Hi forum users!
We are hearing your comments on the new forum loud and clear and keen to get it back to the friendly, useful and informative forum we had before. We are working very closely with our developers to get the forum back up to speed and therefore would like to hear some of your comments on what you would like to see.
We are going to try and bring back the icons, user pictures and ensure the look and feel is a little more usable.
We can't promise you the world (although our tours can!!) but we can certainly try our best to get these forums so they are really useable again.
Please add your comments to this thread, and of course we like to hear the bits you like as well as your dislikes!
In the meantime please bear with us and we hope you like the rest of our new site!
Many thanks,
Louisa
Post Count: 358
New Forums
Hello Louisa,
Yes it's wonderful to see the forums on the go again! Was so very sad to see it almost dying.
Travel for me, may be impossible for quite some time now, but I am praying that I MIGHT be lucky for November....can everyone else pray for me too??? I could do with lots of that!
We have now been in drought for 11 years & are now looking down the barrel at year 12. Then we had Equine Influenza hit our country (first time ever) just over 12 months ago, which destroyed our horse industry (except for racing). My life just doesn't seem to be able to get out of the minuses & into the pluses!! Oh well that is life, so I keep telling myself, it's gotta come good some time soon....doesn't it?
In the meantime I just keep planning, hoping & praying!!
All the best......Debbie
Mafesh Mushkelah!!!
Post Count: 17
Hi Debbie,
I have had a look at page 28, and yes they are looking a bit out of sync, however as they date back to 2003 i think you are correct in stating they have suffered as a result of the change over. The way the forums work is the more they are used the more they get into order, which was why it was so important we listened to you guys and got them back into a friendly format again - and it seems to have worked! We are getting lots of good posts on here, which is great!
I'm looking into your own post count, hopefully this will be set to the accurate figure asap.
Thanks,
Louisa
P.s. how's the planning for the next Egypt trip coming along?
Post Count: 358
New Forums
Hello Louisa,
If you go into the Egypt etc link, go back to as far as page 28. All posts after that are listed as started by an Mary-Ann Wyth, I think that is the correct name.
And yes it does seem that the posts have been editted, in slight ways. By that I mean names of posters have been removed.
I guess it's all to do with the problems associated with transferring to the new site. But would be good if this could be corrected. But perhaps not possible.
All the best...........Debbie
Mafesh Mushkelah!!!
Post Count: 17
Hi Debbie,
I have asked our webteam to have a look at the post number and order issues, i am not sure to why this may have occured, but it must have been an error in the transfer. As i say it is beeing looked into.
With regards to editing posts, we have never and would never edit the forums, these are for our travellers to chat, discuss, comment, raise queries and generally interact with echother and us! We would certainly not amend this (unless they were rude or offensive to others).
Thanks,
Louisa
Post Count: 358
New Forums
Hello Louisa,
Just thought I would ask why I am now only showing as having made 300 or so posts over the years, rather than the 600+ posts I have actually made. Why is another person shown as starting posts that I & others have started? In fact I do not remember this person even being online all those years ago!
Can this be corrected please?
This may seem a small problem, but when one reads the posts it is very confusing, in fact as the posts are read it seems some have even been editted?
Would appreciate feedback on this please & my post count corrected.
Thanks............Debbie
Mafesh Mushkelah!!!
Post Count: 52
I agree. Bring back private
I agree.
Bring back private messaging and make the interface easier to read.
Change is only good if it improves things.
Post Count: 17
THANKS
Thanks guys for all your feedback... We will be picking this up today with our webteam. And will keep making gradual ammends based on what we can do quickly, plus other longer term things over time.
Keep your suggestions coming in!
And thanks again for the feedback :-)
Louisa
Post Count: 358
Hello Louisa,I am so very
Hello Louisa,
I am so very pleased to hear that Im Trav is trying to resolve the problems with the new look forums.
As I stated on another thread, the colour selection makes the forums difficult to read & it "feels" difficult to navigate through. It fact I would describe the new colour scheme as depressing!!
When you have to go through so many steps to log a response, it just feels like a looooooooong process. It makes you think twice before making a response & I know this is NOT what Im Trav want!!
The loss of or "identities" also seems to be a heck of a shame! As is the loss of the PM, email & information icons.
I have to admit that I haven't really gone into the website itself much as I have been so disappointed with the forums!!
In fact I had pretty much decided that I wouldn't be too worried about logging in anymore, as the forums had become too much of a chore, rather than joy!!
Now in Im Trav's defence!! It's great that you are "hearing" the people. BUT I also know that change ALWAYS frightens some people. IF we had never used the site before the changes were made, perhaps we would not be so out of kilter???
Just a had an idea as I was feeding the horses in the FREEZING cold, has anyone thought to ask Marty Garrett for ideas of how to re establish our icons, the PM & email options etc? Marty set up the original forums on this site many years ago & I believe he knows what we (the users of this forum) want & how to make it user friendly. Just my own personal thoughts of course!!
I have more I could ad, but I don't have the time right now to go into it. Will try to add more over the weekend, I just wanted you to at least have one response to your post.
If I can assist in any way please do not hesitate in asking!!
Kindest regards...........Debbie
Mafesh Mushkelah!!!
Post Count: 31
New Forums
Hi Louisa,
Just a couple of things with the new forum that I wouldn't mind seeing changed - instead of saying last post 3 days 1 hour ago, just put the dates back in. Also I find it hard to read as there is not much delineation between people's responses, it seems like they run together, one last thing, if you are going to repeat the subject, then just have the original poster's subject default in, otherwise it is just picking up the first few words of the response.
I also agree with Debbie regarding the logging in.
Just go back to the old forum, change the red bits to brown so they match the new look and all will be well.
Joanne
Post Count: 358
New Forums
Hello Louisa,
Just thought I would ask if any improvements to the "new" forums was going to occur in the near future. The forums have pretty much died since the changes, so I'm sure that Im Trav can see that it's not working & in fact is turning people away!!
The other problem that also frightens me a bit is that many questions are being answered by other travellers & not by Im Trav staff. Of course this isn't a recent problem, but was occurring quite a bit some time ago, when the forums was very active.
When Brendan was the moderator, all questions were answered asap, the same when Rob etc were moderating. But now some questions can remain unanswered for weeks by Im Trav staff, with just fellow travellers providing info. Of course we are unable to answer many of the questions that are posted!
I believe that Im Trav need to correct the situation with the forums VERY quickly or what was once a very big plus in Im Travs favour, will become a dead horse.
I have been a member of this forum for many years & this forum has been a part of my life. Please fix the problem before I lose this fragile connection to beautiful Egypt! I may never have the funds to make that return trip, but this forum assisted me in allaying fellow travellers fears, so that THEY could travel. I have provided many hours of private emails, posted many responses to questions etc, etc on this forum.
Please listen to me ....this new forum is NOT working & needs to be changed to a user friendly format. I don't know how to make this any clearer, but I feel as though Im Trav do not care, when they have not even responded, not even to just acknowledge, my last post on this thread, which was made over a week ago.
Hope that this can be corrected asap.............Debbie
Mafesh Mushkelah!!!
Post Count: 17
Hi Debbie, Thanks for
Hi Debbie,
Thanks for your responses, we were just awaiting any other comments from other users. Your comments have certainly been taken on board and we are trying to get the useability points actioned. However website amends, in particular something such as a forum can take a little longer to correct and we want to make sure everything we ask for from our developers is do-able to amend.
Our team here should be getting an email when a new post is made and therefore they should be responding to threads where required. I will check this process is working.
In the meantime, thanks for your comments and we are aware of the changes to be made.
Thanks again,
Louisa
Post Count: 12
forum
hey just a quick message re the new look forum, i have to say i agree with all the comments which state the new look forum is difficult to use and i'm finding the posts difficult to read, in some posts the posts do not seem to be in date order!
have noticed a definate decline in the number of posts which is a shame however have always had replies to queries from im trav staff, hope the forum can be made more user friendly
maura
Post Count: 17
Forum update
Hi there,
Just to let you know that we have been in meetings with our technical webteam and the forums usability will be changing over the next few weeks. Keep using them and coming back and hopefully you will begin to love our forums again!
Thanks,
Louisa
Post Count: 358
Forum Update
Hello Louisa,
Thanks for letting us know that there will be changes made, however I do feel that "a few weeks" is way too long a time frame to correct this problem.
Please just make the forums as they were before, with no chages to that format & things will be fine. I'm sure that it can be altered to suit the current Im Trav pages.
For almost no one to have posted on this forum in a week, would have been unheard of before the changes were made.
I'm sure that you can see the point I am trying to make? I for one have taken the stance that I will not browse through the online tours until the forums has been fixed. This is a shame as I have just decided to go for broke & try to raise the $$ to return to Egypt in November. So maybe you have lost customers through this, has anyone thought of that?
Looking forward to the "old" forums............Debbie
Mafesh Mushkelah!!!