Apologies (a) for a potentially contentious topic and (b) for not posting it in the Dapol Digest News & Information area for topics (which does not have the facility for non-Dapol staff to start topics) but... as the title asks... what actually is the purpose of Dapol Digest?
When it was set up (with a degree of fanfare), I thought it was for (a) Dapol to post updates on products, (b) for users to engage with Dapol on product development and (c) for consumers of Dapol to engage with each other.
(a) and (b) started off brightly enough, but it seems the company has already lost interest in that side of it. I can understand a reluctance to promise delivery dates which may slip, but - on the 00 scale side at least - post from Dapol are so few and far between now, and questions going unanswered, that I wonder what the actual point of it is?
The Class 122 was completed, shipped and it wasn't even mentioned. Surely it's shipping was cause for an announcement on the Digest to ensure as many people knew about it (and placed their orders) as possible? It has since arrived with the major box-shifters, but there has been no mention of when it will arrive at other model retailers. Everything has gone quiet on the GWR railcar and Class 121 front. Not only that, but the development stages as quoted on the main site are out of date.
I understand that, for what is a relatively small company, everybody is no doubt very busy. But the Digest home page claims it's "The definitive source of Dapol product news".
Writing as someone who has worked in communications and PR for the better part of 20 years, having a facility which promised much better communication, yet having evidently lost interest in it already, unfortunately makes the company look worse than not having it at all.
When it was set up (with a degree of fanfare), I thought it was for (a) Dapol to post updates on products, (b) for users to engage with Dapol on product development and (c) for consumers of Dapol to engage with each other.
(a) and (b) started off brightly enough, but it seems the company has already lost interest in that side of it. I can understand a reluctance to promise delivery dates which may slip, but - on the 00 scale side at least - post from Dapol are so few and far between now, and questions going unanswered, that I wonder what the actual point of it is?
The Class 122 was completed, shipped and it wasn't even mentioned. Surely it's shipping was cause for an announcement on the Digest to ensure as many people knew about it (and placed their orders) as possible? It has since arrived with the major box-shifters, but there has been no mention of when it will arrive at other model retailers. Everything has gone quiet on the GWR railcar and Class 121 front. Not only that, but the development stages as quoted on the main site are out of date.
I understand that, for what is a relatively small company, everybody is no doubt very busy. But the Digest home page claims it's "The definitive source of Dapol product news".
Writing as someone who has worked in communications and PR for the better part of 20 years, having a facility which promised much better communication, yet having evidently lost interest in it already, unfortunately makes the company look worse than not having it at all.
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