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mikewsmithSubscriber
Oh and the no time for an update makes less sense when one these keep dropping
Ooooh! I’ve nearly got a full house.
mikewsmith
Subscriber
Oh and the no
(Testing)
There's a really easy answer to providing updates which would require no (extra) work at all from anybody being paid to do this. Just give public read only access to Trello or whatever else it is you're using to track issues as part of the upgrade process. I'm sure some of us on here who know about such things would happily interpret for free to those who aren't used to such management and issue tracking tools. Obviously the information is already available because the process is being documented so it's just a question of communication.
[i]Cougar wrote:[/i]
My experience of attempting to pass on information here is that half of the more prolific posters go “thanks for letting us know, that’s great” and the other half spend the next three pages shouting about how it’s all shit, how STW is doing it wrong and how their 12 year old knocked up a forum in an afternoon with no adverts. If I were Mark I’d be reluctant to post too. We might get more favourable communication if this place wasn’t such a ****ing bear-pit at times.
Of course the other side of that is that when people on here with direct knowledge of the sort of work being done post comments suggesting that there might be better ways of doing things, we're told by Mark that we're all wrong and that we couldn't possibly understand without visiting in person (which in itself seems an incredibly strange thing to have to do with an IT project in an age where everything is in the cloud, I can do the work I do from pretty much anywhere and often you never see any of your customers in person). The main reason Mark has got lots of flack isn't because people are being unreasonably demanding, but because of his attitude to his customers when he has dared to raise his head - as I suggested way earlier in this thread, it would go a long way if he was just prepared to admit that it's all gone a bit wrong and could have been done better rather than telling us "it's all gone exactly as we expected" and treating people who know a lot about this sort of thing with disdain. It's a bit ridiculous to expect people who have far more experience of software releases than Mark does to swallow the idea that it wasn't possible to test more before release in order to avoid most of these problems - and when we're told that they have multiple test servers on which the system was tested before release and still it is released with all those flaws then either somebody issued a JFDI instruction (in which case just tell us that!) or we're being lied to. I'm doing a release this week, it will be full of flaws, but we're going to admit that to the customer and we're not going to claim it is all as expected - I'd like it to be a lot better than it is, but crucially it is already better than their existing system, and to some extent we are in a JFDI situation here because the customer wants a system now (personally given a choice I'd delay the release for a couple of weeks). As somebody who works in management of IT stuff yourself, explain to me how I'm wrong...
So the issue isn't that people are being unreasonably critical, but that we feel like we're being condescended - you might get more favourable responses to the communication if it was more honest. It's all very well communicating with us, but when what's being communicated about the reasons why it has to be like this smell a bit funny then it's hard to be positive. Sorry not having a go at you personally here, clearly you're just passing on what you've been told.
[i]scotroutes wrote:[/i]
What OS, browser and versions are you using?
Here’s a thought – why should it matter? If success in this respect is having a Quote process that involves 5 or 6 non-intuitIve actions rather than just having a Quote button like every other forum then the point has been rather spectacularly missed.
Oh, and this. I'm not sure I've ever seen a credible explanation of why so many wheels have to be reinvented here. This is where the 12yo analogy comes in, because it is so straightforward to make a forum with all the functionality we're still missing here. If it's a migration thing then I know all about that and it can be a complete PITA, but it's something you only have to do once. I also appreciate the need to monetise the forum, but neither does that require building the whole thing from scratch.
Ooooh! I’ve nearly got a full house.
Well done, must be really fun there.
So far you have a system where people (Customers) have no idea if something is a bug or a feature, have no idea if it's been reported or being fixed, get shouted down for raising things and end up getting frustrated with pointless feedback from 2 people who don't actually have any idea whats being done - is that house?
aracer +1
Not quite you didn’t get Snark, Mark and Funsponge.
there are some vague offers of help in this thread, but difficult to find in the pile of agressive willy waving.
"...this place is such a f****ng bear pit sometimes...."
yep, yes it is, its one of the reasons for the previously high levels of traffic. you cant have it both ways.
you want everyone to play nice? really?
^ sed "quote function not required" surrounded by square brackets, through firefox, win10 if that helps.....
Fix forward has a lot to answer for! Waterfall is the same but we appear to be getting the worst of both worlds just now.
I'm aware things didn't go to plan, but communication is key to helping the users (the people generating the income) come to terms with the issues as they will also know when they should be fixed.
i appreciate that not everyone likes facebook, but theres a 'singletrack select' group on there. just been reading through a few posts and over the last day or so mark has gone into more detail on there about ads, pop-ups, ad suppliers etc if anyones interested.......
over the last day or so mark has gone into more detail on there about ads, pop-ups, ad suppliers etc if anyones interested
So why not post that here as well? If he'd time to post there he'd time to post here. He might as well have written it in the London Gazette.
So why not post that here as well?
That's just crazy talk
Don't be coming in here upsetting people with your sensible ideas........
Don’t be coming in here upsetting people with your sensible ideas……..
Sorry.
Only trying to help.
I'll go and stand in the corner now.
Sorry.
🙂
Why post there when the issues are here? Is it to help drive traffic? Does copy and paste not work?
It is all about communication and this seems to be a massive fail.
Here you go.
It’s the same as what has been posted on here previously.
It’s slow but that’s being addressed. Moving 10 million posts to a new server is not trivial. But also the forum is not our core business activity. Publishing is what we do and what we invest the majority of our time and money on. The forum is important but the old forum was impeding our ability to publish content and it had to go.
I hope it got a suitable number of LIKES! to make him happy.
Moving 10 million posts to a new server is not trivial
Usually, this sort of thing is automated. Given the time it has taken so far I can only assume that each post is being lovingly re-typed.
the forum is not our core business activity. Publishing is what we do and what we invest the majority of our time and money on. The forum is important
If income from the forum Is keeping your publishing business afloat then it's not just important, it's business critical.
But why? Why write all this on Facebook when it could have been written here? Ignore all the technical issues and it's this level of disdain for the forum that's putting folk off it.
the messages i thought may make more sense to those with 'forumy/adverty' knowledge were.....
If you are a subscriber you won’t see any ads while you are logged in. The pop ups are from malicious code injected into genuine ads running in the network that supplies our ads. We use these suppliers. Criteo, Sortable, Sovrn, Carambola and Google Adsense (listed for your google pleasure). The recent issue appears to be coming via Sovrn. I’ve just disabled this source so we’ll soon see if I’m right.
https://www.symantec.com/.../congratulations-you-won-scam... - I’m not washing my hands of the issue here. I’m working on a fix at our end, but it’s a known issue and it’s currently being targeted at Android users.
But why? Why write all this on Facebook when it could have been written here? Ignore all the technical issues and it’s this level of disdain for the forum that’s putting folk off it.
It has been written on here.
Cheers for that additional paste Sadex I got distracted so never posted that one.
Usually, this sort of thing is automated. Given the time it has taken so far I can only assume that each post is being lovingly re-typed.
Time-consuming perhaps, but I'd like to think that my contributions are worth that extra bit of care.
@Drac from what was posted earlier I inferred that there was new information being posted on FB which given that the last post on the "Our Forum" thread was three weeks ago is reasonable (my excuse). The core part of the comment you (Drac) copied in to this thread is of similar vintage and I wouldn't expect everyone to remember it.
Re: the popups. Mark posted on the thread about them very early this morning but there was nothing similar to that just copied by @Sadexpunk
[i]Drac wrote:[/i]
But why? Why write all this on Facebook when it could have been written here? Ignore all the technical issues and it’s this level of disdain for the forum that’s putting folk off it.
It has been written on here.
cite - unless if course you're meaning your c&p from FB
Does copy and paste not work?
Planned for the 2012 upgrade.
I just remembered another useful page we had - where you could see all your threads/posts and who the last poster was... or was it the time of last post. It was my page of shame, with None, None, None at the end of each one.
That was really useful. Are we getting that back, or something like it? (He asked, in an empty echochamber void of vacuum packed nothingness.)
that not everyone likes facebook
It's not that i don't like Facebook... it's that i dont HAVE facebook, not at all...
So putting a description about a forum issue on Facebook is just bonkers to me, when it could easily go on the forum !
Or maybe he can't get it to paste nicely 🙂
That “select”FB Group is just another comms stream, I’m not surprised Mark has commented on there.
Some posters on here are obviously over there too, maybe it’s brought more folks into the STW publishing world.. naturally they’d end up one here scouting out the profile and see it’s full of posts about bug/witches/redirects/ghosts of a bygone age/forums of old..
Clearly he has to inform them as much as he has here.. You can’t ignore the FB group either.
That “select”FB Group is just another comms stream, I’m not surprised Mark has commented on there.
Yeah but he doesn't have time to post updates, it must be a Fake Mark doing that 😉
I didn't realise the facebook group was official, probably easier to manage than a forum though
It's not that he's posted a status update on FB, it's the fact that we are told that there isn't time to post updates here. Why not update the "Our Forum" thread and provide a link to it on the FB group? Informs both groups and drives those on FB to the forum where we are told: more impressions means more ad revenue.
Like @weeksy I'm not on FB but that's beside the point.
Is anybody else finding that their predictive text doesn't seem to work very well on this forum or am I just gaslighting myself?! 😉 Is it even possible? Surely it's my phone that is responsible for how the predictive text works, and not the website?!?
Are you using Swift keyboard? Apparently a known issue with that.
it's on the magic list apparently
So, how long before the forum is just a Facebook thing?
[i]bikebouy wrote:[/i]
Clearly he has to inform them as much as he has here.. You can’t ignore the FB group either.
Why? If they're not on here then what relevance is any of this to them? If they are on here then they can read the updates on here. The issue though is if he's been posting updates on there but not on here, which seems to be the case from what has been C&P (I am on FB but I'm not joining a group I otherwise have no interest in being part of in order to check - though the list of admins did provide interesting information I wasn't aware of regarding the dev team...)
it’s that i dont HAVE facebook
It's quite easy to sign up. Need a link? 😉
That's a little disappointing.
The FB updates give more context and detail than the previous updates on here.
It's exactly what people have asked for.
Exactly. I've been pretty patient through all this, to the point of showing what is at fault and providing workarounds. I think I've even been pointed out as being a moderator (I'm not!).
Posting updates on FB (or anywhere other than here really since the forums are up and crawling/running/crawling) is akin to a parcel courier knocking on your a door in the next street then claiming that they couldn't deliver the parcel because *you* weren't in!
Time to move on 🙁
Maybe the responses on the FB group are "different" to on here... Anyone a member to have a look?
Clearly he has to inform them as much as he has here.. You can’t ignore the FB group either.
Why? If they’re not on here then what relevance is any of this to them? If they are on here then they can read the updates on here.
Why? Erm... because FB reaches the parts that other Forums don't.
Slightly bemused that you think these platforms/propositions are mutually exclusive.. Aren't we in a joined up SM world now..? Ignoring a platform that is gaining "users" whilst the other is "loosing" users is commercial suicide.
Don't forget the FB group isn't an official STW Group, it's like any other Group built around like minded users wishing to congregate in an environment local to them.
Why? Erm… because FB reaches the parts that other Forums don’t.
Well it does work consistently and predictably
Ignoring a platform that is gaining “users” whilst the other is “loosing” users is commercial suicide.
Working out why one is losing users would be a good idea 😉
I though about tweeting this instead but wasn't sure it would be that useful, I might start doing replies on instagram live as interpretive dance later
The FB updates give more context and detail than the previous updates on here.
It’s exactly what people have asked for.
its almost as though STW would rather people migrated to FB.
I've just put a lengthy post about this on MySpace.
uk.rec.cycling.mtb shall hear about this.