Forum upgrade

[Mike Pink]

Mr McN, I accept we need to update as software becomes dated (my department at work has just gone "paperless", which meant a huge change in process to benefit from improved IT), but what made the Club choose this particular solution? Of all the fora (sorry what is plural for a forum?!) I visit this has got to be the least appealing. Originally I couldn't log on as my password had been changed. I look at my profile and can't see my avatar (but oddly it appears next to this post submission). Until I post this I can't see what my sign-off is, if any. Have I lost my pre change sign off or not? Just about to find out. And, most disappointingly, as I said in a previous post, the lack of a "posts since last visit" makes it inefficient visiting the site. We won't be going back to the old one I know, but similarly, because of how it looks and feels to me I'll be visiting the new forum and the Club's web site less frequently at least for a while (until I have a week's holiday to experiment with it), which is a shame (for me). How many others will have done the same but been less vocal about it?

By the way, was it always the case that the Club needed VIN details I order for members to log their cars? Don't recall that before. But I can't register my Cayenne without it apparently. Not too keen on that feature (I know they're visible in the windscreen).

Apologies this is adding to the negative posts, I know the volunteers are just that - volunteers - but things (should) only change if people highlight that they aren't content.

Good luck with developing this new package.

Well, my sign off has gone. I'm shown as "off line" whilst I'm looking at it, and a Guest of the Club. Cool.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

what made the Club choose this particular solution?

By the way, was it always the case that the Club needed VIN details I order for members to log their cars? Don't recall that before. But I can't register my Cayenne without it apparently. Not too keen on that feature (I know they're visible in the windscreen).

Apologies this is adding to the negative posts, I know the volunteers are just that - volunteers - but things (should) only change if people highlight that they aren't content.

Good luck with developing this new package.

Hi Mike,

It's been said many times but worth repeating. The forum HAD to be updated as it was unsupported. If it went wrong we could have lost it completely, it was that out of date. The choice was an entirely new platform using the website software, or the newer version of the ASP forum we have always used. We trialled the alternative one and it was entirely un-usable. The decision was instant and unanimous that there was no point even trying to work with it. Updating the original software also ensured that most of the old content is secured and carried across: there was talk of all the old forum threads needing to be archived separately, and the new forum starting from scratch!

So, it wasn't really a "choice", more an essential update that should have been done years ago to be honest.

Regarding your settings and profile issues, simply contact the office by phone, or email support@porscheclubgb.com. They can fix the little niggles, and are welcoming comments/suggestions.

Vin numbers were always part of the info required for the registers, but see my other reply for more on that! [&o]

 

[pauljmcnulty]

The personal detail concern seems to be something that needs to be addressed, and looks like a recurring theme. Some users will be removing information rather than adding useful detail.

The Profile page may need some indication of what is secure detail, perhaps colour, or in the section title. It needs to give confidence on what is public and what is secure and useful to the the Clubs admin, Regional Organisers and Register Secretaries. In respect of the Registers more detail on the model would be appreciated. Perhaps a quick fix can be put in place. Then some thought could be put into what additional useful vehicle detail could be added for Club records held by the Registers.

Steve

Hi Steve,

The personal data has been removed now, including email addresses. Good point about the need for this to be clear when you are asked for the information, though: I'll pass that on.

Regarding security of personal data, when I took over the 944 Register I collected, from a garage, a huge box with well over a thousand copies of Register applications. They were on a single A4 sheet: one side was all the personal details like address, DOB etc., the other side was the car info including chassis numbers.

At the bottom of the page was the data protection disclaimer "both parts of this document will always be kept separately for your security" []

Over the years the personal and car data has been shockingly out of control. Discs and memory sticks, emails, printed copies, all passed around and forgotten about, lost, and with no idea who had what. At least now the whole thing is on one system, and the office have control of it all. It's as secure as possible now, and one of the reasons the DMP project was delayed was the awful problems in the old database.

I think Registers would benefit from more/better details on the cars. Might be worth some time at the next conference?

 

[38F3E1]

...By the way, was it always the case that the Club needed VIN details I order for members to log their cars? Don't recall that before. But I can't register my Cayenne without it apparently. Not too keen on that feature (I know they're visible in the windscreen)...

Mike, I'm interested in your perspective about what is making you uncomfortable. From a Register Secretary point of view tracking the cars by VIN number helps to keep tabs on cars over the long term as the reg plate tends to change as the car goes from owner to owner. Given that the place you have your car serviced will keep your VIN number on file and we as a club keep the VIN number secure in the same members database as the rest of your personal details; is it a perception that the VIN number might be public to other members (which it isn't) or that you do not feel the club has sufficient security around personal details in general?

The club takes the gathering of any personal details and the Data Protection Act very seriously these days (I have no idea how good or bad it was in the past). Do we need to do more to assure members that information shared with us is secure and treated in confidence in the appropriate manner?

Ian.

 

[gresley]

Folks

Jury's out as far as I'm concerned on the new format - am conscious that it always takes time to get used to something new so am reserving judgement particularly as so many people have obviously thrown effort at an issue that HAD to be addressed and which was always going to have teething probs. at its inception.

I had a number of teething issues but they now seem to have sorted themselves out so thanks to the people who have beavered away to do the fixes.

I now have just one q. and this may have already been raised and answered so my apologies if that is the case.

It would seem to me that there are far fewer posts being made. I go in to the new posts section ( or whatever it is titled ) and there are very few.

Am I missing something here or a) are people put off by the new format or b) are people posting less because it is a busy time for us using our cars rather than writing about them?

Thoughts and guidance please,

Andrew

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Hi Andrew,

It would be great to have an update on forum traffic if the team have the figures?

I'd guess it's way down because it's changed: that's only to be expected as people are finding their way around. Personally, I think we've seen a lot less posts on the "silly" threads, like the Mallet's Mallet for instance. Perhaps people aren't making the more casual posts until they get more settled? Forum traffic is always a strange thing to look in to. We have around 17000 forum members if I remember correctly (we don't have that info any more [&o]) but probably less than 100 of them were ever regular posters? Forums are largely read-only, and I'd like to see figures on the threads read since the upgrade as well.

My suspicion has long been that the PCGB forum search facility was so useless that it put people off the forum. That's now improved, so hopefully the "lurkers" are able to find what they need more easily.

 

[Fred Hindle]

You are correct. Fora. Is Latin excellent.

Cheers,

 

[pse_SC]

[blockquote]During trials, and even this week, aspects of excessive space have been addressed. I rather like it now.

[/blockquote]Not sure about your avatar, John... looks like you’ve had a fresco done of your boat race

 

[OLD_ian]

sorry this has turned into a bit of a rant. You probably thought you were done with that part of the responses, but i've been away on holiday for a couple of weeks.

In general i think the new (reskinned? As a side note - is it still running on ASP? I thought everyone got over that in the early 2000s(efa) and moved on to more sensible options) forum is better. However- you knew that was coming- there is an enormous amount of extra data (not information) being sent with every single page. At the bottom of the page there is a pointless disclaimer (could be replaced by a pointless annoying checkbox first time you see the site) about how you shouldn't confuse this with the Porsche web site. If your lawyer says you need that, fire them they don't understand the internet. it's meaningless and serves no purpose. There are also loads of mages and links. Few of which serve any useful purpose. ok, you've got ads so they need to be there. Its the PCGB forum so telling me that again, showing me a logo and the address is pointless. If i want the address i'll click on a Contact Us link.

At the moment i'm on my computer in Central London so none of this matters. However, i've just spent the last two weeks on holiday in Canada - where if i wanted to look at the site it was on my mobile phone. And since i was in Canada and not in England 02 are looking for any excuse to charge me lots of money.They're pretty good at finding reasons to charge me money at every turn. So I'm paying to download that address, and that nonsensical reminder that "this isn't Porsches website you're looking at" for every single page i look at. Just get rid of all that noise.

I'll summarise so you can skip the rest - it looks better, but the signal to noise ratio is now worse. It's less good than it used to be on a mobile device. Over the last 25 years I've implemented a lot of IT projects, it looks like there may have been a lot of input and direction from people who never actually use the forum. That's always "a bad thing".

 

[edh]

Much improved now - thanks for your efforts

There's still a minimum height for a post, governed by the avatar/ personal info. Is there a way to condense that a bit? Not sure that online/offline status is worth showing, or maybe there's another way of doing that?

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Hi Ian,

It's a shame you weren't on the team of volunteers: you know a lot more than I do! [&:]

Yep it's still ASP. To be honest I'm not at all technically minded, so I can only view it as it was explained by the people who are qualified. Ten years of forum threads, technical articles, supplier list etc. are far more use here than archived in a locked "previous" version if we'd gone for something new, or lost for ever.

Your point about the developers not being forum users is a good one, and was noted early on. Unfortunately the DMP project team were laregely non-forum people but the options were tested by another team including me, so we had a pretty good feel for what the best solution was. There were a few glitches once it went live, but that's only to be expected when you upgrade through many revisions at once, instead of regularly updating to the newest version. Lesson learned, I hope.

I'm assuming you've also sent the comments to the support address? Otherwise it's not going to do any good as most of the team aren't forum users! I agree about the disclaimer, and all the links being at the bottom as well as the top. Cleaning that up would be a good thing. I'm surprised by your comments about the phone version though. I've had the forum on Symbian and Android and this version is streets ahead. I rarely used to even bother, but now it's clear and simple to read and reply. I don't know how it is on those Apple things.

Don't apologise for the rant, all feedback is important and welcome. Just needs to go to the support team as well as being posted here in case they miss it.

 

[majorporsche]

I'm finding I visit less, it's too difficult. I used always click posts since last viisit and that kept me informed and happy. ( it might have been latest posts ). Now I find I need to wade through loads of them.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

I'm finding I visit less, it's too difficult. I used always click posts since last viisit and that kept me informed and happy. ( it might have been latest posts ). Now I find I need to wade through loads of them.

Hi David,

I don't get this? I click "latest posts", and it give me, well, the latest posts. As in, posts since I last logged in. [8|] The only difference is it doesn't have the old cut-off, so you need to see the point where you were last on the forum. After a week or so I just instinctively see the point where it says something like "last post a week ago", and I don't go beyond where I know I last logged in. That might be ten minutes, in which case one or two posts, or a few days where it could be a couple of pages. No different from before, really.

 

[Sandspider]

I'm back in, eventually!

Have to say I find this new forum much harder on the eyes than the old one - very "noisy" now.

But I suppose these things have to change, and I appreciate the work the mods do and all the info that is available here. So thank you, anyway!

I thought for a while that I couldn't log in any more as I'm not a PCGB member, just a forum member. (Oh, and I couldn't read this post to explain things as I couldn't log in!)

 

[Sandspider]

Actually, I might be being an idiot, but I can't see how to change my password in the new forum? I'll keep searching, but if someone could point me in the right direction that would help...

Thanks.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Hi Giles,

Go to "my profile" at the top right, below the advert and above "contact" on the toolbar.

You can then scroll down to your forum settings. Click "edit" and the password comes up.

 

[Sandspider]

Forum details, not forum settings, but I found it. Thank you, Paul.

[]

 

[Geoff_Fields]

I'm finding I visit less, it's too difficult. I used always click posts since last viisit and that kept me informed and happy. ( it might have been latest posts ). Now I find I need to wade through loads of them.

Posts since your last visit are marked with "NEW" then as you read them the "new" flag disappears. So if you log out and immediately log in again you don't see any "new" flags because only a few seconds have elapsed since last visit.

 

[majorporsche]

Thanks Paul, I've tried what you said and it worked, just need to remember how far back I read last time.

 

[John Sims]

Much improved now - thanks for your efforts

There's still a minimum height for a post, governed by the avatar/ personal info. Is there a way to condense that a bit? Not sure that online/offline status is worth showing, or maybe there's another way of doing that?

[8|] I said exactly the same during the forum trials (it's nice when I find it isn't just me).

I am assuming it wasn't changed as it is/was part of the package core stucture.

I find the information presented to be useful but am frustrated that, seemingly, it can't be displayed in a more space efficient way.