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QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 2:50 am
by Methuselah
This is a list of suggestions on how to improve the present site. You are welcome to add comments. I was a VP of a large software firm some years ago, so I know enough about improvements to be dangerous. I recently applied to join this site. I could not have completed this without numerous direct emails to friends on the site. It took 5 days of continual emails to get around all the problems. My problems may have been due to my outdated experience or bugs in my computer, but I suspect other newbies will run into the same problems. I don’t know of any bugs in my computer.
The format for these suggestions is in a statement of how an option should be selected, with parts that aren’t enabled at present [in brackets] with the rationale for the change discussed in comments. If you’d like to suggest improvements do so in a reply to this post.
TOPICS
1. [GENERAL ADVICE PAGE]. Print the [Admin’s name, email address, and phone number.] State that messages left by email or phone will be answered [in two days]. These practices should also be supported by the present icons that say such things as “Contact Us’.
Comment. When I first applied I couldn’t find any of this data needed to get advice, and when I used the software in the program that allowed me to “Contact Them” I never once received a reply, in more than 20 attempts. This is discouraging to Newbies who are likely to just go away. It keeps the Admin from finding out that there may be new problems in the system. There just is no way to get messages to the Admin with the present software. A method to easily contact the admin outside the present interface is needed.
2. [DESCRIBE THE QUICK LINKS OPTIONS].
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 2:51 am
by Methuselah
On the Advice page, describe the Quick Links option. This is a very useful option because if you depend only on the data on the Board Index page you may miss many useful posts that later posts push down out of sight in this list.
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 2:55 am
by Methuselah
3. This is the 3rd input to this thread. Read the first one, above it, to understand what is being proposed here. Thuse
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 12:58 pm
by BoSoxGal
It does seem to explain in part why nobody new ever joins; the other issue is whether anybody could find the place without an introduction from a current member?
We would probably need a recruitment strategy if that was an objective of the community.
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 2:24 pm
by Burning Petard
I had similar problems when I first tried to join as another similar forum was phased out. I could read posts as visitor, but it took me along time to finally get registered. It only happened after I contacted Ray Hathaway and he knew who to contact several other users out side the board. It all seemed to me to be tougher than what it takes for a Black man in Colorado to join the KKK.
Tried to join as user Snailgate, a handle I have been using elsewhere for a long time. No luck finally I got in With Burning Petard, a handle I used briefly on the old Cafe Dartre forum.
snailgate.
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 2:49 pm
by Gob
I've changed the email address on the front page so people can contact me if they wish to join. (my bad, I had it set to an old burner address.)
The problem with having open registration, as we saw for the couple of hours it was such yesterday, is that we get LOTS of new threads, mainly about ladyboys and college girls.
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 4:52 pm
by Crackpot
And you don’t like sharing those....
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 5:17 pm
by Methuselah
Thanks for attempting a fix on making the "Contact Us" feature for sending email to you work, Gob. I've got a test for it in now, and will report back tomorrow if I get an email response. I'm going over to my Facebook Group to see if I can cajole some of the old-timers who attend there to apply for registration on this site. We'll see if registration is easier now. Thuse
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:09 pm
by Gob
You may have to wait, I'm having problems changing the email address.
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:11 pm
by TPFKA@W
I'm going over to my Facebook Group to see if I can cajole some of the old-timers who attend there to apply for registration on this site. We'll see if registration is easier now. Thuse
Heh. Tell them to bring a thick hide with them. We don't take any prisoners here.
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 12:06 am
by Bicycle Bill
TPFKA@W wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:11 pm
I'm going over to my Facebook Group to see if I can cajole some of the old-timers who attend there to apply for registration on this site. We'll see if registration is easier now. Thuse
Heh. Tell them to bring a thick hide with them. We don't take any prisoners here.
What @W said. Snowflakes, whiners, and snivelers won't do well in this setting.
Think of this as a slightly more genteel version of Fight Club.
-"BB"-
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 1:26 am
by Methuselah
3. THE PLAN B CONFIGURATION. In order to use a system it is necessary to know how it has been set up. Here are my best guesses, with [total guesses] given in [brackets]. I hope others can fill in the brackets. The website is based in [London], where the host computer is connected to the Internet. The present Administrator resides in the UK as well. He uses the name Gob. He can be reached by clicking the several places in the system where a “Contact Us” icon, or something similar is located. The user is presented with an email form where he first must list his email address and his name. The email goes to the Admin, who prepares an answer for a return email answer. [At present, the system has an error which results in the email being discarded after the user gets a message that his email has been accepted. A fix is being developed and will be announced, after testing.] The Admin is a volunteer position which [provides no pay or expense money, I presume.] The wide spread of the network leads to an 8 hour time lag, for example, between my California location and Gob’s UK location, so that the best time for us to send emails starts at 7 AM my time which translates to 3 PM at Gob’s location. I [presume] Gob works for a living, so the best time for him to respond to email messages is between [? and ?]. Gob will attempt to answer all emails withing [2 days]. A temporary backup is to send the messages instead to
mikegockel@aol.com]. He will pass these messages on to Gob’s personal email address, which he declines to make public. It would be convenient to able to phone the Admin but the cost of international phone calls and the lack of expense money makes this impractical. [More to come]
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 2:38 am
by TPFKA@W
Gob doesn’t work for a living. We are not sure he ever did. Married a rich woman who we never heard from again. Very fishy.
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 2:50 am
by Joe Guy
Gob volunteers a lot of his time rock climbing while carrying young children on his back. The rest of the time he takes pictures of his two dogs with his Kodak Instamatic camera. He's quite a busy guy.
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 5:42 am
by Scooter
Methuselah wrote: ↑Fri Nov 13, 2020 1:26 am
3. THE PLAN B CONFIGURATION. In order to use a system it is necessary to know how it has been set up. Here are my best guesses, with [total guesses] given in [brackets]. I hope others can fill in the brackets. The website is based in [London], where the host computer is connected to the Internet. The present Administrator resides in the UK as well. He uses the name Gob. He can be reached by clicking the several places in the system where a “Contact Us” icon, or something similar is located. The user is presented with an email form where he first must list his email address and his name. The email goes to the Admin, who prepares an answer for a return email answer. [At present, the system has an error which results in the email being discarded after the user gets a message that his email has been accepted. A fix is being developed and will be announced, after testing.] The Admin is a volunteer position which [provides no pay or expense money, I presume.] The wide spread of the network leads to an 8 hour time lag, for example, between my California location and Gob’s UK location, so that the best time for us to send emails starts at 7 AM my time which translates to 3 PM at Gob’s location. I [presume] Gob works for a living, so the best time for him to respond to email messages is between [? and ?]. Gob will attempt to answer all emails withing [2 days]. A temporary backup is to send the messages instead to
mikegockel@aol.com]. He will pass these messages on to Gob’s personal email address, which he declines to make public. It would be convenient to able to phone the Admin but the cost of international phone calls and the lack of expense money makes this impractical. [More to come]
Meth, OCD, or both?
Whatever it is, get over it.
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 5:46 am
by MajGenl.Meade
Methuselah wrote: ↑Fri Nov 13, 2020 1:26 am
I [presume] Gob works for a living, so the best time for him to respond to email messages is between [? and ?].
You presume too much, sirrah! Pistols at dawn
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 5:54 am
by ex-khobar Andy
Meth you've only just got here after a long absence. Most of us are quite content with what we have and we appreciate the work that Gob puts into making the board function, at some cost to himself. Some of us are happy to chip in a pound or two come time to re-up with GoDaddy (or whoever) and don't really care if there are others who cannot.
I'm sure Gob welcomes suggestions but can we leave them as offerings for consideration? 'QA Report' sounds a little high handed for my taste.
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 9:40 am
by Gob
Look, if you know any fucker who wants to join, get them to email me on my burner address; onanhag @ gmail (dot) com and let me know what username etc they want. I'll do my best.
This contact thing is a PITA.
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 2:14 pm
by BoSoxGal
That’s your answer Methuselah - new posters are only going to have a chance to join here if they know somebody who already posts here.
So as to your comments upon joining, while you’re certainly very welcome, being you’re an octogenarian you will likely not change the trend toward dying that this board has been on for years now.
Re: QA REPORT ON PLAN B
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 2:57 pm
by Methuselah
OK, Gob, I’ll respond in an email to you. I’ll bcc Joe Guy and any other member who requests to be added to the list in a comment in the Facebook Group Cartalk Jr. In the meantime I suggest you immediately remove your email address in posts on this site. Anyone, registered or not, can read these posts, including your email address. Those people who try to register here to advertise other sites for things like porn are now able to pester you.