The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

spoons · Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:12 pm Post subject: Problems in finding our indexes

I have spoken to a few people recently who are not signed up on the forum but have looked at it. Also to a recently joined member. Not one of them had found our indexes (first post in the appropriate civic section).

I think it would be good if we could make the indexes more obvious and accessible from the beginning of the first page.

Would it be possible to create an obvious All Scotlands Memorials Index near the beginning which contained links to all of the Region's indexes?

\Paul

dhubthaigh · Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:19 pm Post subject:

I posted this message on the Scottish War Memorials List thread in May, 2007;

Is there any chance of showing the 'war memorials lists' on their own?
Perhaps next to the header for each area/with its own heading in that particular area?
Its tucked away in the civic section and I feel it would be better placed elsewhere for easier access/reference.
Its only a suggestion - any thoughts?

Adam Brown · Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 3:18 pm Post subject:

Probably the best thing to do is remove them from the forum and have them on a wiki or a website. However that's another story.

It would be no problem to move them to their own section within the forum. What I would say against that is it means another section in an already busy main index.

However if people can't find them where they are just now there isn't much point in keeping them there and they should be moved.

Adam

spoons · Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 4:04 pm Post subject:

I was thinking less about moving them and more about having a master index where you could just click on a link to take you to the index for the region you were interested in. Just thought you might like to know that from speaking to to a few people recently it does seem to be a real rather than just a perceived problem.

\Paul

DerekR · Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 4:37 pm Post subject:

These indexes have been by far the most time consuming (and frustrating) parts of the forum for Mods to keep up to date.
So I wouldn't want to lose them BUT they are of no value if no one can find them.
_________________

Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear.

spoons · Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:05 pm Post subject:

Well I use them all the time so they are very useful to me. Once I have explained to people where they are and how to find them they are happy with them too. It is really the casual user that is finding it a problem I think. The main page has a link at the top "The Scottish War Memorials Project Forum Index", could we have a second underneath reading "Indexes to all Scottish War Memorials" which just takes you to a simple thread (that could be in one of the existing sections) that just has a list of links, to each of the other indexes? It would be fairly easy to set up and almost never need to be changed.

\Paul

DelBoy · Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:25 pm Post subject:

Adam Brown · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 2:11 am Post subject:

Sorry folks, the index is in a standard format and we can't tinker with it. That's the price you pay for not paying for a forum.

Adam

apanderson · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 3:19 pm Post subject:

What about creating a 'sticky' index?

The down side I would imagine, is that it would be an awful lot of work but it would always remain towards the beginning of each section.

If this is nonsense, sorry! I don't really have much of a clue about how these things work.

Anne

David McNay · Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:38 am Post subject:

I'm a bit confused by what the problem is.

The index for each section can be found as a "sticky" post at the top of each civic section. These list the memorials for each region.

Am I missing something?

spoons · Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:34 pm Post subject:

The problem is they don't find the sticky post because there is nothing to tell them to look in the civic section for it. There is nothing on the front page anywhere to say that there are any indexes at all.

One person I spoke to had spent a couple of hours on the forum looking at various school memorials and didn't see the index because he had no reason to look in the civic section.

\Paul

dhubthaigh · Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:42 pm Post subject:

I think because the project has developed so much, and so quickly, that questions are and have been raised over certain points.
I know Robbie mentioned outlay and the wiki 'thing'. That was never really taken forward.
Maybe things are too far on to do any restructuring?