Hi Aaron,

I basically gave up on trying to figure out why I could no longer view certain pages of the site after your site upgrade. I could navigate to some pages - albeit not the homepage - and I just made do with that.

So, I've now taken the time to figure it out: when your client was upgraded, it changed the TLS (SSL) protocols so that people with browsers set to TLS 1.0 or 1.1 (as you probably know, the 's' in https refers to the TLS protocol) were blocked.

Since Microsoft defaults IE to the lower-level TLS and not to 1.2, you may be unaware of just how many people have clicked on their comedy.co.uk bookmark/favourite, got a 'Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage' error, and assumed the site was shut down forever. I doubt very many people went to the lengths I did to find a way back on. And it was the home page - the page most people bookmark - that I was never able to navigate to no matter what I did. Until I figured it out yesterday.

Hopefully your IT person can configure an error page with a notice to visitors what the problem is and how they can correct it (change their TLS setting to 1.2). I'm sure there are many, many people this has affected but you will not hear from them as they have no way of communicating with you.

Thanks for the site, Aaron; I visit every day - one way or another.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Very interesting, thanks for that update.

We've not seen any drop-off in our visitor figures (quite the opposite in fact) so the problem would seem to not be so widespread as you suggest; however, it is nevertheless an issue that we will look into.

We're unable to recreate it here with any Microsoft browsers though. Which version do you use?

Not feedback as such, but the site just got mentioned on BBC Radio 2

Ooh! Thanks for that, Nil! I shall investigate...

The reason I gave up on trying to figure this thing out a month ago was that I tried it on 4 different computers in 3 different locations - 2 of them 60 miles away from my home - and got the same result. Obviously the problem was on your end but I wasn't going to pester you about it; you already do enough work for British comedy fans, you don't need other headaches.

So, I do think this affects quite a number of people. I personally do run IE 10 instead of 11 on my 2 PCs because I dislike 11 but I'm pretty sure the other 2 PCs run on 11. There are millions of people who don't run the latest browsers with the latest updates. You may have tried several browsers but they probably are all updated (just my guess) and TLS 1.2 is enabled on all of them.

I have never had a problem with http over TLS sites (https) with my browser and settings and I visit them on a daily basis (very large banks - e.g., Citibank - which have some of the best online security money can buy). These sites, however, are compatible with TLS 1.0 and 1.1, as I've never had a problem navigating to them.

I can now get my daily fix of BCG which is all that really matters to me. I didn't mean to be annoying about all of this, I just felt that the problem was so unusual that I would try to help figure out what was going on.

Thanks again, Aaron.

Dave

Quote: Nil Putters @ 15th February 2016, 4:56 PM GMT

Not feedback as such, but the site just got mentioned on BBC Radio 2

View original

Can't find it! Was that the Steve Wright show? What were they talking about?

Quote: David Graves @ 15th February 2016, 5:53 PM GMT

The reason I gave up on trying to figure this thing out a month ago was that I tried it on 4 different computers in 3 different locations - 2 of them 60 miles away from my home - and got the same result. Obviously the problem was on your end but I wasn't going to pester you about it; you already do enough work for British comedy fans, you don't need other headaches.

So, I do think this affects quite a number of people. I personally do run IE 10 instead of 11 on my 2 PCs because I dislike 11 but I'm pretty sure the other 2 PCs run on 11. There are millions of people who don't run the latest browsers with the latest updates. You may have tried several browsers but they probably are all updated (just my guess) and TLS 1.2 is enabled on all of them.

I have never had a problem with http over TLS sites (https) with my browser and settings and I visit them on a daily basis (very large banks - e.g., Citibank - which have some of the best online security money can buy). These sites, however, are compatible with TLS 1.0 and 1.1, as I've never had a problem navigating to them.

I can now get my daily fix of BCG which is all that really matters to me. I didn't mean to be annoying about all of this, I just felt that the problem was so unusual that I would try to help figure out what was going on.

Thanks again, Aaron.

Dave

View original

Not annoying at all, Dave. Very grateful for your letting us know, updates and continued feedback. We'll look into getting it fixed ASAP.

Quote: Aaron @ 15th February 2016, 6:02 PM GMT

Can't find it! Was that the Steve Wright show? What were they talking about?

View original

Yes, only mentioned the address in relation to a story about Are You Being Served? Probably around the time I posted.

02:55:10 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0705192#play

Ah! No wonder I couldn't find it, haha. Nice little mention though. Thanks for letting us know.

How many times are you allowed to advertise the same opportunity? Just for reference.

Although I had no issues with the previous design, it's certainly a lot more slick and up to date with current web trends.

Free advice from a marketing expert

Hello

The new design is nice enough but you have made a serious error - you've made the forums harder to access and you seem to have relegated them to the least important aspect of your site

The forums are actually one of the most important things and you should be encouraging and building them (not making them hard to find) - forums are a massive driver of traffic, they also make a huge impact on your SEO - and having someone engaged and active on your site is THE most valuable user you can have

I don't know who did your new site but I do know they nothing about marketing - I'm not a gambling man but I would put money on your forum engagement numbers being down - If that's true, then you can expect your site visits to start declining too

Up to you what you do - but if I were you, I'd redo it (with a different guy) and I'd put the forums at the forefront of it

Quote: Mikey88 @ 24th April 2016, 7:32 PM BST

I don't know who did your new site but I do know they nothing about marketing.

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Thanks for the feedback Mikey. We built the site ourselves... no having the money to pay an external agency.

Given there's just two of us trying to code in our spare time, we've not been able to do it all in one go. The forums are about to get a makeover in the next month too (mobile friendly etc, at last!)... at which point they should be more obviously integrated into the new site. They don't share databases, so at the moment it's hard to put threads on the homepage etc...

in that case just make the forum link more prominent and easy to get to (say an obvious link on every page)

Quote: Mark @ 25th April 2016, 3:01 PM BST

Thanks for the feedback Mikey. We built the site ourselves... no having the money to pay an external agency.

Given there's just two of us trying to code in our spare time, we've not been able to do it all in one go. The forums are about to get a makeover in the next month too (mobile friendly etc, at last!)... at which point they should be more obviously integrated into the new site. They don't share databases, so at the moment it's hard to put threads on the homepage etc...

View original

And what a great job you pair do. Don't become a doctor Mikey, your blunt feedback might just push somebody over the edge:

'Right Mrs Jones, your colon is bloody useless. What did you go and have a bloody useless one for, it's your own fault if you die.......you twat'

haha - fair point

It's true though and also sound advice

And yes, they do a very good job (except for what I said above )