Queensland Astrofest 2016

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

are you doing this to annoy hOughy?

geoff

[DaveO (David)]

No. But like many volunteer functions, I do this in addition to a very busy full time job. And I only got the data Friday night and am still waiting for some of the information from the Committee.

Baiting Houghy is just a bonus! :-)

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

Dave's "ENTER" finger must be getting pretty jittery by now

geoff

[OneCosmos (Chris)]

Originally Posted by GTB_an_Owl

Dave's "ENTER" finger must be getting pretty jittery by now

geoff

Mine too though so let the race begin!

[multiweb (Marc)]

Are we there yet?

[alan meehan (Alan)]

Dave just showed me his new computer in the collection its called
"THE RAPTER" lightning fast the race has started

[OneCosmos (Chris)]

A bottle of Astrofest port to the winner?

[DaveO (David)]

Hi all

Just a quick update. The site is almost ready. I made some more changes last night after my return from Sydney, and will have some more changes to do and then test tonight.

As you would be aware, in recent years Duckadang staff have been providing lunches and dinners. The Registrations form has collected information about attendees requests for these and we have passed these numbers on to Duckadang.

This year, when you book, information about these meals will be sent directly to Duckadang, who will then invoice you directly. This will avoid people having to have cash, reduce complexities for Duckadang and allow for more accurate planning. I believe you will still be able to order extra meals once you are there, but given the amount of people and planning involved, I understand why they want to do it this way!

All this has meant I have had to make some changes behind the scenes in the website to support the extra processes. The good news is that you will not see any extra changes on the website itself, as this is all done in the "magic" layer.

If testing goes well tonight, the site will open tomorrow as planned. If there are any last minute delays, I will post here.

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by DaveO

Hi all

Just a quick update. The site is almost ready. I made some more changes last night after my return from Sydney, and will have some more changes to do and then test tonight.

As you would be aware, in recent years Duckadang staff have been providing lunches and dinners. The Registrations form has collected information about attendees requests for these and we have passed these numbers on to Duckadang.

This year, when you book, information about these meals will be sent directly to Duckadang, who will then invoice you directly. This will avoid people having to have cash, reduce complexities for Duckadang and allow for more accurate planning. I believe you will still be able to order extra meals once you are there, but given the amount of people and planning involved, I understand why they want to do it this way!

All this has meant I have had to make some changes behind the scenes in the website to support the extra processes. The good news is that you will not see any extra changes on the website itself, as this is all done in the "magic" layer.

If testing goes well tonight, the site will open tomorrow as planned. If there are any last minute delays, I will post here.

um but I don't wish to be locked in to meals when i will be asleep or worse. sometimes the meals aren't appetising, due to tiredness or food type

while i applaud your resourcefulness and the positives of the action, i wont be choosing meals this year. i dont want to be billed for meals i probably wont have. i cant predict what i feel like at breakfast, last year i did see beer offerings for the sun god, let alone lunch at 12 and "dinner" at 5. i could sleep through dinner and may be non functional at 12

and unfortunately i wont be the first unit to log in as i will be at my sons soccer so good luck to those competing

[DaveO (David)]

Hi David

Understand your position, and that's why I believe people will be able to order at the event as well. I understand their rationale - 50 people ordering meals for which maybe 30 turn up and pay is probably not a good way to keep costs down!

If you or anybody else have queries, I suggest you contact the Registrar or a member of the Committee (remember, I'm not on the Committee - I just do the website stuff for them ).

I have some final tests to run this morning, but things are looking good for "go for launch" this morning as planned.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by DaveO

Hi David

Understand your position, and that's why I believe people will be able to order at the event as well. I understand their rationale - 50 people ordering meals for which maybe 30 turn up and pay is probably not a good way to keep costs down!

If you or anybody else have queries, I suggest you contact the Registrar or a member of the Committee (remember, I'm not on the Committee - I just do the website stuff for them ).

I have some final tests to run this morning, but things are looking good for "go for launch" this morning as planned.

I think it makes sense in general and will be better for them to plan the main meals, as long as we're still allowed to order last minute fillers Sucks for you though modifying their backend. These things can get incredibly messy really quick, what if?...

[DaveO (David)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

These things can get incredibly messy really quick, what if?...

Thanks Marc - as you say, things can get "interesting". And the day it goes live is the one I am most nervous about - if things don't work perfectly, everybody knows who to point the finger at!

But actually not too bad this year. Last year I replaced the "store" established by the last webmaster with a "form" - that made it simpler for people registering, and most of the work was last year getting it to all work and calculate behind the scenes. This years was (almost) a copy and paste. I just needed to update prices and dates, and it largely worked. The extra email generation for Duckadang was also relatively straight forward.

So, back to some last minute testing! I need to manually "flick the switch", so the site should be live shortly after the counter zeros out. But don't expect nano-second activation!

[DaveO (David)]

QAF Registrations are now open! Had to go slightly early as it is my son's birthday, and he has just gotten up! :-)

Enjoy folks.

[DaveO (David)]

Egads - what were you people doing! Automated keyboard refresh engines?

The first in is Chris Cox.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Worked well.

[OneCosmos (Chris)]

Originally Posted by DaveO

Egads - what were you people doing! Automated keyboard refresh engines?

The first in is Chris Cox.

Yay!

[DaveO (David)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Worked well.

Thanks Marc.

Glad it worked. Feedback, as always, is welcome, whether it be good or bad.

[DaveO (David)]

Interesting observation: in the lead up to going live I could see 13 guests on the site (plus me). So far there have been 4 registrations.

One wonders if you guys are taking a leaf out of the Google playbook and building "registration bots"!

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by DaveO

Interesting observation: in the lead up to going live I could see 13 guests on the site (plus me). So far there have been 4 registrations.

One wonders if you guys are taking a leaf out of the Google playbook and building "registration bots"!

By internet standards it's still a pretty good conversion rate. Analytics BS vs. Real sales. Oops!... did I say that out loud?

[h0ughy (David)]

well Alan and I are now booked