Harold -- Like you, we don't like to see the schedule slide to the right, but I think a delayed launch is far less problematic than launching it and having many thousands of people stumble on problems that put us in an embarassing reaction mode. Is the scope of beta testing everything and making sure all of the hooks are working a bit more than expected, or are there actual problems being found and having to be fixed before progressing to the next round of testing? Rather than asking the beta testers (like us directors) to swarm the site, can we increase any effectiveness by doing anything coordinated (i.e. "you, you, and you, focus on trying to break this, and only this, section of the site", etc)? Compliments to the team. I know how arduous a major site launch is when from the outside it only seems to be an upload of pages. 73, Brian N5ZGT On Tue, 23 Feb 2010, Kramer, Harold, WJ1B wrote:
We are once again postponing the Web launch until March 24th. We are now confident that we have the majority of the content loaded into the site. In fact, as our Beta testers, many of you have been viewing the new site and commenting on it during the past few weeks. We appreciate all of your help with this effort as the site continues to improve daily.
The current delay is necessary to assure that we have all of the data connections correct. These include data feeds such as hamfests, classes, special events, the new e-store, etc. We also have not tested the member sign up and member transaction portion of the site. These are obviously critical functions and both Fathom and our team will be working on this during the next few weeks.
After two years of work, this delay feels like an eternity to me and the rest of the launch team. Believe me, we all feel terrible about missing yet another deadline. However, this is a large and complex Web site. It is used not only by our members, but also by people around the world who have an interest in Amateur Radio. We want to make sure that we have everything working right when we launch the site.
Along with the Board, staff and SMs, we will be communicating this news to our membership as well. We will put up a news story tomorrow on our current Web site about this delay.
73,
Harold
Harold Kramer, WJ1B
Chief Operating Officer
ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio(tm)
225 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111
Telephone: 860 594 0220
email: hkramer@arrl.org <mailto:hkramer@arrl.org>
web: www.arrl.org/ <http://www.arrl.org/>
ARRL Director, Rocky Mountain Division On the web at www.RockyMountainDivision.org