John,

Congratualtions on doing an excellent job in getting this set up.  It is quite impressive given the effort involved and your other commitments!

I note that Peter is proposing a content review session involved yourselves and Alan.  This seems a reasonable approach.  Meanwhile I offer some initial comments below.

Overall the Web Site is excellent.  One feature I noted and liked was the zooming in-out of the map linked to the Gosport visit.

On the Navigation panel you have 'News' both as a set of files icon and as a folder icon.  How are we going to use these?

Regarding the Membership section:

• [ps.  Unable to change bullet symbol even though menu bar offers alternative]
• Membership Enquiry.  Recommend making more applicant friendly stating who can apply and how they do this.  My contact details should be readily accessible.  The sub- section on Election of Members relates to Council and should be eleswhere.
• Benefits.  This needs to be formatted around the picture.  Need to mention access to the membership list of some 180.  How will we manage one master list with some fields open to all members and some fields only accessible to key staff: Sec, Treasurer and Membership Sec.
• Prizes.  Can we post citations of recent winners?
• History.  This should be a section in its own right, not under the Membership section.

Council Members.  I have not come across where we list the complete list of council members.  

Once again, a fine effort.

Regards,

James 

Previously James Prain wrote:

John,

Congratualtions on doing an excellent job in getting this set up.  It is quite impressive given the effort involved and your other commitments!

I note that Peter is proposing a content review session involved yourselves and Alan.  This seems a reasonable approach.  Meanwhile I offer some initial comments below. I am keen that content needs to be addressed early on, with individuals responsible for maintaining discrete areas of the site; Membership by the Mebership Secretary!

Overall the Web Site is excellent.  One feature I noted and liked was the zooming in-out of the map linked to the Gosport visit. Yes, being able to link to Google Maps will make it easier for planning future visits.

On the Navigation panel you have 'News' both as a set of files icon and as a folder icon.  How are we going to use these? The News folder (yellowish icon) is where news items will be posted. The other icon in blue, is what is called a smart folder and will carry out a search for all news items in the site.  One is able to build quite complex content searches and save the results (and method) as a smart folder. This is what is used behind the news portlet (on the right hand side) to manage past and current news items. A similar approach will be adopted for Events. In this way news and events can be posted into  ommon folders rather than into members personal folders.

Regarding the Membership section:

• [ps.  Unable to change bullet symbol even though menu bar offers alternative] Yes, they can be changed - but I need to work on that!


• Membership Enquiry.  Recommend making more applicant friendly stating who can apply and how they do this.  My contact details should be readily accessible.  The sub- section on Election of Members relates to Council and should be eleswhere. I have not invested much time in creating beautiful pages at this stage - I just wanted to show what is possible, but I agree with you.


• Benefits.  This needs to be formatted around the picture.  Need to mention access to the membership list of some 180.  How will we manage one master list with some fields open to all members and some fields only accessible to key staff: Sec, Treasurer and Membership Sec. Under DPA are we allowed to make contacts generally available? I am looking at changing the built in info that sits under personal details, under preferences, so that members can ensure their own data is correct. I have also written a script which I will make available to you which will allow you to export the members data to Excel or Word should you wish to. I see all personal details being held in here rather than in an external spreadsheet or database.


• Prizes.  Can we post citations of recent winners? Yes, I will ask Tony for this information.


• History.  This should be a section in its own right, not under the Membership section. Happy to move this. I put it here so that those non members looking at the site and thinking of joining would have the information to hand. I can build a link for them instead.

Council Members.  I have not come across where we list the complete list of council members.  That is because I have not entered it!

Once again, a fine effort. Thank you .nd thanks for the speedy comments! It is quite clear that Sundays are the best days to contact DSA members!

Regards,

James 

 

John

I'm not sure if I am placing this in the right place.  It looks as if I am replying to something, rather than making a comment, but I have been unable to find a way of entering text on my home page.

I have some very minor comments to make but will leave those for the moment until I have checked through all the links.

But my main point at this stage is horror at the use of the date formatting!  Can we not use the normal Englsih method throughout, as we do at some points.  We should be consistent - and use the format most familair to readers in this country!

But in general it looks really excellent, and I am full of admiration for what you have achieved already.

Patrick

Previously Patrick Fagan wrote:

John

I'm not sure if I am placing this in the right place.  It looks as if I am replying to something, rather than making a comment, but I have been unable to find a way of entering text on my home page. I do not think that individuals need to develop their home page in the DSA site, so your comment is indeed in the correct place. although you may wish to start a new thread to the comments if your subject is different to that above. There is "start a new conversation" button just above the table of recent conversations.(conversations was not my choice of word!)

I have some very minor comments to make but will leave those for the moment until I have checked through all the links.

But my main point at this stage is horror at the use of the date formatting!  Can we not use the normal Englsih method throughout, as we do at some points.  We should be consistent - and use the format most familair to readers in this country! Absolutely. I have altready changed the format to the normal method throughout, a very simple task.

But in general it looks really excellent, and I am full of admiration for what you have achieved already. Thanks for the kind comment.

Patrick