Feedback on the new site

Hi guys I have another few suggestions

1. Dont loose or move the observing reports section It is one of the most popular and at the core of amateur astronomy.
2. The observing challenges are down at the bottom of the site, These are a fantastic resource and something unique to IFAS. We should be screaming about these and shoud be moved to the top of the site. Perhaps even rebadge this section to "observing resources"
3. As Dave mentioned, get the map back on the home page.

4. Generally as Dave and Frank have said, give the forum more prominence and have less focus on the new sections. People might not even use them.

Finally, I am not belittling all the hard work that has gone into this site. I know how time consuming and frustrating it can be. I feel that we have just over complicated the site a tad when there was no discernable need for it.
Its like driving to work in an F1 car, it may look great and have all the latest bells and whistles, but it is much easier and less hassle to get there in a standard car.

I've reordered the main menu and changed some of the names to better reflect the sections that are important.
We have removed the newsletters and blogs section for the moment.
It was only an idea about the observing reports.
Maybe we can find another use for the blog feature like letting members report astronomy related news or something else for the moment, we'll put it on hiatus.
Seanie is working on removing on the links from the links forum into the "Links" section on the website and we will eventually delete this forum section.
We will move to the classifieds system soon, but we wanted to let people get used to the new forum before switching to the new system.
Seanie has also add 7 articles in the articles section and if you feel there is good content in some of the stickys that beginners keep asking about, we will create articles for them so that we can refer beginners to them.

Darragh

darragh wrote:

It's in the About section under "IFAS Maps"

Darragh

no it aint, I get a blank page with title and description, thats all.
anyway, it really should be on the front page like the orig site.
anychance of it between the user menu and moon phase?

Darragh, I want to emphasise to you and the lads in the webteam that you are all doing a great job, please don't feel like I'm criticising you, I'm not.
Like yourself, all I want is to see a fully functional easy to use site, so please don't take what I say to heart, I'm not saying you have but just incase you are getting annoyed.
We all have the same goal at the end of the day.

oops,:blush: I see the calander on the right hand side of the front page, I had forgotten that was there, works fine for me.

Dave_Lillis wrote:

darragh wrote:

It's in the About section under "IFAS Maps"

Darragh

no it aint, I get a blank page with title and description, thats all.

On that page click on "IFAS Clubs" and you should have see the map.
These maps are lot more useful than the old map as people can get directions from it.
I'll fix up the Clubs & Maps page so it's more usable over the weekend.

Darragh

ahha I see, I didnt realise that was a button
I see now that the "observing sites" is also a button.
Nice maps, but abit hidden.