The new website - A failure or success.

However, I have looked at the administrator tools for the site and see there is a "subscribe" function in there. It can be adjusted on a per-user basis. As a trial, I have "subscribed" John Murphy to the site. I would like to get your feedback on it John over the coming days. If it worrks, I don't see any reason, pending discussion with the web team, why other people cannot have their profile amended accordingly.

Michael - thanks for trying, but this is not working.

Paul - I'd prefer if this post is kept purely at a technical level and that the shortcomings of the new software are addressed, and that a slagging match is not started. Good to hear your still kicking around though.

Seanie - sorry to hear that it was a one way trip with the "upgrade", I do think that the old site was better. Can you tell me what these new features are that made the upgrade such a necessity? Personally I think more has been lost than gained, and to this extent while the new site looks cooler, it is in no way better funtionally, it is worse. But hey I would like to know what the gains were, maybe I can use them to compensate for all the shortcomings. Please let us know what the benefits of the new site are. By the way I've never had the option to "subscribe" - I can't even update or edit my profile anymore, signatures have to be done by hand at every post, it took quite a while to get over all the bugs when adding an image, as a matter of fact it still has to be done by hand adding BB tags. The new image attachment option does not work, neither does the file attachment. So what are the bonuses?

I did notice an old post from about six months ago complaining about the lack of email notification, so it seems I am not the first to raise this issue. Despite the other shortcomings on the site, you can live with them and work around the issues, however no emails is a tricky one. Is there no way to switch this back on?

By the way where is the "Subscribe" option? I have searched but cannot see it anywhere. Is it switched on only for some users?

Hi,
I have to say that I'm not on these boards as often as I used to be (don't all cheer at once now) but I do have to say that I preferred the old boards, what can I say, SAC use the old boards system and every time I'm on them, I think back to what these boards used to be like.
I don't know what issues have been fixed and what haven't so I don't know fully whats happening on the site, but what I do know is that the site went through far too much pain in the transition and that pain almost killed the site off completely.

Alot was lost in the transition, such as images in previous posts, looking back at old threads has lost its impact as images are missing and look at just how much screaming by many many people it took to get something as fundamental as the width of the pages changed.

What I cant understand is why some people were so driven to include features that as far as I can see were not asked for, and are not really used while other features that many depended on were thoughtlessly dropped, talk about not listening to the customers.

This must sound very ungrateful, but the numbers do speak for themselves and blaming our crap weather, builders holidays or our current economic situation is serious burring your head in the sand stuff.....


BTW, below my avatar is "Moderator", I haven't been a mod for ages ...

John,
You are correct, I can't seem to get the "Subscribe" function to work only for your profile. If there is a thread you want to keep an eye on, hit the "subscribe" button. This red button is located directly above the top of the first post in the thread. Once you hit this button, AFAIK it will send you an e-mail with the content of each post made thereafter in that thread. Downside: Must be pressed for each thread you want to monitor.

In terms of "New Topic" email notifications, I have an idea:
How about we move the RSS feed from the front page, where it does very little, and place it in the "Recent Discussions" page? Then, we might be able to configure it to send an e-mail each time the page changed. Would this work Seanie??

Michael.

Michael,

Thanks I can now see the subscribe button. I am sure this was not there just a short while ago. I'll give this a bash. I can live with that as a work around - if it works. I'll let you know tomorrow. That will certainly help me and others who bother to use it. Maybe it would be a good idea to highlight the use of this button to users so that maybe the old smooth flowing threads of old are returned.

Now if I could only edit my profile and update my email address, but its telling me that I am not a valid user (probably because of the space in my username). Can anyone help with this?

Naah, that Subscribe buitton was there all along, but anyway...

You should also be able to update your signature.
On the blue column on the LHS of the page under "User Menu", click on "My Profile" (alternatively, click here: www.irishastronomy.org/my-profile )
Move the mounse over "Edit".
A menu drops down.
Click on "Update Your Profile"
Click on "Forum Format"
Now type your signature in the Signature box.
When finished, hit the "Update" button.

I have just tested this to make sure it works, and it works just fine.

Let me know if this works ok or not for you John.

Michael.

John Murphy wrote:

Michael,

Thanks I can now see the subscribe button. I am sure this was not there just a short while ago. I'll give this a bash. I can live with that as a work around - if it works. I'll let you know tomorrow. That will certainly help me and others who bother to use it. Maybe it would be a good idea to highlight the use of this button to users so that maybe the old smooth flowing threads of old are returned.

I just tested this and it sent me an e-mail.

You raise in interesting point though. We should do up a summary post of some of the features in the new website layout. This may help in the transition.

BTW, something worth checking out is the Calendar. Anyone can add an event in here. At the moment it is aimed at Star Parties and Club Meetings. I don't see any reason why we can't create another category for astronomcial events. I've just added MAC club meetings in here - first Tuesday of every month. Take a look.

Michael.