I hate to say, "I told you so" but....
"I posted many times on the old POB board and that all the new proposed features would ruin the board, but Kristi listened to advice from the web designers instead of the board users."
She also listened to a "select group" of beta testers, maybe some of their opinions where not heard or that particular tester sucked.
If you recall, when the new board was outed by someone and people stated making comments about it, the reaction of KG was basically, "this is exactly why we did not announce anything".
I remember lamenting on facebook the passing of the old board and what that meant, Wendell was a part of that "status".
A discussion of fellow surveyors developed into Wendell being prodded by Kent to consider making a new site.
Wendell had a "beta" site open within the hour.
A few folks logged on and helped Wendell with some basic features, but just for a few hours.
The next day Wendell had this site up and running in it's a basic form.
"If you build it they will come"
Since then Wendell has added, and/or deleted, features and listened to the feedback he was given to try and make this board something that people will want to visit.
I think he is doing a great job.
As for MLB, I really don't know why he has to criticize fellow posters for coming here, but he did the same thing when bobplumb.com was in existence.
I'm not sure if it was because of the competition to rpls.com, Wendell or Angel, or even "he who shall not be mentioned", but it is an obvious attack.
I do still stop by the RPLS.II.com site, but as of yet it has not kept my "technophobic" interest.
#6
> I would bet dollars to doughnuts that he spends time over here though, either lurking or he has chosen a pen name.
And I will tell you that you are 100% correct. 😉
He is welcome here so long as he minds his manners and refrains from the "threats" that he use to happen and still happens upon others. We will NOT tolerate threats made by anyone threatening to harm another on Beerleg in ANY way shape or form. This includes emotional, mental, physical, etc... Bickering amongst you guys is one thing but when it turns into harmful threats on peoples bodies and lives, it is out of hand and WILL be dealt with swiftly. There's no reason for that sort of behavior, regardless if someone agrees or disagrees with another. IMHO.
Is MLB connected with Small World Labs?
Well, I certainly don't claim to keep up with the goings on over at rpls.com (aside from monitoring the site's web traffic rank), but early on it occurred to me that MLB was protesting way too much.
Either he
a) had been instrumental in steering the folks at POB to Small World Labs, the entity that attempts to run the new web site
or
b) had drunk copious quantities of cheap chardonnay with various marketing people from Small World Labs who had photos of him that needn't see the light of day if he plays his cards right.
His denials of the obvious reminded me of a representative of the naval architects who designed "Titanic" insisting to the end that there was no problem and no need to launch the life boats.
I hate to say, "I told you so" but....
the purpose of a beta tester is to test the program they have in place. It is not to propose an entirely different program. I was an original beta tester and figured that out fairly quickly. They weren't interested in hearing how the format was all wrong; they just wanted us to use the forum to find minor bugs and maybe propose changes within the basic framework of the new forum.
If they've chosen a Cadillac then the beta tester might complain the A/C isn't cold enough but not say I would rather have a Lincoln.
I hate to say, "I told you so" but....
I think they probably have long range plans. I would assume once that they got all the glitches out that they will go entirely to a digital edition of the magazine. Print is going away. They may publish a mag quaterly or twice a year or maybe just an annual for delivery but maybe not. It is part of the green thing also but he green thing is being pushed by cost of paper/printing etc.
So it wasn't a Cadillac but more like a greyhound bus that they are after.
Matter of fact, I just get the digital editon now or at least requested that I do.
I hate to say, "I told you so" but....
I think Robert's got it: POB is taking the long view and isn't *too* worried about the chaos currently found at RPLS.com. Small World Labs appears to have a decent reputation, and its platform is being used -- apparently more successfully -- by some sizeable corporations, so I don't think the platform is to blame..
I do wonder, though, whether POB has realized that it has to put some real money into the horsepower behind the site (bandwidth and/or computational power) to make it workable. I could put up with the site's chaotic layout if it was responsive, but it's still painfully slow. The speed problem keeps me away pretty effectively.
Regarding Kent's suspicion that MLB might have steered POB to Small World: not likely, since the company is based in Kent's own back yard (Austin, TX). Given the history between MLB and Kent, I can't imagine the former recommending *anything* that lives in Austin.
I hate to say, "I told you so" but....
I don't think "the format" is entirely to blame. It seems like they went catagory crazy dividing the "strictly surveying" topic into 10 subtopics ... last time I looked they had a catagory called "survey chariots", where you're supposed to talk about your survey truck, for example. But, I don't care for the format, either, FWIW. But it could be usible if implemented properly.
I tend agree that POB is trying to create a "click factory" where they can show advertisers they got a million clicks a month, or whatever, but that, coupled with the slow server, isn't working out too great.
I hate to say, "I told you so" but....
> I tend agree that POB is trying to create a "click factory" where they can show advertisers they got a million clicks a month, or whatever,
I would have to agree with that. The problem I see is that if you lose a lot of visitors, you can have more "clickable" areas, but less people clicking. Here at BL, we really don't have many places to put banner ads, which is fine. That just means those banners are more likely to generate clicks and thus, they become more valuable.
