TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

It won't be long now - you can see a screen grap here (http://www.fairportconvention.com/news997.htm)

Oooooooh I like that! Any idea when it will be fully functioning, Chris? In that form, I mean.

I have high hopes for the new website. But....

Green?

Keith will be happy ;)

Nice one, Mike! LOL

What's your problem with green, Andy?

Green tends to be a less accessible colour for those afflicted with colour-blindness, making it more difficult to read text embedded on it.

Not inaccessible, you understand, just less.

Red/green colour blindness is almost exclusively a male affliction, by the way.

Oh, I see. Never knew that before. Back on topic, let's hope the new website is better maintained than its predecessors.

My mother is red/green blind.

Back to topic:
I like the new Web Site. Looks good, I think.

Shouldn't be a problem with the text in white. Unless they highlight anything in red  :-\

I like it.

Whats with the Scottish Gallery? Pics of the chaps in kilts perhaps?

Bottom right hand corner of the screen grab for those  who have no idea what I'm on about.  :D

Not good for snooker players!

Maybe they should have done it in 'Sense of Occasion' Pink  ;)


Seriously - looks like an improvement on the current site.

It does look an improvement on the old site..

The 'old site' was, is great. Unpretentious and to the point.

Interesting Shirl, I would have said that with Iconic involved the website was updated pretty regularly. At least over the last couple of years anyway. Where i think it has been particularly poor is in the on-line shopping side but that is apparently being updated with this revamp.

A regular revamp is necessary for any website these days with the changing needs of users and the way technology keps moving forward.

I'll back Iconic on this too, Shirl - that website has been very regularly updated over the last couple of years - I don't think there's been anything that's been missed - except for the Cropredy warm-up tickets on-sale date - recently.

My only comment would be the white text on green background - not generally accepted as easy to read for the vast majority - but that could just be that one page. Until the site is actually up & running - Simon's said 'very soon' on tour - it's difficult to tell from just one screen-shot.

Okay, I retract!

I didnt mean to imply that the site was badly run, merely that there seemed to be fairly long periods of inactivity on it, but maybe that's just my perception.

Now the site before that..... ;)

Thank God they didn't copy RT's Beeswing site - DARK BROWN???  Every time I visit that I reel (well sometimes I might do a small strathspey) 

Seriously disagree with you there... There's been 9 updates to the news page in 07 alone and if you go onto the News archive you'll see a huge selection of news clippings from 2005 and 2006 (2005 being when the site was set up).

I think the current site is the best maintained of all the folk sites I view, and although I'll give it a chance, its going to be seriously difficult for the new company to beat it...

Having said all that the quality of the news and features etc on the site is dependant not just on the owners but also on the band themselves. If FC don't provide updates to the webmasters, the site can't be updated.

As for the new site ... Green???

 :)

Leahdon is right although I think she is referring only to the nine *current* items on the news pages. In fact, it's been more than that during January as a couple of individual stories have been combined, others have already moved to the archive to make way for new stuff, and a couple have been updated during the month. And that's not to mention the new photos (including the one on the front page), the two new logos, and the features that Iconic commissioned: the 40th Anniversary piece, the Sense of Occasion review, and Chris Leslie's '10 years' recollection.

In the run-up to Christmas, the Aggies and Albion's tours got plenty of publicity and there was advance notice of the new album plus more general items like Gareth's trips and so on.

Fairport have all been consistently happy with Iconic's work on the website. The site is warmly praised in the Winter Tour programme and, by Simon, on the website. But, as Andy F himself says, it's time for a change and - like him - I wish the new site ongoing success.

But GREEN? and white text ??? ??? :P

green and white
my favourite colour scheme 8)

The PR machinery for the new website has been working for some time now. I've eagerly awaited , day after day, for it to be launched so I can order my copy of "Sense of Occasion". We poor so..uls who live far away from The Winter Tour gig locations can't do much but to wait for this green site  ;D
Staffan
Senseless of occasion or Sense of Occasionless??? :) ;) :D

Only a week to go (for the album anyway) Staffan!

Personally, I quite like white on green.  Especially that fairly dark green.  Perhaps my eyes are funny?

Do you remember when computer screens were text only and green-on-black...?

Staffan - If you require it as quickly as possible, I'd be inclined to order it from Amazon UK. You ought to get it in your ghands by the end of next week, as they usually post on or before day of release.

THE NEW WEBSITE IS UP AND RUNNING..

 .... off for a browse.......

Just back from the shop. CD and cap ordered- Iamafter all planning to come to Croppers this year!
Site looks great.  There could have been a few more items in the shop, but since it's just opened, I guess they will be filling stock a s a p. ;D ;D
Look forward to all the goodies they will continue to fill the site with.
Off to a good start and long may it function! :)
Staffan

I think the website looks good - not nearly as terrifyingly green as was imagined....I like the feel of it...looks friendly, welcoming and informative.

My main gripe is with the shop.  I'm all in favour of artists taking control over their own product, but why (except out of charity) would I possibly buy the CDs for 13 quid when I can get them delivered to my door for under 9.00 inc p&p.  I'm sorry.  They are making it impossible for me to buy from them.  If they were 10 quid I'd (a little reluctantly, but I would) do it and they'd earn at least 1.50 more from me than they would from the copy I'll buy from Foxy or HMV or whoever is cheapest.  But I'm not forking out 4 quid extra an album.  I just can't.  Sorry.

There is a school of thought which suggests that buying from The Artist helps the band rather than The Man (in this case, say, HMV) is a morally better position to be in, in that more of your money goes to sustaining the band rather than a multinational conglomerate who are using their market position to bully suppliers ("gis' it for a fiver or not at all") into giving away their product (for such it is) just in order to get it into the larger market (I'm sure there'll be a small brewer along in a minute to explain the actual dynamics). Given that, if one felt so strongly in the first place, and given some of the criticism that comes the band's way upon each new release, one could surely just make a donation if one were worried about their livlihoods? For myself, I find the new website interesting, in that it takes time to find all the familar stuff (those are the old biogs with a quick update, aren't they?) , more 'conventional'* in terms of what casual browsers expect from a website - it looks alot more 'pro' - and am pleased to see that the traditional pecking order has been maintained, with the FC List at the top of the 'links' list, and Talkawhile buried way down at the bottom. I wouldn't expect it any other way.  



*my sides! my sides!    

i am now officially on the fairport diet, and since i started about 10 minutes ago i have lost 27 pounds with the purchase of "a sense of occasion" and "gallileo's apoogy"
 thanks chaps
 now lets see if i can fit into them drainpipes :o

I absolutely agree - and I WOULD be willing to pay more to support the Artist.  But just not 45% more....  Sorry (again).

its only money, you cant take it with you

A great philosophy and one I wholeheartedly agree with.  Trouble is, I haven't got enough to take with me into next week...let alone worry about what I'm (not) leaving behind....!

The economics of releasing a CD these days are not good. It's recovering the recording costs that is difficult. The actual CD will be costing about £1 and postage another £1.
So if they sell you a copy directly at £13, there is a profit of £11 (reduced by VAT, but that's complicated)
However with the costs of recording, mastering, artwork, publicity, advertising, newsletter, plates and a glass master, that's lot of copies (thousands) before they break even. If they sold it for £10 that's a chunk out of the profit.
The price that CDs sell for these days, makes professional recording increasingly difficult. So support your local folk artist.

Having said that, selling at the price they must be getting from HMV looks mad.
What happened to selling it at gigs and on-line first. Then releasing it in the shops later?

I'd imagine the prospect of missing any "boom" caused by the Folk Awards meant that having the CD available via major distributors such as HMV and their fellow squeeze merchants was a major priority, put ahead of profit. "Not dead yet" so to speak.

I think the intention to sell to fans via gigs and the web was there. The CD is (yes?) being sold at gigs. The web site launch appeared to be delayed by weeks.

I'm underwhelmed by the new web site. The new facilities are handy, but the style, or lack of it, grates. Flashy, hard to read, ... ... ... . I preferred its predecessor and expect that I will be visiting this one less. Sometimes less really is more. [FX: muffled noises as I choke back abstruse technical jokes.]
 

I quite like it - and I'm sure I'll get used to it as I visit more.

Not to my taste either, Adrian, with fonts and spacing rather oddly conceived, in my opinion.

But then, I'm just the carping old git at the back. Good luck to 'em I say.

And yes, I'll be buying the album at the cheaper price (£8.99) from Amazon, I don't have extra money to fling at people either.  The official release date is still down as the 12th.

If the CD isn't released until the 12th is it being sold on the tour? And what about orders placed on the new website. Nowhere does it say there that it isn't available until the 12th so any punter will naturally assume it will be shipped as soon as they place their order. (or as soon as they process it really).

Minor gripe if its not available until the 12th from the website but if it is being shipped now then great.

MikeC who is looking forward to PJ & Peggy's new one hitting his mat soon

Sorry if I was unclear, that date was for Amazon.

No Andy you were clear as far as I am concerned.

Just done some wandering around the new site and it does say its available now from the online shop and from record shops from the 12, so thats great.

However, is there an email address on the site for queries? I couldn't see one. All they offer is a snail mail address for writing into. However they do mention above that, that they would like to have our email addresses.
It would be nice to have one for them as well.  :(

Well - don't throw your money away to Amazon either...you can get it cheaper still (postage paid)
 ;)
http://www.find-cd.co.uk/cds/B000MCHEBO-fairport-convention-sense-of-occasion.htm

HMV the best £8.99
http://tinyurl.com/2y7dhw

see my link above....Foxy are 4p cheaper.

a ha :) so they are..
http://tinyurl.com/29bb9u
can't say i've heard of them... are they OK?

I've had stuff from them before - everything ok with my orders. They are 'just' another one of the Jersey based VAT rebels...

27 pounds lighter today, well it's not available in the US very easily and I doubt the Peggy and PJ CD ever will be.

I'm not going to get excited as the interminable wait may be too much for me, also the potential for disappointment can be great as well and may crush my fragile psyche.

Now all I have to do is wait.

I've pre-ordered from HMV ath £8.99 incl p&p.

They've also got the XXXV DVD for just £4, so if you've not already got that excellent DVD, you could have both delivered for less than just the CD from Matty-Direct!.

SteveK

whats the betting they get to oregon before manchester

yeah thats all very well but as been pointed out the chaps will get crab all from both sales

i dont normally bother where i steal my mp3 s and flacs from, but for a select few bands i will always buy the cd , and from the artists website if possible

Back on topic!

How about this website (http://www.fairportarchive.com/) then - The Unofficial, not fit for the official, website.

Simon & Various others at the Folk Awards.....and yes, it has been pointed that that she doesn't appear in the second photo....

(http://www.fairportarchive.com/simongabriellaTH.jpg)

Also, it has been reported elsewhere that the new website designers have confirmed that the site doesn't work using the OPera browser - nor, for some reason, are they going to fix it so that it does. :o :o

That's odd.  Is the coding in Opera that difficult?

Another one...  Why is last year's Cropredy poster still there for download?  I'm probably missing a point here, and it's fine that it's to early for the 2007 poster to be ready or anything, but who wants the 2006 one now?  Surely everyone that would have wanted one has it already?  Just have a "coming soon" or something?

Very small niggle, but I'm still getting used to some of the "features"...

That Gabriela Irimia looks a bit fierce!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4468884.stm ?

Maybe she's  .... er ... out of shot somewhere. Well, he does have a smirk on his face!

Maybe not.

you dont think Simon has just booked the "surprise guest lady singer(s)" for cropredy by any chance do you :o

If that's Lembit Opik's girlfriend - no wonder he looks like a startled rabbit most of the time....

Can we expect "We are the Cheeky Girls" to be slipped into the Wintour Set?

Or will the Girls' next single be "trad. arr Fairport"?

Is this an Opik sandwich? (http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42434000/jpg/_42434225_lembit_remove100207.jpg)

ALso, on that site, is that Sylvia Thompson (as in better half of Danny)?

To get back on topic, I think that not ensuring that Opera works with the new site is a mistake.

It most assuredly is a mistake.  And I can't believe that any reputable web design firm could be involved with such a fundamentally stupid decision...

Yes its a mistake but I'll be generous and give them the benefit of the doubt and accept there may have been reasons. Not sure what they might be but I'm sure they must have had them.
However, the bigger mistake I believe is as Chris has pointed out, the fact that they have no intention of fixing it to make it Opera compatible.  >:(

That quite simply is a ridiculous decision I feel.

I still haven't found an email link for FC enquiries (again a very strange omission) but there is a link to the website designers at the bottom right of the front page if you want to try and ask them why.

Hmm. The Gallery page is devoid of content when viewed with Firefox on my PC.

Does anyone see anything there?



Edit: Never Mind, all the pictures just reappeared, obviously update time

I got that this morning Andy (using IE6 at work). Cleared the cache and deleted cookies and all was OK after that. First time its happened tho  :-\

Can't be worse than Lulu !

I've just noticed that my 'great mate' Catherine is in one of the photos in the Gallery...  second page.. top gate crew!!

Bet she doesn't realise though  ;D ;D

I love the "GALLERY BLANK" fillers! Really! Great!

Stranger things have happened!.....anyone offering odds? Opik'll be at home at an all-day bar....



I think Simon might have something to say.....that's Mrs Sylvia Nicol!

OK, OK, I didn't know! We're not all StalkaWhilers you know.

Dead right it doesn't work on Opera and I make the home page about 500KB.
I always thought that the last site just needed the graphics done more professionally (they were all jagged) and the indexing was poor, but overall it worked nicely and was simple.
The new design seems to be out of a box of 'Instant PHP Web Site'.

Also, I'm sure that with PayPal most people will think 'can not be arsed' and go away. I've been telling them for years, that they want a proper shop with a credit/debit card portal. The charges might be 1% higher than PayPal, but I'm sure that sales would be more than 1% up.

Why the anti Paypal stance Colin. I've never had any problems using it in the past. Am I missing something?

I like Paypal too...but I do agree with Colin that - for whatever reasons - a lot of people do seem to have an aversion to using it.

Which, these days, I don't understand. You don't even need to register with them now.....very quick & secure. It's owned by eBay, for those that aren't yet aware.

Nothing against them. They pay quickly and their charges are very reasonable.
My point is that it will put off people who do not know about them and are suspicious because it's something different. I sell lots of things on the net and you have to make it as simple as possible for people to part with their money.

Don't like it.  Unnecessarily over complicated.  And what's with those silly white boxes that resize to show the photo's in the gallery ?  What does that add to anything ?  Code for codes sake...

Nice colour, that's about it.

More importantly......not a single bloody fez or tiara to be seen........... :(

Dead right there, Colin. I suspect there's a steep learning curve being embarked upon.



TalkAWhilers will no doubt appear at some stage. Don't get paranoid.  [;-) {:-)

I have to say that I don't like the new look either I'm afraid. I liked the old look much better :-\

MMmm the Iconic influence perhaps?

"Our media business provides press and PR services including tour and event publicity, web and print design and album launch campaigns."

I don't know about the rest of their claims, but their web design skills are extremely suspect. Have you seen their own site? If I was an artist wanting to use the web to further my career, I suspect I may talk to someone who demonstrated a better understanding of on-line marketing.

Personally Ive never liked their website either always thought it boring and well.... green ::)

Um, now I'm confused.  

The website provided by Iconic was the one that has just been replaced. You know, the one with few whizz-bangs, but loads of good content, up-to-date information etc.

The new website is being provided by a specific web-design company, so theoretically they should know what they are doing from a web design point of view, if not from a marketing point of view.  They are using some of Iconic's old content, but on their site.

You seem to be criticising Iconic for something that is completely out of their hands... they have not been involved in the design of the new site.

The new Iconic website is not Andy or Stevie's - they've brought in an outside supplier - Alex Wright - to build it for them - and no, they're not connected to the company that designed the FC website - so the green is purely coincidental. Wasn't there a lot of green in the original Iconic site, anyway?

Q: How many folkies does it take to change a website?

A: 1 + X... 1 to change it & X to discuss how good the old one was.

(OK, its an old joke).

I'm not absolutely "over the moon" about the new one, but I'll get used to it.

I think this has now been fixed

http://www.fairportconvention.com/general_news.php#news1

Learning curve being climbed. Good.

No I think it just shows that they do read these pages and take note of what people say.

I don't think we're differing on this. Reading such sites as this is part of the learning curve that I was referring to.

It's a good thing.

The old site was very functional and "clean", which is suprisingly difficult to achieve and even more difficult to maintain.

I like the new site. It has a contemporary feel to the design, is stylish and doesn't have the obvious intrusion, from the technology, that Flash-based sites often have.

Jules  :)

(All I have to do now is work out how to get  link included to the CDL/Brolly sites.)

However them using the expression "Still using Opera 9.1" is being a bit superior and ill informed.
Opera is a very common browser on portable devices, as well as being generally excellent and is a good test to see if a web site properly complies to standards.

For any of you that don't like the 'green' website - you now have a choice of three colours...

http://www.fairportconvention.com/

Wow, how clever is that ;D. Like the purple best

rachel

Yep, purple works for me ;D  

Just have to learn how to navigate the site now, perhaps someone in HR could run a series of course's ::)

Pity the new site is so non-conformant / slow. It doesn't play at all well with my browser (Konqueror). meanwhile they do what? Oh yes, a choice of colour. Still white on black text though.

OK, I've got IE a few key-strokes away, but it is a deterrant. I really did prefer the old one. All it  needed was a real online store.

After using it for a while, I'd say the colour is almost irrelevant...but a choice is nice.  

What's not, is the number of clicks you have to make in order to get anywhere.  Press for more on a news story is a particular irritation.  There's no obvious place to go to see what's been added....which on a site that invites regular viewing is unforgivable.  Looking at news stories on the old site was easy peasy...much less so on this....

It does look good (to me), but functionally I'm far from convinced.

Oh Dear - Not at all impressed with the navigation around the new site.  

Also, the "Have your say about this article(add comment)" and "View Comment" links don't work very well - but why would you want that anyway on a functional website.  

Either it's a headache to maintain, or it's been knocked up using some kind of template.  It's certainly confusing to use!

Can we have the old one back please!!!!

Anyone else having problems getting on the website? All I get is a blank page

rachel

I thought it was just me....... ::)

Seems to be working now though...

It's working fine for me using Firefox 2.0.0.1 on Windows XP

Info about tickets

http://www.fairportconvention.com/cropredy_news.php#news1

Thanks for the tip-off Jude 8)

Woo Hoo ::)

And within 5 minutes of seeing that, I have my first order for 3 tickets and a car...  Plus me and himself of course, plus mum and dad, and hopefully plus a couple of virgins too.

It's going to be a fantastic year!! :)

And more bands as well.... ;D

Beat me to it Jude!!  I was just compiling my own list from the previous news items (sad, innit), and there it was already done for me!!

still sad about the bonzos, never mind
and ill have to suffer the strawbs to see jools & lulu

Gimme the Strawbs before Jools and Lulu any day!

Which is exactly what you've got!!!  At least an hour before!!

Lulu's fab!

Granted, the old girl's in good shape - tinywee!! - and can still sing (saw her supporting Elton John in Cardiff) but I just can't stand her. I shall go shopping while she's on.

Back to the website. I really do get irritated by people who design websites that don't fit on an 800px wide screen so that if I view them on my laptop I have to use horizontal scrolling to see their width.

So this site irritates me.

Well if that's the worst that you have to contend with, life's not treating you so bad

I think that the new site is much easier of the eye and funky... and I know it's a silly little thing but I liked the 'colour change' option. Browse with a background that reflects your mood - almost feng-shui for folkies  ;D

Well if that were the worst that I have to contend with, you'd be right.

I think the site less accessible than the last version. The colour change option is indeed a redeeming quality.

It is slightly funny that they advertise the W3C validation service, which the website fails, but only on minor points.