Discussions

I agree the BAA site has been quite quiet over the past couple of months, though traffic on this site has always been rather variable, and midsummer is usually a sleepy period.

So, I’m not overly concerned and I suspect what we really need is for a naked-eye comet to come along. 🙂

But of course, if there are reasons why people are finding it difficult to contribute, please do let the website operations team know – either on the forum, or by private message. We can’t promise immediate changes, but we will certainly give serious consideration to any feedback we receive.

I think the weather and the fact that it is, supposed to be Summer may have an impact. People are on holiday or working in the garden.
I haven’t posted anything lately simply because the Weather has been awful. When the Sun does shine, the skies are usually crystal clear, but I’m at work. And it’s not really dark enough to do any Astro-imaging or visual observing.

That said. I do like the new look Webb site.

I guess the point is whether the overall site traffic has dropped off as well. If the updates have fallen more than the overall views then perhaps there is an impediment.

Personally I do find I’m ‘liking’ less frequently. The reason is simple, the need to login every time to do anything other than just view. On the old site I could idly scan through the gallery when ever I felt like it and ‘like’ images there and then because the old site kept me logged in. Nowadays I have to log in to do anything. This takes me away from the gallery to login and then go back to to the gallery to find the image again before ‘liking’ it. Often its just too much faff!

There may be a psychological element here, if it had always been this way perhaps I would not be saying this but as it is I feel this is definitely a backward step.

Is there any possibility of retaining logins? After all the BAA is not a bank, the security implications are not profound particularly since even when logged into the site if you want to change your SheepCRM details it is necessary to login to that separately.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by David Basey.

Overall I don’t think there has been a significant change to the site traffic. There has been an absence of new articles recently, but we often get gaps then a run of articles in quick succession. Comparing June this year with last year we have about a 25% fewer visitors but about about 20% more page views. These kind of fluctuations are pretty much inline with what I’ve seen previously, for example June 2022 had 15% fewer visitors and 20% fewer page views than May 2022.

With regards to the login not being remembered this is to do with WordPress rather than SheepCRM. I can add a request for remaining logged in to a list of changes for consideration. It is possible some prefer not being left logged in permanently, though I can see it can be a barrier. I was already in the habit of logging out before closing down my computer and then back in when I visited the website, so I’ve not noticed the difference.

Maxim Usatov wrote:

Sorry, always have something more to say after I hit the “Send” button (and there’s no “Edit” anymore for some reason).

Yes, this is something else I would like to see. It is possible to edit for a short while after submission but quite a few times the edit functionality times out to early for my liking. It would appear I am not alone.

Could the period be extended to, say, 24 hours?

It would be interesting to see if there were similar postings in the forum the last time the website had a major overhaul. I suspect there was.

I think resolving the issue about having to log in every visit would be good, and if you could get rid of the page immediately after logging on which tells you that you are logging in would be good too.

I do think summer is a quiet time for the website traditionally, but like others have said, I am conscious my visits have reduced in recent times. I think some of this is down to the fact I mostly visit from my phone, and I’m yet to bond with the way the new website appears on my phone. There seem to be lots of graphics that presumably indicate different parts of the website, but as I’ve not linked the pictures to the graphics yet it all just looks foreign still. I suspect the graphics wouldn’t be missed on my iphone, and just having text links would be sufficient.

If it was possible, I’d also reinstate the option to be able to start a new forum thread from within the different fora, rather than having to somehow go back, go back, go back to the start of all fora and then click start new.

I also miss being able to click a members name or picture and being able to send them an email directly. That was a really useful feature.

I’ve not explored or done much else to comment, but overall I think I’ve not used it enough to learn my way around, and none of us like change.

We also have to remember most of this is probably undertaken by volunteers.

James Dawson

https://britastro.org/forums/topic/discussions#post-611367:~:text=I%20also%20miss%20being%20able%20to%20click%20a%20members%20name%20or%20picture%20and%20being%20able%20to%20send%20them%20an%20email%20directly.%20That%20was%20a%20really%20useful%20feature

Realised I had forgotten to agree with this..
Just surmised..Copy as Highlight and then pasted..
Fingers Crossed..

Re the reporting of NLC Here in Crawley West Sussex I maintain a constant Naked eye watch through out the NLC season. Not the best sight in the world ; 12 street lights impact the garden and also all the Lights from Gatwick and associated parking facilities to the NE are not very helpful. I however; over the last 30 years of observation I have achieved quite a few sightings each year. In the beginning I was encouraged by my friend the late Neil Bone and latterly by Ken Kennedy and Sandra Brantingham. I post images when good enough on the BAA Gallery and send them to Ken And Sandra also Space weather.com. Space weather has a dedicated page for NLC which is good guide to activity as seen from Europe and the USA.

NLC are slippery bests emerging and vanishing as you watch .

The forum is useful for an exchange of ideas and information .