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Post by elljay on Nov 19, 2013 17:51:02 GMT
TC have announced that to mark their third birthday they are going to launch a redesigned website on Thursday.
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Post by elmopb on Nov 21, 2013 18:12:27 GMT
...and having seen it, how many people will look here for a forum..?
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JamesFrance
Member of DD Central
Port Grimaud 1974
Posts: 1,317
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Post by JamesFrance on Nov 21, 2013 18:49:29 GMT
I hope the old forum will be merged with the new one, it should just be combined so as not to have to log in separately, probably not fully operational yet.
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Post by mrclondon on Nov 21, 2013 19:05:25 GMT
All TC forum refugees welcomed here TC have posted on the old forum that they will no longer be taking note of new posts on it (despite opening a sticky a few hours ago for comments on the new interface), and that minimal content will be copied onto the new forum before the old one closes completely. However the bandwidth problems TC have been experiencing today has made posting on the new forum hard work, and thats before the rather primitive forum software is considered. Overall the new website is disappointing. Sure the teething problems are to be expected and will no doubt be resolved quickly, but at heart it is really a re-skin of the old database centric approach rather than a radical new more intuitive interface.
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Post by elljay on Nov 21, 2013 19:16:30 GMT
New site looks a bit of a mixed success - it's quite slow for example. The new forum is upside down - the newest posts are at the top!
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pikestaff
Member of DD Central
Posts: 2,133
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Post by pikestaff on Nov 22, 2013 16:29:33 GMT
New site looks a bit of a mixed success - it's quite slow for example. The new forum is upside down - the newest posts are at the top! Actually, that's about the only bit of the new forum I like. But the forum clearly was not ready for launch, and needs a lot of work.
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pikestaff
Member of DD Central
Posts: 2,133
Likes: 1,482
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Post by pikestaff on Nov 22, 2013 16:37:15 GMT
All TC forum refugees welcomed here TC have posted on the old forum that they will no longer be taking note of new posts on it (despite opening a sticky a few hours ago for comments on the new interface), and that minimal content will be copied onto the new forum before the old one closes completely. However the bandwidth problems TC have been experiencing today has made posting on the new forum hard work, and thats before the rather primitive forum software is considered. Overall the new website is disappointing. Sure the teething problems are to be expected and will no doubt be resolved quickly, but at heart it is really a re-skin of the old database centric approach rather than a radical new more intuitive interface. To be fair, the creator of the sticky has posted that he is taking note of the comments. I share your disappointment that the new interface is just a re-skin (and one that does not look worth the literally tens or hundreds of pounds they must have spent on it ), but the really shocking bit is the forum. Let's see how it goes...
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JamesFrance
Member of DD Central
Port Grimaud 1974
Posts: 1,317
Likes: 893
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Post by JamesFrance on Nov 22, 2013 19:07:02 GMT
I just made a post asking for a change of forum software to the free Simple Machines, but it didn't appear. I also tried to upload my avatar (our old boat from the 70s in Port Grimaud) but that didn't happen either.
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Post by mrclondon on Nov 22, 2013 19:14:24 GMT
Apart from the Q&A's having no scroll bar so you can't see all the threads / all the posts in a thread, the important parts of the site seem to be working. But the forum is a disaster - I had 3 attempts at lunchtime of posting a comment about these scroll bars and failed (twice as a new thread, and once adding a post). Gave up and posted on the old forum instead.
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jimbo
Posts: 234
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Post by jimbo on Nov 23, 2013 2:30:23 GMT
I agree. The new TC Forum is awful to use and scroll through. It's also slow.
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agent69
Member of DD Central
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Post by agent69 on Nov 23, 2013 9:52:14 GMT
Not a big fan of the loan page.
Currently has 10 loans listed, but only 4 are available to bid on. Would be better to list the closed loans elsewhere so they don't clutter up the main screen.
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Post by tybalt on Nov 24, 2013 7:38:35 GMT
I do not think the software was launched or released I think it escaped. I think it is truly horrid
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Post by mrclondon on Nov 24, 2013 12:04:03 GMT
The management dynamics at TC could play an interesting role in what happens next with this messy software release. Normally it is the company vs us (lots of small lenders). But with TC there is another body of opinion, the sponsors, for whom TC is facilitating their livelihood, at least in part. Several of the sponsors have been seen regularly on the old forum, and all have made good efforts at keeping on top of the Q&A's. It would be very instructive to know what the sponsors are saying to TC in private at the moment.
There have been several calls on the old form to revert to the previous software release. My view is if they can fix the Q&A visibiliy issue quickly and withdraw the new forum I think they will buy themselves enough time to fix the minor bugs in the software over the coming weeks.
I feel sorry for the sponsors who have loan requests currently live, particularly whoever is responsible for the segway experience company which was going to be tough sell at the best of times.
Edited to add:
The 'Priorities' thread on the new TC forum implies it is not just forum posts that go AWOL ... all internal messaging including deposit notifications are liable to not reach their destination. This is definately going to impact on the requests currently live.
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Post by bracknellboy on Nov 24, 2013 12:26:40 GMT
I don't like to overly criticise TC's operations: I think in the past they have been an easy target for the 'compare the experience to FC/RateSetter etc.' mob. They have a different business model to FC and have not thrown huge amounts into the business. I've always had a soft spot for their model of keeping the IT costs low, treating it a bit more as a smallish lending group rather than investing masses in the software to appeal to a larger audience. Plus I'd got used to some of its vagaries....
But I do think they have let themselves down on this one: I wonder how much the IT project has been allowed to be run by techies having their own head rather than being driven by the business needs. Like MRC I think they need to forget the new forum for a while, keep the old one, perhaps provide a single sign on between the two (if possible) and get on and focus on sorting out residual issues with the lending platform side.
I'm not particularly optimistic that this is a genuine first phase of major overhaul: I'm minded to think it is more of an initiative to get the platform fit for mobile with fundamentally same functionality as before. They should probably stick with that and introduce incremental enhancements over time (especially around individual account management facilities IMHO). But if that is the strategy, fine, execute it and make sure lenders expectations are set accordingly.
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Post by elljay on Nov 24, 2013 12:36:31 GMT
One of the sponsors has just said that an auction will be extended given the current issues.
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