[Adrian]

Jeni,

Thank you for taking time to share your initial impressions of the new chat facility.
It is great that you see the improvement of having a chat that is integrated into the main site as an overlay.

You will be aware that the previous version of our chat room had no obvious facility for one-on-one chat and so everyone used the chat room. Perhaps you haven’t noticed that the new chat has an easy to use instant messaging allowing you to open a chat with anyone else logged into the web site. It is no longer necessary to enter a group chat room just to talk to another member.

Group chat is not a commonly available feature of messaging systems and we are lucky that our selected vendor did offer this functionality. Although the new TgR chat offered 3 different ways to manage a group area none of the options would be completely acceptable to us. What is currently being offered is a mixed-solution that should provide an enjoyable experience for those who like to chat socially.

Perhaps the video I made didn’t make it clear that our Group Chat Hosts are not admins or moderators. Anyone who is prepared to manage the group chat room to enhance the chat experience will be welcome to be trained in the additional procedures involved. I don’t expect there will be any difficulty in finding a chat host on line.

It is unfortunate that whilst you were typing your evaluation we were attempting to contact you both by invites and by instant messaging so you could join in the group chat. Had you accepted our invitations you might perhaps have been able to form a more complete assessment of the relative merits and disadvantages of the new group chat solution.

Obviously I don’t agree with your initial assessment of the system as a “you fail”. I am excited that we now have a more immediate way of chatting with each other, and a group chat room totally dedicated to socialising.

I hope you will soon have a chance to use the chat and enjoy its benefits.

[Adrian]

Site Refreshed

The evaluation website has been refreshed from the main TgR web site.

This is the last refresh planned before the site goes live next weekend.

Members emails on the new site are still disabled. But the new site is now live at http://www.tgr.net.au so that Google indexing starts.

[Adrian]

Actually there is still an apostrophe bug – in the blogs. There are a lot of ‘ in the text that I can’t find an easy way of fixing. So I’ll probably run a query on the database (or if that is too hard just live with them).

[Adrian]

Perhaps I need to qualify my post. In describing the tipping point I wasn’t implying that suddenly every media person sees the light and behaves in a different way. But that rather after the tipping point society’s values and norms shift rapidly so that it becomes less acceptable to behave in the way that Kochie apparently does.

This is a case where one individual does not break the rule. There are still a few who take a divergent view about Gays – but because acceptance of homosexuality is now well past tipping point most such behavior is now forced into private.

This is a time to look at the big media picture and not to focus on one personality.

[Adrian]

Quote:

The apostrophe code bug is still present in profiles.

Still present in mine, Fiona from Victoria, and very likely others.

Some more I’ve found with the bug, just by randomly looking at Member Profiles on the new site:

etc.. etc.. etc…

I did write:

Quote:

Should be fixed the next time I refresh the new site from the old one.

So please wait till the next refresh before reporting this again.

[Adrian]

Thanks to everyone who has visited the new web site to check out their profile.
I’m not hearing any cries of agony/desperation/frustration so perhaps we will soon be ready to throw the big website switch.

Provisionally the timetable I propose is:

A) Monday 16th evening – New web site cloned again off the old site to check any recent fixes.

Friday 13th – Old web site content is frozen (no updates possible to profiles/forums/etc

C) Saturday 14th – New web site goes live (with email enabled). Old web site read-only (and old digests disabled).

Some time later (when new website is fully indexed) old web site will be turned off.

Just to stress to everyone Thursday 12th is the LAST chance to check that your profile/blogs/posts/ect have been transferred correctly. From Friday 13th onwards if something isn’t correct on the new website you will have to fix it yourself manually.

[Adrian]

Quote:

Well I rose to the challenge

And again!!!
I’ve added the geolocation to to website porting scripts. So now everyone starts off with a location based on their state and postcode.
If the new web site draws a map of the Simpson Desert with you living 120k’s from the nearest track then don’t blame Google. Have a look to see what postcode and state you actually have on your profile.

[Adrian]

Quote:

There are a few commercially available geocoders…but they all work off a profile street address. I don’t want/need to collect that sort of data about members.

Then I’m not aware of any that would take a postcode like 433X and decide it is in Australia – or alternatively choose not to plot it.

As I’m not into totally custom software anymore I think the simple answer is no!

Well I rose to the challenge. I found a free geocoder that written to plot the location of articles of articles on a web site….and I ‘bent’ it to display member locations instead.

The map appears at the bottom of the members view when you are logged in. To get a position recorded on the map at the moment you have to edit your profile. I’ll have a think to see if I can do a bulk geocoding when I port the web site.. but I doubt it is easy.

For the location sensitive I have randomised the plotting of post codes a bit – just as on the current web site. This also has the advantage that two people in the same post code are not plotted on top of each other!

[Adrian]

Quote:

Certainly, Amanda
Two that I saw this error on:

Fiona from Victoria
http://forum.tgr.net.au/cms/allmembers/userprofile/fiona

My own profile
http://forum.tgr.net.au/cms/myprofile/userprofile/JeniSkunk

Jenifur Charne

Should be fixed the next time I refresh the new site from the old one.
Thanks
A

[Adrian]

Can you give me a link to an offending profile please.

[Adrian]

Quote:

Is that confusing?

Yes it is.
I’ve renamed the pictures on the profile as “Latest Pictures”. It isn’t the full list of albums. As you find you get there by the View Albums menu entry.

At the moment all the pictures have the date they were imported – so “Latest Pictures” is somewhat random.

[Adrian]

Quote:

It doesn’t like the IRC style actions.

Correct – the engine in the chat is not the old IRC type – but the newer facebook type. Nowadays there are far more people who know how to chat on facebook than on IRC. But I agree not typing “/me is listening” will be missed.

[Adrian]

If you head over to the event website (http://www.trannytix.com/transformal) there is a new menu called Photos. I’ll be posting here the selection of pictures that are assessed as suitable for general distribution. And if you log in (with the login you used to purchase your ticket) there will see an album of “guest-only” pictures. I will leave the guest album on-line for about a month and then remove it as a security precaution. So if there is a picture you want download it!

If you have pictures on your camera that include another guest I ask you to do the right thing and share them.
Posting pictures to your Facebook or Flickr album is NOT the same thing as sharing it!

To upload a picture to the “guest-only” album email it as an attachment to

116425376635881764716.transformal@picasaweb.com

and make the subject of the email

Transformal 2014

Your photo should appear automatically in the guest album in about 5 minutes if you reload the webpage.

Oh – and thank you to the few who have shared already.

[Adrian]

Quote:

Is it possible to add the members map over to the new site?

There are a few commercially available geocoders…but they all work off a profile street address. I don’t want/need to collect that sort of data about members.

Then I’m not aware of any that would take a postcode like 433X and decide it is in Australia – or alternatively choose not to plot it.

As I’m not into totally custom software anymore I think the simple answer is no!

[Adrian]

Quote:

One important thing I noted missing from the video is there was no chatroom link on the new site.

Correct that is important. The site (for better or worse) is very much modeled on social media sites. And as I wrote:

Quote:

Integrated chat as part of the main website

There is no link because…..it is part of the same web site.

(Hint: look at the bottom right corner of the site when logged in)