TSSC MAIN WEBSITE and SHOP UPGRADE - SUGGESTIONS

[Badwolf]

Tom Hartley has offered to have a look at the changes which have been suggested to the main club web-site and shop. I have copied his post below...

The purpose of this thread for you to list the things that you would like changing, adding etc to the club sites so that all the suggestions are in one place to help both Tom and the COM see them all together rather than have them spread throughout numerous threads.

It is not intended that this thread be used for discussion, or other 'normal' forum chat. I will open another thread for discussion etc. Simply add your suggestion and which site the suggestion is for and your reasons for the change.

I would like to thank Tom in advance for offering to take this on.

TOM'S POST

Hi guys. Sheepish CoM member responsible for the website, forum and online shop here.

The website person to report stuff like this to is me; the upshot is that if it isn't up to snuff then I'm the one who has dropped the ball and you need to give me a nudge (or a kicking - depends on how bad it is 🙂 )

The online shop revamp has also been mine and I help the forum technically, but not really with posts, replies or even enough visits, if I'm honest

Word reached me and I had a good read through of what you were saying and I think the vast majority of it is fair comment and/or great ideas and I should do something about implementing it

From what I have seen I think the main things to work on are:

• The Area details are not felt to be up to date.
  Perhaps we can add a 'last updated' (or last confirmed correct) date on the area details and use this both for visitors to know how up to date the info is and to use as a list to remind AOs to update their details (even if it is just to tell me to do it for them; not all AOs are technically minded). I think the covid uncertainties / changes has impacted here (our regular pub for meetings now only does table bookings for food, for instance) but we could do more to get them up to date, even if it is just to say 'no meetings yet'.
• The club shop lack of photos has been going on for TOO long.
  This is mea culpa - my fault. This has been on my todo list since I started doing this and I haven't made any progress. I failed at the stage of trying to get a list of what items had or didn't have photos.
  I will finish this and improve this woefully poor situation (and think about description etc quality at the same time)
• The website forms should be easy to find and I like the idea of there being an online fill-in-able form.
  We already took on board the message about the Direct Debit being a terrible paper form and made that an online form recently so this is just an extension of this idea.
• The website, shop and forum should work as easily on a smartphone and tablet as on a big screen PC or laptop.
  We have made great strides forward on this, particularly with the online shop on mobiles, but it seems we should take another look at this

There are some do-ers who make the stuff happen but I liaise, as someone put it. I bear responsibility if your experience is shite - if it is, tell me and I'll do what I can to make it better

So, yes, you're right about your moans and gripes above and I like that you care enough to say what's bad or needs fixing,  and not just what's good

And yes, it is down to me - let me know about stuff like this and I will fess-up that its me and put-up a solution or a plan for one at least. 

We have a CoM meeting coming up early next week which will give me a chance to leverage some help from the other CoM members and the staff and make some progress; it will be a week or two before you see any progress though I'm afraid

Tom
CoM member for websites, forum and online shop

[Badwolf]

CLUB SHOP

Include photographs of items listed

Ensure a decent description of the item and that it can be found by the search routine.

The heading of the item should be logical so that not only can the search engine find it, but a member as well.

[mishmosh]

I would agree that the search function isn’t great.  May I add , can you get a job with the government. It’s great to hear admission of guilt! 

[Badwolf]

CLUB SHOP

Postage - Assign each item a postage code so that Angie doesn't have to be phoned to arrange postage rates for small items. In multiple orders postage is charged at the rate of the heaviest item.

[Pete Lewis]

promote AOs to update their area meetings 

or find out why they cant do it ??

Pete

[Paulfc]

Tom,

As an ordinary member I just wanted to say thanks for the work done, and yet to be done. I’ve a lot of IT experience and what your taking on is, as I’m sure you’re only too well aware, no small undertaking. I sometimes feel members have expectations that are way off beam with the reality of what a club such as ours can and should deliver as part of the member experience. Yes, we pay fees and have, justifiably, a right to have reasonable services and service from the Club. Personally I believe the current balance of subscriptions v services is pretty good. Others, I’m absolutely certain, will, quite rightly, have other points of view which makes for a great Forum/Club.

Paul

[Badwolf]

AREA'S PAGE

De!ete the word "more" after each area. It seems to serve no purpose and looks a bit scrappy

1. Keep all the National areas (UK, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Overseas) as a group,. At the moment it appears to be sorted alphabetically, with ......Midland, Northern, then Northern Ireland, Overseas, Scotland then South East...etc. For quite some time, I didn't realise that there were more groups listed after 'Scottish' because of the formatting of my tablet.

2. Possibly even simply list the National areas (in alphabetical order, to avoid nationalism!!) with a separate page coming up after clicking on the appropriate 'country' listing the various areas. 

3. The map does nothing for me personally, others my find it useful (comments on the discussion thread). Maybe just limit the area to the country/area chosen, if practical to do so

Delete the archived area news and add to the appropriate area page. It doesn't appear to have a useful purpose where it is.