Trial: Please add comments on what you like, don't understand and what's missing.

[geoff parcell]

Let's use this to get familiar with the site. Feel free to start a group,  add an event, a news item or a request of your own.

Then can you give us some feedback as to whether you find this useful in providing information about the village. Clearly it is not fully loaded with information yet but if it works for you we can get started on that.

[Stella Parcell]

Hello. I didn't understand the email you sent me saying I had membership of the Pen Selwood website. My instinct would normally be to delete any email I receive which contains links I haven't requested in case they are linked to a virus.

The first thing I would want to do is just to look at the website, see how easy it is to use and provide feedback at this protype stage if that felt relevant. The email seems over complicated because I only want to look at the website in the first instance. Maybe someway down the line I might want to edit an item, add information about one of the village activities I am involved with. I would be much less likely to want to add my profile and certainly not a photo - at least until I know what the purpose is and who might have access/ interest in it!

Only when I have got familiar with the website, after having a good look round it, might I want to invite friends and neighbours to join so they can visit the website too.

Sorry, it feels like things could be moving too fast. The email I received has completely put me off! try one step at a time starting with access to the website.

regards
Stella

[geoff parcell]

Thanks!  I'll try and simplify the email which is a default from the site provider.

[Robert Backus]

Hi Geoff, I'm guessing there will always be control over who can access this website or at least certain areas of it, so perhaps we should put the Fete committee and key players on that page; which would then lead to doing the same for other committees etc, subject to individuals agreeing to their details being posted. For the directions to the village and other touristy info (B&Bs etc) to be relevant I would have thought that some of the website would need to be open access to the world!  In other words, villagers and/or suitably vetted locals could have access to a more comprehensive set of details about key players within the village.  The site looks and feels more up to speed than the existing www. one but I have shied away from clicking on some of the share address book / calendar type ideas.  Hope this helps product devlopment.  Rob

[geoff parcell]

Thanks for the feedback Rob.

You are right, we want to control parts of the site. I think we have the flexibility to make the front page open to the world. I'm hoping that will let people link to 'Where to stay' etc. too. Signing up requires approval of administrators and only those signing up can add material. It may be that Pen residents want to view but not sign up, and thats OK.

I think we want to aim for a bias towards openness. Discussions about gardening may be interesting to more than just members of the gardening club for instance. But fete committees and the like can decide whether to be open or private.

I can send a mail to a group or to an individual but don't have access to email addresses or telephone numbers so from that perspective an individual is secure. An individual can choose which emails to receive too.  But go ahead check it out and see what breaks!

Of course we may choose to opt in to a telephone or email list but that would be available only to vetted residents.

Robert Backus said:

Hi Geoff, I'm guessing there will always be control over who can access this website or at least certain areas of it, so perhaps we should put the Fete committee and key players on that page; which would then lead to doing the same for other committees etc, subject to individuals agreeing to their details being posted. For the directions to the village and other touristy info (B&Bs etc) to be relevant I would have thought that some of the website would need to be open access to the world!  In other words, villagers and/or suitably vetted locals could have access to a more comprehensive set of details about key players within the village.  The site looks and feels more up to speed than the existing www. one but I have shied away from clicking on some of the share address book / calendar type ideas.  Hope this helps product devlopment.  Rob

[Sue Burnley]

Hi Geoff

On a new subject - love the new look website but I forget to save the link in my favourites and when I googled 'pen selwood' I only got the old web site.  Is that because this one has not officially gone live yet?

[Admin]

Hi Sue

It is live. I am trying to get it up the Google search. I have also invested in a Google adword. Sharon is getting current site to point to new one. I have tried Twitter as a means of bringing it up the search list (@ourpenselwood)  Then it is up to people mentioning it and searching for it, and using for it. It takes a few weeks on Google for it to filter up the ranking.

Do you have any further ideas how we can make it the preferred site?

Geoff