Ask the expert.... Post your questions here.
The heading For this section actually invites us to "post your questions here and they will be answered when our experts are live".
But when members do post questions here they are gently reprimanded, told not to post questions here, and the questions they have asked are taken away. The experts never show up. Are the experts actually ever live, or are they dead?
So why oh why is this section here, and why is poor David Klyne endlessly having to police it and keep it pristine and empty?
Take it away please till the experts turn up.
Comments
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It's quite ridiculous not to lock the section when it's not in use.
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TW
I sometimes wonder whether I have a full time job moving posts
Ideally both sections in that group would be locked and only open when we have a live discussion. Changing the name and perhaps moving the section nearer the Information and Technical might also help as clearly it's prominent position encourages people to post where it currently is. The information about that section clearly states that general discussions such not be posted but for some reason people ignore that!
I think Rochelle mentioned a couple of times that whilst we still have operational problems with the forum they have to concentrate on getting those resolved before they undertake "new" work which providing locking mechanism or changing the order of the forum would come under new.
David
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I hear what you say, David, and you have tried to make the situation clear. Unfortunately, the official description on the front page talking about 'given subject' is not as clear as it could be and is almost guaranteed to confuse those not familiar with the forum.
We're 4 months down the road now, so this time next year......
Meanwhile, carry on moving those posts.
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I think this site has become so difficult and time consuming to operate, and probably the moderating tools are as inadequate as many other aspects of the site, so I suspect some mods aren't able to devote the time needed to it now.
I am rather puzzled about the role of the staff mods. We never see them and they certainly don't moderate in terms of tidying the place up or deleting certain posts.
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Bakers2
I am sure they are around. However I would say that in some ways the forum has become more difficult to moderate since the change and initially trying to moderate caused more problems than it solved. Fortunately some of those issues have been resolved which has made it easier but not all. I suspect I have also had a bit more time on my hands this year as we have not been able to get away in the van so I have been able to devote the time.
Previously moderators had an easy way to communicate with each other which is currently not available to us so we rely on round robin e-mails which is not ideal.
David
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Sounds about right for this upgrade 😉. I would say one step forward and two back but I fear that insults the saying 😂
Sorry you're not able to get our and about so far this year, best wishes to your wife. I guessed that may be some of it but maybe the mods have done the same as some posters 😉. Thanks for your good work.
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Brue
It is all a bit strange. sometimes I move a post from Ask the Expert to a different section and when someone replies to that post it jumps back to Ask the Expert!!! Sometimes posts won't move immediately but 24 hours later they will.
David
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Looking back through the snagging list makes depressing reading. Clearly the IT team's primary focus must be on the public facing site, booking systems and so on, but how a forum "upgrade" as fault ridden as this one could ever have been thought fit for release is beyond me.
In software development terms I would put it barely at the level of a Beta release - in other words a system under development, with most basic functions present, but undergoing testing. Beta releases normally go to a subset of selected users who carry out testing. Here it seems that the entire CT membership are Beta testers!
Over two years ago I started a similar "snagging list" thread to which people added a lot of sensible suggestions about how the user experience could be improved. If I recall correctly Rowena even commented that the suggestions were helpful and would be passed on to the IT team - where I can only assume they vanished into a black hole since none of the suggestions have yet been implemented.
I have no wish to impugn the IT staff, I know nothing about the circumstances under which they have to work. That said, I do get the impression of people working, for whatever reason, outside their comfort zone.
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