web site

Is it just my computer having a bit of a wobbly or has the web site be updated/improved. I only ask as in parts it seems a all over the place and some of the buttons don't work.

I know improvements are trying to be made but hate it when unbroken things are fixed.

There are a few tweaks that need to be done to the website just to smooth it out.

Whilst the previous version of the website was working all fine, the web host and software being used were out of date.

The updates and move to a new web host make upgrades and improvements to the website easier.

The general appearance has changed and about a third of the screen on my pc is taken up by the header, meaning I have to scroll a lot more. Personally, I don't like it, sorry...

The forum has needed a good tidy up for a long time so subjects aren't all over the place. Thanks Neil for all the hard work; for me going forward it's a definite improvement.

I just tried to PM Andy Rowley only to be told that that user did not exist!

It then offered a drop down list of what I assume are membership numbers., which are not a lot of use as most of us know members by name only.

I ended up by emailing Andy.

Not ideal.

Don't appear to be able to get into the members areas either even though I'm logged in.

I've just seen this thread - thanks for all the feedback. I'll try to look into each of your individual queries and address them.

We had to update the website as the version of the software we were using was out of date and was no longer being maintained, leading to potential security issues. In fact the site was hacked a couple of weeks ago and some malware was placed on it, which gave me a nudge to speed up the implementation.

Unfortunately, as the software we were using was so old, I had to change to a new "template" that controls the whole look and feel of the site - I was unable to stick with the one that we had, leading to more work and more change.

I'll post details of fixes on this thread as I do them, but I'm doing this in my spare time when I can, so it may take a while.

Buttons not working issue
I'd never encountered this until I went live, but I found that some of the buttons on the admin section of the website that I use to maintain it weren't working. I normally use Opera as my browser, so I tried it in Chrome and things worked there. I've just cleared my history / cookies etc in Opera and re-tried and it fixed things, so I'd recommend you try that if you're having this problem. We had similar issues with the previous website when we first launched it and clearing cookies etc always seemed to fix 90% of problems then -the equivalent to switching it off and on!

Instant Messaging - Can only select message recipients by user name and not real name
This has now been fixed - you can select by real name.

I don't have full member access or I can't log on
Pete P - thanks for your comment above. It's highlighted that I made an error in the way I migrated users from the old site. For background, I took a copy of the old site about 18 months ago and I've been developing the new site off the back of that. When I put the new site live, I migrated any new users from the old site to the new site. What I didn't do was take into account existing users from more than 18 months ago who had changed their status from non-member to member or vice versa. I've now synchronised that data, so Pete, you should now have access to the member area.

What I haven't done is synchronise any profile changes or password changes for users who have been on the site for more than 18 months. Therefore if you're finding you can't log in, it could be because you have been on the site for more than 18 months, but have changed your password in the last 18 months. Hopefully this is only a small number of people. If you are affected by this, could you go though the password reset process. Alternatively, contact me and I'll fix things for you.

Folks, I won't be able to do any more fixes for a couple of days now, but keep posting any gremlins that you find and I'll try to resolve them as soon as I can.

Thanks Neil, it's now working fine for me.

Pete

Thanks for your work on the site, I know how hard getting it to work well in all browsers is. As an older person could you have higher contrast text, instead of grey, black?
Also I like the way help topics are easier to find.

Hi David, thanks for your message. I'll see if there's something I can do to improve the contrast of the text. I'd already made it darker than it was by default, but I'm sure I can do more to make it more readable. I had a play with some different fonts, but they spoiled the look of the site a little bit. I've added this to my to do list and I'll see if I can make some more improvements.