Accessing Digital Cheval

[wade.edwards]

Was told that the passwords to access Cheval online and the AOMCC archives is somewhere here. Where?! Not getting a Cheval hard copy (only digital) has made it difficult to update the access passwords.

[Simon.Gardiner]

Wade - you may have spotted a possible 'feature' in the new 'digital membership' !

The 'digital Cheval' is the pdf download available from the main website Members' Area:
https://www.arielownersmcc.com/members_ ... lector.php

This will ask for the username and password as is published on the inside front cover of the print version. When those are changed only members with the print version have access to the new credentials!

Currently the previous credentials are allowed to overlap and remain usable for at least a month after the new ones have been installed, but for this to work this needs the 'digital member' to have regularly downloaded the pdf copy each month. (Or the Membership Secretary needs to send out the new credentials to each 'digital member'!)

As you're a long-time Club member, this should let you resolve the issue (and I've made a note of it).

SG

[wade.edwards]

Good explanation, Simon. Thank you for that.

I don’t regularly do lots of things, including digitally downloading Cheval. In fact I have never done it.

Why do we need these passwords in the first place? No problem logging onto the Forum with long standing passwords that don’t change unless we personally change them.

Without knowing the Club passwords I still cannot access Cheval or the archives.

Couldn’t the same passwords be used for the Forum and the AOMCC website?

[Simon.Gardiner]

Wade - not all Club members want to use the Forum so the main website has to have it's own password system in order to allow for those.
(And apart from that there are technical hurdles, essentially, none of the software talks to anything else.)

How long have you been a 'digital only' member (ie not getting the print version of the magazine)?

SG

[wade.edwards]

Don’t recall how long I’ve been a digital only member, Simon. Could be a year or less. I used to pour over the magazine as soon as it arrived but out of sight, out of mind.

If someone has not had access to the passwords for a long time there is no continuity and therefore no access. Perhaps many months could pass between seeking access.
I ask again, how does one get the passwords?

Surely, if someone has to log into the Forum to post, proving that they are a member, then the Club passwords should be available on the Forum.

[Simon.Gardiner]

Wade - the immediate problem is that logging on to the Forum doesn't prove anything about Club membership.
The only way the Forum knows that someone is also a Club member is if the individual tells the Forum Admin that they are a Club member (and confirms their membership number if necessary).
Note that the opposite is also necessary, the only way the Forum knows for sure when a Forum member has left the Club is if the individual tells Forum Admin they are no longer a Club member also. In the several years that I've been admin I think that's happened 3 times - there are unfortunately quite a few Forum members who are no longer Club members but haven't passed that on.
(If I happen to spot that someone isn't a Club member any more I'll take them out of the AOMCC Members' group but that's a matter of the luck of the draw.)
There's also the point that not all Club members (of any type) will want to be Forum members and trying to resolve website details for anything via
a Forum login wouldn't work for these.

The website passwords change in line with the membership renewal cycle, twice a year. So usually many months can pass between each login and it won't be a problem. The difficulty is that twice-yearly point when the passwords do change. We actually allow the old and new passwords to overlap for a month, so anyone looking at a Cheval pdf in that month will see the new credentials even if they've logged in with the old ones, and so far that's worked OK but it obviously isn't going to cover folk who only jump onto a pdf now and again.

Right now, the solution for this is going to be for anyone who finds they've missed a password change to email the membership secretary or the website/forum admin (or both) with a membership number, and ask for the new login details. Because these don't often change that shouldn't be too much of a problem (and it also happens already with people who lose the magazine!). However, it's something we'll have a think about.

(Email on it's way as soon as I sort out the email address...)

SG

[wade.edwards]

OK, checking previous emails with the MS in early December, 2024, I was advised of the at the time passwords and eventually was informed that Cheval could be found in the Club Library.

I obviously did not follow through at the time and go to the Library with the supplied passwords. Obviously distracted for some time my memory lapsed on the subject.

There was a promise of future emails informing of changes to passwords that haven’t materialized. People get busy or otherwise like myself forget to follow through.

Not saying a thing about it as all positions are voluntary and appreciated.
Thanks for your time. Simon