An Appeal from Briar Press

[Dave Hughes]

I'm sure most people who use this site will also be familiar with Briar Press.

The people who run the Briar Press site want to know how many people are still using it, and still interested.

You can let the people who run the site know what you think by posting on this thread, or Facebook.

[Julius Stafford-Baker]

Re: The Briar Press website.

I have been a fan for many years  and still  check daily  and used to contribute from time to time.  Sadly my passwords no longer seem to work, so for the last couple of years I have not been able to send stuff in,  despite in one or two cases really having something useful to add.

That should read  many, many, many years.

Floreat Briar Press  and for heavens sake the press museum pages are unique.

[Bill N]

In my list of "Favorites" and still check-probably monthly or so

[Calvert]

You bet.

I revere Briar Press & for years read it regularly.

Elizabeth is a treasure. She was a major help when the History Channel had us restoring an '88 C&P. Along w/several regular BP users who sent us a number of critical parts. Such collegial generosity! I fell out of touch several year back after having difficulty logging on and posting.

Have the access problems been solved? I like having something more secure than FaceBook.

Plus there's a good deal of information in those stored posts.

I'd hate to see all that go by the board. I'm glad someone is looking into it.

"You don't know what you've got till it's gone."

[Mike]

Still a daily favourite. Mike Barnes, Mayne Island, B.C,

[Dave Hughes]

Briar Press has announced that repairs and improvements are underway on their website:

I'm so pleased to announce some positive news for Briar Press. After several starts and stops, we now have a small team in place that is actively working to identify and repair longstanding issues that members have been experiencing with the website.

First among these is unreliable email. We know that many members never receive an email when they register on Briar Press or reset their passwords. Others send inquiries about classified ads or business listings that are never received. We've already made changes to our email configuration that should improve this situation and reduce the number of messages that go missing.

Second, we have replaced our search engine with an integrated Google Search feature. The original, built-in search engine was often slow, did not always index new content on the site, and was responsible at times for causing the site to crash. Integrating Google Search should improve overall site performance as well as your search results. Also, you can now run an image search inside Briar Press for the first time.

Third, we are testing a spam-management platform, Akismet, that should help us filter out spam more effectively and with less manual labor. If successful, we may be able to reduce or eliminate the delay between membership requests and the activation of new member accounts.

Additional pain points are under investigation, including issues with the image uploader and with automatic backups, which would help us restore the site after a breakdown.

We see these repairs as a first step in stabilizing Briar Press and securing its survival. Next month I'll be sharing more information about what the second and third steps will look like.

In the meantime, please comment on this thread, or in this topic area, about ongoing Briar Press issues that you're experiencing. We'd also love to know if you notice any improvement in your experience on the site.

https://www.briarpress.org/64690