Help us improve our website

For those concerned about clicking on links, Adam has supplied an email address in one of his earlier replies, which has no hyperlink. That means it is safe to copy and paste that email address in the the addressee box if you want to email him

I've attached a screen garb of Adam's reply for those who might be interested.

Adam, I'll echo the comments made by the others, and I (positively that is) wish you well in your venture.

I've always found the structure over-complicated, with all the various (often overlapping) sub-groups that you need to belong to before you can post, although all of the posts appear together on the main screen. However, I do agree that the webcam-watchers need to be kept separate in some way. In the nesting season, it can be hard to find a thread that isn't webcam-related, and fans of garden wildlife start to feel like poor relations.
And why, for goodness sake, do you have to have one password for the main RSPB site and shopping, and a different one for the Community?

Green Lady said:

I've always found the structure over-complicated, with all the various (often overlapping) sub-groups that you need to belong to before you can post, although all of the posts appear together on the main screen. However, I do agree that the webcam-watchers need to be kept separate in some way. In the nesting season, it can be hard to find a thread that isn't webcam-related, and fans of garden wildlife start to feel like poor relations.
And why, for goodness sake, do you have to have one password for the main RSPB site and shopping, and a different one for the Community?

It was said many years ago that one password was going to happen!! What year that was mentioned I can’t remember. That’s why I sadly can’t believe what’s promised by anyone from the RSPB. Improvements that lots of members of this forum including myself that lots of members have asked for on this forum, have never received a reply from anyone and promises about one password for this whole website going to happen then nothing ever happened and that’s happened many times over the last few years. And very knowledgable long standing members from when this forum launched, no longer post on here. I’ve been a member since this forum launched and not as knowledgable as lots of members. I’ve often considered leaving this forum as well. If improvements start to happen, I’ll be very pleased. But promises have happened before and that is why I’ll wait and see. But that is why I have my doubts anything will happen. If I’m proved wrong I’ll be very happy. But I’ll wait and see.

Thanks all for sharing your thoughts and for the ideas you've contributed now and in the past. I can't of course promise that certain improvements will happen, but I'm trying to understand where the problems are so I can advocate for improving them, and I'll endeavour to keep you updated on what we're working on, as and when.

To be clear, within our remit are all the digital offerings - the community, the main website, the apps etc - so there will always be more areas for improvement than there are resources, but this is why I'm hoping to learn from you where the biggest issues are as you see it, so I can evaluate them against all the other work we must consider. I do hope I can deliver some good news at some point!

Thanks also to those who have already kindly agreed to speak with me over the coming weeks, I'm very much looking forward to it.

Regards,
Adam

Adam, I know the main issue of concern is the structure of this website but can I perhaps add (so you could forward this suggestion to the relevant person) ……….
It would be so helpful to this community website if there was a sticky tab dedicated to folk that visit this RSPB website seeking urgent help for an injured bird or other wildlife, or wanting advice on what to do in certain situations. There are times I have seen urgent requests go unanswered and some of us who try to answer are not in many cases experts on giving the correct advice or recommendation. Perhaps Nature's Home team could then keep an eye on an URGENT HELP tab and respond to what is often a bird or injured animal that needs immediate help so they can advise the person seeking help on here (as they do in the magazine) and point them in the right direction. Members here (including me) often don't have the necessary knowledge or confidence in answering all pleas for help and advice and it would be more sensible to have a dedicated main tab monitored by somebody in RSPB/NATURES HOME.

Thanks Hazel, that seems like a really useful suggestion, especially at this time of year when there are many instances of concern about young birds in particular. I'm not sure if you've seen that there is currently a link from the main website homepage to a page collecting various resources for helping with injured/young birds:
www.rspb.org.uk/.../

As with all the suggestions I've seen, I am collating them and should have my hands on the work Dan previously did so can begin to get a picture of where improvements can be made - no promises, just wanted to let you know that someone is looking at this and hoping to improve things.

Thanks
Adam

Well done and Thank you Adam,am sure your regular response,will be appreciated.

Many thanks Adam for your reply; yes, I was already aware of the various help pages and advice via the main page, however, we see many people who are seeking urgent help who naturally navigate straight to this forum chat/wildlife pages and therefore thought there was also a "need urgent advice/help" sticky tab which could be monitored more closely and acted upon by rspb and other people with more expertise. I feel very uncomfortable ignoring the pleas from people who are often seeking urgent help or for someone to point them in the right direction and I frequently find myself floundering like a fish on the beach out of my depth when desperately trying to give the correct advice ! Once again, really appreciated you taking time to read these suggestions.