• About ukexpert RSS Feed


    What is ukexpert?
    • An online community
    This online community started over 25 years ago. We welcome new members and there is no charge whatsoever to become a registered member and to take part in our forums and photo areas and so on. (If you later decide that you like ukexpert so much that you'd like to donate something on a voluntary basis there is a subscription system that makes it simple to do so).
    • A powerful photograph display system
    Our Photo Gallery has had over 35 million photo views. If you want to display your photos and have them seen this is a great place to do so. With each photo upload our system shows your images both in the most suitable area for the subject AND in your own gallery. It also creates a thumbnail and medium size version of your image, as well as being able to display the original full size image. The system also copies the EXIF information from the photo and keeps it ready to display should you want to see what your camera settings were when you took the photo. There are also personal albums and many other features that make the ukexpert Photo Gallery something very special. Try it and see for yourself. You might even win a prize in one of our competitions.
    • A place to make online friends
    We have forums, blogs, member interest groups, photo sharing areas, and more - all of it designed to help bring our members together in a pleasant and friendly and interesting way. Please try it for yourself.
    • A place to make Real World friends who you meet for meals and drinks and events.
    We hold regular meets and meals and photo opportunities including things like Christmas/December meals, and Summer BBQs and so on. We even have a number of subscribers who join together in their own lottery syndicate.
    • A friendly source of help and assistance and ideas and support
    ukexpert is full of great people. You can see them constantly helping one another and offering support and ideas and so on. We are very fortunate that the community here seems to attract such great people. We have members from around the World and from every walk of life, and all are very welcome.

  • History

    ukexpert, ukforum compuserve, pc support prestel micronet 800, pc link microlink telecom gold, direct-line bbs, a little of our history
    A little of our history - as probably the longest established online community in the UK
    Initially members joined via the PC Support area that we created and operated on the National No1 online systems of the time Prestel/Micronet.   The areas there were updated at 300 baud and viewed at 1200/75.  This was very slow, and there was no broadband or Internet back then of course. 
     
    Some example messages from the very early days of this community. This is an example from 1987 where Sam makes some comments and Steve replies.  
     
    Sam was one of the winners in our September 2002 Photo competition on ukexpert.
     
    Others joined via our large London based BBS system back then, called Direct-Line at the time.
     
    Yet more joined via the PC Link area we created and operated on the National online system Microlink based on the Telecom Gold system.
     
    At CompuServe's request, we eventually moved our forums and members to CompuServe when they came to the UK, and created and operated many Forums there. At the time CompuServe went on to become the No1 online system in the UK, and also No1 in Europe and the World. We are proud of the part we played in that.  
     
    Some press and media coverage
     
    The ukexpert Photo Gallery allows us to best display items of interest such as these.  These examples are taken from there, and clicking on any thumbnail will show the full size item.
     
    This handout showed how widespread the press coverage of this community was in 1991.   It includes coverage from PC Plus, Micro Computer Mart, Telelink, and Amstrad Professional Computing.   
     
    There have been regular magazine and newspaper items about this community.
     
    Indeed, at one point we were given 4 pages a month in one of the PC magazines to reproduce some of the best messages each month, and that ran for quite some time.
     
    The newsletters of the online systems Microlink and CompuServe perhaps best reflected what was going on in the earlier days of this community.
     
    This is the front and the back of the Microlink Newsletter of April 1989.   It talks a great deal of our PC Link area and some of the things we were working on at the time.  
     
     
    The March 1992 edition of the CompuServe Magazine did a feature on 'Bring on the Brits' which strongly featured Steve and Andy.  Now, 18 years later in 2010, this page was edited by Steve and checked by Andy.
     
     
     
    The July 1995 edition of the CompuServe Magazine strongly featured our UK Professionals Forum.  It has top left spot on the front cover, and then several pages inside.  2 pages and the cover are shown below. 
     
     
     
     A marketing award from CompuServe is shown below.
     
         
     
     
    One of many radio discussions about this community was the late great member Jim McNulty talking to Simon Bates and explaining to him how much could be achieved by this community.  Click here to listen to this.
     
    More than fifteen years ago now, the BBC produced a TV program called TheNet to explain all things online and computer related to the public.  They used a string of people from our forums, including Steve and two of his four daughters, and also people like ukexpert member and well known Actor Howard Lew Lewis. Lew as he is known to his friends is a great member who tends to make the forum meets more fun. Click here to view a clip from TheNet.
    Thank you for reading a little of the history behind ukexpert, and we hope you enjoy being a member of the great community here.

  • Menu

  • Who's online

    Subscribers are bold.
    There are 36 users online. 2 members and 34 guests.


    1. Steve
    2. Walter