Suggestions for improvements to the site?
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I really need to do a full update to the site. For a long time I've avoided making any changes at all to avoid any possibility of "breaking" existing functionality, but I think it's getting to the point where updating the system would be the better decision.
So, whilst on the topic, are there any other changes needed? Please suggest anything that you think needs changing, adding or removing.
Would anybody like to volunteer to maintain a "latest news" or "important news" section? These could then be linked from the top-of-page menu, or linked/included from the site entry page at http://chat.ksfiomdepositors.org.
Would anybody like to volunteer to maintain the "public" site at http://www.ksfiomdepositors.org ? (arguably not necessary, could just put a link to ksfiomdag.com on the front-page there.)
Re Take-over of ksfiomdepositors.org web-sites
In his blog re a group to address this topic: http://chat.ksfiomdepositors.org/comment/reply/5227#comment-form, ng suggests the requirements for a suitable site manager to take over from him:
"A suitable site manager (person or company) will, in my opinion:
While I have no quibble with that, I wish to say that, in my opinion, there is no longer any "DST/PPD (etc) debate" (not sure what the etc refers to!) and that propagating this idea is not particularly productive for DAG.
Clearly as an active member of the present DST, I remain committed to continue to update the public area of the ksfiomdag.com site, which has de facto become the main source of up-to-date public news on KSFIOM and DAG affairs and related background news. But I have no axe to grind and this does not prevent me from participating actively (and I hope sometimes usefully) on the chat site, which I believe remains a useful forum for open (and publicly accessible) discussion between depositors and other interested parties, alongside the more private area reserved to depositors on the ksfiomdag.com site.
Andy and I are currently working constructively to find a better way to direct visitors, where appropriate, from the (historical) public site to the newer information on the ksfiomdag site and thus remove the impression given by the present public site that DAG died about two years ago. While I understand his (long-expressed) desire to find a replacement, I for one will be sorry to see him go - if he manages to escape!
As I am unable to identify or provide a solution for the (technical) take-over of the ksfiomdepositors.org sites, I shall not be joining the proposed group.
(non) Takeover of ksfiomdepositors.org sites
Good point, now changed to:
... which will hopefully cater for all eventualities! But in any case, that group never really got started, and I don't think it ever will. It seems I'm stuck here :)
Well, we need to work out the details, but we (Anrigaut and myself) are now working on moving traffic from the legacy public site. The content on the old public site will remain, but some urls will redirect to the equivalent (but up to date) content on www.ksfiomdag.com.
Reminder - any registered member here can contribute to the glossary here (the feature that makes a helpful description available when you write things like forum site, DST, Mike Fayle or DCS). Just follow the instructions linked from the Glossary item at top-of-page. So with a collaborative effort we can "fix" the definitions of some terms which are probably well out of date.
Sorry ng. i took this to be
Sorry ng. i took this to be a new blog as it just appeared in recent posts. But I now realise it was an old blog that you had somehow reactivated.
Anyway, thanks for the fix - much better. And not sorry to hear you reckon you are stuck here :)
Welcome page on chat site
Ng,
In view of the way things have evolved over the last couple of years - and bearing in mind the ongoing discussion about the (historical) public site - I think it really is time that the following sentence on the Welcome page of the chat site
"The group's public site is at www.ksfiomdepositors.org and the related (but independent) KSFIOM DAG Ltd site is at www.ksfiomdag.com."
be changed to something like "The group's main public site is now at www.ksfiomdag.com".
I'm not trying to be polemical - I really don't need that! - but this is simply a fact, given that the content of the historical public site has not been maintained for the last 2 years and that we are now proposing to place a prominent link there to redirect people who land there to the other site, with possibly specific links being posted when important news updates are made. The statement as it stands is misleading and confusing as it no longer represent the true situation.
The "independent" bit is also strange and may be misinterpreted by visitors as it seems to suggest that the material on the ksfiomdag site is from some group which is somehow independent of DAG - something I for one object to strongly! I realise (or at least presume) that's not what you mean by it - it's a site which is independently managed in a technical sense (but represents DAG every bit as much as this one). I don't know whether the reader needs to be told that here, but if so there must surely be a better way to say it.
While I'm at it, there's also this opening sentence in the Terms & Conditions: "Kaupthing Isle of Man (KSFIOM) Depositors Action Group website legal disclaimer relating to the Group's main website www.ksfiomdepositors.org and supplementary site chat.ksfiomdepositors.org."
I really don't think we should still be referring to www.ksfiomdepositors.org as "the Group's main website" or indeed to the chat site as "supplementary" to the public site. I would like to see the two sites www.ksfiomdag.com and chat.ksfiomdepositors.org promoted in parallel as the two main sites run by the Group, the first as the main public site for news and information and the second, as is explained very well on the Welcome page, for those interested in discussing .... I realise the T&Cs here are for the two ksfiomdepositors.org sites, but there must be way to say that. Why not simply "Legal disclaimer relating to this site (chat. ....) and the associated site www.ksfiomdepositors.org ?
Just a note - the content of
Just a note - the content of the front-page of the "public" site is particularly important because it tends to be what people will find via a Google search such as Kaupthing IOM.
Public site
The state of the "public site" - in particular the front-page - has troubled me for some time. It has not been maintained for a long time (essentially since the ksfiomdag.com site was set up 2 years ago) and the information is extremely out of date. While this is stated here http://www.ksfiomdepositors.org/node/2160, it is not immediately obvious from the front page, which shows under "latest news" the DST update of 18 August 2009 and the links to the DAG helplines and thus gives the impression of that the group is essentially defunct!
Moreover, there is no obvious link for the public to discover where to find the real latest news. The link above, which gives links to this forum site and the ksfiomdag.com site, is reached via "Are you a Depositor? If so, read this". Non-depositors are unlikely to go there, but those who do will find a link for "visitors" (!), which contains a curious selection of items, including the information that the public site is now infrequently updated but makes no mention of the ksfiomdag.com site - which IS regularly updated ...
Whatever else is decided, please can a clear statement about where up-to-date information may be found be placed prominently on the front page so that those who discover the site through a Google search are not left with the impression that DAG is dead?
Beyond that, I'm unsure what is meant by maintaining the public site, given that it has been left unattended for the last two years. Nor do I see what point would be served by investing is such a task at this stage, especially now that DAG activity is much reduced. What could perhaps be useful, if anyone has the courage, would be to revamp it, leaving some of the historical background in an accessible form and providing clear links to the ksfiomdag.com site for up-to-date public information and the forum site for open (publicly accessible) chat and comment. Also a link to Tony's new site. The old documents should however not be deleted - some but not all were copied onto the ksfiomdag site when it was set up.
The public part of the KSFIOMDAG site is regularly updated (mostly by yours truly). For those still not familiar with it, the essential elements are the News (posted on the home page either as Top Articles - for news directly related to us - or in the News Feed for background media articles) and the Information Centre for documentation. The contents of both can be seen by clicking on the top menu. News is categorised as News flashes (used mostly to signal news from the JLs or KSFUK), DAG press releases, DAG public news (eg the recent announcement of Tony's new site) and Media articles. More recent files uploaded into the Information Centre include items related to the Tynwald Select Committee and the Loan Trust Proposal.
Well done Anrigaut!!!
You're right. Whilst 'the rest' have been pathetically absent, you've been arguing our case.
And you have done it well albeit innocently whilst learning.
'The rest' have been resting on their laurels. We've been screwed by IoMG, and their resident tax-arbitragers.
The CoI ought to have their heads buried in their hands at this moment (Mr GS-Devon en especial).
The plebs want to sort things out?
Let the plebs speak up.
You've done your job well Anrigaut. The stinking rich offshorers like Mr stinking rich GS Devon have failed miserably.
Have a nice night. That includes you 'GS-Devon': step outside, commune with the sheep. why do you have a farm? ROI?
You stink!
Thanks ftt. Sometimes
Thanks ftt.
Sometimes 'innocence' can have its uses ...
This is not the place for this debate, but (as you know) I'm not sure what more you feel the CoI should be doing (in their role as a CoI). Without being party to the precise details, I do know that they don't take things lying down and have fought on behalf of depositors. You are wrong to imagine that they are all as meek and compliant as you seem to think. Or do you expect them to liquidate the liquidators?! Not sure where that would get us if they did.
I feel I should also put on record, without naming names, that one of them in particular (though not wearing his CoI hat) has played an extremely important part in helping me to argue our case, including editing draft documents and letters on behalf of DAG and frequently making them stronger and more hard-hitting than my original. Not that it's all got us very far - as yet - but at least we tried.
Public site
If you can write me some content to go on the front-page, I'll put it there. Perhaps a brief intro and include some links to especially relevant info on the ksfiomdag.com site?
Re. "maintenance" - agreed, there's arguably nothing to maintain!
The latest news and updates block is generated automatically to show the latest changes - since there are no recent changes, everything there is now old. For now I will simply remove the block.
Please see my note here re. the need for a re-think on the structure of the menu and the categories that content is classified under. The menu is automatically generated based on the categories.
Front page
I see you are already making some changes. So will wait a bit, but will give some thought to the front page shortly.
Am not however volunteering for the rest. I have never quite understood the structure of the public site and I have quite enough to do with keeping the other site up-dated, not to mention coping with on-going queries from depositors etc etc. After 2 years of intense effort and endless hours devoted to DAG, I'm trying to get back something of a social life!
Congratulations anrigaut on your hard work
Congratulations anrigaut on keeping afloat while being drowned in lethargy by other depositors. It seems they have all come out of the woodwork wanting to know where to put their money. Noticeably absent when they are asked to do anything. My new dictionary for the IOM seems to have hit the spot judging by the threats and rubbishing I am receiving on the Internet.
Yes, I made a few quick
Yes, I made a few quick changes to address the main points of your earlier post. I do understand you not wanting to volunteer for more work :)
For various reasons the www.ksfiomdepositors.org site is more likely to be found by people searching on Google than ksfiomdag.com - for that reason I think it's important to have some element of "latest news" on there, even if only links to corresponding items on the ksfiomdag.com site. Would you like me to set things up so that you could directly edit a "news" block on the front-page?
As for the current structure and menu hierarchy - I was not involved in that - I simply provide the tools :) It is too complex, and not particularly "friendly" - something should be done!
News block on front page?
That sounds a plausible idea. To limit the workload it would have to be essentially links - much as I sometimes post on the chat site. But it would indeed be more useful than just a general link to the site and would highlight important news.
I see you have added a link to Tony's site - that's good.
Neither of us were involved in setting up the current structure. I agree it is not user-friendly and finding things on there (as I have sometimes needed to do for historical documents) is something of a nightmare!