Hornby 2022 Christmas Advent Calendar

[Long Distance]

Vespa - I am 78 and didn't know what "woke" meant so I Googled it

"Woke was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2017, and contrary to popular belief, it is defined as ‘originally: well-informed, up-to-date. Now chiefly: alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice’."

Not sure how it applied to the Hornby Advent Calendar.

[BritInVanCA]

I'm in my late fifties and perfectly comfortable with social media (although I did need to get a TikTok account for the competition!). Let's not make any agist assumptions about railway modelers abilities and certainly not negatively label those who use social media.

I completely understand what is happening here. It is a marketing campaign. Hornby will give you the opportunity to win something if you help promote them. Nothing wrong with that!

I would encourage modelers to at least get on YouTube and Facebook. There is so much good information out there for railway modelers. Perhaps the generations can help each other. If your children/grandchildren are too young enter for them. If you don't understand social media get them to enter or show you how to.

[VESPA]

What if you are retired with no grandchildren or children like me and my wife. The Facebooks etc are not of much use to us. Once you leave work your workmates gardually disappear and you only ever see them at someones funeral.

[Bulleidboy]

What if you are retired with no grandchildren or children like me and my wife. The Facebooks etc are not of much use to us. Once you leave work your workmates gardually disappear and you only ever see them at someones funeral.

 

 

Arrange a lunch with all your old workmates. I attended one last week, there must have been thirty five of us, met up at an italian restaurant, had three course lunch and a drink - nothing rowdy - it was great fun. Average age - probably seventy.

[96RAF]

I attend an old boys group tongue in cheek called the Tuesday Walkers, comprised as many ex-RAF apprentices as we can muster, usually a dozen or so. We shamble for about a mile or so, rather than walk, but at least we are active. I am amongst the young ‘uns at 78. Our oldest is a sprightly 93 and we have a guy still flying his own plane in his 80’s. There are more walking sticks than you could err - shake a stick at in the bar where we take lunch and have a chin-wag about life shared those many decades ago.

Well that has dragged us right off topic pending the opening of tomorrow’s window.

[Long Distance]

Age has nothing to do with Social Media. There is some very entertaining stuff on Instagram and the main skill required is shutting out and ignoring the garbage.

[Yelrow]

The point fo me is I have No interest in any face/twitts / Grams, instant or otherwise. Nor will I be forced into joining them for Brownie points. Bon Noel.

[Fishmanoz]

Bon Noel a vous aussi Jean,

In that case, take a look at today the 7th - straight name and email to enter a draw for a set, no twits required.

[Yelrow]

Fishy, Hi, ahead of you (for a change ), already entered. Soooo pleased to do summat without having to join summat.

[Fishmanoz]

Have to get up very early to be ahead on this one John. When GMT ticks over to the new day at 12am and you are still in bed, it’s 11am here so I can enter straight away, or not depending.

[GORDON MARTIN-355516]

Whilst I think the yearly "Advent calendar" is an excellent idea. I am disappointed to see that so many of the days require you to be active on various forms of social media. I, and I suspect numerous other modellers have no interest in participating in twitter, instagram etc.

Come on Hornby, give us a few more days with a simple name/address/club membership entry.

[Yelrow]

Gordon, And so say all of us.

[RDS]

@Gordon

Totally agree, I have no interest in Tick Tock, Facecloth or anything like that.

[VESPA]

Let's be honest here, the vast majority on here have no interest in Twitter, Facecloth, Tick tock tick tock etc etc so are unable or unwilling to enter. That actually is a snub to us the customer. A very bad decision by Hornby with so many newcomers to the model railway world such as Rapido, Accurascale etc. hitting the market. Dapol are really getting into new quality models as well. Hornby have already messed up with several retailers with Rails no longer dealing with them and forging ahead with popular exclusives from Heljan and Bachmann, some of which are NRM exclusives with their funding. If Hornby continue with their disasterous approach to customers, both trade and public, I see no future for them.

[Long Distance]

Oh dear. This Forum gets worse every day.

[The Doc]

I'm not quite sure why people expect Hornby to "give away owt for nowt". They are a business, trying to compete in very difficult economic circumstances, and they are trying to expand their potential market. So if you want the chance to win a freebie, then the "downside" (if you see it that way) is that you go on social media and indirectly help them promote their products, possibly to a predominantly younger demographic who aren't currently buying their products.

I'm not a great user of social media myself but it seems a valid approach and I'm not going to criticise them for trying to widen their market. The better they do financially, the more all of us on this forum will benefit.

[wairoalbany]

I like YouTube but the rest of social media is a garbage pile. I deleted my Facebook years ago. Best move I ever made on social media.

Of course I am 51 so perhaps they are going after younger folks. In that regard it probably makes sense to trawl social media.

[Long Distance]

Maybe one of the learned gentlemen on this site could explain to us how the Hornby Forum is any different to Facebook, Instagram or any other like site. It's Social Media just more focused on Model Railways.

[Fazy]

Hornby is a company its prime objective is to make money offering its services nothing more.

The company isn’t anyone’s friend pal or mate etc.

There are 3 ways to make more money. cost cutting, increase what it charges for its services ( models), or increase sales. Competitions are nothing more the an advertising ploy to increase awareness and hopefully encourage more sales.

Past loyalty counts for nothing they’ve already banked that money and also know you are aware of their products and are likely to buy again.

with this in mind just being on this website puts everyone in the already know of Hornby and they don’t need to catch your interest so to speak. They may offer the odd competition to keep everyone on here happy but the real reason for the competition isn’t us. It’s the new customers that don’t know they want Hornbys services yet.

Facebook is old tech for the 30~plus year old people. The younger generation are on Snapchat instagram and the like. YouTube is a more general site for all people. you want fresh newbis in the hobby you need to go where they are. Because they don’t hang around model shops anymore.

it would be relatively simple to pick a name from a list if you just need to run down one list. However to pick a name from multiple list ie multiple websites at the same time becomes much harder as compiling would add time and work. To filter out multiple entries by people on different websites would need to be done to make it fair for everyone. Easier to rotate the platform the competition is held on.

[What About The Bee]

Maybe one of the learned gentlemen on this site could explain to us how the Hornby Forum is any different to Facebook, Instagram or any other like site. It's Social Media just more focused on Model Railways.

Easy to explain the difference, on Instagram, you can post pictures with what you have to say. What? You can do that here too? 😲 No way!

Easy to explain the difference, on Facebook, you can post comments. You can say what you are working on. There are even model railroad groups you could join. Ask for help. What? That's what we do here? 😲 No way!

This is social media. Plainly and simply.

Now I totally get why some social media sites can be very toxic. Why a person wouldn't want to associate themselves with it. That's a personal choice and I can certainly respect that. But it is a personal choice. Your choice. My choice not to join Facebook. We don't have the toxicity here that other sites do, thanks to the moderators. It is quite a nice feature.

Most here have a very positive view of Hornby. I certainly do. Its an old venerable company with a rich history. That makes us the Hornby faithful. That statement is meant with the very best of intentions. Hornby Faithful.

The disconnect seems to be that some folks think the Holiday Contests as give aways to the faithful, a reward for supporting Hornby. I consider that to be wishful thinking.

The Holiday Contests are to drive demand, to create online buzz, to create business. If you choose not to engage in the social media selected for that day, please remember that it was your choice not to engage. Hornby isn't ignoring you that day, you choose to not participate.

The Hornby Reward program rewards the faithful. It rewards folks who repeat purchase from Hornby with a discount. As you spend, you get a discount on the next purchase. Ignoring the start up kerfuffles, it is a nice program. A reward to the faithful. Celebrate that!

The Advent Calender has nothing to do with repeat business. It is to drive new business. It is a marketing tool. Not a reward to the faithful.

Given the choice between the two programs, I will take the Hornby Rewards program over the Holiday Contests. Firstly, I absolutely never win, anything, ever. If you want to win a contest, make sure I have entered. It increases your odds of winning because I won't win. Secondly, the Rewards program allows me to select my prize. I can apply my points/discount to whatever model I want. Not the model Hornby selected for the contest, but the model I select.

 

 

[dBerriff]

Long Distance Information … sorry, could not resist.

Bulletin boards (BB) like this are mostly text based, although images and other media can be included.

BBs can be moderated as we have recently seen in the TT:120 discussion. This might be disliked, but it is the means to stopping unwanted or unpleasant thread drift, or personal attacks.

BB data usually goes no further.

BBs are usually focused on specific groups or subject areas which keeps management of content feasible.

Social media (SM)(!) is a very loose term but lets take it to mean the services promoted by the Hornby Advent Calendar.

These services are monetised. Your data is used commercially otherwise why would these services - which you do not pay for - be worth $billions? It might be de-personalised but it is still used for advertising, Artificial Intelligence learning and probably things we do not know about. Log in with Google? No thank you.

SM in the early days was not moderated at all. It is slowly getting better but it is still mostly a free-for-all where bullying and ad-hominem attacks can rage.

I will stop there as I have probably already broken the forum rules regarding chat.

Having said the above, I think what Hornby is doing is reasonable marketing. Some of us might not wish to participate, but they have to try! Only Hornby will know how successful these campaigns are.

[Fazy]

Instagram is a photo / short video based system. To show what people are up to at that minute. You put an image or video up with a short message up. Everybody is able to view it is only for 24 hours then it is put in the person back library where it can then only be viewed by followers. To follow some one you click follow and their post will be prioritised to show on your page. Well other images will be sent randomly or by what you seem like ie trans or cats etc. it’s very look at me aren’t I good!

tweeter is a more up to date open text system with image. So imagine send a short (maximum word count so no long messages) text message with images. Only followed get see all the tweets. You have to follow people ie the president of the USA.

snap chat is similar though the texts are auto deleted after a short period if not saved ie shot. It is also peer to peer.

messenger is now part of Facebook it’s a free text and phone call service. Along as you are on the internet it’s free if not it will use your phone’s internet credit.

Facebook is the daddy of SM sites, it’s old a bit clunky in its design but it carries so much that it can’t compete on the slick look of the other websites due to its size and it’s abilities. Once sit up it can act like a home base on the computer one look and I can see the world news, if my favourite artist has released new music, what’s my friends got up to after I left the pub last night along with that photo at the pub. The weather today a quick chat with my sister, how John is getting on with the kit build of a LMS Stanier black 5. Watch a clip of my favourite tv show. Etc.

this website ‘Hornby’ is nothing like any of the services mentioned. It is very restrictive in its use and abilities of service that is not a criticism it is merely a statement of fact.

All websites and media services use algorithms to function including Hornby. There is no way round it otherwise the systems can’t work. The difference is what these algorithms do most are armless and are just trying to match your interest or help the site function. The ones which are more dangerous are on fake websites and adult only. How to tell if a website is save scroll up to the search results (Web address) it will say UK.Hornby .com if you look you can see a padlock In front which means the site is secure. No padlock it’s not secure not all websites have this but are safe to be on some small model producers use insecure websites. However I would not use any valuable information on that site ie phone numbers bank details etc. the site may have a of site payment page ie PayPal which should be save check for the padlock!

[AndyMac1707817969]

A padlock indicates very little other than communication between browser and the server are encrypted. Anyone with a domain name can purchase a certificate and indeed they are now available free from places such as LetsEncrypt. For most certificates there are no checks, all you need do is have a domain name and anyone can purchase these. There are various certificate types such as ‘True Business Certificates’ where the site and business behind it are checked and scrutinized but the vast majority of certificates do not guarantee identity. You need to view the certificate info to see if the domain is issues to a spacific company or just a domain. Even if its the former, for most certificates of this type, no company checks are carried out.

[RB51]

Thread locked. We seem to have stopped discussing The Advent Calendar. R-