New Site

[Carl Hibbard]

Struth....

http://www.englishchess.org.uk/

Although the old site probably needs a redirect to the newer domain:-

http://www.bcf.org.uk/

[Roger de Coverly]

You wonder why there's login and password boxes.

Is the ECF thinking of having a discussion forum.....?

[Matthew Turner]

That is so awful, as to not even be funny. One wonders what the ECF can do next.

[Carl Hibbard]

You wonder why there's login and password boxes.

Is the ECF thinking of having a discussion forum.....?

It's a CMS so certain "approved" people can add content from remote locations

To be honest it's a good start but I would not have turned it live in it's current state - the old BCF link needs to be redirected and some TLC is needed in places to bring it online

A few more graphical elements and it might be workable

[Carl Hibbard]

That is so awful, as to not even be funny. One wonders what the ECF can do next.

The vacancies section at the bottom lists "manager" of CFS which is a new one on me

[Gary Cook]

It also seems to have lost my tournament in July from the calendar.
Gary

[Carl Hibbard]

It also seems to have lost my tournament in July from the calendar.
Gary

Which is?

You will find the search engine activity far higher if you advertise it here of course

[Paul Stimpson]

To be honest it's a good start but I would not have turned it live in it's current state - the old BCF link needs to be redirected and some TLC is needed in places to bring it online

Carl, I couldn't agree more. This looks rushed, with the Holloid statement and some other fluff to make it look good. At first I thought well done ECF we are moving forward, that is until you try using the site and it becomes painful. The old site is just framed within the main window and at other times a whole new window is created.

I Just have to agree that it should have been unwrapped in a more polished state.

[John Saunders]

The new-style ECF calendar looks slick but it seems a retrograde step to have to click on an item to find further details, contact info, etc, rather being able to scan down a full page of detail. Then, to my horror, I found that the email links on the calendar are simply 'mailtos' - bits of unencrypted HTML code which are beloved of spammers who like to harvest email addresses. The old calendar had a nice little bit of javascript in there to hide email addresses from spammers (as I do for UK tournaments featured on the BCM calendar). Warning to all chess organisers: expect a lot more spam if your email address appears on the new ECF calendar. This needs fixing, fast.

In summary, I concur with other posters who think the new site has been put up a bit too quickly without a period of testing and tweaking. It looks like a classic case of 'revolution, not evolution'. If you start again from a clean slate, you lose little nuggets of know-how which have been built up by the people who have maintained the old site over the years.

An aside: this reminds me a bit of the move from ChessBase version 7 to ChessBase 8, when CB wrote the software from scratch (to be "more Windows compatible") and in the process managed to miss out several nice features in CB7 which had been added at the suggestion of various knowledgeable users. This probably affected people who use CB software professionally rather than in a playing capacity but it was one of the reasons why quite a number of chess scribblers and typesetters still use CB7 to this day (including me).

[Matthew Turner]

I just don't like the look of the new website, but it doesn't seem to work either. I have just clicked on the Chess For Schools newsflash to be directed to a statement from 12 August. You just know that all work at the Office will now cease as they are "Updating the website". It is all so depressing.

[Neill Cooper]

I found the new website slow to load the home page.
The banner dates are strange (e.g. the new website seems to be announced in 2007).
Both Google and the British championship webpages still list the old bcf site as the main ecf site (phew!)
I found lots of broken links on both the old site - unless the internet was letting me down.

[Carl Hibbard]

I found the new website slow to load the home page.
The banner dates are strange (e.g. the new website seems to be announced in 2007).
Both Google and the British championship webpages still list the old bcf site as the main ecf site (phew!)
I found lots of broken links on both the old site - unless the internet was letting me down.

It is hosted in the US and that may have been part of your issues I have to say

Some links are broken yes...

I would back it out until it is actually ready for prime time - but that's me

[John Saunders]

A more fundamental point on the new calendar (and picking up Gary's comment)... where have all the tournaments gone? That's not just me wistfully adapting an old Pete Seeger song for the sake of a rhetorical question - there are hardly any tournaments on the new calendar. A lot of the regular ones, like Adam Raoof's Golders Green Rapidplay and Coulsdon's many events, have disappeared into cyberspace. Five listed in July, one in August, none in September, one in October, none in November... Hastings - gone... next season's 4NCL - nada. Looks like May 2009 has been completed but work on transferring subsequent months' events to the new format has barely started yet.

[Carl Hibbard]

It also seems to have lost my tournament in July from the calendar.
Gary

Which is?

You will find the search engine activity far higher if you advertise it here of course

Seems to have been picked up by Google already

[Chris Majer]

Paul said

Carl, I couldn't agree more. This looks rushed, with the Holloid statement and some other fluff to make it look good. At first I thought well done ECF we are moving forward, that is until you try using the site and it becomes painful. The old site is just framed within the main window and at other times a whole new window is created.

I Just have to agree that it should have been unwrapped in a more polished state.

Paul is correct that the launch of the new look site has been rushed. This is because Sophie who does the website work in the Office is leaving in a fortnight’s time. It seemed sensible to do a launch with an imperfect site while Sophie was still around rather than wait until we brought someone new in and then give them the challenge of sorting out a new site. Additionally, maintaining two sites in parallel is a significant drain on time. Sophie will be working to enhance the new site before she leaves.

Incidentally Sophie is going to a better-paid job with better career prospects and a membership that appreciates having an Office – the world of Table Tennis. A significant loss for the ECF.