Because we are going through a period of new managment, we will endeavour to keep members informed through this tab.

1 November 2010: New tab "How do I ...?"

Have just added a new tab where we will post instructions to help members figure out the functions of the site. The first topic is dealing with the change from threaded to flat comments and is called "How do I ... Survive the New "Flat" Earth?" here:

31 October 2010: More changes

You may notice some changes have been made over the weekend. If you see any problems, please let us know at the "Changes" discussion here: http://agmates.ning.com/forum/topics/changes.

28 October 2010: "Agmates or Not" discussion

This is a brief note to let anyone interested know that this discussion appears to have been deleted today, but not by the Moderators. Several individual posts had been deleted by us for trolling behaviour.

26 October 2010: Changes
You will notice lots of little changes happening in the layout and appearance. Go to this discussion to make comments or notify of any problems: http://agmates.ning.com/forum/topics/changes-1

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25 October 2010: New name in the heading

Today we have formally changed the name of the Community to "Just Grounds". As part of a transitioning process, a subheading "formerly Agmates Community" will go underneath. This will later be removed.

Members will notice other changes as time goes on. For example, there is now a Suggestions tab. And, in fact, this tab for updating the community about these changes has been created!

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22 October 2010: Community Message sent to all members
(apologies for the glitch that some did not receive this).

Dear Members,

When Steve Truman, the founder of AGMates, or Agmates, or however you want to spell it, made the decision he didn’t want the responsibility of the site anymore he made it patently clear that if no one else wanted it — he would just close it down.

Rob Moore, a farmer from Queensland and a man well known to many of you, decided that he did want what we all knew at the time as The All Good Mates Community. Steve Truman gifted what is known as the Ning site and all that it contained, well almost, to Rob. That is why Rob Moore now appears at the bottom of the pages with the lofty title of ‘Creator’.

It will cost about US$50.00 per month to have this site hosted on Ning, that is all. Steve Truman did not gift to Rob any part of the old Agmates site that had an income or the capacity to earn an income.

Whatever remains on the site and what may appear in the future that has the capacity to earn income, is because those people or organizations have made the decision to support Rob, this site, and all of its members.

Rob Moore has been assured by Steve Truman that the site has been gifted free of all incumbrances, liabilities and debts. If any member of what was Agmates has any issue, financial or otherwise with what was Agmates and Steve Truman, then it should be addressed to steve

A new team has gathered round Rob over the last few weeks. A doctor and a lawyer, both with young families, so not practising. Farmers. Managers, and an old fogey like me. We are an eclectic mob bound together by one single objective: to build on and improve the site you knew as Agmates. Change on this site, as in life, is not only needed, it is inevitable. We will protect our originality, creativeness and novelty, and make it stronger.

We have drafted a ‘Mission Statement’ so that everyone is clear about who we are and what we are. Above all we are a community; we love a joke. We enjoy being light hearted in this sometimes too-serious world. Your team considers this aspect a ‘must’ in the future. We will not lose our identity. We can also be serious and raise and debate serious issues that affect our country, our living and our environment. Our power is in our members. We seek new members. We invite fresh ideas. Our current forum is better than most; we believe it can be better still. That is our objective.

We will seek dialogue with those organizations we may have offended in the past. We seek synergy with like-minded people and organizations. Together we can be strong. We are proud of our past and we will be diligent and fair with our current advocacy. The same standards will apply to those causes we shall take on in the future, for they will, if we do our job, be many and varied.

A new Code of Conduct (called Terms of Use) has been drafted and will be applied without fear or favour. Above all, Rob Moore and all of his team believe that this is your site; for without you there is nothing; just another few pages on the Internet. We seek your help, advice and guidance. We may not always agree with you, but we promise we will listen, consider, refer and then decide. This new site will not be an autocracy masquerading as a community.

For simplicity your first point of contact will be me. I can assure you that private emails will be just that. I will then distribute to ‘The Team’. Thank you for your understanding and forbearance during what has been a difficult few weeks.

Roger

Regarding the new name:

When we were thinking about how we wanted the site to be and we put together the mission statement, as described so well by Roger, we considered the popular "Ausmates", particularly with its focus on mateship and easy similarity to the old name. However, we also felt that it wasn't quite right. When it came time to check for availability, we found that a Ning community called Ausmates already exists.

Roger had suggested a name, "Common Ground", which we mulled over for awhile and rather liked. We felt that it conveyed a sense of inclusiveness and strength - no matter where you live in Australia, or the world, we all have things in common, in particular, the need to sometimes stand our ground against injustice.

However, that was also taken. We then brainstormed around the name Common Ground and ended up with Just Grounds. (We also discovered that there is room for play-on-words - for example, a fun part of the website could be called The Playground, and so on.) It's been a process but we hope the new name will give a good sense of who we are: Just Grounds.

Cheers,
Julene

We are currently in line at Ning to get the name transfer onto this site and it may take a few more days. Please be tolerant as we are all volunteers and we will give this a go. The administration and moderating "team" are- Roger, Julene, Marice, Brett (Stone), Dale and myself.