Is QUANTA stil alive / accepting members?

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NormanDunbar
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Re: Is QUANTA stil alive / accepting members?

Post by NormanDunbar »

Hi Richard,

There's an option to sign up for the PDF version of the magazine. I signed up months ago, but received no confirmation and, so far, no magazine either.

I believe that membership and newsletter stuff is done by John Southern, who unfortunately had a stroke in 2019. Although he's somewhat recovered by now, he still has some difficulty with use of one hand, and still works long hours.

Cheers,
Norm.


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Re: Is QUANTA stil alive / accepting members?

Post by RichardCGH »

Hi Norman
Thanks for that.
Sorry to hear about John Southern.


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Re: Is QUANTA stil alive / accepting members?

Post by RichardCGH »

A year later and still nothing :(

Is there anyone among the current membership who could volunteer to be a temporary membership secretary so new people can join ?


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Re: Is QUANTA stil alive / accepting members?

Post by Sparrowhawk »

Just out of interest, could any existing members confirm whether the group is still active or not? From the outside it seems like it's come to an end, but maybe meetings are taking place, new software appearing in the ibrary, etc etc that we are not aware of?

If the group has ceased to operate, is there some way to bring the wealth of knowledge in the Quanta mags and library into the open somehow? It would be a terrible shame for all that to be lost.


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Re: Is QUANTA stil alive / accepting members?

Post by Martin_Head »

Sparrowhawk wrote:Just out of interest, could any existing members confirm whether the group is still active or not? From the outside it seems like it's come to an end, but maybe meetings are taking place, new software appearing in the ibrary, etc etc that we are not aware of?

If the group has ceased to operate, is there some way to bring the wealth of knowledge in the Quanta mags and library into the open somehow? It would be a terrible shame for all that to be lost.
I think the last Quanta magazine I received was Volume 36,Issue 5. Dec-Jan 2019.

In it, it said that membership would be free for 2020 apart from postage and packing. The PDF version being free.

And if you wished to continue receiving a printed copy. You should contact Quanta.

I Emailed my wish to receive the PDF version in March 2020. But I got no reply. And I don't think I've heard a peep from Quanta since.

I think my paid subscription ran out around Nov 2020. But Quanta never contacted me about renewal.

So I think Quanta is probably dead. I don't know what the constitution said about the Quanta Library, if it wound up. But it would be very difficult to find all the contributors of the library to get their permissions.

Edit - Just had a quick look at the Quanta website. And the last updates look around April 2020. Which fits. But presumably someone is still paying for the hosting of the web site.


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Re: Is QUANTA stil alive / accepting members?

Post by Sparrowhawk »

Thanks for the info Martin. A shame but that's life I guess. Wish I'd downloaded the files when I had the chance


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Re: Is QUANTA stil alive / accepting members?

Post by dilwyn »

I hadn't noticed that some of the downloads from the Quanta site had disappeared - the links to the Library CD, for example, no longer seem to work.

For what it's worth, I was invited to a Quanta AGM or committee meeting (forget which it was!) earlier this year but was unable to attend. No idea what got discussed - presumably, if such a meeting did take place, the Secretary would have minutes. I did say at the time (only half jokingly) that I was intending to suggest it be wound up, but as I wasn't able to attend in the end I don't think it was made into a formal motion. I think the basic problem was that as an organisation it still existed and there was a wish to see it continue. But no mag was being produced and no real presence outside of the Manchester area, where they still meet occasionally (the NEMQLUG sub-group).

To be honest, Quanta's role seems to have been superseded by organisations such as QL Forum and the QL-related groups on social media. While a magazine (printed or electronic) would still be nice, I don't think there are enough writers and news material now to justify the effort of producing a regular magazine or newsletter in the traditional sense. My personal view is that the organisation if it continues should become more of a holding organisation where its primary presence is the website, the downloads (old magazine PDFs and Library), the list of old helpline articles on there, and possibly a blog as opposed to a newsletter. It would require someone to co-ordinate writers for a "blog" (i.e, online magazine) - anyone wishing to contribute would ask to made a contributor able to write to the blog. That way, my old role as News Editor and occasional contributor, for example, would continue on an occasional but "real time" basis. Contributions would be "live" as opposed to the bi-monthly or quarterly pressures on an editor to produce a full magazine, and the editor's role would be more to do with vetting contributions, removing spam posts etc. I'd need to ask Keith who manages the present website whether the present website would support such ideas - many CMS type websites do offer blogs and multi-contributor areas.

As the library doesn't seem to exist on the website, I'm happy to make the Quanta library available for now to those who believe they are members (I use the word "believe" simply because we are a bit uncertain of Quanta's status). The library is in the form of a zipped QXL.WIN file. The zip file is password protected, but I can supply the password to members. The most recent version I have is from 2011, v1.95, from my time as Librarian. I don't think anything much got added after that, it was probably only minor corrections or tidy-ups. If you want a copy, send me a PM or email so that I can send the password privately to avoid making it public. Happy to use a service such as WeTransfer to avoid shoving a 55MB zip file via email! Meantime, I'll see if I can have a word with Keith about the links to the library file download seeming to have disappeared.

The archived Quanta magazine download links still seem to work, so I'll see if I can download all those to preserve them in case they disappear too.
Last edited by dilwyn on Mon Aug 15, 2022 11:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Lapse into Welsh removed (brain not working properly today)


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Re: Is QUANTA stil alive / accepting members?

Post by RichardCGH »

Dilwyn's suggestions sound very reasonable.
--
IIRC Rich Mellor was working on a revised constitution (but tat was some time ago.)
Presumably he'd know the legal state of QUANTA - there may need to be a minimum number present at a meeting to wind it up for example.
--
Given C-19 and other issues, wouldn't it better to have virtual meetings rather than try to get people to a geographical location for meetings ?
They can be recorded so any members who couldn't attend could see what has been discussed.
--
Generally I'd like to ensure the library is maintained as best as possible so progs etc aren't lost.
The QUANTA mags need to be freely accessible as well.


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Andrew
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Re: Is QUANTA stil alive / accepting members?

Post by Andrew »

dilwyn wrote:The library is in the form of a zipped QXL.WIN file. The zip file is password protected, but I can supply the password to members. The most recent version I have is from 2011, v1.95, from my time as Librarian. I don't think anything much got added after that, it was probably only minor corrections or tidy-ups.
I downloaded it in 2019 - the version was still v1.95, from 2011.


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Re: Is QUANTA stil alive / accepting members?

Post by Sparrowhawk »

Any chance that the backlog of "recent" membership applications be made active (assuming that is just a flag in the CMS)?

if it's a big job then no worries, I can wait :D


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