Rural Diaries – country life, the countryside and rural issues

Posted by Sally on June 6th, 2008 in Country Living, Rants and Rambles, Rural Resources

One of the joys of living in the age of technology is that even in rural areas we now largely have access to the internet (yes it’s slow but at least we have it), we can access information and it helps us to feel connected to other rural people.

I am not one for joining groups or organisations, mother has been a member of NFU for years so when we need some information she makes the calls but today I decided it was time to get involved and check out the NFU Countryside forum.

The NFU Countryside is a large organisation boasting 60,000 members and I’m not sure I know anyone that isn’t a member so I assumed they would have an active, supportive forum. How wrong I was.

Having just logged in and read the forum rules, where I was advised to “lurk” for some time before posting anything (how’s that for making you welcome? No come in and introduce yourself, pull up a pew and have a cuppa), I then began my lurking duties. I searched through the very sparse forum of posts that have gone unanswered by anyone, even by admin.

The category General Countryside Issues has a total of 16 posts going back to 2006 and 11 of those have gone unanswered (I include the posts by Marksman and McBain as they ended up answering themselves, poor souls).

Of the remaining 5 posts, 2 were answered by what appear to be other members, one was answered by an advert for another site and three of them were answered by admin with messages such as this:

“As part of your NFU Countyrside membership you are able to recieve full personal legal information on Hedgerows and other legal issues, Contact 0870 840 2030 for futher information on this fantastic member benefit. So we can answer your call efficently please have your membership number to hand.”

For heavens sake the woman had only asked for advice on a sparse hawthorn hedgerow and whether grants were available for new planting!!

I realise the NFU likes to scrape in every pound it can but surely it would be more cost effective to simply design a website page that says “if you want advise join the NFU and call this number”, it would certainly save people the hassle of joining a forum just to be given an advert for the NFU and then they could scrap the admin cost of administering the forum.

The category titled Future of rural services has never been posted in … ever. Something so vital to so many rural people and admin have never bothered, in two long years, posting any information which would lead us countryside dwellers to add our opinions or concerns.

Now is it just me or is that more than a little naff? This is 2008, information flows freely around the net and people like to chat online, share views and spout their opinions (well I certainly do).

My website currently has 200 members and a very active forum, it is only 6 months old and we are all rural people.

THE NFU on the other hand has 60,000 members and at £41.50 per annum that rakes in £2,490,000 a year, just from membership fees alone, but they can’t afford one part time member of staff to administer and market their forums? Very poor show NFU Countryside, very poor indeed.

If you are looking for an active farming forum then try the British Farming Forum with over 3000 members and people posting every day. Or Farmers Weekly Interactive Forums which also has over 3000 members.

If you want a countryside forum then you can’t go wrong with River Cottage with almost 15000 members.

If your interest lies in wildlife then the Wild About Britain forums is an active place with topics from insects to bushcraft and waste to wildlife photography.

If you know of any great farming or countryside forums please leave a comment and let us know about them, so we can all join in.