Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Has the web site been down?

[ericthered40]

Or me just leting you know

[Ian]

Originally posted by Henners
I am not in any way levelling the issues ordinary messageboard users have with the board at you, however, it is clear that the current software is not webteam friendly and I will do all in my power to get funding to improve matters for you and the members of this club.

Henners it is not clear that the software is the issue, (as I said to you in my e-mail) - sorry Gizmo, you have an opinion but it is an opinion not fact I am afraid.

Some history, - a couple of years ago we upgraded this xmb software, we did that after considering various alternative options and took the decision to stick with an upgrade rather than start afresh, - I actually proposed another type of software but the majority decision was to stick with what we had and upgrade it, - Henners you voted for that within a MTM.

To change the software would at estimate involve 3-6 days work, therefore the cost of the software being a couple of hundred pounds is of little relevance. The real cost is the time to the webteam. Or we could just start a new messageboard and scrap all that has gone on before, - all the logins etc. The MT has given Eamonn the ok to asses (he would come back to get the ok) outside cost if extra help is required. Is somebody going to suggest that 6 days at what could be £1000 per day is an acceptable amount for the benefit of less than 10% of the members please do make your case. There is a concern within the club that this website costs us too much already, hence plans to recoup costs with selling advertising within it.

My own view would be to improve the website in general not just the messageboard, - the website itself is way too messageboard focused, - the messageboard is not the great asset for attracting members that it should be; the last months "bickering" has proved that. There should be imo a lot more work done on the "meet us", the "regional pages"; the more static stuff that to be honest is tired and out of date.

I work in IT, - an always available IT facility is available, at a cost. - This messageboard is not a mission critical function, Lloyds Bank closes its online facilities every single day, - through the night, - every single messageboard that I have used at some point goes down or offline. We are a bike club not a bank!! Is it really the end of the world? No. This messageboard has I believe attracted a lot of outside interest over the last month due to the bickering, if and when that dies down we will likely have no problem. It would be foolish to jump in now and spend so much effort and money without first understanding exactly what the problem is and what the implications are. Interestingly if we did change the software the messageboard might well be down for longer than it has already in the last month. As Eamonn said to me "if we have 24 hours downtime in any one month we still achieve 96.66% uptime. That's an excellent figure given the monthly expenditure".

[TP]

I am currently having an e-mail conversation with Eamonn about this very subject. I have volunteered to take on this work in order to migrate with everything in tact. I WISH I charged £1000 a day but unfortunately I don't!

The alternative is as Ian says, we make some upgrades/changes to the current software and push on. There are pro's and con's to each and Eamonn, Mark and I are having this debate and we'll come to some resolution in the short term.

Now that we all know this perhaps it might behoove all to leave it with the webteam for now and progress it after Eamonn makes his recommendation? I'm not suggesting that you all stop commenting on it, obviously we don't censor that sort of debate, but perhaps it might be more constructive to e-mail your thoughts to the webteam or even send it via u2u to the webteam?

[Glyn]

i don't see any problem
every know and then the sites down
halve an hour later it's sorted

i agree with improving the rest of the site rather than the message board
it's already the best message board on the web!!

[Gizmo]

I don't see the site up or down issue as that big a problem and its not all linked to the software and is partly server related as well but what needs looking at is how the regular updates gets communicated to the members which leads into the software used

At the moment no facility exists for events to be added by RO's, we don't have a calendar, events aren't highlighted before hand and its up to RO's to send out reminders of monthly meets. New software does not change the forums, they will still exist but what it can add is more interaction between organizers and the membership which should result in better attended events, more reasons to be a member of the DSC and less work for the webteam.

That, IMO, is worth consideration but webteam need to make that decision , its their unpaid time and the decision should be their's within a budget agreed by MT or the AGM. I'm not certain it can all be done before the AGM but I'm sure Eamonn and the team will try and present something there if they can.

[andyb]

Just looking at the bottom of the board....there are currently 22 members and 22 guests viewing................does that mean were running on only 50% of the money available?

More of a rally cry than a complaint but, having just sent off my £20 membership yesterday, i bet thats less than most spent on beer and a kebab/curry last night!

[Henners]

The site was down for 90 minutes again tonight. Ian -whatever the reasons - the level of down time currently is unacceptable. Let's sort it at the AGM.

[webbyc]

Originally posted by Gizmo
I don't see the site up or down issue as that big a problem and its not all linked to the software and is partly server related as well but what needs looking at is how the regular updates gets communicated to the members which leads into the software used

At the moment no facility exists for events to be added by RO's, we don't have a calendar, events aren't highlighted before hand and its up to RO's to send out reminders of monthly meets. New software does not change the forums, they will still exist but what it can add is more interaction between organizers and the membership which should result in better attended events, more reasons to be a member of the DSC and less work for the webteam.

That, IMO, is worth consideration but webteam need to make that decision , its their unpaid time and the decision should be their's within a budget agreed by MT or the AGM. I'm not certain it can all be done before the AGM but I'm sure Eamonn and the team will try and present something there if they can.

THis sounds like an excellent idea and one that I would back as an RO. If we can attract more people to meets that has to be a good thing and surely something that the club needs to focus upon for this year - a very good investment of some of the club surplus.

[crm250]

Gents, there have been DNS issues the last 24 hours or so i believe. This would have a knockon effect for some i would have thought depending on the ISP your using.

[Henners]

Possibly - however TP rebooted and all was well.

Big up to Tony for getting on the case as soon as he was made aware last night. Eamonn has been in touch to say that recommendations for improvements to the website will be made at the AGM.

As Webby says - there can be few better ways of spending the club financial surplus than on this site which is our most visible asset as a club. I am sure we would all rather the money was spent on the club than paid in tax to the Revenue.