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

Well, that letter should make Mr. Cooke feel good about himself...

Garland Hanson



"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

Did Cooke reply?
--
D. Wain Garrison
If you can read you can learn anything
For there are those who can write who are smarter than you are
However not everyone who can write is smarter than you are.
"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

Hi,

No, not yet, but it's not even been 12 hours.

I don't expect a reply - things like that get forwarded to other people who
are in charge of the technology and moves from there.

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

"D. Wain Garrison" wrote in message
...
Did Cooke reply?

On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 23:11:03 -0800, "Eric Hunt"
wrote:

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


I just went to look at the AOS web site - had not been for a
while. I don't generally find what I want there, unless it has
to do with a judging center link or a show date.

This is worse than horrid. ON my display we have gone back to
the '80s I get a hand print size view of the world and no way to
bring it up to full size. I too sent a note.

Then to top it off. The member's area is not yet done -- But if
your a certified judge your name, address, and email are all
hanging out there. Why is that information not behind the
member's log-in? It should be protected someway. NO it is a big
pdf page that one can scroll down thru. The world at large does
not need this information. Maybe show committees or Judging
chairs need to be able to contact someone. Speaker chairs might
need to check credentials - But to post it to the world? NO!!

SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php

Susan,

Glad to hear it's not just me. =)

I don't think they even understand how bad spamming and identity theft is
when they make you register with a real email address and then post all that
private info about judges for any scammer to make use of.

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

"Susan Erickson" wrote in message
...
This is worse than horrid. ON my display we have gone back to
the '80s I get a hand print size view of the world and no way to
bring it up to full size. I too sent a note.

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

On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 14:02:32 GMT, "J Fortuna"
wrote:

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


Please as a knowledgeable professional - COMMENT to THEM
directly. They need to know this should crash and burn with the
old back until a proper replacement is available.

Also what is with the 1/2 done site. If this is professionally
done why did it not come up complete? There are sections "under
construction" If it is not ready - Then leave the functioning
old site.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php

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

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

On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 14:02:32 GMT, "J Fortuna"
wrote:

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.

OK, y'all made me look. Besides the lousy layout, I find the color
scheme really hard to look at. The orange on a gray background is
difficult to read and the faded army green accent colors are rather
unpleasant. And the font size on their other pages is too small to be
comfortably read unless you actually do have your monitor in 640 x
480 mode.

deg

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

K Barrett

I have to agree that I don't like the new site (although it has some
potential). I didn't much like the old one, though. On the judging
page, for example, they had white text on a background which contained a
predominantly white flower. Dumb, de dumb dumb... Unless that is a
rotating image, in which case it is dumber. Never display any text
over a rotating image, if you want people to be able to read it, that is.

I'd have to argue that the A to Z section should be open to everybody,
assuming we wish to continue pretending that one of the goals of the AOS
is education.

Fortunately, since my name and address is open for the world to see,
they at least continue to have my phone number incorrect. Since I hate
phone solicitations more than spam, I guess that is a reasonable
compromise... *grin* I'm glad that volunteering my time to the judging
system is rewarded with something, in this case lots of ads in my e-mail.

Rob


--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit

LittlefrogFarm - Growing the plants Rob likes. )

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

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