Is it about to get busy on here? Blatchat to close...

Is it about to get busy on here? Blatchat to close...

Author
Discussion

kenny.R400

1,212 posts

240 months

Friday 19th December 2014
quotequote all
buzzer said:
Not bothered to look at the site since it changed... is it any better? do people like it now?
A question I'd like answered too, but it seems if you have any little negs about it you either get shot down in flames or your posts removed.

If the site was "live" to none and ex. members to see how good it is now then the question would not need to be asked.

sjmmarsh

551 posts

220 months

Friday 19th December 2014
quotequote all
You can see the club site without being a member - you just can't post on it. When it was launched Techtalk was hiddent, but that is now open to non-members.

Most of the early problems with the site have now been fixed - mainly from the work done but also because time has passed and it doesn't seen so alien now!

There are still some problems though - in order of severity from my point of view:

1) the search function does not work properly - ithe index only searches the first post in a thread and some threads are completely missing from the index.
2) the way the forum operates means it is slow to move between pages. It is much better than it was, but it still grates with me.
3) the majority of the links transferred over from the old site got lost in the migration. Most look like links but have no hypertext attached but some were converted correctly, which is very odd.

There are some workarounds - e.g. Using Google (like Pistonheads does) but we shouldn't have to use them.

Steve

kenny.R400

1,212 posts

240 months

Friday 19th December 2014
quotequote all
sjmmarsh said:
You can see the club site without being a member - you just can't post on it. When it was launched Techtalk was hiddent, but that is now open to non-members.

Steve
Steve, on my browser it appears it's not in real time, just checked now and there's very few posts in chitchat from today, last one timed at 15.01 by Mcalvert.

It looks lifeless if prospective new members only see what I appear to see.



sjmmarsh

551 posts

220 months

Friday 19th December 2014
quotequote all
Kenny

Ah - I see what you mean, and it would give that impression. If you aren't logged in, the latest posts are well out of date and are very misleading.

As a member, I use the "new and updated" view which shows me all the most recent posts that I haven't read and tells me how many updated posts there are since I last read it. It works a bit like combining the old Aggregated view with the blue bar you get in Pistonheads. Once I twigged what it was doing I loved it, but initially it was a bit confusing.

I'll try looking at the site logged out and see how much of a difference it makes.

Steve

sjmmarsh

551 posts

220 months

Friday 19th December 2014
quotequote all
Kenny

The main page for Blatchat shows out of date information if you are logged in or out - it seems that it caches it and doesn't bother updating it - although logging out seems to refresh it.

Try using the new and updated tab - you'll find you just ignore the main page after that.

Yes - it shouldn't have been launched that way, but it is not a major problem compared to the 3 points I listed earlier.

There are lots more postings going on than you might think - it is much busier than Pistonheads' Caterham section.

Steve

Edited by sjmmarsh on Saturday 20th December 09:16

Smollet

10,535 posts

190 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
quotequote all
M
sjmmarsh said:
You can see the club site without being a member - you just can't post on it. When it was launched Techtalk was hiddent, but that is now open to non-members.

Most of the early problems with the site have now been fixed - mainly from the work done but also because time has passed and it doesn't seen so alien now!

There are still some problems though - in order of severity from my point of view:

1) the search function does not work properly - ithe index only searches the first post in a thread and some threads are completely missing from the index.
2) the way the forum operates means it is slow to move between pages. It is much better than it was, but it still grates with me.
3) the majority of the links transferred over from the old site got lost in the migration. Most look like links but have no hypertext attached but some were converted correctly, which is very odd.

There are some workarounds - e.g. Using Google (like Pistonheads does) but we shouldn't have to use them.

Steve
Other problems that still exist and I think they're fairly important. You can't reply like I am doing now that incoporates the quote you're replying to. It just gives you the post number you're replying to. Makes the place look like Twitter. Also posters can't delete or close their own posts. These were available on the old BC and are par for the course on every other chat room I visit.
it's now almost three months since the changeover and I'd have thought issues like these would've been sorted by now. Perhaps it's not possible on the new site. No one seems to know.


Edited by Smollet on Saturday 20th December 12:29

Smollet

10,535 posts

190 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
quotequote all
kenny.R400 said:
Steve, on my browser it appears it's not in real time, just checked now and there's very few posts in chitchat from today, last one timed at 15.01 by Mcalvert.

It looks lifeless if prospective new members only see what I appear to see.
When I log out what is visible bears little resemblance to what is currently available when I'm logged in.

sjmmarsh

551 posts

220 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
quotequote all
Smokey

You used to be able to delete your own posts, but the functionality just gives "access denied" now, but I am sure it will be back. You can edit the comment so that it is just blank though.

I wasn't saying that the three problems I listed were the only ones, just that they were the main ones that impacted me. I rarely quote others, which is why it wasn't on my list, but accept that others do value it. This is one of the problems that the developers face - they can't keep everyone happy.

Steve

Smollet

10,535 posts

190 months

Saturday 20th December 2014
quotequote all
sjmmarsh said:
Smokey

You used to be able to delete your own posts, but the functionality just gives "access denied" now, but I am sure it will be back. You can edit the comment so that it is just blank though.

I wasn't saying that the three problems I listed were the only ones, just that they were the main ones that impacted me. I rarely quote others, which is why it wasn't on my list, but accept that others do value it. This is one of the problems that the developers face - they can't keep everyone happy.

Steve
Ain't that the truth smile
Btw I've never smoked wink

Edited by Smollet on Saturday 20th December 16:44

sjmmarsh

551 posts

220 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
quotequote all
Sorry Smolley - damn autocorrect!

Steve

Smollet

10,535 posts

190 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
quotequote all
sjmmarsh said:
Sorry Smolley - damn autocorrect!

Steve
Almost there wink

IBDAET

1,655 posts

263 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
quotequote all
sjmmarsh said:
This is one of the problems that the developers face - they can't keep everyone happy.

Steve
Most developers never think logically about the use case. Still that's what keeps business analysts in a job right?


BertBert

19,025 posts

211 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
quotequote all
But it's just a forum right? Done by quite a lot of people for not much money. Just simple. What are the developers for?

sjmmarsh

551 posts

220 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
quotequote all
Smollet (3rd time lucky?)

No idea why it wants to correct Smollet to Smolley....

Steve

IBDAET

1,655 posts

263 months

Sunday 21st December 2014
quotequote all
Agreed BertBert. They should be buying COTS not something that requires developers. Another misguided waste of Club funds no doubt.

AVES

65 posts

244 months

Thursday 30th April 2015
quotequote all
For those fed up with BC - I'd suggest giving SELOC a go . Healty Caterham contingent and a similar atmosphere to BC a few years ago .

AVES

65 posts

244 months

Thursday 30th April 2015
quotequote all
That said , if you are a transgender liberal or self styled wordsmith I'd give it a miss

Eric Mc

121,958 posts

265 months

Wednesday 5th October 2016
quotequote all
I don't use Blatchat much these days but when I tried to open the site today I got this mesage -

The client and server don't support a common SSL protocol version or cipher suite. This is likely to be caused when the server needs RC4, which is no longer considered secure.

Anybody know if this is a problem at my end or with the site?

I'm not having any problems with other sites.

anonymous-user

54 months

Wednesday 5th October 2016
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
I don't use Blatchat much these days but when I tried to open the site today I got this mesage -

The client and server don't support a common SSL protocol version or cipher suite. This is likely to be caused when the server needs RC4, which is no longer considered secure.

Anybody know if this is a problem at my end or with the site?

I'm not having any problems with other sites.

I'm not having any trouble accessing it on iMac or iPhone.

Eric Mc

121,958 posts

265 months

Wednesday 5th October 2016
quotequote all
On further investigation, it might be due to the security settings on my computer. I'll look more closely at these.