New LDS.org transition timing

gregwanderson · #1

I see a notice at new.lds.org that on November 10th it will replace http://www.lds.org. I want to know more about this, especially in light of learning (not long ago) that we should keep using the "old" Ward Calendar for planning through 2011. What web site components will be available after November 10? Will there be a new "Ward home page" or will it still be the old one? Will the new lds.org contain a lesson manual listing like the old Ward web site did?

aebrown · #2

GregAnderson wrote:I see a notice at new.lds.org that on November 10th it will replace www.lds.org. I want to know more about this, especially in light of learning (not long ago) that we should keep using the "old" Ward Calendar for planning through 2011. What web site components will be available after November 10? Will there be a new "Ward home page" or will it still be the old one? Will the new lds.org contain a lesson manual listing like the old Ward web site did?

The "ward home page" will still be the old one. There is no change from what is available right now. The ward and stake websites will be the same today, after November 10, and quite a while into the future.

The only parts of a ward website that will be on the new lds.org are those that are on new.lds.org right now: the new directory, and the new calendar. Eventually some more pieces will roll out, but not on November 10. So lesson schedules, for example, will still be only on the old sites for now.

For members who are logged in to new.lds.org, the Tools menu has a link to the old ward and stake websites to make it easy to get to the old sites as well as the new directory, calendar, and map.

gregwanderson · #3

Since members will be signing in at the "new" place and the new calendar will be available on the same "tools" list that takes them to their ward and stake web sites, why not just delete the old calendar from the ward and stake pages? (At least it could be taken out after December 31st.) Seems like that would be an easy format adjustment on the local unit web sites and then presto! The web site administrator would feel no more nagging obligation to maintain two separate and incompatible calendars.

aebrown · #4

GregAnderson wrote:Since members will be signing in at the "new" place and the new calendar will be available on the same "tools" list that takes them to their ward and stake web sites, why not just delete the old calendar from the ward and stake pages? (At least it could be taken out after December 31st.) Seems like that would be an easy format adjustment on the local unit web sites and then presto! The web site administrator would feel no more nagging obligation to maintain two separate and incompatible calendars.

The new calendar still has some significant issues. There are plenty of bugs, and the printing is quite inadequate. For these reasons (and probably several others), the current recommendation is that wards and stakes use the old calendar.

I feel no obligation to maintain two separate calendars. We are using the old calendar, as recommended, and will switch to the new calendar at some date in the future. When we switch, we will cease using the old calendar. We'll never maintain two separate calendars (except, perhaps, for a brief overlap as we transition from old to new).

It could be slightly confusing to have two calendars available on the web site, but with some simple communication that should be easily remedied. After all, one calendar will have a bunch of events and the other will be empty. I think that the members can figure that out.

gregwanderson · #5

The new calendar might not print well from the web site but it looks fine in iCal and iCal can print it beautifully. Also, the new calendar is used in the wonderful LDS Tools app. So, for me, priority 1 is the new calendar but I will maintain the old one just because there's a chance someone will dig deep enough to find it.

It was worth a shot trying to convince the web site designers to drop the old one.

aebrown · #6

GregAnderson wrote:The new calendar might not print well from the web site but it looks fine in iCal and iCal can print it beautifully. Also, the new calendar is used in the wonderful LDS Tools app. So, for me, priority 1 is the new calendar but I will maintain the old one just because there's a chance someone will dig deep enough to find it.

It was worth a shot trying to convince the web site designers to drop the old one.

Although I can certainly understand your personal preference, it seems like this decision would go beyond any one person's preference. For calendaring to be practical in a stake, all the wards and the stake have to be on the same calendar. And everyone in a ward has to be using the same calendar, unless one person is the only one who adds anything to the calendar, and he/she adds each event to both calendars at the same time.

I don't see how it's a question of whether "someone will dig deep enough" to find the old calendar. If a stake does its calendaring on the old calendar, everyone (contributors and users alike) has to use the old calendar. It seems like a huge source of confusion if some people are submitting events on the old calendar and other people are adding events to a calendar on the new calendar, and if some wards are on the old, but the stake is on the new, etc.

gregwanderson · #7

Alan_Brown wrote:It seems like a huge source of confusion if some people are submitting events on the old calendar and other people are adding events to a calendar on the new calendar, and if some wards are on the old, but the stake is on the new, etc.

...and that's why I would vote to get rid of one of them. The new one will be the first one available directly through the "tools" list. I want to encourage people to use the LDS Tools app. I'll refrain from continual whining about it but I still wish to encourage those calendar developers to fast-track the de-bugging. After all, the new calendar is the future and the old calendar is history.

russellhltn · #8

GregAnderson wrote:The new one will be the first one available directly through the "tools" list.

Maybe.

The beta site points to beta tools. But will it continue to do so when it's copied to mainstream?

I think we're both wanting the same thing - use the calendar that lds.org points to.

aebrown · #9

GregAnderson wrote:I still wish to encourage those calendar developers to fast-track the de-bugging. After all, the new calendar is the future and the old calendar is history.

I'm sure everyone wishes the new calendar were done. But by no means is it a matter of fast-tracking the debugging. There are many features still under development. I'm in the software development business, and I don't think it's a good idea to artificially accelerate the process: "You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles."