The BBKA website

[alanf]

... the Exam Board. Few know that they are a separate body to the BBKA, to maintain a degree of distance and impartiality, however their funding is essentially controlled by the BBKA. Despite styling itself as an "educational charity" in recent years*, the BBKA has never been overly generous to the Exam Board, so as a result the paltry sum gained by the sale of past papers to members has been an important part of the Exam Board's funding. I was very loathe to pull this rug from under the Exam Board, as much as I think it distasteful that they should charge members for past papers. Earlier this year the matter of charging/funding was addressed and the papers are now free downloads. * although I hear that's now changing

That's a prime example of how the website could be better organised. There is a tab heading "Learn" with sub topics "Getting started" and "Bees for Kids" as well as the "Education and Assessment" and "Past Papers", the latter two being clearly Exam Board responsibility. "Distance Learning" too because it has only one entry (what's a menu with one entry for?), "Correspondence Courses". But there's also a "Kids" tab with different information and the "Members" tab has "Education and Training". The tab headings have been arranged as "themes" without a clear reflection in the underlying organisation. The thinking appears to be corporate gloss over serving the membership who pay for the site. The result is overlaps and repetition, vague headings without clear signposts as to what's where.

If the Exam Board operate largely independently (and they should) then their section should be independent too. They are responsible for all the syllabus, papers, exam schedules, contacts and exam related courses and (most importantly) have direct access to the content to keep them all up to date. There's also a whole area of local study groups for the exams which appears to be ignored. This ought to be the place where local groups can post what they have running or they are thinking of and members can check neighbouring associations, the sort of contacts that make study groups viable but at present appears to be left largely to the chance effects of local circulation. The large majority of visitors to the area will be members either already taking the exams route or seriously thinking about it; functionality for these users must always take precedence.

 

[itma]

Surely, for any decently large website, the appearance and 'image' of the site is just a gloss on the underlying Content Management System?

Unless the CMS can meet the needs of the organisation, the content will fail to be kept up-to-date, and the site will become ever less useful - regardless of how flashy it might look.

 

[victor meldrew]

There is a Fb account for the BBKA web site which is alive and well whilst the web based forum has been killed off by one guys ego trip !
Thank god he's a technophobe lol
VM


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[DanBee]

The thinking appears to be corporate gloss over serving the membership who pay for the site.

My concerns exactly.

If the Exam Board operate largely independently (and they should) then their section should be independent too. They are responsible for all the syllabus, papers, exam schedules, contacts and exam related courses and (most importantly) have direct access to the content to keep them all up to date. There's also a whole area of local study groups for the exams which appears to be ignored. This ought to be the place where local groups can post what they have running or they are thinking of and members can check neighbouring associations, the sort of contacts that make study groups viable but at present appears to be left largely to the chance effects of local circulation. The large majority of visitors to the area will be members either already taking the exams route or seriously thinking about it; functionality for these users must always take precedence.

That's exactly the sort of thinking that they need, and by keeping that related material grouped logically together and owned by one editor, content could be updated and sense-checked so much more effectively and efficiently

 

[kermit]

I remember commenting on the changes to the BBKA forum and how it had killed it off as a useful source of information. Response from BBKA was zero. i just don't think they can handle criticism of their baby.

 

[DanBee]

Surely, for any decently large website, the appearance and 'image' of the site is just a gloss on the underlying Content Management System?

Unless the CMS can meet the needs of the organisation, the content will fail to be kept up-to-date, and the site will become ever less useful - regardless of how flashy it might look.

The CMS is a tool for storing and presenting website content. As you say, it adds the desired gloss to the content as it serves it. Unless it is particularly pig-headed in its usage (i.e. the interface sucks) then what content is put in there, how it is put in, and how up to date it is should all be irrelevant to the CMS chosen. Rather, these factors are reliant upon the procedures and approach for managing web site content, as Alan mentioned above, so they're human or organisational failings.

 

[psafloyd]

I remember commenting on the changes to the BBKA forum and how it had killed it off as a useful source of information. Response from BBKA was zero. i just don't think they can handle criticism of their baby.

Or criticism full stop, however well intentioned.

 

[itma]

… Unless it is particularly pig-headed in its usage (i.e. the interface sucks) then what content is put in there, how it is put in, and how up to date it is should all be irrelevant to the CMS chosen. Rather, these factors are reliant upon the procedures and approach for managing web site content, as Alan mentioned above, so they're human or organisational failings.

I'm not saying its not a human and organisational failing, but my suspicion is that the "using the CMS" is being kept in too few hands - and that may be because of complexity, lack of training, security (and the way that the CMS permits multiple users with different security permissions) or it may simply be that "knowledge is power" and, by deliberate choice, VERY few people are allowed/enabled to make updates …

 

[alanf]

...my suspicion is that the "using the CMS" is being kept in too few hands…

And those with fixed ideas about how it should "look" over hosting useful content.

One pointer; the home page is static. Yes I know there's a rotating banner but the same words are there all the time. If you want to encourage repeat visits, that page has to be updated regularly with the latest news and events. Otherwise all you get is the occasional searcher passing through once. That might be what you want for a minimal "signpost" page that needs no real maintenance, but that's 20 quid a year website territory.