The Site

[NigelDonnelly]

Apologies to all users for the problems that are being experienced with the site, and in particular the forums, at the moment.

Please be assured that the problems of yesterday were due to circumstances entirely beyond our control, and that our technical team is making every effort not only to solve the problems, but also to address the wider difficulties experienced since the site was re-launched.

In the meantime, please bear with us and the technical team in our efforts to get things back on track – let me know what you think the most pressing needs are in terms of delivering the forums you want, and I will ensure that your requests are passed on to the technical people.

Again, apologies for the problems that you are experiencing – we are doing all we can to put things right as soon as possible.

Nigel

 

[Rita1]

In the meantime, please bear with us and the technical team in our efforts to get things back on track – let me know what you think the most pressing needs are in terms of delivering the forums you want, and I will ensure that your requests are passed on to the technical people
There is your problem Trying to do many things at once instead of getting the site up and running properly Then tweaking it and putting all the extra's in

 

[Soozeeg]

We have been bearing with you and the techies, Nigel - for more than a fortnight now. And we have let you know what we want - several times, by lots of members, in lots of postings. Personally, I would say that the most pressing problems are: The difficulties members are experiencing trying to log in, mainly for the first time - IMO (for what it's worth, and I've said this before, as have others) the instructions need to be clearer, in terms a completely non-techie layman can understand, and in a place where they can see them immediately - such as a sticky on the HOME PAGE. It's no good putting them in a thread in one of the forums, even in this 'Our Website' forum, if people don't know where to look for them! And secondly, the slowness of the site......loading pages takes so long that on occasions it times you out. I can't stress enough how completely offputting that is. The techies need to stop thinking like techies and start putting themselves in our, ordinary, a bit thick, non-techie shoes! Oh, and a 'see all last posts' button! Thank you!

 

[Entwood]

It might help if it actually "did what it says on the tin" .... The pages all list 6 icons .... including red ones for new posts ... anyone EVER seen a red one ??? I certainly have not .. so have to trawl every thread to see what is new.
Given the slowness in loading that soon becomes a chore.

What SHOULD have been a great site is rapidly becoming a place I don't want to be, another day or two of this I, like others, will not be back.

Sad, but true

 

[HenryB1]

Sorry the site is so slow, my Google Chrome keeps showing no connection as it times out.

 

[DavidKlyne]

Nigel

What puzzles me is that their are several good forums out there that could form the basis of what this one should look like but it seems to have been decided not to follow the well proven way of doing things. Did anyone from here have a look at the other forums? Caravan Site Finder (part of Haymarket) have a forum which is under used but far superior to this one (old or new) This is what this forum should be like http://www.caravansitefinder.co.uk/forum/index.php?sid=5b1a74efba195af1bcb80cc09af85d90 It seems to me that you have taken the old forum as a model to create the new one and it has not really worked. This can be an excellent forum but its got a long way to go.
David

 

[AndrewEverard]

Except the site you mention, David, only seems to have had two posts in the last month...

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Except the site you mention, David, only seems to have had two posts in the last month...

I think that was the point David was making when he said it was underused. That doesn't mean the workings of the site are no good. As I understand it he is saying that Caravan Sitefinder is a very good site which works and what the members on here require but instead we are having a site that as most can see not much better than the old one.
The ideal situation would be to move PCv over to that forum engine, lock stock and barrel.

 

[DavidKlyne]

Except the site you mention, David, only seems to have had two posts in the last month...

I was using it as an example of what a workable web forum for Practical Caravan could look like. I appreciate that it is very poorly used but I am sorry to say that was due entirely to the lack of support the Mods got in trying to combat an avalanche of SPAM. Prior to that it was a very active forum. I don't understand why Haymarket has two similar forums, I would have thought that as Lord Braykewynde suggested that if they could be combined it could have the makings of a good forum and infinately better than what we have. As members all we ask is to have a forum which is functional and is much faster than we have now. It would be good to understand why the powers that be have decided on this course of action and why they have dismissed better ways of creating a workable forum.
As an aside I did suggest some time ago the idea of combining the two forums but participation in the forum by the tech guys was non existant then.
David

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

I don't understand why Haymarket has two similar forums

Exactly.

I must admit I joined Caravan Sitefinder many moons ago and posted some reviews. At the time (not sure now) there wasn't a facility to post pictures of the sites which make a big difference. As they say, a picture paints a thousand words.

 

[DeliDave_]

To be fair it is a lot easier to moan and criticise than to put it right ,my soninlaw is a computer techie and he puts loads of unpaid hours in to sort seemingly small problems.I don't suppose the backroom boys are delighted with things

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Nigel
The one thing that seems to be missing is a proper project management. When we had the old system we all knew it was still in the dark ages compared to some amateur sites which are excellent, eg caravan talk, uksorento , Swift Talk etc
No one ever asked me or other contributors what we would like or how we thought it should be constructed.

To the best of my knowledge no trial was ever carried out.
Since John Duncan went on holiday a number of excellent suggestions have been made. Presumably someone is co-ordinating these ideas and putting them to good use?
If the fundemental design of the web site is wrong, which I think it is, then it is hard to understand how it can ever deliver the goods we all want.

Is it too late to revisit the drawing board, consult with as many users as possible and create a forum par excellence?

It goes without saying no one holds you in any way responsible!

 

[SirRogerFFS]

I agree here with what that Deli Dave has said.
I am sure lots of thing here have been changed Im a novice and and see what a task this must have been and Im sure if we sit and wait just a little longer the techies will put this right .
The only problems Ive had was to initially log in after coming back from holiday , now sorted ....Thanks Parksy and of course how slow it is .
Not sure about everything else as I only want log in read forums and partake whenI can

 

[NigelDonnelly]

Dear All,

Thanks again for your patience.

With regard to project management, everything is being noted - both stuff we are noticing and issues that are causing problems at your end. Appreciably, things are being prioritsed and at present the main focus is general performance and stability. Many of the different problems listed are really the same problem manifesting in different ways.

We all feel the same way that once we get the the site and forum stable, then we can start adding the extra features. You should notice improvements coming through over the next few days.

Thanks again

 

[austin]

We have just "turned on" one part of the performance upgrade so some improvement in page loading should now be seen. We have a couple of other things that we need to test before we "unleash" them on you. All being well that will be the start of next week.

 

[Soozeeg]

Thank you, regular updates will be much appreciated.

One thing I've just noticed whilst doing this reply....there's no box now above this reply box with all the various style/font/colour options to choose from. Is that deliberate, or a gremlin?

 

[Sproket]

Apart from that box being missing .....

Anyway the new forum seem to be as quick as the old one now, so a few more tweeks in the right direction & it will be firing on three cylinder's.....

 

[austin]

"Lets try this in grey and see what happens...

Soozeeg, have you got a small bit of text right under the input box sayibng something like "Enable rich-text"? If so click on it, you can swap between "rich text" and "plain text", (or at least I can and I am logged in as a "normal" user.)

I have also just tweaked something slightly so that should now be back, it might take a couple of refreshes though.

 

[Soozeeg]

I have, yes Austin.....it says either 'Disable rich-text' or 'Enable.....' if I click on it. Still no box with style/font etc. to choose from, though. All that clicking on the 'disable/enable' thing does is make this reply box bigger/smaller.

 

[admin1]

Sorry, just edited my post above. It should now be back.

 

[Soozeeg]

Yay! (that means yes, thank you, lol).

 

[Sproket]

It's working ok for me !

 

[andspenka1]

I have been reading the forum for an hour or two now and I have had a box up 4 times now saying that the page is temporarily unavailable.

I only joined recently and I have noticed the slowness and the errors etc of this site compaired to the others I use, only just found this thread though.

 

[rambler1]

Cannot understand how an updated web site is so slow it takes ages to chang forums and topics I hope this is being addressed as if not I will be using it less which is a pity as have gleaned some good tips and info in the past