Successful website?

Hi to all

I do a lot of social networking on other sites, and although I dearly love being part of the RSPB Community, I am very disappointed with the slowness of all the pages!  In addition, I often get full page error messages from the server. For example, last night, and rather ironically, I could not even access this thread, in which to voice my complaint.

I have also opted out of being notified by email of other people's replies to my posts, simply because my inbox received multiple messages.

I must stress here that I'm generally a patient kind of person (yes, really!), but networking on RSPB at a snail's pace is annoying and too time consuming.  Everything else I access (outside RSPB domain) is absolutely fine.

I do hope that the relevant departments and staff can get things sorted. Looks like this has been going on for a while now. I would really appreciate a response from forum admin. Thanks in advance.

Kingfisher Fan

Have to say I think the team have done a stirling job sorting out the forum pictures problems and most likely with limited resources available. The gallery though, is now so slow to navigate or load or simply look at that most members are not even using it anymore which is a shame.
No doubt they never ever thought the site would be so popular and to that extent we are victims of our own sucess, but I think we have to be patient and bear with it for now, no matter how frustrating.

I agree the team has done a great job to sort out the forum problems. I have very little problem accessing the forum, just an odd error message every now and again after making a post. The pictures are staying put, which is great, and I'm not finding the forum particularly slow. On the odd occasion it does slow, I simply close the browser and re-open it again and all returns to normal.

The gallery does still need sorting, however.

I'll be a bit of an echo here, but I think the team behind the scenes have done a great job.  It must be difficult for them getting to the bottom of these problems.

Touch wood I haven't had any problems really for a while, although i haven't posted to the gallery either, but you've probably noticed have started a fair few threads with photos in.

Patience is the key, the community offers enough for me to keep coming back, I can handle the occasional appearance of the gremlins...for now :o)

Thanks for your support - and for not giving up on us when the going got tough - patience is definitely the key and we're grateful that you stuck with us and hope you'll all carry on doing so. Hopefully we have ironed out the gremlins, and touch wood, they won't be back.

The site is still relatively new and we're hoping it's going on to bigger and better things - with your help and involvement too.

Of course, let us know if you do discover any problems and we'll endeavour to sort them out as soon as humanly possible!

Cheers

LRB

This is such a great site .

I have felt welcome and  Im learning alot from the folks on here.

If its slow No problem I make a cuppa tea come back and everything is fine . When Im on here im in no rush what so ever lol.

Keep up the great work guys  and thanks for a wonderful site.

Cheers

AL

As an ex-IT man recently escaped from The City it sounds like a possible User/Line ratio issue. I'm guessing that the RSPB doesn't really want to spend too much on IT (familiar to IT City peeps!). There are probably not many Servers being used to handle capacity. This would explain the slowness.

Personally, I've no problem with that. If I was handling the RSPB finances and had a choice between spending money on making the Site faster or spending it on wildlife then I think the latter would win out hands down. I don't mind waiting for the pages to load up. It's definitely worth visiting the website if only for the intelligent information to be picked up from everyone else!

So I have every sympathy for the guys handlling the Site. I must also stress that I am no IT expert and can only guess at what the structural set up is.

People could actually do a spot of housekeeping on their PC/Laptops: Try clearing out the Temp/History files from your Browsers. Other things affecting the speed could be AV software and line speed.

A bit of egg-sucking maybe but just trying to be of some help.

Ugh! Just mentioning 'The City' is enough to bring back nightmares! Thank God for sunny days and RSPB reserves to visit!

Best wishes, Graham

Hello

I've not been on the site very long but find it works well.

The problem with the photos was very annoying but seems to have been sorted out now.

I have been able to post my photos without any bother and although the site is a bit slow I guess we will have to put up with that.

I'm glad I joined and will keep posting.

Jazzcat

Hi guys,

the site is great and most of us are still here despite the teething glitches. After Springwatch my guess is it may get worse again as we will probably pick up more new members.

The gallery problems are a shame- I appreciate the RSPB doesnt want to spend mega bucks on a website but with the popularity of sites such as flickr and the wide use of digicams , it was always going to be popular.

:))

S

Well said everyone about the running of this website

The RSPB is turning out to be a real success story, and the more inhouse information added in the way of blogs, reports and information - we will end up with many more members yet in the future.

I have a couple of my own hiccups with it, and I am sure it is Vista but I can live with it (Vista is a pain the best of times).  Still I love being a member on here,

The moderators are helpful, and give us lots of support and food for thought on an array of issues close to our hearts.

Yes, the hiccups are there but give some more time all the little foibles will be sorted for once and for all.  I have complete faith this is going to be the case now.

Thumbs up in a big way!!!!

Regards

Kathy and Dave