Forum and Web Site Changes

New Forum Online Now

Our chat forums have been upgraded and re-styled and are working now. It doesn’t sound a big deal when you put it into one sentence but it was.

First of all you need to understand that there is a continual war going on between those who write helpful software like that that runs the forum or a blog and the criminals who want to hack in for nefarious reasons. So the software upgrade plugged some security holes, shiny new locks on the door so to speak.

Secondly we wanted to improve the look of the forums. They’d had a small makeover last May but it was a very slap dash job. There’s still a few little cosmetic tweaks needed but it’s fresh and a joined up design.

It will now take larger pictures both in terms of picture size and file weight, which is something members wanted and since the costs of bandwidth and storage have fallen no reason not to.

We purchased a template so it should appear in a more friendly way for mobile users. Personally I’m a Luddite. Why go onto web sites using a phone with a teeny tiny screen? Strikes me like digging over a plot with a trowel.. get a spade!

Main Site & Poultry Pages

Back in May we went and changed the sites quite dramatically. Although I wasn’t at all sure about the design of it, I was persuaded that it would be more appealing to visitors but the fact is that they’ve voted with their feet so obviously they didn’t like it either.

The back-end systems were cumbersome to use, just uploading a diary entry with a few photos became a major task instead of a doddle. Many tasks that the user can do on other back end systems required the developers to implement and that’s expensive. In fact the developers seem to charge about 10 times what I expected but that’s another story.

Hosting was separate to the forums and some other sections, which added further costs.

I could go on and on, but suffice to say it was a very expensive mistake. Swapping back to the old site makes a lot more sense. We’re aware there were some good features in the new version but overall, the old was better.

I know the site does need some upgrading but the next upgrade will be evolution rather than revolution.

Posted in New on Site
One comment on “Forum and Web Site Changes
  1. Duncan Robinson says:

    Hi John,
    I can highly recommend ‘Mr Middleton’s Dig on for Victory’ from 1945. It has been reprinted and is available on Amazon. The pages are an exact facsimile of the original book. Apart from some of the highly poisonous pesticides used then such as ‘Paris Green’ (Arsenic Oxide) and cyanide it is a very interesting and pleasing little book packed with information just as relavant today. There are adverts for seed companies long since gone and some still going and a cream for lumbago!

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