12220 Am I the Only One who is Disappointed

Both Ronald and Cristiana did a few days ago posted. I haven't time at the moment to find the threads.

Thanks for your reply Sally but that is not what I meant.

I'm with you 110% on this one Aretina... so many initiatives (to all intents and purposes) totally ignored. A sum of money collected by members of THEIR magazine/forums totalling almost £8,000 - €8,900 or $11,500 - and they totally ignore it!

I asked about the 'promised' Fund Raising Sub Forum, but that has gone the way of most of the requests and promises on the fund raising front - all fallen on deaf ears.

You are right, it is such a shame. I know others have actually asked if they (IM owners) would like to make a % contribution to our fund for Abruzzo - they didn't even deign to send an acknowledgement, never mind a donation... and that speaks volumes.

What can one say? That this is maybe the proof that money [U][I]is[/I][/U] the God and should not be used for anything but "self"? It's hard to credit them with any better excuse or reason for not getting their heads out of the sand!

Sally, Ronald and Cristiana are probably too busy chasing out the raft of people looking for free ads on this forum.

The request for a separate section dealing with fund raising has also not appeared.
Trying to keep the plight of the Aquilani current is proving to be at the expense of the ordinary everyday business and the ordinary everyday business is appearing to be at the expense of the fund raising efforts!

Please Italy Magazine... seize the day!

Echoing Aretina, let's hope that there [B]is[/B] much going on behind the scenes.

Sorry Aretina

I have also suggested one or two ideas behind the scenes too, but as yet to no avail.

Remember the villa owners who offered holiday weeks for an auction - not even the courtesy of a reply.

I despair - here was an opportunity for a UK based mag. to really show what they and their community could do. Forget journalism awards, Dolce Vita etc etc. we are talking about the plight of the people and of the country that directly and indirectly pay the salaries of many at Italymag.

Life isn't alway Dolce Vita!!! Sometimes life gets in the way, in the way it did for many thousands of Italians just over two weeks ago.

Rant hasn't even started yet...

The front page of the newsletter has the same banner as we have at the top of the Forum but it is indistinct. The info' is also now out of date.
You have to actually enter the Abruzzo section to see any news about these earthquakes.
So there are the many offers of holidays in the pot, photo competition, crazy capers, quizzes, collections, massive donations, a logo donated for free without strings (not one!).

I agree with you totally Aretina.

Come on Italy Magazine. "The No.1 Magazine for lovers of [COLOR=black]Italy"[/COLOR]

the magazine has been around while and so has the forum.... this is not the first version of the italy mag forum... so it was around when there was the big earthquake in the molise.... where all the school children were killed in the primary school which collapsed ... even though a forum member at that time (along with i think sebastiano... several hundred others but they appear to have all gone ) i cannot honestly say if there was any comment from the magazine... or contribution...in those days the editor of the magazine used to be a forum member and post...

many things have changed since... and this version of the forum has shown that at least there are members on here that do care and are working hard for their neighbours in their adopted country...

i think maybe the magazine might be struggling... who isn't these days... i would presume they have financial pressured meetings to attend... or maybe even take overs bids...hostile or friendly... worlds a funny place and its not the only magazine in a fairly limited and maybe shrinking market at the moment... dolce vita must have cost them a lot too and am not sure how well that event managed at this time either... maybe you ll find in the coming months there could be another appeal on the books ...or in the mag... give us all a chance to reply ever so slowly in their time of need... a forum members buy out!!!!!.

i would say the efforts i have read of... moxie, mr uno and many more...sorry too many to list ... is the worth of the place... forget those that when given the opportunity do not wish to help or do not see the urgency ... or just cannot be bothered...

Clearly they don't give a shit.

If I'm wrong, this post will be deleted and all outstanding promises will be actioned immediatley.

Come on guys.

Hi

Adriatica, I appreciate your reply and can also appreciate the difficult times that any business is in at the moment; especially one that's product is not essential for day to day life! Surely this was an opportunity for the mag. to be seen as reactive and proactive - actions which can be seen as positive both for advertisers and readers.

[SIZE="2"][I]I would like to thank everyone for their messages and emails of support on this issue.:smile:

I can reply to most, but a couple of you have full message boxes. Time for a Spring Clean:yes:[/I][/SIZE]:yes:

Italy Magazine as a "hardcopy" up for sale each month, will have been prepared and produced for publication several weeks ahead of the sale date, so perhaps the Editor intends to feature the Earthquake and Fund Raising in the next available issue? An example of this is the colour supplement in Repubblica 9 April 2009, featuring a walk, in the Gran Sasso, Teramo to Aquila called Via Caecilia. 7 attractive pages including where to eat and stay.

BUT there is nothing to prevent the online Newsletter, sent to subscribers, from including what has happened and is happening. Be it winning free holidays, people living from hand to mouth and how to help etc. Truly a brutta figura, Peter Shaw....must keep it polite like that man on You Tube, without his clothes on said.

Hi Noble

Yes, I appreciate the time lag between commission and publication as I did a few articles for the mag. a couple of years ago. But, the email newsletter would have been a very easy 'vehicle' for messages of support/and or promotion of the forum activities or indeed any that the mag. would like to promote themselves.

[quote=Aretina;117713]Hi Noble

Yes, I appreciate the time lag between commission and publication as I did a few articles for the mag. a couple of years ago. But, the email newsletter would have been a very easy 'vehicle' for messages of support/and or promotion of the forum activities or indeed any that the mag. would like to promote themselves.[/quote]

Yes indeed, I had remembered that you had written for the magazine Aretina and you share my thoughts exactly. I was hoping to be kind before I got infuriated with the Publisher and they took our Forum away for insubordination!!:eerr:

Here's a quote taken from the Circolo Mini quiz thread :

"It is so damned important to keep this going even in bite sized chunks. Frankly I do not give a monkies what IM are up to, this is about 'US' the forum community and what 'WE' can give those people who have lost so much and who will be struggling to rebuild their lives for such a very long time to come. If IM do not want to be a part of this then hey 'wot da fug ya gonna do?' (In the immortal words of Tony Soprano)"

Just the words of my good friend Moxie

What the fug are you going to do?

Stop buying the glossy and donate the subscription to the Abruzzo fund.

April 9th. With reference to the ITMag Front Cover competition:

[quote=ronald;115855]Photo Competition sounds good. Donate to enter and winning image becomes front cover of Italy Magazine. Yes we could do that![/quote]

April 12th. Reply to the BBQ thread:

[quote=ronald;116199]I am sure ITALY mag can do some sort of auction of holidays, etc (accommodation, activities, etc) with all funds going straight towards the reconstruction/recovery effort - will iron out the details in the office next week and get back to you.[/quote]

April 13th. With reference to the Fundraising 'sub' forum:

[quote=ronald;116340]Hello all - will be setting something up tomorrow to handle this[/quote]

Ronald, an update would be appreciated.

[quote=Persephone;117781]
April 9th. With reference to the ITMag Front Cover competition:

April 12th. Reply to the BBQ thread:

April 13th. With reference to the Fundraising 'sub' forum:

[U][I]Ronald, an update would be appreciated[/I][/U].[/quote]

Auntie Perce - [U][I]that[/I][/U] should be 'writ large'!

[CENTER][B][FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=7][COLOR=Red]"Ronald, an update would be appreciated!"[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/B]

[/CENTER]

[quote=ronald;106786]Best wishes for 2009 to all.

:laugh::Dancing_biggrin::laughs::smile:

I promised myself no new year resolutions this year, but in the spirit of always breaking such resolutions anyway I will set a record and break my non-resolution even before the new year starts! So here is my New Year's resolution:

Better smilies for the forums[/quote]

I was going to add a ‘big grin’ smilie but the software won’t allow it! lol

Maybe to I M we i.e. the Forum, are just a side-line. I remember getting excited about the first I M calender full, or so I assumed, of lovely photos of all the regions of Italy such as are featured in the magazine, but what was actually featured? Tuscany, just Tuscany, nowhere else. Why? Because their largest market is America and all Americans (apparently) are only interested in Tuscany. I stopped having the magazine after that....however, don't be down-hearted. All of you who have done so much for the people of Aquila are appreciated by the rest of us. My Italian teacher and I were speaking of this and she, remembering an earthquake in Puglia when as a child she slept in the family car, shed a few tears. We are the Forum, the Forum is us, not I M.
Annie.

I am surprised. I thought Italy Mag was mainly aimed toward UK readership.

I have never read or even looked for the magazine, but intend to to read on the plane on 2nd... hope to see lots of references to these matters....
Something has been going on though, as an email address I no longer use had an appeal that obviously went out to obscure non-existing members, and I have had a couple of newsletters I have never received before.
I thought Ronald moved pretty quickly when the fund was being set up, as we are in for the long haul it may take longer to get things set up for the mag itself...
but no harm can be done by the occasional reminder (about every half hour or so should do it... :wideeyed:

[quote=Campfield;117906]I am surprised. I thought Italy Mag was mainly aimed toward UK readership.[/quote]

As long as they are interested in Tuscany and its environs.

I stopped taking IM at my last 'renewal', as we felt it doesn't deal much with the areas we are interested in.

I've continued with the forum because it does contain much more of general interest.

Hello all - apologies for not replying earlier. Was hit by what was probably the worst bug I had in a long time that knocked me out all this week. Anyway, I am sure you will all be happy to know that both the Editor's Letter and a full page in the magazine that will be in the newstands on the 7th of May (going to the printers today) talks about the earthquake and your fantastic fundraising efforts and invites people to do more.

We also send out several newsletters inviting people to participate and updating them on the efforts and will continue doing so.

Sorry too to hear you weren't well Ronald

I noticed The Appeal is on the Forum website albeit very prominately. Could you also place it on the main Italymag homepage - same position??? Cheers

Many thanks Ronald for this :smile: I am sure it will help, not only with fundraising itself but to dissipate some of the frustration that has built up on the forum.

It sounds like you had the 'nasty bug' we were discussing on the health and safely page and I can commiserate with you - it lasted a week here too.

Oh that is SUCH good news... thank you Ronald.

This means that the efforts to help those people can now, hopefully, continue unabated.

Any news yet on the Fund Raising Sub Forum (please:notworthy:) Ronald?

[quote=ronald;118000]Hello all - apologies for not replying earlier. Was hit by what was probably the worst bug I had in a long time that knocked me out all this week. [/quote]
Hope you are better soon. But you shouldn't have to apologize for being ill and unable to respond. We should be apologizing. :reallyembarrassed:

Ronald has been a star but there isn't just Ronald to respond to our questions is there? Doesn't he have an assistant?

Get well soon Ronald clearly you are irreplaceable.

I expressed my surprise that during the Aquila Earthquake, when many many people where generously giving money in the various fund raising efforts, the Italians seemed not to be doing the same. I say seemed.....they did give through their banks but there was no setting up of stalls locally, no tin rattling outside the supermarket. Why?

Answer seems to be, because the Guardia di Finanza would (maybe) check out the collector and the organisation the money was being given too. There doesn't seem to be a system to "licence" amatuer fund raising efforts. Sounded all very "Police State" but perhaps someone can clarify this for me please?

Blast! Forgot about the Guardia! Certainly in my place of choice, it doesn't seem to have occured to anyboby to do something. People have been genuinely surprised that a group of individuals nevermind foreigners would actually do so!
There are loads of Comune sponsered collections going on plus numerous bank accounts to donate to. There is also a phone line where every sms sent, will send €1 to a fund and land lines send €2.
There are occasionally very well organised food collections in the shops, for the poor but that is it as far as on street action goes.