Frequently Asked Questions

There are several reasons why we chose to maintain a subscription based email list, rather than a private web forum.

• Cost - The website is not free to run, and any increases in bandwidth usage result in increasing costs for the club. The overhead of a forum would considerably increase these costs, which we'd have to pass on to members
• Convenience - As a "push" email list, members reading the forums don't have to repeatedly check back with the site to see if there's a new message - new messages just appear in your mailbox
• Moderation - To keep a forum under control, we'd need a full time moderator, the club is run by volunteers, most of whom also have full-time jobs.
• Privacy - The mailing list membership is checked against the list of club members, and as the messages are pushed to designated email addresses, we know who is getting the messages.
• Communication - If we send a message containing important information (for example, new trip deadlines) we know with the mailing list that everyone on it has recieved it. A forum doesn't give us this confidence.
• Maintenance - As with any application, updates and patches are essential. It is already a major part of the webmasters job to update the software packages used to power the website, adding another system, with the necessary hacks to run it the way we like would be a sizeable increase in workload for our volunteers

We do not allow either "hotlinking" (the practice of embedding an image on our server in another website which is - therefore "stealing" our bandwidth) - or "direct linking" - posting a link on another website which points directly at an image file on our site without displaying our page around it - hiding the fact that the image has originated from our site.

If you want to link to an image, please post a link to the "image holding page" - for example http://www.coasterclub.org/gallery/displayimage.php?album=105&pos=1

If you don't understand what's wrong with this - please read this page - or this wikipedia entry - which states (my emphasis):

Inline linking to an image stored on another site increases the bandwidth use of that site, even though their site is not being viewed in it's intended form. Since bandwidth is a commodity, unauthorized use can increase the maintenance costs of the website hosting the image, hence the term bandwidth theft.

The ECC mailing list only allows posts in "plain text" - several email services send in "HTML" (or "Rich Formatting") by default, this includes AOL.

To change your AOL settings:

1. Open up the SETTINGS tab in the mailbox, this will bring you to the Author Settings page.


2. The "USE RICH TEXT / HTML EDITING" box might be checked, if so, uncheck it, and you've fixed the problem.


3. Enjoy countless hours of coaster talk.

For other mail services/software, please consult the user guide or on-line help - and if you identify how to make these changes, please contact us, and we'll add the details to this list.

Yes, it has a mailing list that is open to members. Details of this are sent when you join the club, or alternatively are on The Mailing List information page. It’s well worth joining the mailing list – lots of news and views appear on it.

Please also see this FAQ, which explains why we have a mailing list, rather than a web-based forum.

If you are not already a member, then no, unfortunately we cannot allow this. However, if you are a member, please contact the ECC webmaster as the images may be protected by the copyright of a third party, from whom permission will need to be sought.

Of course! Many members contribute to the First Drop and that’s one of its great strengths. There are a few guidelines so its worth contacting Justin Garvanovic before you write a 50,000 word review!

Excellent! Emailing our chairman, Richard Foster should be your first action, specifying what you think you could help with.

The club is run by a team of volunteers, to find out a little more about who does what, please see the 'Who's Who?' page

There’s no age limit! We have members of all ages, from a few months old to many years.

You are free to spend the day as you wish during "free time" in the parks. A big part of the appeal of an ECC trip though is to spend time riding with like minded people, and you'll find everyone is very friendly, and more than happy to form a group. This is definitely part of the fun and groups change size as people join and leave throughout the day.