Testers welcome

Hi,

comments on the new SYC website very welcome! What works and what doesn't? What do you like and what do you hate? Replies here or direct at demo.starcrossyc.org.uk/contacts/25-syc-...rs/41-aidan-whiteley

Aidan

What a cute dog - looks really dapper in his life jacket, Bracken wants one !

This was just a quick "lunch hour" test in response to mail just sent so just a few.initail comments

Look and feel of the new site is much better
Can the quick links be varied by category - race results will be of interest to Racing, but not to other categortes such as Socials etc
By same token, can we add Opens to quick links just for for Racing?
If you go to Opens RS100 open meeting 25th July Entry list, I can't scroll down the list of entries (no scroll bar)
Can't get webcam picture - it's all black, though that may be restriction imposed by my work compuer
Staretd following membershipp application, refers to membership secretray, but can't see where these details are stored - may be somewhere I haven't found yet, but link here would be good

Will have a more in depth look later
Cheers
Steve

Emailed some comments regarding updated website.

I tried the new website using mostly recent versions of Chrome, Mozilla, iPad Safari and Windows phone 8. Alll appear to work fine when I accessed the site..

Thanks for all the feedback. A collated set of responses at demo.starcrossyc.org.uk/bug-fixes-and-feature-requests

Aidan

Hi Aidan. It's a great new site that's bound to enhance SYCs image - I'm thinking new members here! Well done. I note in the kayaking photos that you take the 'wuff' with the smooth.....

Oooh - that's a terrible pun. I'm hoping that Ellie will have some photos that can replace those "placeholders" at some point.

Aidan

Hi Aidan,

What will
Happen to all the forum posts from the old website? As there were some ongoing discussions on there.

Thanks

Sam

All gone - the forums on the old site and new site are in completely different formats. It would take more time that I'm willing to spend on it to copy forward the old posts so it was agreed when we were discussing the new website that old posts would be lost.

However, I can guess the particular old site forum post you are interested in so I've copied that one forward to this new site manually.

I can do this for a few other old forum posts if requested but please keep the requests to a minimum as it is manual so somewhat time consuming.

Cheers

Aidan

Very nice job Aidan - like it!

Thanks John - appreciated.

At the time of writing I can see that 57 people have managed to successfully logon to the new site recently which is good news given that it has only been "live" for a couple of days. Shows that it seems to be basically working...

If anyone is having problems please do get in contact via www.starcrossyc.org.uk/contacts/25-syc-o...rs/41-aidan-whiteley

Cheers

Aidan

Hi Aidan,

Many thanks for the new website. I am however a bit worried for the newsgroup, as not many are using them anymore.... Here a few suggestions.

1) The main entry point to the newsgroups is the page at www.starcrossyc.org.uk/syc-forum , from where one can at a glance see where the latest posts in each NG are, and navigate to the different newsgroups, and choose on which one to post. This address is not clearly linked from the SYC home and SYC members pages (I think that actually the different headlines from the last messages can be confusing, because it becomes nearly impossible to navigate one's own way through the NGs).

2) With the old NGs I had subscribed to a very nice weekly digest, I would receive all new messages in my mailbox and would only log on to reply if I felt a need for it. It was really useful and ensured I wouldn't miss any news. It would be useful if such a service could be reinstated.

3) Is it just me, or the new NGs are very very slow?

Many thanks.

Best regards,

Franco

Hi Franco,

thanks for the feedback - always welcome!

Re. whether there has been a drop off in the use of the forums, I think it is probably a little early to say. The usage has always fluctuated but I'm not convinced that there is a clear trend of diminishing use yet. Maybe I'll be proved wrong

Re. navigation to the forums. There's lots of different routes in. The one I use most of the time is looking at the "Forum Latest" module on the right hand side of the "SYC Members" page. That's very similar to what was on the old site. If that wasn't there, I'd probably use the "Forum" / "Latest Posts" from the "SYC Members" page to see what's new.
The Forum is deliberately not linked from the default Home Page as that page is aimed at people who aren't members of SYC (yet) so the forum is of little use to them. If you are on a PC where you can click "Remember Me" on logon, you shouldn't usually see that "default home page" (as the "SYC Members" link automatically becomes your default home page)..

Re, the "digest" of emails. Before the new SYC web site went live, I posted an article on the web site describing the differences between the old and new site. That article is is still at the top of the "SYC Members" page and available at www.starcrossyc.org.uk/new-syc-website
In it, it says that your subscription for the old forum digests will not be carried over to the new site and that you would have to re-register for the new implementation of the forum digest, The link for registering is at www.starcrossyc.org.uk/syc-forum/forum-email-digest-preferences
However, I don't think you are alone in not spotting this information - so far only 10 people have "signed up" for the new forum digests

Re. whether it is slow. I haven't noticed this but it is completely different software to what was used on the old site. If people are finding it slow, please do let me know. I haven't the foggiest what I'll do then mind you...

As an aside, the new SYC website offers a few new alternatives for "interaction" including some basic integration with Facebook/Twitter and the ability to comment directly on articles. Given that SYC members have been using a forum for the last 10 years, I'm not too surprised there appears to have been no use of this new functionality yet. Still - early days!

Cheers

Aidan

Hi Aidan,

Thanks for the info on how to subscribe for digest. Please consider the following:

1) In the article on the new web site, I'd start with the new functionality (in order of usefulness to frequent visitors of the website, not in order of logic!), i.e. the new digest information could be first, and the motivation of why we have a new web site could come at the end. People will only read the first few lines and carry on reading only if they think it is useful (e.g. it is not useful reading why there is a new website if you already know why! therefore you'll never get to the end of the article!).

2) As I said, I personally don't like navigating from the latest messages, because you can never arrive to the page with all the forums, i.e. you remain only within the most active forums. But if it is just me, I am creating my own bookmark to www.starcrossyc.org.uk/syc-forum , where I aim to start from.

3) There is a forum that is open to non-members, and yet we don't want non-members to get there... the logic is unclear to me

All the best,

Franco

A. Question: how do I send a private message to just one forum user (a sort of e-mail)?

B. I have received an e-mail saying "Hi Franco, I see that your boat is advertised for sale on the RS website; have you got it advertised at the club? it would be nice if someone in the club bought it". Does this not show that my advert on the club newsgroup (which indeed exists!) has not enough visibility? I'll try to bring it back up the list of latest posts by re-posting...

Regards,

Franco

Hi,

there is no private messaging available directly within the forum. The new software - Kunena - doesn't support this directly. However, there is private messaging available in the main part of the site

a) take the "Info" / "Apps" / "Private Messaging" link from the "SYC Members" home page
b) click "Compose"



c) click the "Show Users" link on the right hand side of the page



d) select the required user(s) and write the private message



e) send the PM. The recipient will see a notification on the SYC Members home page the next time they come to the site



They'll also get an email notification



Users can choose to turn off emails and block PMs is they want

Thanks

I re-subscribed last week expecting to get the weekly forum update emailed to me on Friday's but nothing appeared. Did I not re-subscribe correctly or is there something else wrong with the system? Hope someone can help ...
Mike

Hi Mike,

cor - as if there'd be anything wrong with the system :silly:

Glad that you managed to sign up for the forum email digest - numbers are still low for those who have signed up again for forum digests.

I can see that you signed up about 5pm on the 10th. The way the new forum software works is that emails are sent out regularly based on whether you sign up for daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly emails - they're not just sent out on Friday mornings as was the case with the old system.

So I'm expecting you should receive your first email sometime after 5pm tomorrow.

Let me know if this doesn't happen but Nishok and I checked this out with his forum registration a couple of days ago and it seemed to work as described above.

Fingers crossed

Aidan

P.S. If you are reading this and haven't signed up again for forum emails, here the link www.starcrossyc.org.uk/syc-forum/forum-email-digest-preferences

Yep Aidan it works! Thanks
Mike