Xara-Users Shuts Down

As of June 30th Xara-Users.info is shutting down.

While not everyone was a fan of Steve Ledger, and while Steve could be overly judgemental, I can think of no one who knew more about Xara products, who was as resourceful and helpful as Steve Ledger. Steve was head moderator for TalkGraphics for many years before he left to start Xara-Users.info.

Xara-Users.info was a tremendous resource of creative solutions and work-arounds, an alternative but complimentary source of knowledge and community and had a loyal cadre of moderators and members.

I am saddened to hear this. I really am.

I wish Steve all the best and wish him well in whatever he decides to do next.

I welcome positive comments about Steve and his contributions but I DO NOT want to hear bad comments in this thread. If you are unable to find something positive to say, then please keep your thoughts to yourself.

Hi, although I was not a registered member of Xara Users I always visited the site. I believe this is a loss for the Xara community. Steve is one of a handful of Xara gurus in my book and I wish him the very best in his future projects. His solutions and workarounds will be greatly missed.

Ciao

Roly

Steve knows Xara products upside down & inside out. It's so sad that XU didn't get the traffic to keep it viable. I could say about ridiculously childish external politics but I won't.

Thanks for posting this Gary.

XU will actually be closing on June 30th ;)

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

While not everyone was a fan of Steve Ledger, and while Steve could be overly judgemental, I can think of no one who knew more about Xara products, who was as resourceful and helpful as Steve Ledger.

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Hear! Hear! I hope he comes back to TG if only he could keep his sternness in check! He often made valid observations here but "c'est le ton qui fait la musique." And the right tone is so important to keep this (or any) community going or else darker, hostile sentiments get stirred up too easily.

Anyway, thanks for all your help Steve and I wish you well in whatever venture you decide to undertake next! =D>

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Originally Posted by zaphodeist

Steve knows Xara products upside down & inside out. It's so sad that XU didn't get the traffic to keep it viable. I could say about ridiculously childish external politics but I won't.
Thanks for posting this Gary.
XU will actually be closing on June 30th ;)

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I believe you moderate the board. Do you know if "closing" means it is all removed? It would seem a shame for its content to evaporate away.
Acorn

Yes, sad news indeed. Steve is certainly knowledgeable about Xara software and PC software in general, he has helped me in the past, privately with PC issues, as well as publicly here with Xara issues.

I'm sad to hear that traffic was too low to sustain the site.

Good call to mention it here, Gary.

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Originally Posted by Acorn

Do you know if "closing" means it is all removed? It would seem a shame for its content to evaporate away.
Acorn

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Yes, at the moment all will be removed afaik :( Problem is, most of the archived material links back to the forum itself

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Originally Posted by pauland

I'm sad to hear that traffic was too low to sustain the site.

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There are quite a few members who don't contribute and many lurkers willing to get info without acknowledgement and joining in. There was talk of somehow restricting access to the FAQs and How-To's because of this, but obviously this would have been difficult and go against the XU ethos of being a friendly, helpful environment.

I wish him well. Great guy. Now life goes on and I like the fact that this forum stays the focus of all xara related discussions. One place, One location :)

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Originally Posted by zaphodeist

There are quite a few members who don't contribute and many lurkers willing to get info without acknowledgement and joining in. There was talk of somehow restricting access to the FAQs and How-To's because of this, but obviously this would have been difficult and go against the XU ethos of being a friendly, helpful environment.

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I am a XU member but didn't contribute so I must count as a lurker. I think I visited a dozen times as I felt my niche was with TG.
TG rarely gets 5% signed in and so 95% could be viewed as lurkers but I see no fault in that; a forum is scary to jump into and if you have nothing to contribute why not benefit from the corpus of knowledge available?

I'm sure its members' contributions have been innovative and first on the block and we have all benefited.

Acorn

P.S. just had a look and XU doesn't mention TG. Ah well.

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Originally Posted by Acorn

I am a XU member but didn't contribute so I must count as a lurker. I think I visited a dozen times as I felt my niche was with TG.
TG rarely gets 5% signed in and so 95% could be viewed as lurkers but I see no fault in that; a forum is scary to jump into and if you have nothing to contribute why not benefit from the corpus of knowledge available?

I'm sure its members' contributions have been innovative and first on the block and we have all benefited.

Acorn

P.S. just had a look and XU doesn't mention TG. Ah well.

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When Steve posted his excellent demonstrations there were often many hits but few posts saying thanks for the info. Nothing to contribute has nothing to do with my point Acorn. Taking advantage of the corpus of knowledge available without acknowledgement is. I suppose I'm old fashioned, but politeness means a lot. No use saying "that's a problem with the whole internet" either ... politeness costs nothing. If I had worked as hard as Steve has done to help people here and at XU and generally got silence in return I'd have quit years ago.

XU doesn't mention TG? We were moaned at from on high when we did even when the mention was totally polite! :D And one of the times XU was mentioned on here, not so long ago, it was suggested it was "bad" to visit there. Links from TG to XU were also frowned upon as taking people to a "rival site" [not how we think of TG] - I had a PM about that when all I was doing was answering a poster's question by pointing to one of Steve's demos as it would explain far better than I ever could.

There are a few people who will actually be happy at the news [including a couple at least who took umbrage at getting blocked for being annoying/disruptive], as I say "childish external politics" . I wish them a happy time with their conscience in the playground ;))

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Originally Posted by zaphodeist

Taking advantage of the corpus of knowledge available without acknowledgement is.

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Point taken. I always try and cite a source and as you say, it is only polite.
Shame XU was seen as a rival, complementary yes.
Acorn

Thanks Acorn, that's how I saw XU ... complementary. I wasn't aiming at you btw, you help people so much. Ironically, there are a number of posts on here recently bemoaning the fact the artistic momentum TG had has all but disappeared to be replaced by web stuff - XU was meant in part as a place the art could flourish. That didn't last long :-D

The best laid plans etc etc

Xara-Users is certainly going to be missed by me, it was a good place with a LOT of helpful hints, tips and problem solving and that was mostly down to Steve. I remember Steve as one of the first people to help me out when I took the first steps in web design after discovering xara webdesigner, in fact he was the very first person to reply to my very first thread, he helped out many times after that as well so there were no complaints from me. It is a shame that an independent forum had to close down (I think mostly because of lack of interest) as an alternative should always exist in anything in life. It is a shame that all those posts with so much knowledge will no longer be available.

I visit both sites every day and sometimes got irritated by duplication. I just wish we could merge the groups and live as one happy family.

Personally, I think it would be a great gesture on Xara's part if they offered to host all of Steve's wonderful tutorials and sample files much like the XX archives--making sure to give him full credit. I could care less if there were dead links. That fact could be mentioned in the header.

Mike

BTW, why has Gary P never bothered to correct the misinformation for the closing date?

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BTW, why has Gary P never bothered to correct the misinformation for the closing date?

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Because Gary is being recalcitrant. I will fix the date.

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Originally Posted by behzad

Now life goes on and I like the fact that this forum stays the focus of all xara related discussions. One place, One location :)

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Well if XaraXone is down in this forum itself and now XU too, that does not sound as a good direction.

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Originally Posted by csehz

Well if XaraXone is down in this forum itself

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Well, it's sort-of still there.

Yes the possibility is there for XaraXone, but it seems Magix not too much care about it.

It is pity because the Xara Designer Pro X11 is the best ever version in my opinion, it is so good without crashes and with million of functions, and exactly in this year there is no XaraXone.

Which was always a great place to try and speak through the new functions, regularly month by month

csehz - The responsibility for managing and providing content for the Xara Xone has been taken over by Magix, Xara's parent company.

Many of us were not very happy about this. Gary Bouton was doing a very excellent job. But Magix thinks they can do a better job. :O

Sledger is by a very long chalk the most prolific poster on TG, outstripping both Gary P and Bill Taylor (aka Soquili). It is not just the quantity of Steve's posts, but the quality of his advice, which is always first class. His input within this forum has been second to none. Further to this, due to undue interference by Xara/Magix, he has set-up, run & posted many more posts on XU, a forum he set up himself.

Eventually he has withdrawn from posting on TG all together over the recent year (?), again due to internal TG politics, which is TG's very sad loss.

I miss his very precise input to our forum. It's very much Xara's and TG's loss.

I wish Steve the best for the future, ask him to reconsider posting to TG, as his input is much missed.

Finally "Thanks Sledger" for your fantastic help re Xara over all these years :)

Egg

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Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

TG's loss.

I wish Steve the best for the future, ask him to reconsider posting to TG, as his input is much missed.

Finally "Thanks Sledger" for your fantastic help re Xara over all these years :)

Egg

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Me Too Egg :(

My best wishes to Steve wherever his life path may lead from here. Steve and all of the XU members are always welcome to post and share their ideas here. :)

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

Steve was head moderator for TalkGraphics for many years before he left to start Xara-Users.info.

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he joined TG April 2007; he took over from Risto in October 2008, and he started XU in June 2010...

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Steve could be overly judgemental

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that he could :rolleyes::D...

...but he sure achieved a phenominal level of quality help over the best part of ten years

And just maybe a change of direction will be beneficial even if it does not seem so at the time - I wish him all the best in whatever it is he undertakes

The loss of resource is indeed sad but that said, at the end of the day there never really was the traffic to justify two forums...

[maybe if the facebook thing takes off there will be some continuity]

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Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

due to undue interference by Xara/Magix..

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you know Egg I never bought that rationale and I still don't, magixara pay for this forum, they are therefore entitled

steve set up XU deliberately so that he could be in charge there, as magixara are here, and lay down the rules himself - no other reason - he could have stayed at TG but that was not his way, not that sort of team player... he prefered to go for the 'utopia' option which unfortunately has not worked out, but he gave it his best shot and I admire him for that

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again due to internal TG politics

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and that's a personal choice again not to put up with the scene, you can't lay the 'blame' anywhere else [not that there is blame, because it is a perfectly acceptable thing to do, no one is forcing anyone to take part in anything]

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I miss his very precise input to our forum. It's very much Xara's and TG's loss.

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that is for sure, but he seems to be wanting to move on... sometimes that is necessary :straight:

Hi HD, I've no desire to go further re your points but I was involved at the time and party to far more information, re both disputes, than members had access to. I've no wish to drag up the past, so I'll leave it there and not comment further on this issue.

Please, let's keep this focused on XU.

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.... so I'll leave it there and not comment further on this issue.

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I've all ready stated that Gary.

I was focusing on XU - I was saying that it was founded on the princinple of 'if you want a job done your way and without 'sponser' pressure you have to pay for it yourself' and I am really sorry that did not work out for those who wanted that sort of potentially expensive sel-reliance and independance

And maybe you forget Egg that I was there too - not as a moderator then but later, and I talk to people, they talk to me... you have no idea what I do or do not know...

However point having been made I too am happy to move on...

Steve has formed a Xara-Users Facebook page. So you all can join XU https://www.facebook.com/groups/123633134716355/

good news - thanks for letting us know :)

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Originally Posted by gracehjs

Steve has formed a Xara-Users Facebook page. So you all can join XU https://www.facebook.com/groups/123633134716355/

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I have been gone quite some time and was unaware Steve had split off. Love the guy..., but not enough to rejoin FB :P
I'll contact him a different way