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Azz
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30-01-2012, 09:16 PM

Volunteers needed! (New site idea)

As mentioned in the latest announcement, one of the other sites I am thinking about doing is a Rescue site where all rescues will be able to list their dogs. However, something that Kruse pointed out was that Rescues don't always have time to update lots of sites, so I'm thinking the site itself can have our own volunteers, who can add dogs on behalf of rescues. All rescues will have to do is email the details and the volunteer will put them up

So, just wondered, would any of you be interested in doing that? (Murf!!? )

(It won't be for a while yet mind, but just thought I'd ask now.)
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EllesBelles
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30-01-2012, 09:26 PM
I could do this. I work from home so I'm always on my computer, and I like to help!
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Laura-Anne
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30-01-2012, 09:38 PM
I volunteer for Oldies Club currently. Could add on behalf of OC?
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Krusewalker
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30-01-2012, 11:27 PM
Hi Azz

When i mentioned the rescues being too busy to update the info i did mean also emailing as well.
As copying and pasting all the photos and write ups onto an email would end up being the same as copying and pasting it all onto the forum.

My old rescue used to have one volunteer whom updated our website dog section onto two rescue forums.
What she did was right click on each picture, copy and paste onto a word document, then copy and paste that dog's text.
She did this for every dog.
Then she proof read and fixed any formatting issues and then copied the whole document onto the forum.

Have you considered the code idea?
Dogsblog make a code available meaning any rescue posting on dogblog would have their entries automatically edited on dogsblog everytime their was a change on their own website.

Your website is a great idea, but you will need to overcome the issues that have come up in the past on other sites.

Other than the problem of the rescues having lack of manpower to do this stuff, we also had visitors to the rescue come to see dogs that had been rehomed months earlier, then they would be rude to our staff members as they were convinced the site they were looking at was ours.
We even had websites copying and posting our dogs without our knowledge - breed sites tended to do this.

Another problem that put us off was the politics you got on some forums.
For example, the main rescue dog forum in the UK has banned various rescues from his site.
For one example, one was banned because it had one of those automatic google ads that happened to flash up an ad about ecollars.
He even went as far as anytime someone typed in this rescue's name on his site, a message came up saying something along the lines of 'banned, as supports ecollars'!
Some of his old moderators split away and started an alternative rescue forum.
After which one of his remaining moderators visted a cetain rescue centre, then started a thread about poor standards at the rescue. Said rescue was visited by Dogs Trust and RSPCA and they didnt agree with the conclusions.
The breakaway forum owners visited said rescue and also didnt agree, so they decided to allow said rescue to remain on their site.
Then both forums had war on each other.
The owner of the first forum went round emailing every single rescue that posted their dogs up for rehoming on both sites, telling them that by posting on the breakaway they were endorsing the animal cruelty and neglect of the rescue centre they had banned but the breakaway had allowed to remain, so if they wish to remain on his site they should quit the breakaway site.
He emailed our volunteer whom posted up our dogs on both sites.
We told her just to say thank you for his concerns, we arent interested in getting involved in all of this, we are just happy to post up our dogs in various places to increase rehoming. However, we had a very big site of our own that could cope just as well without any outside forum if needs be, so if he wished to remove us, so be it.
Funny enough, he never did.

However, myself and my colleagues in our dog rehoming team decided to remove ourselves from all external sites anyway, we figured it just wasnt worth all this hassle and bull**** people were imposing upon us, especially as the vast majority of people that contacted us had found us directly thru google or word of mouth, and very few people mentioned finding us thru any external websites/forums.

For the 'big nationals' like like Battersea, Wood green, RSPCA, Blue Cross, etc, this is even more the case - as far as I am aware they have never ever used any websites outside their own all the years the internet has been around.

None of which is your fault of course Azz, but if you do find that you struggle to gain interest from the rescues, at least you can understand the reasons why.
A good starting point to appeal to man of them en bloc would be via the ADCH:
http://www.adch.org.uk/adch-members-list.html

Good luck.
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Azz
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31-01-2012, 03:07 AM
Originally Posted by EllesBelles View Post
I could do this. I work from home so I'm always on my computer, and I like to help!
Originally Posted by Laura-Anne View Post
I volunteer for Oldies Club currently. Could add on behalf of OC?
Thanks both! I'll post more threads at a later stage with more info, so please do keep an eye out for them.

Originally Posted by Krusewalker View Post
Hi Azz

When i mentioned the rescues being too busy to update the info i did mean also emailing as well.
As copying and pasting all the photos and write ups onto an email would end up being the same as copying and pasting it all onto the forum.

My old rescue used to have one volunteer whom updated our website dog section onto two rescue forums.
What she did was right click on each picture, copy and paste onto a word document, then copy and paste that dog's text.
She did this for every dog.
Then she proof read and fixed any formatting issues and then copied the whole document onto the forum.

Have you considered the code idea?
Dogsblog make a code available meaning any rescue posting on dogblog would have their entries automatically edited on dogsblog everytime their was a change on their own website.

Your website is a great idea, but you will need to overcome the issues that have come up in the past on other sites.

Other than the problem of the rescues having lack of manpower to do this stuff, we also had visitors to the rescue come to see dogs that had been rehomed months earlier, then they would be rude to our staff members as they were convinced the site they were looking at was ours.
We even had websites copying and posting our dogs without our knowledge - breed sites tended to do this.

Another problem that put us off was the politics you got on some forums.
For example, the main rescue dog forum in the UK has banned various rescues from his site.
For one example, one was banned because it had one of those automatic google ads that happened to flash up an ad about ecollars.
He even went as far as anytime someone typed in this rescue's name on his site, a message came up saying something along the lines of 'banned, as supports ecollars'!
Some of his old moderators split away and started an alternative rescue forum.
After which one of his remaining moderators visted a cetain rescue centre, then started a thread about poor standards at the rescue. Said rescue was visited by Dogs Trust and RSPCA and they didnt agree with the conclusions.
The breakaway forum owners visited said rescue and also didnt agree, so they decided to allow said rescue to remain on their site.
Then both forums had war on each other.
The owner of the first forum went round emailing every single rescue that posted their dogs up for rehoming on both sites, telling them that by posting on the breakaway they were endorsing the animal cruelty and neglect of the rescue centre they had banned but the breakaway had allowed to remain, so if they wish to remain on his site they should quit the breakaway site.
He emailed our volunteer whom posted up our dogs on both sites.
We told her just to say thank you for his concerns, we arent interested in getting involved in all of this, we are just happy to post up our dogs in various places to increase rehoming. However, we had a very big site of our own that could cope just as well without any outside forum if needs be, so if he wished to remove us, so be it.
Funny enough, he never did.

However, myself and my colleagues in our dog rehoming team decided to remove ourselves from all external sites anyway, we figured it just wasnt worth all this hassle and bull**** people were imposing upon us, especially as the vast majority of people that contacted us had found us directly thru google or word of mouth, and very few people mentioned finding us thru any external websites/forums.

For the 'big nationals' like like Battersea, Wood green, RSPCA, Blue Cross, etc, this is even more the case - as far as I am aware they have never ever used any websites outside their own all the years the internet has been around.

None of which is your fault of course Azz, but if you do find that you struggle to gain interest from the rescues, at least you can understand the reasons why.
A good starting point to appeal to man of them en bloc would be via the ADCH:
http://www.adch.org.uk/adch-members-list.html

Good luck.
Kruse, that dogsblog site just asks rescues to email in?? :/

I'm not sure it would be practical of a script harvesting info from the rescues sites, but maybe the opposite could be a better solution, where they get a bit of code that lists all of their dogs on this new site. Dunno how practical that will be tbh as it would then effectively be powering squillions of rescue sites (how will we afford that lol).

Anyway, you raise some good points, and I guess it will be my job to create a site that will make them *want* to post their dogs on but that's a topic for a thread closer the time.
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Krusewalker
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31-01-2012, 09:26 AM
Originally Posted by Azz View Post
Thanks both! I'll post more threads at a later stage with more info, so please do keep an eye out for them.



Kruse, that dogsblog site just asks rescues to email in?? :/

I'm not sure it would be practical of a script harvesting info from the rescues sites, but maybe the opposite could be a better solution, where they get a bit of code that lists all of their dogs on this new site. Dunno how practical that will be tbh as it would then effectively be powering squillions of rescue sites (how will we afford that lol).

Anyway, you raise some good points, and I guess it will be my job to create a site that will make them *want* to post their dogs on but that's a topic for a thread closer the time.
i just read the same on dogsblog.
odd, when i asked ryan who keeps up the updates, he told me about this automated code.
i didnt know it cost money.

and i take it back, he has dogs trust, battersea, blue cross etc on his site.
wonder how he persuaded them, as dog pages for example was going years before dogblog and none of them ever posted on there.
interesting, wonder how he did that?
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ClaireandDaisy
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31-01-2012, 09:35 AM
I`d be interested.
IME the details need to be updated regularly (taken down or bumped up) so the volunteer would need to keep in touch with the progress of that dog.
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Krusewalker
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31-01-2012, 09:55 AM
Originally Posted by ClaireandDaisy View Post
I`d be interested.
IME the details need to be updated regularly (taken down or bumped up) so the volunteer would need to keep in touch with the progress of that dog.
very true

not just if the dog is rehomed and thus removed from the rescue website.

but also if it has been removed temporarily for assessment, or if it's write-up has received updates and edits as the staff discover new things about the dog.
or if their are new photos
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Sal
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31-01-2012, 10:00 AM
Count me in too,would love to help out.
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Kerriebaby
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31-01-2012, 12:13 PM
Ditto

Might be worth you sending a message to Ryan or Kim, and asking for their help. Dogsblog is a fantastic resource...far too tempting tho!
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