NEC and Rover 800 owners club

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NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by 820Vitesse » Wed Nov 14, 2018 4:59 pm

I was at the NEC Sunday for the Classic motor show, so many cars, stands, spares and interesting displays, spent all day wandering round but still did not see it all.
Lots of lovely old Rovers though and I was really looking forward to the 800 stand but it was a bit low key and a little disappointing when I got there, maybe as it was day 3 and everyone was knackered but I was keen to join up and talk 800's but it was not to be.
I just looked at the website, it looks untouched for a while and not much going on. Rovertech has recently disappeared from the internet, a real loss to later Rover owners, so much info gone.
Am I missing something, is it all happening somewhere else or is the following really this low at the moment?

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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by scoobyh123 » Wed Nov 14, 2018 9:21 pm

I blame anti-social media Jim!
Cheers,
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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by CHR15E » Wed Nov 14, 2018 11:34 pm

scoobyh123 wrote:
Wed Nov 14, 2018 9:21 pm
I blame anti-social media Jim!
Definitely a factor.

With 800s specifically though they just seem a bit unloved.

It was talked about many times on here for starting a proper club. Never enough people to move it forward though.

Plus it sounds like at least one person thinks they're more important than the rest?

It is a shame as this was a very busy place at one time.

We had a lot of laughs at the shows and meets we attended. I guess times change?
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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by scoobyh123 » Thu Nov 15, 2018 10:30 am

CHR15E wrote:
Wed Nov 14, 2018 11:34 pm
scoobyh123 wrote:
Wed Nov 14, 2018 9:21 pm
I blame anti-social media Jim!
Definitely a factor.

With 800s specifically though they just seem a bit unloved.

It was talked about many times on here for starting a proper club. Never enough people to move it forward though.

Plus it sounds like at least one person thinks they're more important than the rest?

It is a shame as this was a very busy place at one time.

We had a lot of laughs at the shows and meets we attended. I guess times change?
I think you hit the nail on the head Chris. The 800 was the best selling executive car of the 90s, maybe familiarity has bred contempt?
The 800s day will come, the P6 and SD1 both suffered a similar fate for a while, now they're selling for amazing amounts with a lot of interest.

Got to say though, the "official" Rover 800 Club hasn't done the forum or (from what i can see) the marque any favours whatsoever. It could have worked well if the club had worked with the forum but it seems to have become very much "them and us" with one or two exceptions.
Cheers,
Dave

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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by 820Vitesse » Thu Nov 15, 2018 11:32 am

Hahaha anti social media, yes for the phone people, does seem a bit naff when ever I take a look at it, bodges and arguments, no real backbone to it.
If this forum can ride the lull for the next couple of years maybe it will pick up.
To be fair though it cannot be easy to keep the club up to date with the current low numbers of cars and enthusiasts but as I write this I know it could be better.
Sorry to start such a negative thread. Look on the bright side even the Allegro is getting respect now and what a great stand they had at the NEC, so there is hope, just might take a while and the right cars and people.

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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by scoobyh123 » Thu Nov 15, 2018 12:27 pm

820Vitesse wrote:
Thu Nov 15, 2018 11:32 am
Hahaha anti social media, yes for the phone people, does seem a bit naff when ever I take a look at it, bodges and arguments, no real backbone to it.
If this forum can ride the lull for the next couple of years maybe it will pick up.
To be fair though it cannot be easy to keep the club up to date with the current low numbers of cars and enthusiasts but as I write this I know it could be better.
Sorry to start such a negative thread. Look on the bright side even the Allegro is getting respect now and what a great stand they had at the NEC, so there is hope, just might take a while and the right cars and people.
Phones are handy for t'interweb access when there is no alternative but to get all the information you need, a proper desktop pc is the only real answer. Sadly most computer illeterates now use the phone as their only means of internet access. As such they end up rstricted to Faceache, Tw@tter, Instagorm and so on. This means restricted space to request or post information and because of the constantly changing nature of the beast, no evolution/conclusion of different threads/subjects or even some form of indexing. Hence the same old questions are asked and answered ad infinitum but no new knowledge seems to come through.

A negative thread? Maybe not! Perhaps born out of a negative idea but i think something positive will come from it. :wink: :D
Cheers,
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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by dollysprint » Fri Nov 16, 2018 12:22 am

I'm afraid the 800 Club has become a shadow of what it set out to be and almost made it. At a Extraordinary General Meeting in September they voted to become a bolt on to the Maestro Montego Club, I'm still waiting to hear if the MM Club has ratified and excepted that takeover. I had my membership of the 800 Club revoked a week before that EGM. I have no idea why my membership was revoked or any chance to defend whatever it was I was supposed to have done, such is the dictatorial style of it's Chairman and the remaining 4 committee members. The Club is anti democratic and will not listen to criticism of any kind.
What Alex and co fail to grasp is that without technical and spare part support a Club cannot survive.
They had a highly technical website getting 700 hits a week, in February they binned it. Any questions asking why it was binned on the Facebook page were simply deleted. All my posts on the Facebook page are now monitored and if I try to post something they don't like it won't be posted, some have just been outright banned with no explanation.
The only show during the whole year that the Club spent money on was the NEC Restoration Show in March and the NEC just past.
My attempt last year to bring the Club and this Forum closer together, which I had discussed with James of this parish were rebuked by Alex because he thinks this Forum is homophobic and Tanya was none too keen either, Tanya being the Chairman of the Maestro Montego Club and the General Secretary of the soon to be merged 800 Club. The membership is getting little or no support for their membership fees and slowly it's sinking in.
This isn't sour grapes on my part, I could have posted this months ago, I have only posted because someone else raised the question.
In the new year a new 800 Club will be launched, the website is being constructed now, the Facebook page will be the 800 Register, members who wish it will be invited to join this Forum within the data protection laws and its aim will be simple- support to keep the 800 on the road.
£500-600 a year will not be wasted on the NEC, it will be invested in wheelarch remanufacture, whether 3d printing can help with small internal and external parts, roof lining kits, a soldering service for fuse boxes, window switches and pgmf-i relays, and any other ECU's that will inevitably fail as time goes by, alternative parts that we can use from other cars/manufacturers, interior wood alternatives such as dipping ect and all the technical support this Forum and the website can produce. The company to run the Club has already been set up and registered with Companies House, it's a not for profit organization where all fee's will be put back in to the Club for the sole purpose of supporting members and the cars.

Dave
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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by CHR15E » Fri Nov 16, 2018 3:28 am

It all sounds a bit silly IMO.

Good luck with it Dave, I wish I still had some interest in the cars and would have offered to help in some way.

I still have a large Rover sign knocking around somewhere if that's any use to the cause?
I'll try and grab a photo to show you over the weekend.
Chris
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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by Nuts4my827 » Fri Nov 16, 2018 8:04 am

Speechless.

I cant actually believe that such a small group of people with a vested interest in the same marque of car can split the support up for it. Or can I...

I'm still very proud to have had my Pewter Coupe shown at the 1st NEC show, and would love to show another car again.

Sadly, it's not the 1st car marque to have suffered this exlposive infighting and negative back stabbing, and wont be the last.
There was a very good Astra forum and owners club that went belly up a while ago that was a font of useful information.

Same with a Princess/Ambassador owners club.... ;)

I still love these cars, and would love to be a part of keeping them on the road.
I've got quite a few spares, 4 of them now, and have done some pretty damned extensive welding on one them!
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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by scoobyh123 » Fri Nov 16, 2018 9:15 am

Knowing how much hard work you put into the marque Dave and how you constantly tried to broker a good working relationship between the forum and the off-shoot club i can only say that Alex & Co have knocked back a really useful offer of help.
I've never met him but have heard and observed a lot of what has happened and it seems he is very narcisistic which isn't a good quality for someone trying to form a club! Maybe one day i will meet him and he can prove me wrong, in which case i'll apologise.

Got to say i'm surprised at Tanya though, i've only met her once, very briefly at Peterborough but she seemed genuinely interested in the 800 - from what i understand she worked at Cowley actually building them but i might be wrong.

As for the forum being homophobic, i've not known any instances of it happening, it should be about the cars not someones sexual orientation. It seems to be that it's a convenient excuse to be a drama queen though - no pun or otherwise intended!

Like Phil says, this is a very small group being divisive or to put it into a more generic phrase, the minority spoiling it for the majority. It's a shame as the NEC could be a great way of improving visibility and awareness of the marque but from an onlookers perspective, it seems as if the club was created to fund Alex displaying his cars there and nothing else - the fact that Phils Coupé, Jon Rs fabulous red Mk1 and one or two others have also been displayed suggests the NEC told him he had to display other peoples cars as well. That is in no way any denegration of the achievement of displaying there, it must be a proud achievement.

Maybe the Maestro/Montego club merger will be a good thing, maybe it won't. Time will surely tell!
Cheers,
Dave

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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by Richard Moss » Fri Nov 16, 2018 12:44 pm

dollysprint wrote:
Fri Nov 16, 2018 12:22 am
My attempt last year to bring the Club and this Forum closer together, which I had discussed with James of this parish were rebuked by Alex because he thinks this Forum is homophobic and Tanya was none too keen either, Tanya being the Chairman of the Maestro Montego Club and the General Secretary of the soon to be merged 800 Club.
I would be interested to hear why Alex feels that way about the forum, because as far as I can see we have never tolerated homophobic, racist or sexist behaviour - to the extent that we have banned members for stepping out of line in that area.

Alex was a core member of Rover800.co.uk, the original forum that brought owners of 800s together until its owner took it offline for some hitherto unexplained reason. This led to the creation of this forum and Alex was always a key part of that.

On the other hand Tanya and the committee of the 800 club have never had anything to do with this forum, even turning down the offer to make this forum the official one of the 800 club. I've always felt that they were more concerned with the publicity that the club brought to them, rather than the actual cars and their owners.

I would be quite happy to hear from either Alex or Tanya about why they feel the need to distance themselves from this forum. There's surely no element of rivalry from us because no matter how many times we have discussed the formation of a cub, we've always decided that it's too much like hard work and best left to others.

For my own part, I've always felt that with regards to clubs, the best one for the 800 was the Rover Sports Register (RSR) who are a great bunch of people who embrace all Rovers from the very first bicycles to the last 25/45/75 cars. I will be interested to see how the new club will work out. I just hope that they can avoid the Judean People's Front/People's Front of Judea/Judean Popular People's Front situation that has blighted the Ford Granada scene

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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by mercedade » Fri Nov 16, 2018 2:09 pm

What a baffling state of affairs.

I can't say I understand, or particularly care about, the ins and outs of it all, but it's not like 800 owners are over-catered for on the internet. Surely any club would be mad to overlook the only dedicated place on the web where 800 owners can actually share technical support with each other?

And homophobic is an extremely specific (and odd) accusation to throw at any forum, but especially one as careful as this to avoid offence. Not only that; it's a serious one - and one which I would like to have thought I would have noticed (discrimination and bullying being both a personal and professional hatred of mine).
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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by Manalishi » Fri Nov 16, 2018 3:25 pm

I must say all of this drama is so very sad to read about. I just really can't understand why this nonsense is going on - all of us drive and love this very unique and nowadays rare car. I just can't get the competition.

I really dont like the Facebook page, mostly as the posts come all over the place, plus it's obvious the posts are monitored. I've started one thread and it took well 3-4 days before it was posted. Quick?

And the forum is excellent. Good order, a great deal of knowledge in the old posts and new knowledge keeps adding up. Yes, unfortunately not many of us users around any longer keeping it a bit "narrow", but I hope and believe it could be better as people notice the obvious problem of the facebook group. Especially if we tell them that the forum exists!

Regarding the homophobic remark. I don't know any of you in person but I have always been treated with respect, and I always treat the members with respect. I remember some glitch a few years ago between some members but the admins took care of it. I have no complains and I have a pretty high moral standard when it comes to language and jesting in bad manners on the net and face to face. I have never seen any homophobic remarks.

I really hope and wish the forum could get the credit it deserves and that the facebook page would be an addition to that - hand in hand.
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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by dollysprint » Fri Nov 16, 2018 5:28 pm

CHR15E wrote:
Fri Nov 16, 2018 3:28 am
It all sounds a bit silly IMO.

Good luck with it Dave, I wish I still had some interest in the cars and would have offered to help in some way.

I still have a large Rover sign knocking around somewhere if that's any use to the cause?
I'll try and grab a photo to show you over the weekend.
That would be good Chris, appreciate it.

Dave
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Re: NEC and Rover 800 owners club

Post by scoobyh123 » Sat Nov 17, 2018 11:58 am

mercedade wrote:
Fri Nov 16, 2018 2:09 pm


And homophobic is an extremely specific (and odd) accusation to throw at any forum, but especially one as careful as this to avoid offence. Not only that; it's a serious one - and one which I would like to have thought I would have noticed (discrimination and bullying being both a personal and professional hatred of mine).
I've contacted a previously active member of this forum who is now active on another forum and asked if they had experienced any homophobic behaviour, either to them or others on here. Among the reply which included some other stuff not really relevant were these words - "I never experienced anything homophobic, in fact it was one of the more supportive and welcoming forums I have used," which as far as i've ever seen is how this forum is, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, colour, creed, race, country or anything else.

Let's hope it stays that way! Granted my information is a "straw poll" of exactly one so may not be wholly representative but at the same time, is entirely random so could easily have come back with a totally different answer.

I think the homophobic allegation is designed to cause as much mayhem as humanly possible, partly because it's difficult to prove and/or disprove. It also turns the spotlight on the person making the allegation - "Look at me people, i made this allegation!"

I'd like to see what proof Alex can offer about the homophobia.
Cheers,
Dave

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