Choice of Calendar

Discussions about the Calendar Tool at lds.org. Questions about the calendar on the classic site should be posted in the LUWS forum.
techgy
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Choice of Calendar

#1

Post by techgy »

With the advent of the new LDS.ORG web site, members have been introduced to a collection of improved features. The site itself, in my opinion, is quite attractive.

However, our stake is having problems getting the members to continue using the older LUWS calendar and ward/stake web sites. Members who are looking for the web sites continue to use http://www.lds.org as their home page. It's been quite natural for members to sign-in and then click on "Tools/Calendar", and end up using the new calendar.

We're continuing to pass around flyers and information to instruct our members towards the older LUWS sites and calendars, but the progress is quite slow.

Suggestion: Since we are advised to continue using the older LUWS calendar for the year 2011, how about adding a question asking the member which calendar they want to view when they click on "Tools/Calendar"?

Although this wouldn't be a 100% cure, but it might provide enough of a pause for the member to recall which calendar they should be using as the official one.
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aebrown
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#2

Post by aebrown »

techgy wrote:With the advent of the new LDS.ORG web site, members have been introduced to a collection of improved features. The site itself, in my opinion, is quite attractive.

However, our stake is having problems getting the members to continue using the older LUWS calendar and ward/stake web sites. Members who are looking for the web sites continue to use http://www.lds.org as their home page. It's been quite natural for members to sign-in and then click on "Tools/Calendar", and end up using the new calendar.

We're continuing to pass around flyers and information to instruct our members towards the older LUWS sites and calendars, but the progress is quite slow.

Suggestion: Since we are advised to continue using the older LUWS calendar for the year 2011, how about adding a question asking the member which calendar they want to view when they click on "Tools/Calendar"?

Although this wouldn't be a 100% cure, but it might provide enough of a pause for the member to recall which calendar they should be using as the official one.
That suggestion might help people if it is implemented, but you can do things with the current system to direct people where they should go.

Our stake has switched to the new calendar. So I went into the old LUWS calendar and created a recurring event on every Sunday that says something like "Use the new calendar on LDS.org". We also deleted all the old events. That way if anyone goes to the old calendar, they will have a pretty strong reminder that this is not what they are looking for.

You can do the reverse in your case, adding a recurring event to the new calendar, directing them back to the LUWS calendar.
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tortdog
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#3

Post by tortdog »

Can you put in html code in a calendar event to link to the other calendar?
kisaac
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#4

Post by kisaac »

tortdog wrote:Can you put in html code in a calendar event to link to the other calendar?
yes- it can be done
kisaac
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#5

Post by kisaac »

techgy wrote:Suggestion: Since we are advised to continue using the older LUWS calendar for the year 2011, how about adding a question asking the member which calendar they want to view when they click on "Tools/Calendar"?

Although this wouldn't be a 100% cure, but it might provide enough of a pause for the member to recall which calendar they should be using as the official one.
Of course, this may help those stakes/wards still using "classic," but for those who have "accepted" the invitation to use the new calendar, the one they see when they click on "Tools/Calendar" IS the official one.
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aebrown
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#6

Post by aebrown »

techgy wrote:Since we are advised to continue using the older LUWS calendar for the year 2011...

I would note that this statement is obsolete. Although that was the advice for a little while, it is not the current statement. The Introduction to the Calendar says:
Wards and stakes are invited to begin using the new calendar. However, note that the calendar is still under development and will continue to mature through early 2011.
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techgy
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#7

Post by techgy »

aebrown wrote:I would note that this statement is obsolete. Although that was the advice for a little while, it is not the current statement. The Introduction to the Calendar says:

I stand corrected - thanks. However, I would add that using a Beta comes with a degree of risk.
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techgy
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#8

Post by techgy »

tortdog wrote:Can you put in html code in a calendar event to link to the other calendar?

I haven't seen this work as yet. I've placed an html string into a calendar date and it was simply displayed as a text string.
This would be helpful though.
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gregwanderson
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#9

Post by gregwanderson »

It seems to me that when the new calendar is finally declared "complete" the old one won't disappear immediately. So there would have to be some kind of overlap period, even if we dislike the idea of maintaining two calendars. Are you hoping to use the old calendar throughout all of 2011 and only switch to the new one on January first of 2012? By the end of 2011 I would hope that there would be an all-new Ward Web Site design. As a result, the old calendar will seem painfully outdated by then (for lack of a better term).

In my case, I've decided to have the overlap period happen right now and then, perhaps by the middle of this year, start spreading the word that the old one won't be updated anymore. In any case, as a user I find the new calendar to be far more attractive and I think other people in my ward will agree. So I expect them to naturally stop using the old calendar soon, even without prompting. So, while both calendars are pretty-much synchronized now, I'm probably just going to put the major events on the old calendar but fill the new one with the nitty-gritty details.

It's one thing for the Stake leadership to declare which calendar should be used but it would be very interesting to track the pressure coming from the end user. Which calendar does the end user truly prefer?
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aebrown
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#10

Post by aebrown »

mrrad wrote:It seems to me that when the new calendar is finally declared "complete" the old one won't disappear immediately. So there would have to be some kind of overlap period, even if we dislike the idea of maintaining two calendars. Are you hoping to use the old calendar throughout all of 2011 and only switch to the new one on January first of 2012? By the end of 2011 I would hope that there would be an all-new Ward Web Site design. As a result, the old calendar will seem painfully outdated by then (for lack of a better term).

In my case, I've decided to have the overlap period happen right now and then, perhaps by the middle of this year, start spreading the word that the old one won't be updated anymore. In any case, as a user I find the new calendar to be far more attractive and I think other people in my ward will agree. So I expect them to naturally stop using the old calendar soon, even without prompting. So, while both calendars are pretty-much synchronized now, I'm probably just going to put the major events on the old calendar but fill the new one with the nitty-gritty details.

It's one thing for the Stake leadership to declare which calendar should be used but it would be very interesting to track the pressure coming from the end user. Which calendar does the end user truly prefer?

As we discussed this issue in our stake, we decided that it was awkward to have two event calendards, but completely unworkable to have two systems of record for event scheduling. So we had a very brief overlap period -- just one month to give me time to enter every 2011 stake event on the new calendar -- and then we officially announced that only building reservations on the new calendar would be honored.

So although I think your suggestion of having people gradually move over to the new calendar without prompting is interesting, I don't see how it can work with building scheduling. There has to be an official declaration by the leadership that as of D-Day, the new calendar is the system of record for resource reservations. Otherwise it seems that there is a high probablility that you will end up with two people thinking they have a building reserved at the same time, since they reserved it on two different "official" systems.
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