The new website - A failure or success.

Personally, I NEVER used the e-mail notification feature since I joined, I found it a nuisance. I (personally) prefer the "login to view what's going on" method to view all the community forums I take part in as it makes me become more involved. That is NOT why we have no notification like what you're used to by the way!

The lack of postings was inherently noticed even before the forums switch last July, and it could be down to people coming and going, the weather making Astronomy useless, and yes, in some cases the lack of topic notification by e-mail.

In a nut shell, the change to Fireboard over phpBB was for a number of reasons, namely feature additions that phpBB did not allow, features that was often requested by people here (ordinary posters and IFAS committee members). Warnings were issued about not being able to rollback to phpBB when the transition was to be made, and the slight adjustment to alternate features (such as the notifications) with Fireboard. So, no one was un-forewarned about the possible shortcomings this was to have.

In all, I neither agree nor disagree with statements here about one version over the other, I still enjoy checking into these forums to see how like-minded amateur astronomers are getting on every day.

Seanie.

John Murphy wrote:

What about the old way where we just got notifications to posts we were contributing to? I would not necessarily like any of the above choices, that could indeed fill your mailbox, but the option to just receive mails in posts you are contributing is, I would have thought, vital.
Thanks for looking in to this by the way.

I *think* this is what the "subscribe" function does (only posts you are involved in), but I could well be wrong.
I am having another look at it this evening - not sure if it working or not.
I'll keep you posted.

Michael.

Just in case people are not aware, there is the "Recent Discussions" button at the top of the page.
The direct link for this is: www.irishastronomy.org/forum?func=latest
So, one can just bookmark that link and you have access to a list of the latest discussions.

Michael.

Hi all, I'm only getting to read through this now, may I add to the comment of the first post, I for one am really missing the 'new topic notification' e-mails that came through on a daily basis, these were the heart and soul for me regarding the site for activity and daily postings.

I would really love to se them back, unfortunately there seems to be less postings per month as time goes by. If an option to subscribe to the e-mail notifications were presented for each user, I do believe we'll all see a lot more activity once again.

Otherwise, no complaints, the web team has done a fantastic job in giving their spare time towards the upkeep of this site :kiss:

Keith..

The old boards allowed users to opt-in to email notification of a *new* topic. You got one email and that was that *unless* you posted to that topic and has asked (in your profile) to be notified of "new posts".

The current boards have no notifications of new topics - so unless you log in regularly, you can miss new threads altogether.

If its an easy enough fix to give us back the old functionality, I personally would like to see it done.

If its a tough nut, then we'll just have to live with it. Hopefully without activity dropping off.

Dave

Hello Peeps,

Just a flying visit....

Any change of course comes with pain, but of course some mistakes were made with the changeover from PHPBB to Fireboard, most obviously the narrow fixed format, but that was fixed quickly. I didn't use the email notification after I'd tried it for a while as it became a bit of a PITA - I actually think that the front page with 20 most recent posts gives an easier flavour of what's going on than the email notifications.

A lot has been lost from here and blaming it on the change of web design is unfair to those who have put in the effort to try and make the site better. Heck, there used to be photo competitions, podcasts and an atmosphere of tolerance here, but all three seem to have gone. A good few people have left, and I have declared myself "inactive", due to what is perceived by some as a "we're better than you" attitude. Experience suggests that that's the beginning of the end and its been going on a while now.

Positive action is needed.

Just my 2p worth.

Clear skies,

Paul.