communication is the key

Which is exactly what I’m trying to facilitate here. And yes I know and we’ve done this to death already, it’d be nice if official updates were more regular, but here we are.

Mate, all I’m doing is what we’ve been asked to do, which is to report issues.

Oh, I know, and it’s appreciated. Context is difficult in text, I’m not having a pop or singling you out.  Sorry if it came across that way.

If there’s other aspects to the business I’m unaware of them.

… which was my point. (-: Mark’s made an open offer for anyone to go visit them and find out what they’re doing, but to date no-one’s taken him up on it (other than me a year or so ago).

For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, and the cries of the imminent demise of STW, the site is in a much stronger place now than it was six months ago.

Again, communication

Playing devil’s advocate here for a moment, really it’s none of our business.  We complain of a “lack of communication” but I can’t think offhand of another commercial website / forum which is as open as STW in what’s going on, or would even allow this kind of discussion to run for over a hundred pages.  (And please, everyone, don’t all run out looking for examples just to prove me wrong, there probably is somewhere but that’s missing the point.)

Mark might not be on here every five minutes discussing the intricacies and inner workings of their business, but should he really have to?

So how did this chat/update go?

I never got round to it, sorry. You could always ask him yourself of course.

You know some of that sounds patronising or dismissive at the very least.

I’m sorry that’s what you’ve inferred, that wasn’t my intent. It was a genuine question.

I thought you mentioned previously that this was only affecting some users?

Maybe we’re talking about different things then? I’m not sure what you’re referring to.

I genuinely wish I hadn’t bothered now.

As I said (crossed posts), I’m not having a go, I’m trying – seemingly badly – to answer your questions.

Don’t bother, then.

See, this is the problem, and not specifically this comment but some of the responses in general. In the replies to my last post I’ve already been told I’m patronising and also seem to have inadvertently pissed off someone else.  Number of people saying “thanks for the response”?  Zero.

It’s the same every time (and yes, see repeating actions and the definition of “stupid”).  Every time I (or anyone else) tries to post an update here, whether that’s official info from STW or me just making my own best guesses, it’s met with negativity.  I’m trying to help and for a small subset of users I’m just giving them ammo (not necessarily in this instance, but generally).  And then everyone sits here going “well, I don’t know why Mark can’t tell us himself!”  It seems pretty bloody obvious to me why he might not want to reply in here very often, and you’re right, I don’t know why I bother sometimes either.

Mark might not be on here every five minutes discussing the intricacies and inner workings of their business, but should he really have to?

Every 5 mins? No.

Updates more than he is yes, his business ‘relies on customers. His business decisions have set a number of his customers, there were promises and assurances that certain things were being fixed. Then silence.

As cfh said on the previous page unofficial comment from you isn’t helping as you don’t have the facts but want to try and tell people something. In a couple of posts you told rs his issue was trivial and not worth fixing and probably his fault for using the keyboard on his phone.

but I can’t think offhand of another commercial website / forum which is as open as STW in what’s going on

I can’t think off hand of another forum that I have to pay for a supposed better user experience (with ads enabled the page is a riot in my experience)

The importance of signing up as a paid user has often been pushed by those in charge at STW, which is completely understandable as they’re a business not a charity

Now that user experience is being really compromised and a lot of paying customers are understandably annoyed. Then we have a volunteer mod trying his best to offer some unofficial insight.

It’s a bit crap really.

Right!

(Smiley, now also not working).

First, thanks for the responses. You know that your efforts are appreciated.

I was referring to the html issue. I’m sure someone mentioned a couple of pages ago that it was only affecting certain people.

You mentioned on the last page that it seemed to be affecting everyone, hence the confusion.

I have been to the office recently, but given that, at the time, the devs seemed to be working round the clock I thought it best not to impose and take up their valuable time.

I understand your frustration completely.

Once again, your efforts are very much appreciated. Thank you.

In a couple of posts you told rs his issue was trivial and not worth fixing and probably his fault for using the keyboard on his phone.

Except, that isn’t what I said.  Read it again.  I said I expected that it would be a low priority, and offered an alternative.

This just highlights what I was saying just now.  I don’t know if it’s my writing style being misinterpreted or if people just love to pick holes in things or what, possibly a little of both.

I can’t think off hand of another forum that I have to pay for a supposed better user experience

You don’t subscribe to the forum, you subscribe to the magazine.  That may not be the reason why you (and others) personally choose to subscribe, but as I understand it that’s the business model.  The forum is a Brucie Bonus on the back of the magazine subscription.

If STW dropped development of the magazine / published articles in order to concentrate solely on the forum, there would be a massive outcry (briefly, before the site folded).

Now that user experience is being really compromised

In what way is it “really compromised”?  There’s still glitches but a vast number of the initial issues have been fixed, Rusty (I think) said as much earlier.

Mike drew attention on the previous page to a “top three” issues: search, member history and formatting issues (presumably referring to the C&P glitch in the editor).  The first one of these has been resolved, the second still outstanding and the third nowhere near as bad as it was.  I have a couple of pages of bug reports and feature requests but the bulk of them are minor things like the US spelling of Favorite.

Sure, it’s not perfect and there are a number of annoyances.  These will no doubt be addressed over time but as I said in my initial response the devs have to concentrate on other things just at the moment.

I was referring to the html issue.

Meaning, what, the rogue HTML being injected into the editor when copying and pasting into posts?  It only affects some users in the sense that different people interact with the site in different ways, but it’s a site-wide issue.  Ie, if everyone used the site in the same way, it’d affect everyone (or I guess, no-one).

<p>FWIW no issues with SwiftKey on Android 7.1 and latest Firefox here.</p><p></p><p>Not tried it in Chrome.</p>

Meaning, what, the rogue HTML being injected into the editor when copying and pasting into posts?

It’s not just when copying and pasting into posts.

It often happens if editing a post to remove spaces or to make corrections.

Sometimes it seems to appear even when a post hasn’t been edited.

Mike drew attention on the previous page to a “top three” issues: search, member history and formatting issues (presumably referring to the C&P glitch in the editor).  The first one of these has been resolved,

Search was returning different things on android and pc last week – report in this thread to a comment from you and Drac, it didn’t find posts in mobile that it did on desktop.

You keep going on about people from stw not posting due to responses, the last one was positively received and people said that. However there is a locked update thread that Mark can post in and never have to read a negative response.

On the how why when, things are being looked at if you don’t know we don’t need an opinion.

As for what people are paying for… They know you don’t. Subs were sold as ad removal from the site, I’m sure stw know how many people with a sub read the emag vs use the forum.

GDPR came into force 24th May 2016 the only reason the 25th May 2018 is classified as a “deadline” is because the ICO have the Legal Process of application of the new Fine structure.

Like most businesses it seems complying with the regulation has been left until the last moment..

I do realise, and support, the new forum. No doubt it goes 80% of the way towards complying with the new rules and Middle Office documentation required to fulfil the new regulation.

All seems fine in the “i” world, except the copy/paste <div> <span> stuff but sure you’re all onto the that.

Hi Forum Update thread.

Embedding videos doesn’t seem to work.

Please help.

Copy and paste the URL.  It should Just Work.

Well, duh! yeah it has done until today.

Hmmm!

I’ve tried shortlink longlink https http no tags with {video} tags. Dunno how else to post em.

Wonder if vimeo works…

Nuh

Dunno if it’s cookies or something, but when I edit and repost, the edit doesn’t show up until I refresh. Not been like that before either.

It’s definitely getting better.

What, the weather?

Weather is getting worse.

I think I’m going to emigrate.

Edit:

Was trying to demonstrate how easy it is to embed videos but it does seem borked at the moment.

Had a 504 timeout trying to post that though so not sure if that affected it or not?

Which keyboard?

Gboard. If I swipe a word incorrectly and tap the correct word it rarely changes. Usually just leaves it or becomes nonsense.

I understand it’s a low “proiprio” (there we go) priority but wondered if it was on a list or brushed aside.

Edit: it’s only this site too.

Was trying to demonstrate how easy it is to embed videos 

See 5 or 6 posts above yours. I’d copy it but…

ERROR: Slow down; you move too fast.

ERROR: Duplicate reply detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that.

Good catch added 😁😎

That should cut post numbers a lot!

<p>Also discovered when I edit it doesn’t carry the changes.</p><p></p><p>C’mon it’s Chrome FFS even if it is an older version it’s not that old, less than a year.</p><p></p><p>Version 60.0.3112.113 (Official Build) (64-bit)</p>

You don’t subscribe to the forum, you subscribe to the magazine.  That may not be the reason why you (and others) personally choose to subscribe, but as I understand it that’s the business model.  The forum is a Brucie Bonus on the back of the magazine subscription.

If STW dropped development of the magazine / published articles in order to concentrate solely on the forum, there would be a massive outcry (briefly, before the site folded).

Sorry, but that’s bollocks. There’s lots of folk who have only subscribed to remove ads and/or support the forum (Jeesus – I’ve been one of the main protagonists on getting folk to sign up!) and for whom the mag makes no difference. Mark has already said that the forum supports the mag – not the other way around.

I’d say you need to update that squirrelking for your own security.

Sorry, but that’s bollocks. There’s lots of folk who have only subscribed to remove ads and/or support the forum (Jeesus – I’ve been one of the main protagonists on getting folk to sign up!) and for whom the mag makes no difference.

+1. I’m not a big fan of the mag (although I did subscribe for a few years) and certainly not of the website. They’re just not for me. I subscribe digitally for an ad free forum. If Pinkbike had a decent forum I’d be over there. They don’t so I’m here.

You’ve missed what Cougar actually said.

‘Ere! when you copy text from a previous poster on iPad, has it always been the case that you have to select it before you click in the reply box? Cos now, once you start typing you can’t select anything. Don’t remember it being that irritating before.

Been like that since the update yes.

I’d say you need to update that squirrelking for your own security.

Corporate sanitised environment, that’s not an option even if I wanted to. Still doesn’t change the fact that Chrome can’t have changed that much in a year for all that HTML bollocks to be messing everything up.

This website is fundamentally broken. This is literally the only site I have ever used that has had these sort of issues – consistent, intermittent, user specific, user wide or otherwise. I will never know why anyone would continue to stubbornly waste time trying to fix something so broken instead of getting an off the shelf solution that would cost less in real terms, time and heartache. It makes French car ownership look almost sensible by comparison.

Looks like the plug in for Instagram is broke too, possible that it’s the same plug in.

Videos working yet?

Guess that’s a “no” 😂

I’m still having to log in nearly every time I visit the forum.  Not the biggest issue in the world but it is irritating

WTF is this?

Compliance with the law.