Cali Kid Corals

Please prioritize 2 website issues

rygh

rygh

Guest
BARcard
I know volunteers are really swamped.
But most of what we do is through the website, so that is really critical.
I see two basic problems that I think really should be fixed.

1) Make it REAL obvious how to pay for membership.
Big button, in red, up top. Something you can't miss.
Making that difficult is VERY bad for business.
I have seen too many threads asking how to pay.

2) Get rid of the "Excuse the mess message"
For a day or two, fine. But it has been way too long.
Just delete it completely.
Space at the top is important!
 
Coral reefer said:
Dbtc tracker if the program has a chance of long term survival
Remove old sponsor logos like top notch.
Click to expand...
It's a shame all the DBTC tracks are gone. Guys that put tons of corals back in like yourself would probably like to go back and see if there are any still out there.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. Unfortunately, I just don't have the bandwidth right now to really devote a lot of time to the website. A lot of folks either complain or provide suggestions but no one really has stepped up to really take the website by the horns and fix/implement things. I also don't want to involve people in helping if they aren't really going to fully commit to doing it. It takes some time to learn the backend of the forums.

However, if there are forum members who are willing to dedicate several hours to help with the website, please feel free to PC me. I've always definitely entertained the idea of help but I only want people who are really going to dedicate themselves to making the website better.
 
It's a real shame we implemented a forum software that only one person knows and now doesn't have time for. I believe that was a concern when this all took place about a year ago.
 
i looked into the backend a little bit on creating a database for XenForo.

i couldn't dive into it much, considering i would need further access to the backend and i wouldn't be able to create any simple tests.

denzil, would you be able to give me access so i can run tests on my spare time? i'll devote what i can.
 
denzil said:
Yeah, it really is. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like anyone else is willing to commit either so... yeah. :p
Click to expand...

I offered to help on November 27, 2013 and never even recieved a reply to my PM. No one else can "take the bull by the horns" if PM's aren't returned and they don't have any way to get access to the backend to actually help.
http://www.bareefers.org/forum/inde...ease-do-something-about-the-spam.15551/page-2

If the forum board software is so incredibly complex and tempermental that there is only one person with enough knowledge to use it, and no way to give limited administrative access to a wider group of people, that is a serious problem that the BAR Board probably should probably addess sooner rather than later.
 
Dang, I just picked two items that seems both pretty easy + pretty important.
Did not mean to stir up a hornets nest.

But then again, if we can offload the work and get a few other things going, perhaps it was good after all.

Suggestion:
The DBTC database does not have to be integrated.
Different SQL database and different web tools would be fine. Heck, it can be on a different server entirely.
Simple cross links between web sites are trivial.
About the only hassle is sharing user-names, and worst case, that could be manual.
If so:
We might be able to resurrect the old database pretty easy, just keeping the DBTC fields.
That could be worked on without messing up the current site.
 
Not criticizing at all, but was there a plan for how and when and by who all of this was going to get accomplished when the descision to change forum software was made?
 
Yes, but being open to entertaining help is different than making it happen. You are the natural choice for being the man in charge on this, and as so you are the best person to come up with a plan to finib the job you, and we, have started. When is the next bod meeting?
If you don't have the time or desire to get a group of volunteers organized than lets get someone else in charge.
 
Mike, Denzil and I are planning to have a volunteer coordination meeting in conjunction with the August swap. It will just be a short meeting afterwards to work on getting more volunteers to help with action items, since Denzil and I can't do everything. We can get coordinated and assign people different tasks. I'll put up a post a couple weeks beforehand asking for volunteers and with a list of different projects we need help with, such as the website, DBTC program, organizing tank tours, etc.
 
Glad to see we might get it working.
I really do not have the web/sql/php skills to really contribute to this.
So feel free to take me off admin.
Or leave me on, and I will only use it to delete spam posts.
 
Coral reefer said:
Yes, but being open to entertaining help is different than making it happen. You are the natural choice for being the man in charge on this, and as so you are the best person to come up with a plan to finib the job you, and we, have started. When is the next bod meeting?
If you don't have the time or desire to get a group of volunteers organized than lets get someone else in charge.
Click to expand...
The problem isn't the time or desire to get a group of volunteers. I'd be happy to lead a team of volunteers. The problem was getting volunteers who are committed enough to follow things through to completion. It doesn't make great use of my time (or anyone else's for that matter) if I coordinate a group of volunteers who may fall off the wagon half way through. If that were the case, it's arguable that that's even time more wasted than just not pursuing that at all.

However, it seems we have a few people now who are really committed to finally getting more things done so keep your eyes peeled over the next few months.
 
While I really don't want to get involved in this deeply, as denzil said sometimes volunteers get stuck. If anyone runs into any technical errors feel free to email me and I probably can help ...

I recommend KISS with the sql databases and code and fix the underlying problems rather than make things more complicated ... my 2 cents and a shrimp! I like the changes so far just have to stick to it :)

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/andrew-goodwin/4b/93b/684
andrewwgoodwin@gmail.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top