Actually i hadnt noticed that.
I did do a little google research on the matter after reading this thread, not much there really except for the same story recycled several times on different sources.
Not much that can be done except see how the whole thing unfolds.
its as it was last night with the whole forum section closed down. Which isnt exactly helpful for those that might have posted question there and wanted answers to there problems.
Here's a question. How is it that ukwelder lay claim to being "The UK's No 1 welding website" when if you search for 'welding' on Google and specify UK results only, mig-welding.co.uk is the first hit!!! I reckon they should relinquish the title!
Actually according to alexa.com it is true. Ukwelder runs about 43,241 th position in most popular uk websites, where as mig-welding.co.uk runs 49,602 th. But for some very strange reason this site has popular following in Australia, the USA, Germany and even India. Add the non-UK usage in and it make this site recieve twice as much traffic as UKwelder.
Those figures surprise me. I always consider UKW to be for the professionals and this site for the amateur. Dont take that the wrong way, I am well aware that there are some on here who are professional and vice versa but thats my way of making a distinction.
I would expect the "professional" site to get more hits simply because I would expect there to be more "professionals" out there.
Al i dont truely trust alexa figures, it relies on someone having the alexa tool bar in there internet explorer, it relays info of where you have been etc back to alexa for compiling into useful or useless info (depending on your point of view). Where the details fall apart for alexa is if you have a forum that has 10 members, 5 of which have the toolbar, you could end up with strange results that your site is percieved to be more popular than it actually is.
What interested me is that we here are a .co.uk , meaning we have a geographical domain, yet are extremely popular in other countries. UKwelder has a .com which is a global domain yet doesnt seem to carry the same popularity else where in the world.
As for your distinction between the two sites i would say its accurate, here carries a lot of DIY welders, with a few pro's. Ukwelder seems to carry more pros with far less DIY welders.