The first impression is not too promising; the first page, underneath CLICK HERE TO OPEN HOME PAGE says: " Website revision in progress July 2009, apologies for any gremlins" Which does not exactly inspire confidence. Once on the main site, however, things do improve. Visually it looks good; nice colour pictures of some churches, brief statement of the area covered and explanation of what the site contains for various different people; locals, ringers from outside the area and non-ringers.
The Officers page gives full contact details for all officers. The email address has been modified to avoid spam but an explanation is given.
Towers are listed alphabetically by branch but as there are only 2 branches with not many towers each, all are visible at once so it does not matter if you don't know which branch the tower you want is in. number of bells is not given on this page but a click on each tower takes you to the main tower entry which gives full details. Name, address, phone and email (modified if there is one) of tower contact. Excellent photo of the church, and as this is a tourist area there is lots of useful additional information -getting there, parking, eateries, toilets, external links. there is a slight difference between the branches-one has a link to the Dove map and the other to a slightly inferior map and the format for the tower pages is not as good on the Western Branch towers, but I assume this is being developed.
Details of the next Branch practices are listed, but some of the News is old, such as the Striking Competitions and Newsletters. the list of Surprise Practices is from 2009-10.
That's actually all there is. It's sufficient for finding out about practice nights, tower contacts and events, but there are no optional extras such as rules (what is the peal fee or membership subscription, for instance) etc. I also kept getting Sorry, there has been a page error
and had to reload the home page., and the Carlisle Diocese links (eg http://www.carlislediocese.org.uk/churches/parishes/?parishid=3180) no longer seem to work, though this may be the fault of the Diocesan website. What there is here is good (apart from a few out of date events) and the additional tourist information is very useful, but it does need a little bit more information before it can be rated as a top class website. It is a small Guild however and deserves credit for doing what it does well and in a visually attractive way.
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Beverley and District Ringing Society
I was uncertain whether to include this as it appears to be a subset of a larger Society (The Yorkshire Association) but have decided to include it as it does include some features not found on other sites and in some ways is an improvement on the YA site, and it does have its own CC reps, for what that is worth. The home page has details of the latest peals and peal statistics rung by the Society, and quarter peal details and statistics are also available. If this is kept up all year it should provide interesting reading for the members. Peal and Quarter peal details and stats are available back to 1947. Some of the site(including the photos page) is still in development, but there is a good amount of information of each tower, including the number of peals and known quarters, and brief information about the bells and church. Unfortunately the link to a map does not seem to be working, possibly because the map site has changed recently. Contact details are only via a generic email and no names are given. Several of these bounced when I tried them but the information was speedily provided by one of the officers.
An interesting and possibly unique page is the Peal the Year details where members are invited to fix peals to enable the Society to complete the calendar!
The results of the Striking Competitions are slightly out of date.
Although not a large site, this is an interesting one due mainly to the peal and quarter statistics available, and could be further developed and improved
An interesting and possibly unique page is the Peal the Year details where members are invited to fix peals to enable the Society to complete the calendar!
The results of the Striking Competitions are slightly out of date.
Although not a large site, this is an interesting one due mainly to the peal and quarter statistics available, and could be further developed and improved
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Format
After just one analysis I decided to give up the formal marking and categories as they overlapped, so I am just going to do a general analysis of content and an overall grade. I expect I may end up saying the same sort of thing (good or bad) on most of them.
Friday, 14 January 2011
Bedfordshire Association
No developments to the temporary site yet, apart from a notice giving a link to a form to gift aid subscriptions. Excellent -all Associations should do this EVEN IF IT MEANS A LITTLE WORK AND A SLIGHT RULE CHANGE!!
Ok, since I wrot the review published below, the site has changed and is now advertised as a temporary website which is undergoing reconstruction. It now has just basic information (at least this includes mames of the District Officers). There are no details for individual tower, only practice night information is given. For tower contacts one contacts the (new?) webmaster who is at least named and has a proper, not generic email. So watch this space. I will be watching the new Bedforshire website and will report any changes, but will leave the analysis below as a warning of how bad it was before.
Oh. Dear.
First impressions are not good. The 2nd item on the Home Page advertises a Young Ringers Event for November 2010. The menu bar down the left also only has 'Diary 2010' (as at Jan 14th 2011) though when you click this is does give an option to 'go to 2011' (and 2009 and 2008!) but this could easilly be missed. Moving down the menu tabs on the left, the News and Events stops at 2009. There are no obvious direct links to the Officers or indeed much Association information at all(some basic information can be found under the Information tab but the Oficers can only be found under Contact Us way down the menu bar and only the Assocaition officers (a mere 5 of them) are named; no phone numbers are given and the emails are generic. The District contacts are not even named. The towers are listed by practice night but they are not linked to the full tower details. The district pages are abysmal. There is a basic map (but has no roads or names) with numbered dots so if you don't know which tower is which you randomly click until you find the one you want, which when clicked merely takes you further down the page to a table giving very brief details of each tower -bells, weight, service times, practice night and a tower contact name only. Only For details you have to contact the un-named District Sectrary through a generic email (last time I tried I did not get a reply) . Information to an event in the past is still on one branch page. It is quite easy to navigate around but only because there is so little content you can't possibly get lost. I'm not surprised the Webmaster is not named on the site. It could (and should) be much much better. It's hopeless, actually.
Overall grade D-
http://www.bacr.co.uk/
Ok, since I wrot the review published below, the site has changed and is now advertised as a temporary website which is undergoing reconstruction. It now has just basic information (at least this includes mames of the District Officers). There are no details for individual tower, only practice night information is given. For tower contacts one contacts the (new?) webmaster who is at least named and has a proper, not generic email. So watch this space. I will be watching the new Bedforshire website and will report any changes, but will leave the analysis below as a warning of how bad it was before.
Oh. Dear.
First impressions are not good. The 2nd item on the Home Page advertises a Young Ringers Event for November 2010. The menu bar down the left also only has 'Diary 2010' (as at Jan 14th 2011) though when you click this is does give an option to 'go to 2011' (and 2009 and 2008!) but this could easilly be missed. Moving down the menu tabs on the left, the News and Events stops at 2009. There are no obvious direct links to the Officers or indeed much Association information at all(some basic information can be found under the Information tab but the Oficers can only be found under Contact Us way down the menu bar and only the Assocaition officers (a mere 5 of them) are named; no phone numbers are given and the emails are generic. The District contacts are not even named. The towers are listed by practice night but they are not linked to the full tower details. The district pages are abysmal. There is a basic map (but has no roads or names) with numbered dots so if you don't know which tower is which you randomly click until you find the one you want, which when clicked merely takes you further down the page to a table giving very brief details of each tower -bells, weight, service times, practice night and a tower contact name only. Only For details you have to contact the un-named District Sectrary through a generic email (last time I tried I did not get a reply) . Information to an event in the past is still on one branch page. It is quite easy to navigate around but only because there is so little content you can't possibly get lost. I'm not surprised the Webmaster is not named on the site. It could (and should) be much much better. It's hopeless, actually.
Overall grade D-
http://www.bacr.co.uk/
Bath and Wells DA
1 First Impression
A little on the dull side -no pictures of bells or churches and only one small logo. The colour is slightly boring and the text is on the small side, but the appearance is not irritating or overwhelming. The information of the front Page is useful and up-to-date; brief details of the aims and geographical area, announcements and a calendar of events for the next few weeks. The Site Index is clear and easy to follow.
Mark: 7/10.
2. Basic information on the front page (see above) . No general map of the area that I could find. Good list of all Association Officers: names which are 'clickable' links to a generic Association address. Branch Details lists all Officers (again with generic email) and lists all towers and events within each branch. Details of how to buy the report including on-line payment -a bonus.
8/10
3. . The 'Full List' option under Towers produced an alphabetical list which is 'clickable' to give full tower details -clickable links to Dove and Felstead for founders and peals and also a clickable map. Toilet facilities given. Useful Quick Links. The only minor quibbles are lack of an overall map and listing of towers by number of bells. Good picture of each tower.
9/10
4. Full contact details -name address, phone(s) and generic email. Towers also listed by practice night, both for the Association as a whole and within each branch
9.5/10
5.Overall appearance including ease of use -pretty good. The muted colour scheme does grow on you!
8/10
6. Up to date. -yes, appeared to be
10/10
7. Lots of additional information -Striking competitions, details of the Library, rules, Tower Advisory Service, obituaries, etc
10/10
8 Bonus marks: 10 at the moment for all the additional features (including online payment for the report) which overcomes my distrust of generic emails. I may test one or two out but this does not really give an accurate result -sometimes no reply is forthcoming from personal addresses. But on the whole this is a pretty good site and does nearly everything one can expect. I won't add up the score - this may need modifying when more website have been scrutinised but an overall grade of A-
http://www.bath-wells.org.uk/index.php
A little on the dull side -no pictures of bells or churches and only one small logo. The colour is slightly boring and the text is on the small side, but the appearance is not irritating or overwhelming. The information of the front Page is useful and up-to-date; brief details of the aims and geographical area, announcements and a calendar of events for the next few weeks. The Site Index is clear and easy to follow.
Mark: 7/10.
2. Basic information on the front page (see above) . No general map of the area that I could find. Good list of all Association Officers: names which are 'clickable' links to a generic Association address. Branch Details lists all Officers (again with generic email) and lists all towers and events within each branch. Details of how to buy the report including on-line payment -a bonus.
8/10
3. . The 'Full List' option under Towers produced an alphabetical list which is 'clickable' to give full tower details -clickable links to Dove and Felstead for founders and peals and also a clickable map. Toilet facilities given. Useful Quick Links. The only minor quibbles are lack of an overall map and listing of towers by number of bells. Good picture of each tower.
9/10
4. Full contact details -name address, phone(s) and generic email. Towers also listed by practice night, both for the Association as a whole and within each branch
9.5/10
5.Overall appearance including ease of use -pretty good. The muted colour scheme does grow on you!
8/10
6. Up to date. -yes, appeared to be
10/10
7. Lots of additional information -Striking competitions, details of the Library, rules, Tower Advisory Service, obituaries, etc
10/10
8 Bonus marks: 10 at the moment for all the additional features (including online payment for the report) which overcomes my distrust of generic emails. I may test one or two out but this does not really give an accurate result -sometimes no reply is forthcoming from personal addresses. But on the whole this is a pretty good site and does nearly everything one can expect. I won't add up the score - this may need modifying when more website have been scrutinised but an overall grade of A-
http://www.bath-wells.org.uk/index.php
Bellringing Association Websites
Bellringing Websites have been around for a while now, and most if not all Associations/Guilds/Societies have some sort of site. However the quality is extremely variable. Some are excellent but some are dreadful. In this series of blogs I am going to assess and analyse the content of them main territorial websites. But first, in order to assess them, we have to decide what we actually want from a guild website. Who is it designed for and what information should it contain? It is obvious, from a quick look at some of them, that the various Webmasters have very different ideas as to what their members want or need. As there is no general consensus on what should be on a website, I have decided what the criteria should be. This is purely subjective and entirely my own opinion as to what I expect to find on an association website. Others may disagree! I shall be 'marking' each website according to these criteria. I shan't hold back; if I think the website is rubbish, I shall say so!
So firstly, what do I look for? I should guess that most people, when visiting a guild website, are looking for details of towers - number of bells, practice night etc, and contact details -name, address, phone number and email.Most websites provide good details of towers but contact details vary enormously. Some give full details, others none at all and some use 'generic'email addresses. Sometimes these work, sometimes they don't. I shall try to use most of them to see if any reply is forthcoming. a Calendar of events is also a 'must'. Maps of the branches are useful, as is some way of finding a particular tower is you do not know which branch it is in. It is also useful to have a list of officers of the Association. This should be the minimum amount of information. Some also have the Guild Rules, reports, external links, peal details, quarter peals -the list is almost endless. So I shall analyse each website under the following headings:
1. First Impressions -what the Home Page is like
2. Guild Information -what it is, the area covered including branches, objectives, Officers
3. Tower details -number/weight of bells, practice/service ringing, optional extras such as founders and peal details, and particularly how easy it is to find towers (including maps)
4. Contact details -how much is given? If they are 'generic' emails, do they work?
5. Overall appearance -including how easy it is to use.
6. Is it up-to-date?
7 Optional extras -rules, reports, news, etc
8. Bonus marks for anything not covered above, including penalty marks for anything really dire and/or annoying.
So there you are. If you are a webmaster of a guild website and are bothered about league tables, have a look at your website and see how it measures up. I shall be doing them alphbetically (mainly) so you will know roughly how long you will have until I reach your site as I am hoping to do a minimum of one a week.
So firstly, what do I look for? I should guess that most people, when visiting a guild website, are looking for details of towers - number of bells, practice night etc, and contact details -name, address, phone number and email.Most websites provide good details of towers but contact details vary enormously. Some give full details, others none at all and some use 'generic'email addresses. Sometimes these work, sometimes they don't. I shall try to use most of them to see if any reply is forthcoming. a Calendar of events is also a 'must'. Maps of the branches are useful, as is some way of finding a particular tower is you do not know which branch it is in. It is also useful to have a list of officers of the Association. This should be the minimum amount of information. Some also have the Guild Rules, reports, external links, peal details, quarter peals -the list is almost endless. So I shall analyse each website under the following headings:
1. First Impressions -what the Home Page is like
2. Guild Information -what it is, the area covered including branches, objectives, Officers
3. Tower details -number/weight of bells, practice/service ringing, optional extras such as founders and peal details, and particularly how easy it is to find towers (including maps)
4. Contact details -how much is given? If they are 'generic' emails, do they work?
5. Overall appearance -including how easy it is to use.
6. Is it up-to-date?
7 Optional extras -rules, reports, news, etc
8. Bonus marks for anything not covered above, including penalty marks for anything really dire and/or annoying.
So there you are. If you are a webmaster of a guild website and are bothered about league tables, have a look at your website and see how it measures up. I shall be doing them alphbetically (mainly) so you will know roughly how long you will have until I reach your site as I am hoping to do a minimum of one a week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)