05 Apr 04 |
New Server and new Forums
After 12 months of smooth running on a server in Austraila, we've moved back to a U.S.based server prior to opening the new Douglas Forums. The U.S. based server is more central for our world wide visitors and we hope it will provide quick response times for the Forums and run as smoothly as the Australian operation did.
Although the old For Sale and Wanted pages have done a good job for the past 2 years, the new Forums provide a much better environment for the sharing of valuable Douglas knowledge. As well as providing a better advertsing environment, it allows Douglas enthusiasts to communicate with each other, either in the public forums or via private messaging. Email addresses are also hidden from public view. We hope you find it useful.
|
15
Apr 03 |
Another
major outage as web hosting provider loses the plot.
Something's
going on over there in Florida. Our web hosting provider
seems to have completely lost the plot. We recently
paid for 12 months service in advance. Two weeks later
they managed to lose all trace of this site and all
our email services. Other site owners are reporting
similar experiences and their attempts to get problems
resolved is a complete exercise in frustration. The
hosting company seems to have lost control of their
systems and are swamped with support calls. So it's
time to move on and find a provider who has a better
grip on things.
If
you sent us an email between about 8th April 2003 and
15th April 2003, please send it again - no email came
through in that period.
Apologies
to all for the outage. We've moved to a new hosting
provider in Australia and hope they can provide a better
service.
|
01
Dec 02 |
New
Articles Page
Today
marks the completion of a site upgrade that has been
going on in the background for some time. The transformation
of the former "Your Douglas" page into a new
Douglas Articles
page is now complete. There's now a bevy of fine
stories and technical articles contributed by Doug Kephart,
for your enjoyment. If you have anything Douglas you
would like to display on this page (text or pictures),
please send it here.
|
12
July 2002 |
Three
day outage as our web host provider gets wet.
Here's
how they described it...
"Unfortunately,
a severe water catastrophe has occurred on your UNIX
server system. The water main that runs through our
data center building bursts and water begins cascading
into server room I, jeopardizing a limited amount of
UNIX servers. The UNIX server your account is located
on is one of these machines. At this point, we must
regretfully declare all data as lost."
If
you tried to send an email in the last few days and
it was returned... please send it again.
|
09
Apr 2002 |
Restored
Douglas Mk3
Doug
Kephart has kindly sent in this story and pictures about
his Douglas Mk3. You can read about it in the
Douglas Articles. It's inspiring to see the transformation.
If you have a Douglas project underway, or a fully restored
machine, there's a lot of Douglas fans who would enjoy
reading about it. Send a few words about your project
to here
|
28
Mar 2002 |
Three
New Sections Added
Douglas
Articles - Douglas owners talk about their machines
Parts
For Sale - a place to sell your spare Douglas parts
Parts
Wanted - if you need some parts, here's a good way
to let others know
All
of the above are free. Send your material to here
|
17
Mar 2002 |
Congratulations
Congratulations to Snowdream from Australia who made
the winning offer of A$38,100 for the Whole Parts Collection.
Thank
you
Also a big thank you to every other buyer who participated.
And another big thank you to all those who provided
information and all those who asked questions.
The
Website
The website will be modified in the next few days to
become a broader Douglas site where you can post notices,
pictures, snippets, technical conquests - anything Douglas.
It will be a gradual transformation depending on what
material you send in... anything Douglas welcome.
So
if you have a question, something for sale, something
wanted, some technical advice... anything Douglas..
send it to here.
It's a free service.
We
have been getting about 500 visits a week from all over
the world, so your message will be seen by many other
Douglas enthusiasts.
Attach
pictures if you have them and I'll put them on display.
|
13
Mar 2002 |
Last
24 Hours FAQ
As
we approach the end of the sale in three days time,
I've put a list of questions and answers covering most
aspects of the last 24 hours in the Last 24 Hours FAQ.
|
06
Mar 2002 |
Additional
parts added
A
few more boxes of parts have been photographed and added
to the site. There's 20 new groups of parts not previously
displayed now under the heading Additional
Parts They are included as part of the Whole Collection.
Some expanded views of flywheels and brake drums showing
the backing plates, brake lining rings and so forth
have been added on the Flywheels
page.
|
28
Feb 2002 |
Douglas
Buyers - you can sell the Triumph 250 in Australia
On
the Buyer's Page there is now a separate offer for the
Triumph 250 from an Australian buyer. If your primary
interest is in the Douglas parts, you have the opportunity
to immediately sell the Triumph directly to this buyer
and save on freight.
|
22
Feb 2002 |
Website
Host Provider experiencing Denial of Service attack
If you have been unable to view the website or send
us email in the past 24 hours, it is because our website
host provider in Florida USA, has been experiencing
a "Denial of Service" or DoS attack. A DoS
attack creates a flood of messages to the network of
servers. This clogs the network with traffic and prevents
our requests to view pages from getting through. It
can also prevent email from getting through.
At this stage, it seems email is received by the server
OK, I just can't access it. If you have sent any mail
to any of our email addresses in the past 24 hours and
it has been returned, please send it again. Otherwise,
please use the backup email address below.
|
13
Feb 2002 |
Making
offers during the last 24 hours
A
recent enquiry mentioned "sniping" - a tactic
used to win on-line auctions such as eBay. Sniping works
by submitting the bid so close to the closing time that
other buyers don't have time to respond.
Unlike eBay, the Buyer's page on this site is updated
manually, which takes about 10-15 minutes. So sniping
isn't really a practical tactic and may just result
in confusion at the end if more than one person is trying
it. Also, I feel it's not really fair to buyers unfamiliar
with eBay practices, who placed early offers in good
faith.
So,
to help keep the offer process more even, and fair for
those who have made early offers, some refinements have
been introduced for offers during the last 24 hours.
To
place an eligible offer during the last 24 hours, you
need to have placed a competitive offer for the same
item prior to the last 24 hours. For more details,
see Last 24 Hours on the
How to Buy page. Also the Offer
Increments section below it.
|
13
Feb 2002 |
More
information on packing and shipping
More
detailed information about packing and shipping costs
is now on the How to Buy page under the heading Taking
delivery of the Parts
|
10
Feb 2002 |
John
Holmes notes on the parts.
John Holmes, a former Douglas SW racer from Scotland
has gone through all the pictures on the site and made
some notes. Well worth a read if you need some help
identifying all these parts. See the About
The Parts page for John's notes.
|
8
Feb 2002
|
Additions
and deletion to Engines and Engine Parts
Following an enquiry about crankshafts, I found an error
on the engines page. The photo of engine number EL 1288
is EL988 taken from the side. After a quick look in
the storeroom today, I can't locate an engine with the
number EL 1288. I may have got this number from Alex's
notes on the parts and mistakenly assigned it to
the wrong photo. So the Engine page has been updated
to reflect this change. If EL1288 turns up, I'll add
it back in.
On the positive side, I did find a significant
box of parts (including two crankshafts and seven
conrods) not previously photographed. These are included
in the Collection and have been added to the site as
follows:
2 x crankshafts (one with conrod) - see Engines
Parts page
7 x conrods - see Engines
Parts page
2 x airbox parts - see Engines
Parts page
A collection of shims and gaskets - see Engines
Parts page
A Douglas wheel hub - see Wheels
page
Various gears and gudgeons - see Engines
Parts page
Crankshaft counterweights - see Engines
Parts page
|
28
Jan 2002 |
Thanks
to Lotuseater for drawing my attention to the Douglas
frame numbers. It appears there are two numbers
on Douglas frames - one on the junction of the horizontal
bar with the rear forks and the other on the top of the
rear forks. I was listing the number on the top of the
rear forks when it should have been the other. The frame
pages have now been updated to show both numbers. |