I must be the only person who likes it. I like the box, I like the scroll,
I like the mouse-overs, I like the colors, I like how you can choose all
sorts of ways to view the posts (see 'settings'), in what order, and hide
read posts as well as hide your presence on the page. (spoken like a
lurker) Now if they had a
'mark all read' I'd be even happier.

I'm not so happy about my address etc appearing on the web page. (spoken
again like a lurker)

K Barrett

"Al" wrote in message
...
Does this mean I am going to have to remember my membership number to use
the website to log in.

They seem to have moved away from a pure .html format and into a database
driven system. I do think this is wise. I wish I could figure it out
without having to hire somebody to run my website.

The AOS charges *other* vendors $200 to be included in the Orchid Source
Directory and this includes a link on their website. This works out to be
about 100 a year. I was sorry to see this link get buried two clicks
deeper
into the page, but at least I could find it, although I was getting a
little
bit panicky. When I did find it I was happy to see the way they have set
up
the page means my name and info appear to be the only business in Virginia
until you realize you have to scroll down in that little window inside the
big browser window.

This link is already not one of the top 10 links which people use to
access
my website but it is the only one that charges me anything to link to it.

I did notice that the link to their store and merchandise was prominent
and
easy to find.

"K Barrett" wrote in message
...
The A to Z will become a members only feature of the website.

K Barrett

"J Fortuna" wrote in message
news:Y35Md.3837$uc.2352@trnddc09...
Yikes, I just visited the AOS site to see what you all are talking
about.
Being a Web application developer myself, I am pretty disappointed with
what
they have done. They obviously went with some website designer who was
more
concerned with superficial look than with functionality. Among other
things
the site is now so reorganized that those of us who used to use the
resources on the site before will have to look for stuff that we had
come
to
appreciate and used to know where to find. Something so simple as a
Site
Index would go a long way toward making this site more user friendly.
For
example, where is the A-Z Orchid info, that was such a great resource,
please don't tell me they took it down! Also think of all the broken
links
from other websites that link to the AOS site's resources, what a
nightmare.

Joanna

"Eric Hunt" wrote in message
...
Just thought I would share with everyone the email I just sent to Lee
Cooke,
Executive Director of the AOS. They went live with the new AOS
website
and
forum software, and the forum software is quite unusable.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Good evening Mr. Cooke,

I see the new website and forum are now live. Unfortunately, you did
a
complete strikeout on the choice and implementation of forum
software.
The
forum is essentially useless as it is currently implemented.

Here are the immediate problems:

* The window is *WAY* too small. It covers 640x480 and cannot be
expanded.
The vast majority of computers are now running screens at 1024x768.

* The window does not respond to the scroll wheel found on most
Windows-based mice. I have to move the mouse over and use the scroll
bars
instead. This is the first time I've ever encountered a website that
did
not
work with the scroll wheel. Someone isn't playing by the
well-established
user-interface rules and conventions.

* I refuse to register with my real email address because of
spam-harvesting
robots. I could find no privacy policy that would assuage my fears
and
convince me that giving my real email address wouldn't be a mistake.
Or
a
simple explanation that the forum software never shows your email
address
in
a fashion that can be harvested by the spam robots.

* Where are the old posts? They contained a treasure trove of
information.
There were conversations and discussions in progress, and those have
been
unceremoniously terminated. Not good customer service.

The new site itself looks very professional and slick - not
necessarily
a
bad thing, but the AOS really didn't do a good job researching the
available
forum software solutions. A public beta test would have revealed many
of
these issues and allowed you to save face while fixing them.

I'll check back every few months to see if there are any
improvements.

-Eric Hunt
San Francisco, CA
www.orchidphotos.org
www.orchids.org