h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've kept quiet ever since the socalled beta was introduced, but I have to say something before it's too late...

First of all, so there are no misunderstandings: Barlesque is not a new skin, neither is it a framework developed just for h2g2 or dna. It's the "page layout template to use when developing all new bbc.co.uk web pages". And it's not brand new!

Some interesting links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/05/barlesque.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/futuremedia/technical/barlesque.shtml
http://www.live.bbc.co.uk/frameworks/barlesque/
(and http://www.bbc.co.uk/includes/blq/ )

So what's wrong with it?
Nothing I guess.
But...

But what?
Well, it's just not doing so well on h2g2

So what's wrong here then?
Not much, only three things:
The design
The navigation
The functionality
(Oh, and the bugs of course. Those three things are without mentioning the bugs, which of course will be sorted out. Eventually. With some luck.)

I have no doubt that the italics care deeply for the site, and that everybody who have been involved in the redesign have done their best. In my eyes they've failed miserably.
Sorry!


Btw. Did you notice the nice new redesigned badges for the BBC Testers. The irony!

*waves to GB*

I seeeee you!

If I were impolite, I would wonder where these decisions to outsource technical upgrades are made. Barlesque may well work fine somewhere. That means that some of the companies that set it up figure out how to do it right. Maybe not at first, but after some fine-tuning has been done.

But I'm polite to a fault, so I'm not going to go there.

IMO, it's all a bit of the, 'If it ain't broke, fix it until it is', sydrome

Unfortunately, computer technology has a short half-life.

Compare computer databases with microfilm as a means of storing data. Microfilm from 50 years ago can still be perfectly readable. How about the computer languages that were in use 50 years ago? They've often been superceded more than once, to the extent that the U.S. government (as an example) has to pay people to learn the old computer language so the data that were written in it will not become inaccesible.

The knock against H2G2's "look" is that it's ten years out of date. Lots of people live houses that are far more than ten years old, but no one castigates them for looking passe. I know people who drive cars for more than ten years, or wear coats for longer than that.

The strongest argument for the new look is that potential new users of the site will find it attractive enough to drop in and maybe stay. Barlesque, it seems to me, is the main route. The best we can hope for is that the skins we are used to can be fitted over the Barlesque. Maybe it can't be done. I'm no expert.

I just wish they had gotten Barlesque to work better. It isn't winning any friends with its bugs. I feel sorry for the editors, who are trying hard to make it work. All the BBC websites are getting it, so it's unlikely that our editors chose it.

Got here!!

Tried posting this in Barlesque, but anything I post there is rejected.

That is just one of the things I hate about it.

To my mind, Barlesque is so bug-ridden, I cannot see it being fixed by the end of February, which is the cut-off date given by the eds for the old skins.

It just will not work. You cannot use multiple punctuations, and because you cannot use smileys there, you cannot put emotion into your posts.

No. I do not like it one bit.


GT

if barlesque were the new car you just bought what would you have done?

Crush the bugger!!!




GT

I guess I would have had to walk or take the

i thought as much

Can the car, in fact, be fixed? That is the question I'd like an answer to.

i think i have yet to meet a completely flawless 'car'

it's like our software at w*rk: just when you think they have finally fixed all the glitches by sending us a gazillion updates - we switch to something completely else

Why do they call it "software"? Is it easier to chew? Nice to put over your mattress to help you sleep? Is it hard when frozen, but turns gooey when thawed?