SeekGround: I Do Indeed Qualify for Encyclopædia Britannica
SeekGround
· 1 year ago
Turns out that the links within the post itself highlight the different versions that I experienced as I described in the update proving that it wasn't all in my imagination. The first version (as shown by the citation examples in the post) looked like this one: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9030933/Jo... The second version (as shown by the links presented at the end of the post) looked like this one http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/16917...
Still scratching my head over this one. Can you see two different versions? Which version do you like better?
Dave
· 1 year ago
I do not have a subscription and followed the link from your post and got a full article including web sites, mla citing, and images. I then went to your earlier link and although the earlier link loaded faster, I found the second version to be much easier to navigate and read.
Overall, I think it is a big improvement.
SeekGround
· 1 year ago
Dave - Thank you for the feedback. I'll take another look at the second version based on your positive assessment.
Kunal Sen
· 1 year ago
I work for EB, so your positive comments obviously makes me very happy. But I am also disturbed to know that you had a confusing experience with two different sites. You are correct in assuming that we are switching from an older design to a new one. The free subscription you received should take you to the newer version consistently. However, certain external links, say from search engines, may still point to the older site. This transition will take a little longer, and we expect to switch over completely in a few months. However, as a member, you should not experience this too often, and we are working hard to minimize it.
It would be very useful for us to know exactly what sequence led you to the older site. I would also like to know what sort of problems you had when trying to link to us. If you don't mind, please feel free to write to me directly at ksen@eb.com.
Thanks in advance for your help.
= Kunal(Britannica)
SeekGround
· 1 year ago
Kunal - You get a silver star for customer service, but Tom Panelas gets the gold star for sending me an email at 11:45 PM last night. In both cases, the Britannica team, is leaving a positive impression in the Customer Service department. If the following is not enough detail just let me know.
His email: I just saw your post. From reading it I'm wondering if you have somehow been inadvertently toggled between our standard web site (www.britannica.com) and our new one (http://www.britannica.com/bps/home), which we're gradually making a transition to. The subscription code you got was supposed to take you to the new one; it looks a lot nicer, so that's where we're sending our new subscribers. In a few months this new one will be the standard.
Without a doubt. I believe that when I first registered I landed at the old version where I spent some time familiarizing myself before and while writing the post.
I then closed down internet explorer after publishing the post so that I could be signed out of Britannica to view where I was sending my readers. Unfortunately I discovered that copying and pasting had junked links in the citation area and in the all important John Donne article reference. I should have caught those problems before publishing. Since I did not, my bad linkage probably landed in all of my rss subscribers' feed readers.
Being in a rush to fix the problem in the unlikely advent that I could beat the speed of light/internet, I was thrown for a complete loop when, upon signing back into Britannica, landing somewhere completely different.
I did not take time to look around much at the time as I was too busy trying to fix the post. I still had a problem in the new version with the link that you provide for me to copy confusing the wysiwyg editor but I worked around that using the html editor.
I did notice that the new version looks sleeker but it is noticeably slower to load when you use a slow connection as I happened to be using tonight. I need to look around some more before deciding for sure which version I like better. As long as all of the same features are there, i'm sure that the new version will be fine. I didn't see the same kind of in depth information that was on the original home page such as the iphone announcement but i'm sure I just need to look around some more. Is there a page that is optimized for windows based mobile phones?
Looks like you just need to fix where first time registered users land if you intend for them to land on the new version.
All Comments
The first version (as shown by the citation examples in the post) looked like this one:
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9030933/Jo...
The second version (as shown by the links presented at the end of the post) looked like this one
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/16917...
Still scratching my head over this one. Can you see two different versions? Which version do you like better?
Overall, I think it is a big improvement.
It would be very useful for us to know exactly what sequence led you to the older site. I would also like to know what sort of problems you had when trying to link to us. If you don't mind, please feel free to write to me directly at ksen@eb.com.
Thanks in advance for your help.
= Kunal(Britannica)
His email:
I just saw your post. From reading it I'm wondering if you have somehow been inadvertently toggled between our standard web site (www.britannica.com) and our new one (http://www.britannica.com/bps/home), which we're gradually making a transition to. The subscription code you got was supposed to take you to the new one; it looks a lot nicer, so that's where we're sending our new subscribers. In a few months this new one will be the standard.
Here are the John Donne articles in each:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/16917...
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9030933/Jo...
Is this what seems to be happening?
Tom
My response:
Tom,
Without a doubt. I believe that when I first registered I landed at the old version where I spent some time familiarizing myself before and while writing the post.
I then closed down internet explorer after publishing the post so that I could be signed out of Britannica to view where I was sending my readers. Unfortunately I discovered that copying and pasting had junked links in the citation area and in the all important John Donne article reference. I should have caught those problems before publishing. Since I did not, my bad linkage probably landed in all of my rss subscribers' feed readers.
Being in a rush to fix the problem in the unlikely advent that I could beat the speed of light/internet, I was thrown for a complete loop when, upon signing back into Britannica, landing somewhere completely different.
I did not take time to look around much at the time as I was too busy trying to fix the post. I still had a problem in the new version with the link that you provide for me to copy confusing the wysiwyg editor but I worked around that using the html editor.
I did notice that the new version looks sleeker but it is noticeably slower to load when you use a slow connection as I happened to be using tonight. I need to look around some more before deciding for sure which version I like better. As long as all of the same features are there, i'm sure that the new version will be fine. I didn't see the same kind of in depth information that was on the original home page such as the iphone announcement but i'm sure I just need to look around some more. Is there a page that is optimized for windows based mobile phones?
Looks like you just need to fix where first time registered users land if you intend for them to land on the new version.
Thank you,
SeekGround