New website

[Gary McPheator]

Cheers Alex, that did the trick!

[Andrew McHarg]

Thanks all for your feedback.

Some replies...

Alex:
Social media and newsletters would be a good addition. We would need people to deliver this though, it's not something I'd personally have time to keep on top of and if it wasn't done well it could be counter-productive. The other thought I had on this was that a newsletter should not step on the toes of Andy Burnett and the magazine (not saying it would - just that it shouldn't).

Non-members or people who are not logged in shouldn't be able to access the member-only content. The member-only content is the live grades and games lists (with stats etc). Currently I don't think those who are marked as non-members can see this stuff? Or is it some other content you thought should not be available to non-members?

We will look into improving the news features in time. There are some broken archive links and whatnot on the website that we will fix at some point too.

Paul:
I think when images start to appear in news articles it will look less dominated by text. At the moment I completely agree with you. Will have a think on how we can introduce more graphics in a relevant way.

Gary:
Please try logging in to the website now. We've been going through and approving registrations every two hours or so, so even if you haven't received an email to confirm your registration has been approved you should still be able to login (because you actually have been approved). The email systems have had a few issues because a lot of emails have been being blocked by ISPs. Please do check spam and junk mail folders and mark our ones as "not spam". We have made quite a few changes in the last 24 hours to the server configuration so less of our mail should now be being blocked - which is definitely good news.

I will update the results data. We haven't uploaded any files from around mid-February, which is the reason for this data being missing. Sorry about that - should be up to date soon.

Andrew

[Alex Gillies]

Thanks all for your feedback.

Some replies...

Alex:
Non-members or people who are not logged in shouldn't be able to access the member-only content. The member-only content is the live grades and games lists (with stats etc). Currently I don't think those who are marked as non-members can see this stuff? Or is it some other content you thought should not be available to non-members?

Andrew see screen cap attached. Members only forum- you need to login to post but you can view only without logging in.  Slightly confusing wording wise  but I think its actually meant to work that way.

The screen cap is also the page that contains too much old posts.

Newsletter feeds, agree with what you said  - I wasn't suggesting any new content , just an email link to email list now and again highlighting interesting issues/events to try and encourage wider use of the website and forum and perhaps chess membership. 

Re social media - I realise it's the usual suspects who do all the unpaid work but the point of linking to something like a closed facebook group  or twitter is that you want it to grow itself and I assume less admin and responsibility as a result.  The website and forum are both under used and although the new website is much better already I still don't see it being used as much as it should or could be.  I see ECF have links on home page website but not the forum - I think the twitter feeds work better than facebook

[Andrew McHarg]

Thanks all for your feedback.

Some replies...

Alex:
Non-members or people who are not logged in shouldn't be able to access the member-only content. The member-only content is the live grades and games lists (with stats etc). Currently I don't think those who are marked as non-members can see this stuff? Or is it some other content you thought should not be available to non-members?

Andrew see screen cap attached. Members only forum- you need to login to post but you can view only without logging in.  Slightly confusing wording wise  but I think its actually meant to work that way.

The screen cap is also the page that contains too much old posts.

Newsletter feeds, agree with what you said  - I wasn't suggesting any new content , just an email link to email list now and again highlighting interesting issues/events to try and encourage wider use of the website and forum and perhaps chess membership. 

Re social media - I realise it's the usual suspects who do all the unpaid work but the point of linking to something like a closed facebook group  or twitter is that you want it to grow itself and I assume less admin and responsibility as a result.  The website and forum are both under used and although the new website is much better already I still don't see it being used as much as it should or could be.  I see ECF have links on home page website but not the forum - I think the twitter feeds work better than facebook

Thanks for the info Alex.

I may be mistaken (I rarely used the old forum lately), but I was sure the Members Only part of that wasn't set-up specifically for members of Chess Scotland, but - rather - for members of the forum (i.e. people who created an account). It was done this way when it was decided (I think by Andy Howie) to only show certain parts of the forum publicly (which IIRC was the reason for the creation of the Public Area). But then, after some time, the decision was made to open the whole forum up to be viewable publicly again. I thought at the time that the expression "Members Only" was misleading, and I still think that - so totally agree with you on that one. Something to look at for sure, but technically intentional the way it currently is and not an issue with the website.

Also agree with you on the social media side of things in that it would certainly be a really good addition. It might even drum up more sales for the magazine etc if it was done well (i.e. sneak previews at some of the magazine articles, for instance). Maybe that's the next area for Chess Scotland to move into (I know the ECF do - to some extent).

[Phil Thomas]

Thanks all for your feedback.

Some replies...

Alex:
Non-members or people who are not logged in shouldn't be able to access the member-only content. The member-only content is the live grades and games lists (with stats etc). Currently I don't think those who are marked as non-members can see this stuff? Or is it some other content you thought should not be available to non-members?

Andrew see screen cap attached. Members only forum- you need to login to post but you can view only without logging in.  Slightly confusing wording wise  but I think its actually meant to work that way.

The screen cap is also the page that contains too much old posts.

Newsletter feeds, agree with what you said  - I wasn't suggesting any new content , just an email link to email list now and again highlighting interesting issues/events to try and encourage wider use of the website and forum and perhaps chess membership. 

Re social media - I realise it's the usual suspects who do all the unpaid work but the point of linking to something like a closed facebook group  or twitter is that you want it to grow itself and I assume less admin and responsibility as a result.  The website and forum are both under used and although the new website is much better already I still don't see it being used as much as it should or could be.  I see ECF have links on home page website but not the forum - I think the twitter feeds work better than facebook

Thanks for the info Alex.

I may be mistaken (I rarely used the old forum lately), but I was sure the Members Only part of that wasn't set-up specifically for members of Chess Scotland, but - rather - for members of the forum (i.e. people who created an account). It was done this way when it was decided (I think by Andy Howie) to only show certain parts of the forum publicly (which IIRC was the reason for the creation of the Public Area). But then, after some time, the decision was made to open the whole forum up to be viewable publicly again. I thought at the time that the expression "Members Only" was misleading, and I still think that - so totally agree with you on that one. Something to look at for sure, but technically intentional the way it currently is and not an issue with the website.

Also agree with you on the social media side of things in that it would certainly be a really good addition. It might even drum up more sales for the magazine etc if it was done well (i.e. sneak previews at some of the magazine articles, for instance). Maybe that's the next area for Chess Scotland to move into (I know the ECF do - to some extent).

Just testing folks.

Logged into Forum by the old method - same user name same password.

Typed in most likely space and hit post reply = a few mm below script

Can you let me know if this message disappears into the ether.

Phil

[jwilson]

Membership renewal on new website. This is highly confusing. I created a new account and could log onto this forums but not the main site. I realised that my membership had expired. No warning or reminder email. Is that normal ?

Anyway on the website I purchased a years membership but all it did was take a payment form my paypal account to chessscotland. It never gave me any instruction, it never explained what the process was, it never asked me who I as or attempted to take any details so I have no idea where the payment has gone.

Did it know who I was because I was logged on ? Would of been nice of it to say if so.
So now I still cannot access membership areas of site.

I would advise against using this site as it currently is to make any payments.

Please remember that Chess in Scotland, including Chess Scotland, is mostly if not totally run by volunteers. It's real people rather than real time! I don't know the ins and outs of it all, but from my experience of joining and renewing I'd guess that when you do it online the payment gets taken by PayPal (which I know from personal experience with other organisations has good consumer protection) and an email is fired to the membership secretary who deals with it in due course, usually within a day or two. It's Easter time so it could take a little longer than that at the moment.  It seems that the membership secretary also, from time to time, goes through the list of members to see who's membership has elapsed and sends an email inviting them to renew, but people have busy lives so this can sometimes be a little while after the expiry date. It would be great if everything was automated but that takes time and money. When I registered for the website it said I wasn't a member so i pm'd Andrew who updated my account very quickly, taking me at my word that I am a member and inviting me to get back in touch if I had further problems. Great service.

[Andrew McHarg]

Membership renewal on new website. This is highly confusing. I created a new account and could log onto this forums but not the main site. I realised that my membership had expired. No warning or reminder email. Is that normal ?

Anyway on the website I purchased a years membership but all it did was take a payment form my paypal account to chessscotland. It never gave me any instruction, it never explained what the process was, it never asked me who I as or attempted to take any details so I have no idea where the payment has gone.

Did it know who I was because I was logged on ? Would of been nice of it to say if so.
So now I still cannot access membership areas of site.

I would advise against using this site as it currently is to make any payments.

The way the membership payments are taken is the same as it was on the old website. We know there is room for improvement and your feedback is helpful. Something to look at going forward...

I have updated your membership status on the website so you can now look at member-only content.

[Alan McGowan]

Please tell me what is happening (or not) with the History Archive.
Thank you.

[Adam Bremner]

...I have updated your membership status on the website so you can now look at member-only content.

Any chance you can do this for me too once you have the time? I renewed it last month, but it is showing me as a non-member. Cheers.

[Andy McCulloch]

Has the real names policy been abandoned?