Comments on: Why do I bother? http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/01/07/why-do-i-bother/ News and Updates on the Community. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:28:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Tamlyn http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/01/07/why-do-i-bother/#comment-807 Tamlyn Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:51:54 +0000 http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/01/07/why-do-i-bother/#comment-807 Hi rikki, thanks for your inciteful reply :) I suppose it just goes to show how important the community aspect is and that if you are providing a genuinely useful and unique service, many people will work their way around the obstacles to get there. I wish you the best of luck in the upgrade process. Hi rikki, thanks for your inciteful reply :) I suppose it just goes to show how important the community aspect is and that if you are providing a genuinely useful and unique service, many people will work their way around the obstacles to get there. I wish you the best of luck in the upgrade process.

]]> By: Rikki http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/01/07/why-do-i-bother/#comment-806 Rikki Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:29:01 +0000 http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/01/07/why-do-i-bother/#comment-806 Firstly, thank you for your review! If you had used the (Working) contact page I would have been happy to give you a little detail. The website was not built for TruckNet, when I started the website I had zero money and zero knowledge of website design/coding. I managed to persuade a USA company to give me free use of an existing template and hosting that they were4 using for their USA truck wbsite Over the years I concerntrated on what I was good at, building the community, the main website attracts very little traffic indeed, the HUGE majority utalise the forums, and find their way there directly via google. Consequently the major time investment went into the active parts of the website (still had no cash !) Last year things changed dramaticaly, the website was sold to a major publishing house, and it is now in the process of moving off the 8 year old CMS and open source forums onto a far better package, that being the case it is deemed to be a waste of resources plugging all the gaps I have ignored over the years. I do agree that as it stands the websites functionality is pretty ropey, however it works, The website is in effect User generated content, and that area of the website is growing weekly. With the rebuild the UGC core of the website will have a far greater emphasise. however as I am sure you can understand moving 5 years of data between two platforms that at first sight are pretty incompatable is going to be a long task. Firstly, thank you for your review! If you had used the (Working) contact page I would have been happy to give you a little detail.

The website was not built for TruckNet, when I started the website I had zero money and zero knowledge of website design/coding. I managed to persuade a USA company to give me free use of an existing template and hosting that they were4 using for their USA truck wbsite

Over the years I concerntrated on what I was good at, building the community, the main website attracts very little traffic indeed, the HUGE majority utalise the forums, and find their way there directly via google. Consequently the major time investment went into the active parts of the website (still had no cash !)

Last year things changed dramaticaly, the website was sold to a major publishing house, and it is now in the process of moving off the 8 year old CMS and open source forums onto a far better package, that being the case it is deemed to be a waste of resources plugging all the gaps I have ignored over the years.

I do agree that as it stands the websites functionality is pretty ropey, however it works, The website is in effect User generated content, and that area of the website is growing weekly. With the rebuild the UGC core of the website will have a far greater emphasise. however as I am sure you can understand moving 5 years of data between two platforms that at first sight are pretty incompatable is going to be a long task.

]]> By: petejackson http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/01/07/why-do-i-bother/#comment-805 petejackson Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:30:26 +0000 http://community.plus.net/blog/2008/01/07/why-do-i-bother/#comment-805 ah,, but at least its links *look* like links so you understand what you're meant to click on as a 'user'. And the buttons glow, so you know it's a button. A community is made up of people not css standards and ajax jiggery pokery. Clearly bad links are rubbish but if the eu can find his/her way to the forums or whatever they'll forgive a bit of slapdash. I don't think you're wasting your time and I'm sure the webmaster will be extremely happy to hear your expert view on how the site can be improved. ah,, but at least its links *look* like links so you understand what you're meant to click on as a 'user'. And the buttons glow, so you know it's a button. A community is made up of people not css standards and ajax jiggery pokery. Clearly bad links are rubbish but if the eu can find his/her way to the forums or whatever they'll forgive a bit of slapdash. I don't think you're wasting your time and I'm sure the webmaster will be extremely happy to hear your expert view on how the site can be improved.

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