Barry Herbert has confirmed that the next magazine will be at the printers in January. He's asking if any of the club members have any ideas or recommendations that they would like to put forward to him regarding future publications.

The web site has been a challenge which led to the decision by the committee to have it professionally looked at. The advice was that although it's an outstanding site it was not possible for a new web master to take it over due to the fact that it was created by Jeff who was self taught and not therefore in the format required to make it possible to hand over. The entire content of the site is at present being rewritten. It is anticipated that a new look, up to date site will be launched in January. It will contain everything that is at present on the site, added to this will be new content, ideas and formats that Jeff had been working on. The new web master will have on site training which will allow her to access, add to and change the site in minutes rather than the many hours it took Jeff.

NOW IS THE TIME FOR ANYONE WHO HAS ANY IDEAS TO PLEASE LET US KNOW FOR US ALL TO CONSIDER.

The web site and the magazine are the heart of our club and they must go on and we must always strive to improve. This can only be done with the help and input of all the members.

Basil

The thing I would like to see improved is the facility to place pictures and drawings on the forum made much easier than the present complicated system needed at present.

Also, the facility for our foreign members, who cannot speak or read English, to have the website pages translated into any other language by just highlighting a flag of that persons country.



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 12/05/10 09:39AM by barry herbert.

Jeff's web site is excellent, but I am sure speed of change can be improved.
I think the content is bang on the button and the pages as laid out are easy to follow making it a very user friendly site.
Jeff spent an awful lot of time making sure the content was right, even on the discussion page, which has kept the site clear of any abuse and inappropriate wording, this has maintained the site to be an outstanding example. His same attention to detail has been applied to the Steam Car Register, which is an awesome piece of work that we, as a club, should maintain.

So I think the new web master should have some help in that:
1) The club should appoint an archivist to preserve and keep track of steam cars, who owns them, and when, and develop a record of their history. Sorry to link it back to other forms of steam engines but the Steam roller Association, Road Locomotive Society, Steam ploughing club and steam narrow boats all do the same roll.
2) It would help out the web master if some trusted moderators were put in place to ensure anything insulting or inappropriate is instantly removed from the discussions page.

That's my thoughts.

Regards
Ian Vinton

I agree with Ian re the content & register.

The site does howevr need a better index and search facilty.

I understand that this has to be done but feel a bit sad that the whole site is to be re written when Jeff put his life and soul into it for many years. Yes it needs to be easy to update etc lets hope the person doing it will continue to do so with sympathetic tones to bend in with Jeffs enthusiasum.

The content will remain the same. None of Jeff's work will be lost. It just needs to be put in a format that the new web master can access easily. New ideas and formats can then be added to all of Jeff's work.
Basil

It is common practice on Fora (plural of forums?) to moderate 'new posters' for their first (or sometimes first few) posts - this is often effective at reducing 'rubbish'.
The downsides are that a 'new poster' may feel that their integrity is being challenged (and may cause reluctance to post) but, more importantly, it puts the onus on the moderator to 'appprove' promptly. However, Ian's second point is quite correct - a small number of moderators should be appointed to take the whole burden off the webmaster. These 'trusted parties' would need to commit to regular monitoring to make it effective.

I guess this counts as me volunteering!

Thanks for your input and ideas guys keep it coming. Yes Colin you are accepted as a volunteer. It could turn out that Crazycol is quite true believe me. Now who else is putting there name forward. Lets have more input.

Basil

Hi, I'll Volunteer to help with the website. I'll do anything on the website, but ideally I'd like to do the Steam Car Register. Although as I said before, i'll do anything to help with the Website. Old Timer/ George Hounslow

Thanks old timer I hoped you would volunteer. Thats great. Jeff would have been so delighted. I am sure the AGM will give you 100% support.

Basil