Website Discussion

15/5/09 – Can members/visitors let me know how they find the new scrolling tabs at the top. (Scroll down this longer page to see and leave a reply at the bottom). It’s not perfect or very pretty but the best compromise I’ve been able to achieve. Would especially like to know how it works in older versions of Internet Explorer. Thanks to Peter Bending for all his help with this – I couldn’t have got this far without that. (5/6/09 – I’ve learnt the scrolling doesn’t work in IE6 or earlier. See Comment 3 below).

New from WordPress

Thursday, April 23, 2009, 4:49 pm by Trevor Bending

Don’t know what this does, so just testing it.
Oh, it’s just a quick post option.
I’ll delete this soon, in the meantime you might like to look at the company we keep.

And let me know what you think of the new colours (cost 15$) and whether the Tabs at the top now display OK in Internet Explorer on your PC. (And .. test the new search box with ‘Eagleton’, your name or something equally obscure). PLEASE click on ‘No Comments’ or ‘n Comments’ below to comment or leave a reply. You did? – amazing, a thousand thanks!

First thoughts….

Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 12:54 pm by Tony Terrell

Having spent last weekend playing around with WordPress I have come to the following conclusions :

WordPress seems perfectly adequate as the basis of the HYC site.
However it must be set up such that it works without requiring users to tweek their default browser settings, otherwise they just won’t use it.
Therefore it must work fully in Windows XP and Vista using Internet Explorer!
Those of us involved in running and or contributing to the HYC site will need to set aside our preferences and accept the reality of 2. & 3. above.
Mac users and those with acute allergies to all things microsoft please note 2., 3., & 4. above!!

That’s it for now.

Cheers Tony

(PS From Trevor: there seem to be two versions of this but I’ll publish this and maybe delete the other.)

One Response

Trevor Bending

I think this does beg the question of which versions/service packs of XP/Vista running which versions of Internet explorer etc.
I doubt there is a website in the world – even from Microsoft!! – that “works fully in Windows XP and Vista using Internet Explorer”.
It’s quite possible to sit in front of two identical computers on the same network running identical software versions looking at the same webpage and yet the page will look different on the two computers.
So, therefore, I don’t accept the ‘reality’ of either 2. or 3.
This isn’t about being a Mac user but is about recognising the actual ‘reality’ and having the reasonable expectation that a website will work reasonably well in any browser on any system, even allowing users to choose their own settings, as was originally intended!
I do understand the viewpoint and am NOT entirely unsympathetic to it but don’t think it is unreasonable to ask users to do a bit of tweaking since problems often arise just because users do do this in all sorts of ways. (Otherwise we will be asking users only to view the website in version 4.11.1 of Vista service pack 3, using IE 8.2, on a Hewlett Packard laptop 15″ screen at 1024×768 etc. etc.)
Nonetheless, if we can fix the ‘wrap’ problem, we should (eventually!).
PS. I will move this post and comments/discussion onto another page before the weekend so as to avoid this ’sailing’ site becoming ‘webbed out’

7 Comments »

7 Responses

on Saturday, April 25, 2009, 11:43 am at 11:43 am | Reply Trevor Bending

What is the website for?
1. A source of current relevant information useful for members?
2. A window on the Club and sailing on the Humber for other sailors, would be members and anyone with a general interest in sailing, the local area or the history of sailing and the Club?
3. An archive and reference source for members present and future?
4. A forum for discussion and communication about the activities of the Club and its direction?
5. A means to keep ‘archive’ and reference material, including the long history of the Club, in a form which is more accessible than past Yearbooks and allows the archiving of more material at very low cost?

I would like to see in the long term a much more ambitious and detailed account of the Club’s history and current activities with recent cruising accounts; ‘notes’ from the Committee and Officers; up to date racing results; short articles on recent social and other events and much more.

Of course, that would require more time and cannot be achieved by one person or an external web company. Nor do many want to spend time on this or reading a website when they might be sailing, maintaining their boat or even attending Club events.

However, if information and documents which are already created at some point on a computer can be saved and sent to those of us involved with the website, then both very recent material and a searchable archive accumulated over time can be built up.

What about Members creating and occasionally updating their own personal pages on the site? This is not very difficult but would require careful management and perhaps a mediating process by the ‘editors’. It’s much easier to Comment (or ‘Leave a reply’ like this) or be a contributor to the ‘posts’ (News) page.
Look at http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/05/12/what-are-the-different-roles/ for an explanation.

Let’s have a ‘Committee’ page (http://humberyawl.wordpress.com/webarchive/committee/ ); a ‘Cadets’ page; perhaps a ‘One man or woman and their boat(s)’ page or an account of your latest weekend trip or re-build ahead of the Yearbook. Or reproduction of old Yearbooks on the site.
on Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 8:29 pm at 8:29 pm | Reply Simon

I recently needed to find out what was happening at the Regatta quickly….two minutes on the website and I was sorted. Very pleased

Just thought you’d like to know that. Keep up dodging the brickbats Best wishes Simon (SANUTI)
(Thank-you Simon. It mainly depends on the information being forthcoming. Trevor.)
on Friday, June 5, 2009, 2:32 pm at 2:32 pm | Reply Trevor Bending

I’ve learnt that the ‘scrolling tabs’ don’t work (scroll) in IE6 or earlier. Please change or update your browser!
This Daily Telegraph website has 33 Tabs at the top – so, no, I’m not convinced we need significantly less than our present 22.
on Wednesday, June 10, 2009, 9:56 pm at 9:56 pm | Reply Sam & Nikki

Hi, we are looking to help/learn how to sail for when we travel around the world next year. We are based in Leeds but are willing to travel. Is this something this website could offer us or does anyone know of a way we could learn to sail for free? Thanks
on Friday, June 19, 2009, 4:39 pm at 4:39 pm | Reply visitor

I think that the problem with lots of tabs is that info tends to be diluted or misplaced. I think, for instance that latest news should be just that – this weeks news then moved to the news tab. That way you see the LATEST news as it is news (new).

Another example is if one tries to see up and coming events, it becomes disjointed. Some are in news, some in latest news and some in the social diary. Better to have one overview area with a list by dates summarising all forthcoming events in one list? (see response)

This isn’t a criticism, just another look at how the site works and one persons humble opinion. I know how hard it is to run a website and applaud this one. Please keep up the good work.
on Sunday, June 21, 2009, 2:12 pm at 2:12 pm | Reply humberyawl

Hello ayl999999@yahoo.com
I will release this comment but ideally would like to know who it is from. (Because of the fairly open way we moderate the site). A name and indication of interest would be helpful (ie. member, sailing visitor or local yacht club member, site visitor etc.)

Thanks. I will respond by saying that if 33 tabs is ok for the BBC then I don’t think the number of tabs should be an issue. The ‘dilution/misplaced info’ problem is because of the duplication you have identified between news (a blog), latest news (an attempt to keep some other material ‘on top of’ the blog as explained there), social (AND sailing, FF, Squibs etc.). It is always a compromise which I partly try to deal with by duplicating material in several places if appropriate. (I could reverse the names of course but it takes more than a few clicks! – have now re-named latest news as News-2).
But, the problem has already been identified and I would like to have a Calendar which lists all events, past, current and future, in one place.
Unfortunately this requires more work. There is a tendency for material to be submitted as pdf’s and this is too time consuming to manipulate so although an html calendar is a possibility I’m considering whether we might have an intereactive calendar that can simply be updated. I’m afraid all these things take time and won’t materialise overnight.
Please keep visiting (the site or the Humber) and commenting.
on Monday, April 5, 2010, 7:00 pm at 7:00 pm | Reply liam gibbins

Do you recognise these guys? funny…

14 March 2010 — Kev, Garry and Ted decide to set of from Brough down to Hull Marina on bank holiday weekend, but unfortunatly hit a sand bank on the humber and have to spend 9 hours waiting for the tide to go out and back in again.