New AccountingWEB: Week 2 - Now. next . soon

Hello Ben

Disappointing news that the heart of the design will stay intact. That is one of the key issues.

Further, you have not responded to the point why blog click rate is not public? Can you please respond? I would love to know.

We have to remember Sift is a business. This is the way for Sift. We are secondary.

So you did some research and that indicated that people wanted large fonts and larger graphics? It seems strange that practically everybody on here - with the exception of Gary Turner - hates the large fonts and large graphics as well as the endless scrolling. What are the key demographics of the two groups? What is different about them and us?

I may be wrong but it seems to me that the AWEB UK site is now an almost exact copy of the AWEB USA site at www.accountingweb.com

Now the AWEB USA site may make perfect sense in the USA market - I wouldn't know (and frankly "could care less" as I believe they say over there).

But the USA is different from the UK. They are apparently engrossed in basketball & something called baseball - over here we have football (which they refer to as soccer) and cricket.

More seriously, the users of AWEB UK have used the site previously (particularly Any Answers but also blogs, opportunities & discussions) in ways that are not facilitated (to put it mildly) by the new website. Maybe the USA site was not used in the same way by members over there (I don't know).

But we do need a UK website for the UK members. That may be difficult for Sift to swallow - and would certainly cost money to implement. But the likelihood is that without that the vibrant community activity which we have had here will fade & die, which would be a great pity.

RM

Do remember member feedback is very important to Sift. They ask for it regularly.

I will NOT give up my time providing feedback surveys etc. anymore. My time is very important to me. Like most, I will use AW for my selfish needs as and when.

Will Sift lose out? No. They have many many others who are better younger brighter etc. I am one of many middle aged men on Sift. It is aiming for younger social media types modern accountants. Not oldies like me.

Best face up to reality, give up and let Sift shareholders get on. After all, it is their business we are just an after thought. They have that luxury.

Hi Ben - Thanks for the update. Which were the changes that were required in order to retain your relevance in the marketplace and ensure your success in the future?

Enough of the conspiracy theories, guys. Ben (& I) and our colleagues have made it clear that the new AccountingWEB is part of a company-wide publishing platform that also powers BusinessZone.co.uk, MyCustomer.com, TrainingZone.co.uk, HRZone.co.uk and AccountingWEB.com.

The graphical layout, membership mechanisms and default font sizes are based on a single corporate standard that is designed to handle the entire company's output for several years.

We also made it clear that this is an early iteration of the new platform and we are pushing our developers as hard as we can to implement the fixes and improvements you have suggested and bring back missing functionality like Discussions.

As for the story and blog hit figures - this was unique to the old Aweb design and was not prioritised in the first phase of our new platform implementation. I'd like to see them back, too, and think there may be a way for us to generate a visible report with these figures - but I need to look more deeply into this possibility.

Meanwhile, if the font size bothers you that much, try pressing Ctrl+Minus key to make it smaller. I also find that making your browser view narrower (200mm approx) will sometimes expand the width of the text visible in comments and replies.

Morning John
I am sorry to see the responses to some of our reactions to the new site. Is this the only UK version in your list?
First of all I am very disappointed in your flippant reaction to our concerns over the site layout, font and graphics.
My rural broadband - I have apparently got the best available with Infinity 2 - cannot cope easily with the site anymore. It is slow and cumbersome, freezes and buffers, jumps around a lot so you think you have go down to the actual text to read when all of a sudden you are back at the top of the adverts you don't want to read twice again.
Getting back to a thread you thought you were reading literally means going back to the beginning and trying to scroll down more slowly... and often failing.
If the font size really bothers you ??????
What a derogatory comment. All of us have expressed dissatisfaction. I use 3 different monitors.
The portrait monitor takes 26 page downs just to get from top to bottom of the home page. It also wraps the end of the previous line over the beginning of the next e.g. the keyword search box shows at the beginning of the next line.
Okay - switch to a landscape laptop- now it only takes 14 page downs but the screen distortion is still there.
Finally, move to my extra wide landscape monitor - used for side by side viewing of two different programmes - and it is back to giant pictures as it fills the screen with the same number of items as opposed to showing more items.
If I change the view %age to make the screen more sympathetic for viewing I have to change it back anytime I want to use a different website - settings are not kept per site - and forget being able to have two sites side by side
Secondly, finding other members is now virtually impossible - the inbox no longer shows if someone is online and I can't find a search facility anymore.
Thirdly, while I hate to be negative, I can't see a good outcome for the current users. Obviously going forward the site will only attract repeat visits from new users that like the layout etc but I am sad to see the quality of posters already missing.
I am trying to persevere but as an old person, who likes to think I am not too bad at IT or Tax, the effort required is not diminishing and my browsing sessions have fallen significantly I think.
Sorry this turned into a treatise but it is a sign of how much we valued the resource we had and can see disappearing into the distant past that so many of us are ranting on.
I do hope you manage to achieve the objectives you value but feel that that future may well not include me

We hear your feedback is important to us, please keep it coming. Why? What is the point? You are not listening on major issues. It is selective listening on what would improve the current design. It the current design that is the issue here. THIS WILL NOT CHANGE.

It is best you just say it, we will do it our way, stop the feedback now. Please no more we are listening. If you say it, mean it.

Marion, thank you for speaking up. I think, we are wasting our time. As you say, it is because the site is so important to us and the community has made the site what it is, we are still banging our heads against a brick wall.

What I used to do on the AWEB site was to pop into Any Answers to see what was happening. That involved a visit to the Any Answers main page & a look at new questions & at new replies on existing threads.
That was easy to do because the recently active threads were in the right hand pane.
Clicking on an active thread I had the option of either clicking on a link to go straight to the latest post or simply scrolling swiftly to the bottom of the page & then up a bit to read the last post (& perhaps a few directly above it).
I knew the avatars of a number of regular posters so I could make a point of reading (or perhaps not reading) their posts. The headings on the posts were also helpful.
All of that functionality is now lost.
There is no right hand pane.
There is no link to take me straight to the latest post.
If I scroll to the bottom of the page I find I am in some other discussion entirely.
Only a handful of the first replies are visible - I have to click to see more & then scroll down carefully to find the bottom post (& if I refresh the page I have to do it all again).
The replies are not in chronological order, so I may miss some.
There are no avatars on the replies & no headings on them so I cannot see which ones I want to read.
So quite apart from the large font & unhelpful graphics & page layout (on a PC) - oh & the increased difficulty in posting a new question or including HTML links in a response - the new website is, for me at least, pretty awful.
Of course I may be the only person who used to pop into Any Answers that way.
RM

credit for fronting up to the criticism to John S...then completely destroyed by the completely blinkered view of the site and you 'customers'...well the current ones anyway.

Generally if a font size on a website 'bothers' me I move on to a site another site - is that the aim!?!?

John, Ben etc - Why don't you resign from Sift and set up an alternative web site that works just like the old one? Same old beloved site; same old beloved staff; we'll be flocking to you in droves. We'll get Locutus to organise the launch party.

So you introduce a design that every user, except one, says is terrible. You say your research shows you need the design. I ask what is different about the population that likes the design. You don't provide any information you just say you are sticking with the design and we are coming out with conspiracy theories. It looks like your site is being used a lot less than before due to navigation difficulties. I'm not sure why you have changed the edit feature to be more hassle to use but you have. Do you blame us for thinking you are getting it wrong? I don't think you have any evidence that the new site is popular among a certain group. You are certainly showing little interest in keeping your present users. I'm using the site a lot less because of the navigation and other problems but if you are not willing to help us understand why you have decided to alienate your present users I'll come back, although a lot less, and try to work out who the new users are. I will also look out for the navigation problems you introduce on the UK Business Forums website.

My first post on the new site. Only an occasional contributor but was a regular visitor. Not since the change. It really is hard work and perserverance doesn't really generate any significant return. If my personal experience is general, then it cannot really be dismissed as "teething troubles" as in order to get old customers to adapt to new methods, there has to be some expectation that persistence will be rewarded, but the lack of common ground between old and new set ups reduces any belief that that will readily be possible.

Others have speculated that you (as Sift Group) are really interested in the users who are fully familiar with the newer technologies, social media and portable hardwares etc etc. If so, then you may have ensured a better future platform for them, but you are thereby unlikely to retain the rest of us. Possibly in the long run, you are not too concerned over that.
Oddly enough as a tax bod, I can see this website's recent developments as analagous in many ways to HMRCs contortions in trying to slough off what they perceive as their old skin and metamorphosing into purveyors of the Digital in MTD. It is an overweaning confidence, if not obsession, with the new and its alleged possibilites and attempting to get there as rapidly as possible without considering whether any of the old still has utility and function. Baby and bathwater.

Can't even readily see how I edit my previous post for typos. Just about sums it up, really. Such functions should just be plainly "there"!

Post-scriptum. Eventually found out how by trial & error. Extraordinarily roundabout & clumsy. Should just be another button on the post. Indicative I fear.

Ignoring the fact I don't like the new site as much as the old for the same reasons that many have stated here are some issues I'm having that if you could fix would improve my experience greatly:

1. Not having the edit button within your post
2. Comment box being at the top
3. Not having poster avatar for quick reference
4. Menu bar doesn't follow you down the page meaning you have to scroll back to top to navigate elsewhere.
5. Once in an area, such as blogs, the menu bar loses its drop down menu options.
6. The site only utilises around 1/3 of my wide screen desktop monitor.
7. I'm not blind so how about we scale everything down just a fraction. Doesn't need to be a huge downscale.
8. My roller mouse is overheating from all the scrolling, see above comments.
9. The comment box is tiny (Ah I've just discovered you can stretch the box), could still do with come extra width though.
10. Despite telling the site to remember me I seem to have to login on a regular basis. The old site kept me logged in indefinitely.