ROVworld – One month notice of site lockdown

[James McLauchlan]

ROVworld – One month notice of site lockdown

After 13 years of operating ROVworld.com it has become clear to us that we are no longer connected with the ROV industry as we once were. Becoming somewhat disconnected from ROV operations, and the ROV industry in general, means we have developed other priorities in work and play. Our onshore business interests are starting to take up more of our time. It is for those reasons we are giving a months notice to advise that at the end of 2013 the

WEF 31st December 2013 – ROVworld website:

• Will no longer be updated for Industry news.
• The forum will be locked.
• New members will not be accepted.
• Banner ads will be allowed to run to natural expiry. Most are reaching that point anyway.

What will happens to all the information posted and the ROVworld.com and ROVworld.net URL‘s?
All the accumulated information will be kept live indefinitely (urls will remain registered to us) as a source of reference for those that might find it useful.

We’ve put a lot of time and effort into this site over the years and it’s had its interesting moments thats for sure 🙂 It kind of blew up into something we didn’t expect back in 2000 when we made a couple of static pages live with some Industry information on them! In 2003 we switched to a Content Managements System (CMS)

Some stats: Over the last 10 years
Since Sat 13th Dec 2003 we have received

• 58,406,765 (Yep! 58 Million!) page views
• We’ve also had 8,339 members sign up during the same period.
• News articles posted: 6,513
• Number of news item reads: 5,026,248 (Yep! more than 5 million)
• Average reads per article: 772

More news stats at: http://www.rovworld.com/top.html

All the best
ROVworld Web Team

[John Bridgett]

Well to me that seems a rather odd step. You say everything is being kept live then why not let it continue, the costs are the same and I for one have found it very useful. If youre not willing to do that, would you allow someone else to set a forum up? I’d be happy to do it if it got your blessing as it were to allow people to have a voice.

Many thanks for all of the help, advice and guidance received, it will be sadly missed when it’s gone.

IS

[Paul Bond]

Thank you for your efforts over the years – much appreciated

[Roy Simson]

Hi James / Ray

Thanks for giving a voice to the thousands of rov personnel , I hope someone will open a replacement forum but fully understand that with your work commitments you no longer have the time that you once had plus the cost of running a site like this .

If any other member has any thoughts about starting a new forum please let me know , As I cannot think of any other independent Rov Forum that covers the amount of issues as this one does and it will be missed .

Cheers

Raptor

[Lloyd Todd]

James/Ray

A sad day for the ROV industry, thanks for all your years of service to this site and good luck in your work/new ventures.

Best regards Lloyd Todd

OMSA

[Ray Shields]

Over the last while the number of (useful) posts have been going down and down. More and more it’s "how do I get a job" or the same question over and over again.

Maybe I’m getting more intolerant in my old age 😀 But when many of the questions can be answered with a simple Google search you wonder just how many people want to be spoon fed and get things handed to them these days 🙂

I think like many other things on the Internet, the site has run its course. There are now many other newer social interfaces such as LinkedIn and Facebook which now offer much more interactive and lively areas for discussion, news and debate.

The site will remain as a reference to anyone searching for information, I for one wouldn’t want the domain names to get into the hands of someone who maybe would just use their reputation to bolster some dodgy training school or sell some products 😉

[IV Offshore]

It’s a shame ROVWorld is closing as it has been a really great resource for both newly qualified & experienced ROV crew, in a rapidly growing industry.
We would like to wish everyone involved all best with other future ventures.
Many Thanks
IV Offshore

[John Bridgett]

Over the last while the number of (useful) posts have been going down and down. More and more it’s "how do I get a job" or the same question over and over again.

Maybe I’m getting more intolerant in my old age 😀 But when many of the questions can be answered with a simple Google search you wonder just how many people want to be spoon fed and get things handed to them these days 🙂

I think like many other things on the Internet, the site has run its course. There are now many other newer social interfaces such as LinkedIn and Facebook which now offer much more interactive and lively areas for discussion, news and debate.

The site will remain as a reference to anyone searching for information, I for one wouldn’t want the domain names to get into the hands of someone who maybe would just use their reputation to bolster some dodgy training school or sell some products 😉

I couldn’t agree with you more for once!

I can understand the position as you’ve explained it BUT, I have been at the wrong end of the ROV industry i.e. trying to get in and I got a lot of help from you guys on here, I guess I was one of those who needed a little spoon feeding, I did do the research and read most of the forum but it was nice to get personal replies, positive or otherwise and hear the alternative points of view. I think there is still a place in the web for a site like this and a need for it within the industry.

IS

[James McLauchlan]

Times move on. We are moving on. There is no turning back.
I appreciate that a few that have posted and offered their thanks and support.

Some might wonder how ROVworld came about in 2000? Well, we were living in Thailand. Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In didn’t exist. I was looking around the net and there was very little info on our industry (I was an ROV Supervisor then) so I set about (with my OH) to redress that in some small way. Here we are today. 🙂

I always knew that we couldn’t run this forever. Interesting to see that the domain name has become so popular to the point where one UK based company has ‘nicked’ a version and set a website up to help sell their products. Check out http://www.rovworld.org 🙂 I guess when you can’t come up with a unique selling point you ride of someone else’s hard won internet popularity eh?

Anyway, I digress. To me getting on in life is always about self help. Us creating/owning this site over the years has also helped us, as well any many others that I am personally aware of. The thing is… keeping the forum open is not simply what ROVworld is about. The news would need looking after. The web links, the FAQ’s and the Forum. Software/security updates need to be implemented. Members need to be manually accepted by an admin due to Indonesian spammers trying to sell rip off kit. There is a lot more to the site than moderating a forum. Who’s going to do all the rest of the upkeep? I can assure anyone here that with the best will in the world nobody will take it over and stick with it.

On the admin front there has been four key player involved with ROVworld over the years. Ron (Ron’s ROV links closed down about 2 years back) Ron used to faithfully add loads of news and for that we were all very grateful, Rayshields (moderating and answering many posts inlcuding the – ‘I want to be an ROV tech please give it to me on a plate and get me a job’ type posts, Ginamc (Also a full on poster of news until late) and finally myself (Jamesmc).. Site admin, webmaster, News, forum poster etc. etc.

If someone want to slap up a forum and give it a go it’s a relatively easy thing to do.. register a domain name… upload a free forum, kick it off with posts and a decent structure. I doubt if it will ever be that active as FB, Twitter, Linked-In have such a draw these days. FB offers an easy to use interface that most non-tech people trying to get into ROV (hah!) can get the hang of 😉 It’s a shallow medium of reference though as it’s crap for getting back into historical data. But then FB is all about now.. not yesterday. Twitter is the same. Linked-In is a different tool but not much better on the archive front.

[Mark]

That’s a shame James. Your site was the first for ROV’s and has benefited all involved in it, even us ROV rescuers!

All the best to you for the future.

Regards,
Mark

[Robert Black]

Good to see Mr Longstreath above as I was just thinking that his very reputable website and forum may want to add a section that us lesser mortals can carry on our daily activities of moaning about food, Day Rates and ROV Manager’s questionable management styles.

http://www.longstreath.com for those who want to learn how proper dripping is done. 😆

Your thoughts Mark?

I should add that there will in my opinion always be a place for internet forums as Facebook and such is often blocked on vessels.

[Des_b]

James,

Thank you for running the site and keeping it going. Its a pity its closing down but like you say things dont last forever. It does take a lot of work to keep on top of it and I know many of us will definitely miss the tech discussions/ info that is lacking in any other medium to date.

I wish you all the best for the future!!!!

Cheers

Des

[Sit Rep]

James, Gina, Ray et al,

Many, many thanks for your years of sterling service!

This site has been all of; a wealth of information, a good laugh and a valuable resource.

As a person who cannot bear Facebook, Linked-In and all the other "social networking" twaddle your site was a breath of fresh air, even if you started before them!

I’d like to wish all of the Webteam all the best for the future and congratulations on your achievements with this site.

Sitrep

PS I won’t miss lostboy! 😉

[Mark]

Your thoughts Mark?

I should add that there will in my opinion always be a place for internet forums as Facebook and such is often blocked on vessels.

A site is only as good as the input of it’s members. I am more than happy to start a section for ROV’s. Never did before because I couldn’t see the point when you had this site.

I will set a section up for you if you want, just give me the forums you would like in the ROV category, and we’ll see how it goes.

Would be good to see the friendly rivalry that gets going between the bubble heads and the toy department.

[Wade Berglund]

To all of the admin staff of ROVWORLD…..specifically James, Gina and Ray. Thank you for all of your hard work, monitoring and sage advice. Sad to see it go really but I wish you all the best in the future.

Take care and again thank you.

Cheers

Trimtank

[Author]

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