN for use from a German account. (GB49BARC...etc)


My brain is mush too from the weeks of failing to get through to the HMRC to find out about voluntary NI for my wife.
Luckily, mine was sorted ten yrs ago in a fit of eagerness :-)

[kiplette 8,795]

Oh, the info is all so jumbled on FB - it's very difficult to keep info ordered and finding facts from pages is proper needle in a haystack stuff. It's fine for some things - I have a useful relationship with other Foodi owners though a recipe page, which has been awesome, and a community info page we belong to has been amazing, but the BiG page is a proper blind leading the blind experience, no-one's fault, it just is how it is.

Only oldy newbies are going to go with FB - youngsters are all on the cooler things. Don't know how you find info on those.

TT works fine for me, and now with this JS thing sorted, all is good.

Those of us who can be arsed can stick around, and those who can't won't. Which is fine. Thus is life.