The Black Sheep – June
CNN
A nice lady from CNN rang the office earlier today looking for a volunteer to give an interview on the EU budget scenario tomorrow morning.
Excitement filled the office – who would be the lucky staffer to enter the domain of television?
The numbers of wannabe celebs dwindled when we discovered the time of the interview was 06:30am up in London town.
Eventually, Mr Deputy Editor bravely stepped up – so if you fancy getting up early …
Luke – I am your farmer …
MT: Am loving this:
http://www.storewars.org/flash/index.html
We’ve got it in for’um
MT: First things first – yes – this is me and – no – that wasn’t me calling you all whingers in the forums last night. Midnight on a Sunday evening is not in my usual internet browsing routine.
Secondly – hang fire with the fire and brimstone talk. For a start my email inbox is filling up quicker than I can clear it which is stopping me from getting the work done that you’re asking me to do. Also, rest assured all of your (valid) complaints are discussed to see if there are viable solutions to the problems. For example, the latest is that a column showing the amount of replies an individual thread has should be feasible and will be implemented some time this week.
Thirdly – I think i’m in line for promotion as changing the website and forums has led to unprecedented amounts of forum activity throughout the weekend. The number of posts saying “I’m off” and “This is a good alternative forum” are racking up and helping me achieve my monthly traffic targets with record speed.
Lastly – in the words of one dedicate Black Sheep follower who was trying to sooth my battered ego:
“… I know they’ve got better (farming related) things to worry about – for example, I was expecting to see comments about the current EU rebate position, but no, not a thing about it – the forum’s appearance worries them more? Very odd.”
Wow! The new site’s gone down well I must say.
If you believe the forums – no one can use the site anymore, nothing works and no one’s ever coming back. Still it’s nice to know I’ve made a difference.
I will agree that the launch has not been without its hitches. I think the low (or high) point yesterday was when the home page was showing the latest news as “Elderflower cheesecake with a compote of gooseberries”. Compelling stuff.
It’s for your own good
MT: Well, at long last we’re here on the new platform, and before everyone starts hurling abuse in our direction, try to remember that all the changes to the site have been done for a reason. In most cases we’ve tried to recreate or refine the functionality of the old version so that, effectively, no one is losing out.
However, we’ve tried to balance that out with a cross-site streamlining which has cut out some of the deadwater areas of the site.
And believe me, there were quite a few of those. The problem with a website is that nothing expires and, because of this, inevitably comes back to haunt you when you’re trying to do the spring cleaning.
Anyhow – the drill from here is – enjoy the site, don’t be too harsh with us if somethings wrong or missing – it’s new to us too, and if you find any bugs that we’ve overlooked – let us know
Also, some positive feedback might make a pleasant change from all the FWi Forum slating we receive, so if you like the new site – let us know