Mods - please read - Avatar errors

There is no point in showing the avatar of the last poster - it already shows their name! Mind you, the page does look very pretty. LOL

Hi Sparrow,

The software allows us to display the avatar for what it calls the "post author". I mistakenly assumed that this would be the original author of the post (the clue was in the name, I thought) but as you say, it seems it actually uses the author of the most recent post, which is no better than what we have now.

@doggie: It's not that we can't do these things, it's that the software doesn't do them "out of the box" or within the scope of the theming and configuration changes we can make to it. Further changes would require custom development which costs money and we have to weigh up whether spending that money is justified, considering we are a charity and all that.

Graham

Susan H said:

It seems the techies have put avatars at the side of each thread - BUT they are the avatars of the last person to post, NOT the first person!!

Hopefully this mistake will be rectified???

Hi Sparrow

This mistake has to be rectified. We can easily see the latest poster's name so there is no problem with that. We don't need their Avatar as well. Hopefully it's just a small glitch that someone has linked to the Avatar of the last poster rather than the original poster.

Personally I can't see why we can't have the name of the original poster, and not the Avatar. I don't see why the box can't be extended. There are multiple problems associated with only including the Avatars, the first being that they are currently minuscule, and the second being that people change them all the time, so we won't know who the original poster is unless we follow the link, and once we follow the link we will no doubt lose where we were in the thread.

It's a poor compromise.

Unknown said:

Further changes would require custom development which costs money and we have to weigh up whether spending that money is justified, considering we are a charity and all that.

Are you considering this, or have you discarded the idea?

My opinion is that the RSPB needs a professional website, not a hotchpotch job - which is what it is at the moment.

Don't spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar.

Unknown said:

Further changes would require custom development which costs money and we have to weigh up whether spending that money is justified, considering we are a charity and all that.

Hi Graham

Our posts crossed so yours appeared after I had typed mine.

To be honest I would say that as you have taken the step of doing this update and having a new Community site, you should wish it to be as good as it can possibly get. It's not going to do the RSPB identity any good having something that's not very good or isn't user friendly, and have everyone complaining about what's wrong with it all of the time.

Now you've started the ball rolling, it needs to be a really good 'shop window' for the RSPB. IMHO you should spend the money that it needs to be just that.

Susan H said:

Don't spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar.

That's it in a nutshell

It all seems to be a bit of a hotch potch still, with innumerable limitations rather than liberations.

Would be interested to know how many posts were being made a week / day before the new site, compaired with the number that are being made now - it might just be me + a couple of others not enjoying things as much.

I to think it's a shame not to spend the money making this an even greater site than it was!! Esp in this era when more + more folk will look up info on line. We all did + found here!! If they are interested they might well stumble upon here, like I did. Not sure that they will find it very easy to follow + if they don't will they return? We have already lost quite a few regular posters for the sake of this regrade, we should endevore to encourage more with a stonking forum that is the pride of OUR charity.

Ann S said:

we should endeavor to encourage more with a stonking forum that is the pride of OUR charity.

Hear Hear

Unknown said:

It's a pity rather then spend money one of the "high profile" patrons couldn't use their contacts to see if they could find a software firm to help out. I would have thought it would be beneficial to someone to be seen helping out a charity like the RSPB.Though i could be naive in things like this.

LOL Alan, you clearly have never been self employed!

I am in despair at the moment I'm afraid.

Oooops! Sorry ..... maybe you are right.