SSA Website

Just sent a note to Dennis to voice my disappointment with the current
SSA website. I preferred less splash and more functionality (and
reliability). It has been several months since the switch over, and
I'm still unable to access the photos section, one of my favorites.
Today was the tipping point when my contest registration form returned
a database error.

If those who visit the site regularly and share my disappointment sent
a note to Dennis or their director, perhpas we'd see some movement.

The new website is a disaster. They must have hired the same people
who screwed up their computer system a couple years ago.

My god people, if you have a suggestion or something
you would like changed on the web site, then make a
suggestion to them and stop your complaining. I asked
Judy Ruprecht where I could find something the other
day and she told me it was not listed on the web site
yet but she would put it on the list of things to add.
It isn't that difficult....

23:00 14 September 2004, wrote:

The new website is a disaster. They must have hired
the same people
who screwed up their computer system a couple years
ago.

wrote:
The new website is a disaster. They must have hired the same people
who screwed up their computer system a couple years ago.

Disaster? Seems kind of harsh for a web site that's done everything I
wanted done: member locator, contest reports, contest rules, Johnson
articles.

--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

Eric Greenwell wrote:
wrote:
The new website is a disaster. They must have hired the same people
who screwed up their computer system a couple years ago.

Disaster? Seems kind of harsh for a web site that's done everything I
wanted done: member locator, contest reports, contest rules, Johnson
articles.

Once upon the time, I would pop over to the SSA web site on a daily
basis, and take a quick glance at the front page to find out if there
was anything happening. The new front page looks and feels sort of like
that of an insurance company that contracted its web development work to
the second lowest bidder. The news page has been split up, and the stuff
is now buried in various spots. I can sometimes find what I'm looking
for, but the half-broken menus (in Mozilla, anyway) and the need to
login make it a chore to navigate around. As a result, I go there once
or twice a month, at most...

Marc

Marc Ramsey wrote:

Once upon the time, I would pop over to the SSA web site on a daily
basis, and take a quick glance at the front page to find out if there
was anything happening. The new front page looks and feels sort of like
that of an insurance company that contracted its web development work to
the second lowest bidder. The news page has been split up, and the stuff
is now buried in various spots.

It would be nicer to have the news available on the Home page, or at
least a "headline" for each item.

I can sometimes find what I'm looking
for, but the half-broken menus (in Mozilla, anyway) and the need to
login make it a chore to navigate around.

The menus are a little tricky with Netscape 7.1 (Mozilla derivative),
but usable. I did just send an email mentioning this tricky part and
suggesting the submenus last a fraction of second longer, so I could get
the mouse to them reliably. The menus used to be much worse for
Netscape, but that cleared up shortly after I contacted the web master
about it.

Things have changed when people contacted the SSA about changes, like
the menus, accessing the contest reports, and so on. I encourage people
to contact the SSA directly ) about it, or through
their Director.
--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

The menus still don't work reliably on the latest version of Netscape
for OS X.

I personally preferred having more items listed along the left-hand
margin rather than having to work down through the submenus (especially
since I have to change my normal navigation method due to the first item
above.)

...... njp

Eric Greenwell wrote:
Marc Ramsey wrote:


for, but the half-broken menus (in Mozilla, anyway) and the need to
login make it a chore to navigate around.


The menus are a little tricky with Netscape 7.1 (Mozilla derivative),
but usable. I did just send an email mentioning this tricky part and
suggesting the submenus last a fraction of second longer, so I could get
the mouse to them reliably. The menus used to be much worse for
Netscape, but that cleared up shortly after I contacted the web master
about it.

Yes, disaster is too harsh. There was clearly a decision to move to a
more graphically pleasing front end and to use more sophisticated
linking tools. But we've lost functionality and resources as a result.
I often used the SSA website as a pass through to other soaring
resources. But those links are no longer easily accessible. As a
result, I visit only once every week or two unless a contest is in
progress.

I don't mind the notion of spicing up the home page. That's a
marketing decision. But we've lost a good number of resources during
the transition. I had expectations that they would slowly return, but
now I'm wondering if they ever will. I suspect resources are limited,
and we are now devoted to developing the site rather than maintaining
its content.

Eric Greenwell wrote in message ...
wrote:
The new website is a disaster. They must have hired the same people
who screwed up their computer system a couple years ago.

Disaster? Seems kind of harsh for a web site that's done everything I
wanted done: member locator, contest reports, contest rules, Johnson
articles.

One wishes that the SSA learned from its mistakes.

Under the old regime, there was little communication between the
management and the members, and little effort was made to exploit the
expertise of the membership. As a result, we got messes like the
computer system.

Now, the SSA decides to change its web page, and apparently made the
decision to go for flash rather than functionality. Was that a good
move? Perhaps -- maybe these days no one will look at a webpage unless
there is a lot of moving stuff. However, it does appear that the
decision was made without much (if any) input from the members.

I used to look at the SSA webpage daily, but now almost never do. And I
disagree with Chris in one respect -- I don't think the new webpage has
a more graphically pleasing front end. It has a nice glider photo, but
otherwise it is not attractive. And the scrolling ads are hideous.

I wish the new SSA management well, but why can't they ask for the input
and help of the membership?



Chris OCallaghan wrote:

Yes, disaster is too harsh. There was clearly a decision to move to a
more graphically pleasing front end and to use more sophisticated
linking tools. But we've lost functionality and resources as a result.
I often used the SSA website as a pass through to other soaring
resources. But those links are no longer easily accessible. As a
result, I visit only once every week or two unless a contest is in
progress.

I don't mind the notion of spicing up the home page. That's a
marketing decision. But we've lost a good number of resources during
the transition. I had expectations that they would slowly return, but
now I'm wondering if they ever will. I suspect resources are limited,
and we are now devoted to developing the site rather than maintaining
its content.

Eric Greenwell wrote in message ...

wrote:

The new website is a disaster. They must have hired the same people
who screwed up their computer system a couple years ago.

Disaster? Seems kind of harsh for a web site that's done everything I
wanted done: member locator, contest reports, contest rules, Johnson
articles.

Was that a good
move? Perhaps -- maybe these days no one will look at a webpage unless
there is a lot of moving stuff.

top ten mistakes:

http://www.usabilitynet.org/management/b_mistakes.htm

1. Using Frames
2. Gratuitous Use of Bleeding-Edge Technology
3. Scrolling Text, Marquees, and Constantly Running Animations
4. Complex URLs
5. Orphan Pages
6. Long Scrolling Pages
7. Lack of Navigation Support
8. Non-Standard Link Colors
9. Outdated Information
10. Overly Long Download Times



Jim Vincent
N483SZ
illspam