Club online capability
Accessing the homepage currently takes more than 20 seconds (as it did last night), this is common if not the norm (assuming you just don't get the maintenance screen). Using the forum is virtually impossible, the delays are dreadful. The homepage is confused, cluttered and by any online standards very poor. The search and booking functions are a whole other topic but look like a 1960s holiday brochure begrudgingly squeezed onto a website.
Please undertake a professional review of the server functions and user requirements and get someone in the organisation who knows what they are doing.
The top 10% of commercial sites have a server response time of less than 300ms, the average commercial performance is a server response of less than 1 second. Anything more than 1.5 seconds is considered very poor. This site takes up to 20 seconds, that is 200 times slower than a good commercial site.
Please employ someone who understands digital marketing and get them to make you understand that if you do not get this aspect of the club right then you will severely damage the future prospects of the club. If you do not get the digital presence right then the club will be superseded by sites that do actually understand digital marketing and revenue generation.
The club is a £100 million pound business, serving hundreds of thousands. It currently has the online performance that is just not acceptable.
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Using the forum is virtually impossible, The top 10% of commercial sites have a server response time...
Agree with you it is slow but why do you continue to use it P?
I just don't understand, if there are better and faster sites out there then use them? Why keep coming back to CT? You must like it, even if only to keep complaining about it.
Please employ someone who understands digital marketing and get them to make you understand that if you do not get this aspect of the club right then you will severely damage the future prospects of the club.
Also remember you are just talking about the forum, I've just done a 'test' booking for a site and it was super quick, I did it a few times over the last 10 minutes and always no problem. Surely that is the main business of the club? CT is just really an add on? It has been said, and I agree, that while we may like to think we that post on CT are the club but we're just a very small minority.
Or you really saying that getting CT right or not will really severely damage the future prospects of the club?
I also have no problems with the layout
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I was pleased when the Club set up this forum and still think it a good move. It took all the discussions about the Club away from the other forums. These often where targeted by the Club haters and degenerated into very negative responses even if started with good intent. You now see very little about the Clubs on the other forums, at least on the ones I visit, Much better to keep it in house.
I don't hold with this theory of this being a minority forum, yes it is as far as attracting regular posters but nearly every day you will see new names posting albeit just the once or twice and I suspect it is far more widely read by lurkers.
If the Club had made a better job with its construction perhaps the likes of the face book groups would not have appeared. All are far busier than here and the Club has no control over any of them unlike here.
peedee
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being a minority forum
Did I say that PD? or just trying to cool and eat your porridge
I said that we who post and read on CT are a small majority of the people who use club sites and use the website for booking.But experiential learning always good, in your head please make a list of the regular contributors on CT, what do you get 30, maybe 40 names? Out of all the people who use club sites?
every day you will see new names posting albeit just the once or twice and I suspect it is far more widely read by lurkers
So they post once or twice and then what happens? And your suspicions are based on what?
So taking all your regular posters, the new once or twicers, the lurkers, (although how a lurker - good name btw has any effect or can be classed as a user of CT I'm not sure) what grand total do we get? 100, 200? Still really small compared to the people who use club sites?
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Every time I read about people criticising this forum for whatever reason should join the Camping and Caravanning Club and see theirs.
I had to make a slight alteration of a upcoming holiday for this Club, by adding a day, all completed easily and on line.You try doing that on the other Club’s.
Yes there were issues during Covid, with this site, and it’s not easy on an iPhone with the sliding bars, but these issues are minor compared to ease of navigation.
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It’s a metaphor for the whole caravan/MH industry really. Poor quality/build outfits are regularly accepted by hundreds of thousands of folks, who happily return for a second and third dose without more than the odd “oh dear”. So a slow, clunky, will it work, won’t it work, website isn’t going to put the same folks off.......
Forum is a bit of a pain in the butt, but Site booking is usually fine.
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thanks
but any counter points PD0 -
I use it because I am a member and believe a healthy forum promotes and improves the membership experience. I have gained a lot from it and occasionally try to lend my experience to others.
I complain about it because it is very poor, I have given you metrics as to why it is poor. You say just go elsewhere.
As you say, there are faster sites so why dont I use them instead. That statement is the very reason I complain. Commercial companies spend millions in building an online community as they understand that loyalty to a brand is crucial to survival. The club have a huge loyal customer base, but they choose to let them move on to other forums because they cant be bothered sorting their own digital services.
So why does this endanger the club.
Well if I was to move to a well run forum then I am subject to excellent advertising media from companies who know how this stuff works. I am now likely to try alternative insurance, sites and booking platforms. The club site traffic reduces and so does the revenue from advertising partners. This would slowly drain revenue streams from the club.
As you point out, people just do not accept poor digital services, they move on.
The club do not understand this. There are many huge organisations that no longer exist because the did not understand this.
The club has a membership demographic that is bias towards people who do not live a digital life, this is changing, the club is trying to follow but is paying lip service.
The hobby has seen a massive increase in popularity, and covid means that this year will amplify the demand. This will change.
Just for interest, tonight the landing page took 24 seconds to respond, the CT tab took 10 seconds to respond, the booking page took 14 seconds to respond and a search took 8 seconds. I would remind you that the industry measures this in milliseconds.
Institutions with poor online services become former institutions.
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Sorry but you're seem to a lot out with these times you mention, other sites on my computer certainly do not take milliseconds, the BBC, youtube, other forums all take a few seconds. You are really saying that all your sites load in milliseconds P?
PS I have cable broadband and the fastest available from Virgin media, I notice that sites load just as fast when away from home, at work.
Anyway I tried the booking page it loads really fast on mine, tried it at minutes intervals no problem, must be a fault at your end?
I really don't think that members will stop using club sites because of the slowness of CT, I think people, unlike yourself perhaps, see the real end result, that is being on a club site, matters more than how slow CT is.
And remember, the vast majority of members, or those staying on site, do not use CT. I know amazing but there it is. Anyway lets see if your prophesy will come true, it might, it just hasn't happened yet in the long time you have been saying it will.
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I think you may not have read my post carefully. I fully acknowledged the slowness of CT, but I was referring to the booking side, did you test that?
Anyway I tried the booking page it loads really fast on mine, tried it at minutes intervals no problem, must be a fault at your end?
I just did and again no problems and fast.
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Maybe you use Virgin Media they use fibre all the way to the house. A lot of the others use the likes of sky, car phone warehouse or whatever they are called now and of course BT, they use the BT open reach network which still uses copper cable from the cabinet (the green box in the street) to the house. So it is slower. If you have a new build house Bt open reach run fibre all the way into the house like Virgin media do so you will get faster internet with a new build.
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Ours is not a new build and has overhead copper to the building. However, as the cabinet with the fibre link is only about 300 metres away we get 68MB download. I'm not sure a faster fibre to the house link would make much difference to the reaction speed of CT or most other websites. Faster speeds just tend to mean that more people in the house can use the internet before it starts to slow up.
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You are one of the lucky ones with the cab near the house. The less copper the faster the speed. If any website is busy it will slow the speed down. . The ones with the slower broadband speed will still get slower than the ones with the faster speed whatever website you are on.
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