Deleting Adverts so that posts can be read

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

So give him a break, the guy was in hospital not so long ago

He'll do what he can

 

If you want to complain dig up the company structure and pick up a phone

Complaints departments cost money so don't expect to find one in the company structure

Edited By Ady1 on 18/05/2012 12:37:31

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

I can't help thinking that perhaps it's to do with the way that some peoples computers are set up as I have very little trouble reading this forum. True, I have had the occasional, and I do mean occasional, problem but in general it works satisfactorily for me. As a matter of interest, I find this site much easier to navigate that some of the other forums I have looked at, and given up on, as I have been unable to understand the logic behind them. Of course, that could just be me, but as an example of what I mean, have a look at the Yahoo Groups forums. I find it almost impossible to follow a particular thread

I say "the way that some peoples computers are set up" because I have had a problem with a booking website for a ferry company in that for some unknown reason, I was unable to access a particular point on the site. From memory, it was, or should have been, a drop-down box which did not appear, yet other people I spoke to who tried it for me had no problem at all, hence whatever it was must have been my machine. In addition, I did once have a problem with certain emails which eventually resulted in a letter of complaint to the CE of BT who supplies my telephone, broadband and email service. This turned out to be an obscure setting in my computer. Plus the then obligatory red face!

So, for what it's worth, my system is a laptop running a Celeron M 520 processor at 1.6GHz, Windows XP SP3 + all later updates, 1.5Gb ram, 80Gb internal hard disk, 250Gb & 500Gb external hard disks, Firefox 12.0 (with five add-ons which are all disabled), Thunderbird 12.01, Avast Free edition anti-virus, Kerio 2.1.5 Firewall. Furthermore, I am behind a BT HomeHub 2 in normal mode, ie no special settings.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

I've just had a quick look at another of their forums, **LINK** It's even worse!

I do apprecite all the hard work David does, Ady, but I've found when working in various companies, both UK and foreign owned, that it never pays to keep your head down. If you see something wrong make it known at the highest level. That way you get noticed and are more likely to be promoted.

Russell.

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi There

It is not one of our forums.

We split from Magicalia several years ago.

Our forums are at the bottom of the page.

regards David

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

I must admit that regardless of who 'owns' an organisation, getting crap internet software for forums does seem to be a rather widespread disease – even firms like Adobe have absolutely crap forum software, and they've got less excuse than most. The real joke of it is that decent forum software like PHPBB (which does support advertising if you want it to) is free, secure and a damn sight more user-friendly. So why are people using these badly-written bespoke programs? Is it just because PHPBB says 'open source' on it? That's a good thing! It's not the only one out there either…

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Now then,

I very much agree with DC1, Ady1 and Peter. Not in the least because ARC is one of the advertisers on here .

Custom websites are very difficult to specify, costly to build and maintain. I am talking from experience, as the specifier and payer for ARCs website. Trust me when I tell you that it can be a real PITA. At the end of the day, there are still many things one can do better, that one is not happy with.

However, talking to website technical bods to fix things to ones liking (even ones which I consider to be basic) is like talking to Aliens. As a specifier, you have to take headache pills, and be extremely patient with these techis, because they really do think differently and they talk a totally foreign language, even though all my techis are U.K. based. I dread to think what would happen if I had contracted this work abroad!

I have total sympathy for DC1 for having to take the bullets for something that he really cannot control.

If I as a specifier and payer of my own site have communication problems with the tech guys, what chance does DC1 or DC2 have of getting anything done?

I am sure that the head man at MHS who is a commercial man is facing the same music from all site moderators under his umbrella. He probably has spoken with the tech company and given them grief like I do with my web shop designers/providers. Like me, after spending so much money on a custom build, we cannot walk away from our providers. We have to work with what we have, whether we like it or not. The head man at MHS is not stupid. He is answerable to his investors and shareholders too!

I have yet to encounter the problems of adverts coming across forum postings. We have a good number of computers at work and home working on various operating systems, all of which are up to date. So, those of you who are experiencing these problems should perhaps check out your system. ….O wait a minute….that would mean that you would have to speak with a techi to try and solve your problem….so then it will cost you money to fix your system….and then you will have to try and figure out if the techi can really fix the problem with your computer……ummm….so how does it feel when the shoe is on the other foot then?

Similarly, in MHS's case, their techis are probably saying to him that all is well and that there is no case to answer, becasue probably, it all works well in the systems they have. I know that we have XP, Windows 2000, Windows 7, Apple – whatever Leopard, Lion, and we use IE, firefox and Safari, all of which work fine for us. Similarly they must be working well for the techis, so they are probably telling the MHS's headman that they can't replicate the problems. So what do you expect the headman to do next?….sack the current providers?……flush down the moneys already invested? and explain to the investors that he needs more money to re-start all over again?……It really isn't an easy decision to make.

Ketan at ARC.

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi Ketan

Thanks for the support.

We have one web designer who has a part time assistant.

Things do improve but improve slowly because they take time and thourough testing is needed.

There are also more important things to do which members do not see but get the benefit of.

A typical example is that members can now check the expiry of their subscription from the digital issues page.

That was at my request. It also reduces the amount of subscription queries I have to do.

regards David

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Gentlemen,

As the instigator of this thread may I say thank you all for your views and help, apart from view/style/ no view nothing else appears to work. My Netbook is not six months old yet and is upto date with the software etc I use IE 8 which I have never had a problem with and I use plenty of other forums with adverts with no problems so it cant be the computer. In the future if the problem shows iself again I just wont read the thread.

Thanks again,

Martin P

[Steve WithnellParticipant @stevewithnell34426]

Not quite sure why anyone would hire a web designer to develop custom forum software. Top quality forum software is available off the shelf. It works out of the box, meets the W3C legal requirements and can be skinned appropriately. DIY in this instance means "Don't Involve Yourself" as Ketan pointed out, it's heartache and pain when you do.

Poor David is getting a beating for stuff not of his making and out of his control, which is at best unfair.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Web techies need burning at the stake, I know, small son is one.

Edited By John Stevenson on 18/05/2012 20:26:54

[DerryUKParticipant @derryuk]

<As a specifier, you have to take headache pills, and be extremely patient with these techis, because they really do think differently and they talk a totally foreign language, even though all my techis are U.K. based.>

Ketan that's the fault of the provider not yours.

Derry.

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Posted by Steve Withnell on 18/05/2012 17:43:00:

Not quite sure why anyone would hire a web designer to develop custom forum software. Top quality forum software is available off the shelf. It works out of the box, meets the W3C legal requirements and can be skinned appropriately. DIY in this instance means "Don't Involve Yourself" as Ketan pointed out, it's heartache and pain when you do.

Poor David is getting a beating for stuff not of his making and out of his control, which is at best unfair.

Absolutely.

I don't disagree with what Ketan said at all – but there's a world of difference between running a commercial website (custom design pretty much de rigeur) and running forum software, and it is forum software we are talking about here.

I'm afraid that I don't use the advert links from this site at all. I have a set of bookmarks with all of the ones I'm interested in, and I select what I want from that, not from people waving flags. Yes I have one for arceurotrade, of whom I am a very satisfied customer – excellent after-sales service. The ads very rarely get in the way unless somebody does something daft with links in a thread, so I just ignore them.

Edited By Steve Garnett on 18/05/2012 21:16:44

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

Web techies need burning at the stake, I know, small son is one.

Frankly, that says it all. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people with no formal qualifications who think they are web designers. Perhaps if these people had to learn how to properly program (machine code, Fortran, Cobol etc) to start with, then we might not have as many idiocies.

No offence to your son John – I'm generalising.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Posted by martin perman on 18/05/2012 16:49:54:

Gentlemen,

As the instigator of this thread may I say thank you all for your views and help, apart from view/style/ no view nothing else appears to work. My Netbook is not six months old yet and is upto date with the software etc I use IE 8 which I have never had a problem with and I use plenty of other forums with adverts with no problems so it cant be the computer. In the future if the problem shows iself again I just wont read the thread.

Thanks again,

Martin P

Hi Martin

If you are still reading this thread, my post was not to have a dig at you, or the others who have a similar problem to yours. Apologies if I gave you that impression.

The problems you are having should be fixed – I agree. I am sure that the owners of this site, as well as the advertisers do not want this problem. At the end of the day, it effects all of us too.

It is in all our interest to have a solution, which we hope will happen one day .

Ketan at ARC.

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Posted by DerryUK on 18/05/2012 20:55:36:

<As a specifier, you have to take headache pills, and be extremely patient with these techis, because they really do think differently and they talk a totally foreign language, even though all my techis are U.K. based.>

Ketan that's the fault of the provider not yours.

Derry.

Hi Derry,

My provider agrees with you. I still have to work with them. Even though they can be very slow at times in solving a problem or delivering a solution, I am still happy that they provide me with the back office solutions which are different and better (in my opinion), then off the shelf propositions out there.

Ketan at ARC.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Ketan,

No problem, generally I enjoy using this forum and will continue to do so.

Martin P

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Absolutely.

I don't disagree with what Ketan said at all – but there's a world of difference between running a commercial website (custom design pretty much de rigeur) and running forum software, and it is forum software we are talking about here.

I'm afraid that I don't use the advert links from this site at all. I have a set of bookmarks with all of the ones I'm interested in, and I select what I want from that, not from people waving flags. Yes I have one for arceurotrade, of whom I am a very satisfied customer – excellent after-sales service. The ads very rarely get in the way unless somebody does something daft with links in a thread, so I just ignore them.

Edited By Steve Garnett on 18/05/2012 21:16:44

Steve,

I am a member on various forums and I agree with you and Steve W, about the principals of a forum.

However, I think this forum is being run in a commercial business form, rather then a true forum principal. Yes, there are other commercial businesses who have forums of their own which are left to run themselves. However, MHS is a commercial media based company who have to try and make money out of every element of their business, be it subcribers, advertisers as well as their own shop. I may disagree with some of their own shop idea, but that is my opinion.

I do not know who advised them about setting up their sites, and the rights and wrongs of it. It is still more commercial based then other sites. In the custom design, there may be back office elements which may be lacking on the off the shelf packages. This may be been one of the reasons to choose custom, over off the shelf.

My point is, they have already spent a lot of money on the sites creation, rightly or wrongly. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. May be they could or should have used a better forum software. But now that the money is spent across all their sites, what should they do?

Ketan at ARC.

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Posted by Ketan Swali on 19/05/2012 07:31:06:

My point is, they have already spent a lot of money on the sites creation, rightly or wrongly. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. May be they could or should have used a better forum software. But now that the money is spent across all their sites, what should they do?

Well, since you've asked, I'll make a suggestion, which is that it's time for a strategy meeting. Inevitably there will be an ongoing maintenance charge for running the site, and possibly quite a high one judging from some stories I've heard. It's relatively straightforward to install forum software, and not even that difficult to put adverising links in it. And once they are there, the maintenance costs are minimal. So my suggestion is to stop pouring good money after bad, as far as the forum is concerned, and actually save some in the long run. And I'm only saying this based on experience; a few of us went around this loop several years ago, and are rather better pleased with the results – we get zero complaints about forum navigation and use now, and zero software maintenance costs – a major advantage of open-source software.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

You don't have to read this forum.

There are many others to choose from. Many with less whingers.

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Posted by John Stevenson on 19/05/2012 12:43:54:

You don't have to read this forum.

There are many others to choose from. Many with less whingers.

John,

What you say may or may not be true, but it still doesnt solve the problem. If an advert gets in the way of a persons pleasure in reading a post, it can also have a negative effect on the advertiser. Being an advertiser, it is something I would like to avoid, especially considering that this site – be it a forum or a commercial business form of a forum, is getting to be very high in world web rankings!.

Also, if as a result of this problem, a person decides to turn on adblockers, what is the point for a company like ours to advertise here?

Ketan at ARC.

Edited By Ketan Swali on 19/05/2012 13:11:41

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Posted by Steve Garnett on 19/05/2012 12:25:52:

Posted by Ketan Swali on 19/05/2012 07:31:06:

My point is, they have already spent a lot of money on the sites creation, rightly or wrongly. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. May be they could or should have used a better forum software. But now that the money is spent across all their sites, what should they do?

Well, since you've asked, I'll make a suggestion, which is that it's time for a strategy meeting. Inevitably there will be an ongoing maintenance charge for running the site, and possibly quite a high one judging from some stories I've heard. It's relatively straightforward to install forum software, and not even that difficult to put adverising links in it. And once they are there, the maintenance costs are minimal. So my suggestion is to stop pouring good money after bad, as far as the forum is concerned, and actually save some in the long run. And I'm only saying this based on experience; a few of us went around this loop several years ago, and are rather better pleased with the results – we get zero complaints about forum navigation and use now, and zero software maintenance costs – a major advantage of open-source software.

DC1,

Steve G makes a valid point. So, have all you editors and moderators from the group had any meeting with the head man?….and does he give a …?

I am sure that he is aware of the situation by now. If not, perhaps you could direct him towards this thread. then perhaps he could discuss with the techis and see if he can get any sence out of all of this. As far as I can see, this is a common problem across all the MHS forums….for some of your visitors.

If MHS wishes to become even more popular in the postive manner, perhaps the techis should give priority to this issue over anything else such as how subscriptions can be viewed. Surely this is more important if you wish to keep your visitors happy?

It is not my place to say more then this.

Ketan at ARC.

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi Ketan

Members can check their subscriptions in their profile pages.

I have had this added recently.

regards David

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Posted by David Clark 1 on 19/05/2012 14:38:59:

Hi Ketan

Members can check their subscriptions in their profile pages.

I have had this added recently.

regards David

I'm putting my head above the parapet here, but its hard to resist!

David, in quite a few previous posts you have replied stating 'its not my job', 'cant be done', 'wont be done', 'dont know who is responsible' etc, yet you were able to have the software modified for subscription checking.

So is there something different about this obscurred text problem|?

Ian

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

I can only ask.

I can't get something done if they don't want to do it.

It suited them to add the subscription details. It stops a lot of questions to the subscription people.

regards David

[The Merry MillerParticipant @themerrymiller]

I don't know if the problems that members have is allied to the browser they are using or even the operating system, or is it just related to the fact that the ad's are continually flashing thus distracting one from the main purpose of visiting the forum.

My view is that if the ad's are not flashing then there isn't a problem because, as mentioned before on this forum, all you have to do is press the "escape" button to stop them flashing.

I must admit that using IE 9 and Firefox 11, I have no problems at all (thats using Windows 7)

Personally I don't see that there is a problem with this website at all, perhaps I am just lucky.

Len. P.

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