Liberal Democrats: Flock Together

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2019-03-27 11:24:29, Marguerita Morton

I have been trying to post the 1000 neighbours challenge in Tunbridge Wells and it will not accept the information. I have used our Facebook link to direct people to the event and our website but it does not seem to be accepted. Any tips? Marguerita Morton TWLD

2018-08-29 16:45:29, Iain Donaldson

There are currently three organisations listed that no longer exist. The Gorton Liberal Democrats, the Central Liberal Democrats and the Blackley Liberal Democrats have now merged to form the Manchester Gorton, Central and Blackley Liberal Democrats.

I must have had the rights to create these at some point, but can not delete them, nor can I create the new organisation.

Can something please be done about this as now we are active again and using the internet I would like to encourage my members to use flock-together as a part of our membership organisation and campaigning tools.

Iain Donaldson
Chair
Manchester Gorton, Central and Blackley Liberal Democrats

2016-05-16 23:58:41, John Bland

Hi, I would like to use this site, but our local party is not on it! The South Holland & The Deepings and the Grantham & Stamford parties merged to form the South Lincolnshire Liberal Democrats. Are you able to update please?

2016-01-05 12:55:58, Christian Hogg

Just signed up - I couldnt put my membership number in the field is 2 chars short ?

2016-01-24 22:12:51, Martin Tod

Fixed.

2016-05-02 22:42:07, John Bland

I have the same problem. Membership No is 12 digits

2016-01-15 22:28:53, Ollie Purkiss

I had the same problem. I had to leave it blank in the end.

2016-01-24 22:12:41, Martin Tod

Now fixed. Sorry about that.

2016-04-27 11:47:04, Ben Sims

I had the same problem on sign up, field isn't long enough for new-style numbers

2016-05-02 22:40:25, John Bland

Signed up to add a by election. When I select the Ward it takes me to a web domain hosting site. Is this expected behaviour? Are there any instructions for adding a by election please?

2014-03-21 12:26:15, Christine Tinker

How can I change my local party organisation from Stone to Shrewsbury & Atcham please, as I'm now PPC in S&A. Thanks

2014-07-26 12:24:48, Martin Tod

I'm not sure what you mean. You shouldn't be automatically associated with any local organisation?

2014-05-27 14:14:59, Shaun Nichols

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2014-07-26 12:24:10, Martin Tod

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2013-09-27 22:08:32, John Farrand-Rogers

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2013-09-27 23:08:35, Martin Tod

John,

Now fixed. Google changed the code that Flock Together was using to look up where addresses were! I've updated Flock Together to match it.


Martin

2013-09-16 08:16:23, Paul Smith

Is it possible to modify an entry added by another user?

2013-09-16 10:27:35, Martin Tod

Currently only if you are listed as a contact or are an admin.

2012-10-12 09:12:05, Philip Thompson

Can "contact" have an option for "booking" ?
Philip T

2013-08-10 19:56:20, Martin Tod

Philip,

Not sure I understand. What would this look like?


Martin

2012-10-04 15:31:39, Michael Taylor

My details on the site are wrong. I have tried to alter my account details but to no avail. What can I do?

2013-08-10 19:55:36, Martin Tod

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2012-06-28 14:26:58, Cadan ap Tomos

Could you add an organisation for IR Cymru (Liberal Youth Wales) under Welsh Liberal Democrats? Thanks.

2012-03-21 17:18:40, Paul Kennedy

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2012-02-03 11:10:04, ian Ogilvie

I am sure all of us with smart phones now, would like to see a form of Flocktogether on a app I know of one other Party that has done this very well and it is a great campaign tool. I am all our members of flock would appreciate it.

2012-03-01 19:28:42, Martin Tod

Work has started on this. There's a simple test site at http://www.hampshireherald.co.uk/mobileflock/

2011-11-19 13:15:55, John Williams

I am trying to add a campaign session for East Putney on 20/Nov and I keep getting the following message:

Sorry. The word '' has triggered the
spam checker. Please modify this
description.

Even when I have put in no description at all!
I tried starting again but still same message ...

2011-11-21 22:12:17, Martin Tod

Now fixed. Sorry about that.

2011-11-21 16:12:45, Martin Tod

Apologies. I will sort this tonight.

We've had some spam problems, but the result is probably a bit too aggressive!

2010-12-23 16:51:02, Toby Keynes

I'm afraid the map displays still occasionally get venue locations completely wrong.

Example: listing for CR2 6PB (South Croydon) is displayed as being at the far end of the road, a mile away, in Selsdon.

I recommend you always check the map display as soon as you've set up a listing, and add a suitable comment to the listing if the map's wrong.

2010-12-23 16:52:12, Martin Tod

If you've added an event, you can click on the map yourself to put it in the correct location...

2010-10-12 21:13:02, Michael Carchrie Campbell

Could there be a 'Northern Ireland' local party listed as an Organisation please? Speaking as local party chair.

Michael

2010-11-03 23:49:43, Martin Tod

Done...

2010-09-15 17:07:22, Alan Dean

Can the event layout be changed so that venue immediately follows date and time rather than being way down below contacts?

2010-06-25 10:25:08, Ally Kennedy

Morning all,

Any Liberal Democrats interested in opportunities to work at local level on Environmental and Green Energy issues drop me a line at allykennedylibdem@live.co.uk for details!

2010-03-08 09:54:14, Toby Keynes

The map pin problem (reported in March 2009) is still occurring.
Our Croydon Liberal Democrats event is this evening (8/3/2010) in Purley town centre: CR8 2AF. The map pin is miles away in another borough.
Any chance of progress on fixing this?

2010-06-17 09:51:22, Martin Tod

Just click on the map to move the pin the right place and it will permanently remember it.

2010-06-17 09:54:43, Martin Tod

PS: Have just moved the event in question.

2009-12-03 10:50:03, Kristian Chapman

Dose Flock together sync with 'act'?

2010-02-16 17:57:20, Martin Tod

No 'Act' does not sync with Flock Together.

Flock Together syncs with Twitter, all Prater Raines party websites and RSS.

Flock currently has 77 live events, vs 40 on ACT

2005-11-13 13:05:23, Gary Lawson

Any ability to export to Outlook or similar calendar? Would prevent the need for re-keying?

2005-11-14 03:38:50, Martin Tod

I've just added little iCal buttons to all the pages - let me know if it works on your version of Outlook.

2005-11-14 13:12:53, James Graham

Works fine with 1.0.6 for a Mac.

2010-01-26 15:48:41, David Burnett

Very thoughtful, thanks!

2009-03-31 19:21:54, Mark Smulian

When I enter an event, most of the description box that I type in is not visible as it vanishes beneath the material in the site's right hand column. Is this just a peculiarity of using the Safari browser?

2009-11-29 00:05:06, Martin Tod

Fixed.

2009-11-04 09:55:04, Sereena Davey

When you are trying to enter the free text detail section you cant see what you are typing because of the banners on the right hand side so it's easy to make mistakes. The text is also obscured when you post the meeting. Can we fix this please!!

2009-11-24 20:02:37, Martin Tod

This is a top priority to fix - but will probably need a volunteer... I will post a note asking for one...

2009-11-29 00:04:04, Martin Tod

Fixed. I think.

2009-08-08 11:16:14, Dave Raval

I use an RSS feed to wrap my local party events from this site onto my PPC website (see the 'events' page of www.daveraval.com). I use www.flocktogether.org.uk/rss.php?Organisation=197 . It works well in Firefox, though I have some problems in IE. Anyhow, my question is: how can I provide feeds from some other local parties in the area too? Eg those within a few miles radius, rather than just my own local party?
Thanks!

2009-11-24 20:04:42, Martin Tod

All the flags are at http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/blog/category/rss/ - apologies for the delay in answering...

2009-04-11 18:06:34, Jonathan Harston

I've tried to register for emails of events, but it keeps saying "unknown wantEMail in field".

2009-08-08 11:13:15, Dave Raval

I get the same problem

2009-08-08 11:32:03, Ian Wallace

I had the same problem. However it appears that if you do it in two stages it works:-
1. Confirm your e-mail address and submit without making selections of information required.
2. Once it refreshes informing you that your profile has been updated then make information selections.
Why - don't know but it worked for me.

2009-08-25 18:09:10, Kirsty Carden

Yes that worked for me thanks Ian.

2009-07-18 15:03:56, Alvin Horsfall

How do I advertise a resource? i dont see the link on my screen

2009-07-17 15:49:09, John Farrand-Rogers

I gave details about the Holsworthy byelection to ALDC. They do not appear on Flock Together yet. Will this be sorted out in due course?

But again, I cannot enter up the details directly.....

2009-03-03 13:04:47, Nigel Ashton

When I edit an event, say to change the description, the Google map pin moves back from the location I had carefully placed it to the apparently random spot the system put it in originally.

2009-03-03 14:57:29, Penny Hopkins

I'm also struggling to move the map pin, which is a LONG way away from the event (NE Hants dinner on 18 April). I'm also surprised by the way my email address, as a contact for said event, comes and goes. The names and phone numbers are constant, but the email addresses don't always appear.

2009-04-01 12:00:13, Martin Tod

I've moved it for you. Will investigate why this isn't working.

2009-04-01 11:57:04, Martin Tod

That's a bug. No idea why it's happening. Will investigate.

2008-11-24 11:25:02, Sue Doughty

I have an old email address, Orcharddoughty which still keeps popping up. Does this link to anything? I've changed my profile to the current email some time ago.

2009-01-07 07:41:59, Martin Tod

Not sure how this could be happening. Can you email me an example email?

2009-03-16 11:29:19, Sue Doughty

It isn't an email issue, its just that it shows up every now and then on events I create. Suspect that the issue is cosmetic rather than any worse!

2008-08-21 14:55:38, System Account

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2008-08-29 19:57:12, Martin Tod

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2009-01-22 17:51:30, Stephen Robinson

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2009-01-27 01:23:04, Martin Tod

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2009-01-28 22:32:34, Stephen Robinson

Hadn't seen this msg when I logged in and found I could edit everything. I promise to be careful!!
Stephen

2009-01-27 01:19:44, Martin Tod

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2009-01-16 17:29:47, Astrid Osborn

1. Could this discussion page be formatted with a link list for topics? I've been trying to scroll through to see if someone else has reported the same issue as me and have finally lost the will!

2. Is anyone else having difficulty setting up the email subscriptions? I'm running Firefox on a Linux netbook so I'm sometimes not sure if it's my system or the website.

2008-12-19 15:24:06, Philip Harvey

I want to add an event but I can't get rid of the RSS feeds which are on top of the entry fields. How do I do it?

2009-01-07 07:42:16, Martin Tod

It's a top priority to fix this.

2008-10-07 20:24:24, Stephen Robinson

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2008-11-06 13:14:49, Martin Tod

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2008-11-10 18:58:30, Stephen Robinson

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2008-11-10 18:59:19, Martin Tod

Aha... that means that there's an event with some evil HTML in it.


Martin

2008-11-10 10:35:16, Sue Doughty

How do I flag my event as part of the Million Door Challenge

2008-11-10 10:37:29, Martin Tod

1. Click on 'edit this meeting'.
2. Put 'million' into the 'find other organisations' box and hit search
3. Select the tick box next to 'Nick Clegg?s One Million Door Challenge'
4. Hit 'update meeting'

2008-10-28 01:57:53, Philip Vial

How do you get rid of that annoying amazon advert, which always seems to be over something I want to read! :-)

Philip

2008-10-28 07:44:02, Martin Tod

Just got rid of it.

It wasn't making any money anyway! :-)

2008-09-23 11:02:37, David Bartlett

Further to my last comment just now - there is no scroll bar in this situation so I cannot move it over.
2. Why are all the boxes down the right hand side for long out of date events - is'nt there some automatic system for eliminating past dates?

2008-10-08 02:15:30, Martin Tod

Old events shouldn't be appearing. I'll look into it.

2008-09-23 10:57:35, David Bartlett

Hallo. I am a user in my Internet cafe or the public library. It is OK till I log in with my password and then the home page is cut off on the left hand side of the screen with all the dates - this has been happening over the last two weeks and is very annoying.

2008-09-19 16:39:25, Stephen Robinson

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2008-09-20 01:44:29, Martin Tod

Many thanks for pointing this out.

Now fixed.

2008-04-03 20:45:25, Stephen Robinson

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2008-04-22 12:14:11, Martin Tod

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2008-08-05 17:06:56, Stephen Robinson

We've recently added an event that is before an event that was already there and the news feed listing now looks very odd. So looks like we cannot use Flock T as the source of our events listing on our website and will have to create ANOTHER list. Grrr.

2008-08-05 19:44:10, Martin Tod

Do you have ?praterraines=yes on the end of your feed?

2008-08-05 22:43:57, Stephen Robinson

Aha! I thought we did but we didn't. We do now! Seems to have solved the problems.

2008-08-06 19:33:53, Martin Tod

In the past it's tried to detect it automatically, but something may have happened to that function!

2008-08-08 17:38:26, Stephen Robinson

Also: is it possible for the news feed heading and URL to be

XYZ Lib Dem events - rather than XYZ Lib Dem meetings?

Sounds a bit less formal.

2008-08-29 20:00:50, Martin Tod

Done.

2008-04-03 20:13:21, Stephen Robinson

On most of the pages, the right-hand edge of the central pane overlaps with the left-hand edge of the right-hand pane. Is it a FireFox problem?

2008-07-15 08:30:09, Paul Smith

No, happens to me with IE6 sometimes too. Can't tie down the exact circumstances though.

Paul D Smith, Enfield.

2008-08-23 13:07:15, Frank Little

Consistently happens with Firefox here. It makes event entry difficult, even for a touch-typist.

Why no response from TPTB? (I have print which illustrates the problem if anyone is interested.)

Frank Little
Chairman, Aberavon & Neath LibDems

2008-08-29 12:07:50, Bryan Lewis

It does make it difficult. I seem to have a typo that is hidden and I am unable to correct it.

Bryan Lewis
Secretary, Wolverhampton South West

2008-08-29 14:44:30, Stephen Robinson

I find that the only solution (when typing in more than a word or two, in event description) is to type it in word first and paste in.

Re. Frank's "Why no response from TPTB?": it's only Martin Tod, and I think he is away?

2008-08-29 19:55:21, Martin Tod

I'm going to replace the design with something much simpler when I get a moment... in the meantime, try Try http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/?style=1 or http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/?style=9 or anything in between!

2008-08-20 16:02:02, Sue Henchley

It looks as though other people have been experiencing this problem - I could not get rid of the right hand panel, so could not see what I was writing in the description pane. I know I have made a mistake, but cannot get rid of it because I cannot see it. How can I get rid of the right hand column?

2008-08-05 23:03:39, Stephen Robinson

Sorry - me again! Chelmsford has two upcoming events listed (more when someone gets round to it). They list on the Chelmsford page but neither are showing on the home page map.

Thanks

S.

2008-08-06 12:08:49, Martin Tod

I can't replicate this. They are on mine.

2008-08-06 14:11:40, Stephen Robinson

Doh! I needed to zoom in more ;)

2008-03-14 19:45:27, Stephen Robinson

Is it possible to include "Add to Yahoo calendar" as a function for Flock T events?

Thanks

Stephen

2008-03-16 20:56:38, Martin Tod

Done

2008-08-05 13:58:44, Stephen Robinson

When in an event details, all the buttons for add to calendar seem to have disappeared!

2008-08-05 19:41:34, Martin Tod

Should now be fixed.

2008-08-05 22:51:00, System Account

Only when NOT logged in. Once logged in, all the links on the left are more spread out and have yellow shaded background; the right hand menu disappears; and in the central section "Your RSVP" takes up most of the screen. I've just tried it in IE6 and the problem is there too.

2008-08-06 12:09:38, Martin Tod

Try http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/?style=5 when logged in. (5 can be substituted with any number from 1-9).

2008-08-06 14:10:31, Stephen Robinson

Aha! Another problem solved. If only all helpdesks were that prompt AND helpful! :)

2008-07-15 08:32:08, Paul Smith

Is there a help page with some guidance as to, for example, the categories that people use for events? In my specific case, how to people categorize an AGM? Does "public meeting" mean "any Lib Dems" or "anyone, even the Conservatives" ;-).

Thanks,
Paul D Smith, Enfield

2008-07-14 11:01:04, Catherine Bearder

As a candidate in the European elections I have trouble identifying where the events are. I have to specify the area by milage and given the size of the region, I end up getting information on events that are a long way outside my region. Is it not possible to add another 2 fields to the events/date/time/ category? 'town' and 'region' would help me identify if it is something that I should look at with ease. Thanks

2008-06-29 21:22:50, Leon Greenwell

When attempting to complete registration, I get this message:- Unknown column 'WantEmail' in 'field list'

2008-04-22 12:01:48, Stuart Smith

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2008-02-25 13:10:04, Stephen Robinson

When I click for details of an organisation the following error is appearing at the top of the page. (This is LD Drinks but also on the EARS page.):-


Warning: getimagesize() [function.getimagesize]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /homepages/12/d143831057/htdocs/meetings/showOrganisation.php on line 100

Warning: getimagesize(http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/drinkslogo.png) [function.getimagesize]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /homepages/12/d143831057/htdocs/meetings/showOrganisation.php on line 100

2008-03-16 11:30:12, Martin Tod

Now fixed. Thank you for pointing it out.

2008-02-15 15:28:03, Anthony Philpott

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2008-02-17 14:02:44, Martin Tod

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2008-02-13 12:14:30, Michael Butlin

Cut and paste

Please allow cut and paste without 'select all' followed by 'copy' and then we have to delete all the info we donot want in order to get to the info we want - when/where by-election + contact info

2008-02-05 17:06:31, Dave O'Neill

Hi Martin

Two sugggestions:

1. To be able to select your own region eg "East of England" as an optional criteria rather than just distance.

2. To have federal and national conferences in a seperate group (to avoid getting all the various regional conferences selected as well).

Dave
:-)

2008-02-05 18:07:34, Martin Tod

If you sign up to a group, you will automatically see anything that's in that group on your front page and in your emails.

If you go to the East of England page at http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/showOrganisation.php?Organisation=6 you will also see events in bodies that are part of the East of England region - but currently if you sign up to the group you only see specifically East of England Region activities - not the one in groups that are part of the East of England. But it would be good (if quite complicated) to find a way to do what you suggest.

To see Federal and English party activities, the easiest way is to sign up as a member of the Federal and English party groups... you should then see Fed/English activities even if they are not 'in range'

2008-01-31 19:36:32, Dave O'Neill

Hi Martin

I just wish that the resources list could show things for sale seperately - or at least clearly distinguishable from those available for use by others.

I was just looking to see if there were any RISO's for sale or/and any old TR spares (thermal head wanted) and I may be listing an old TR1510 RISO (thermal head iffy...) free for spares.

Excellent site BTW - where would we be without it - but agree with the earlier comment that maybe someone else should be running it. You should be concentrating on winning in the next GE.

Dave
:-))

2008-02-02 01:14:18, Martin Tod

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2008-02-05 16:48:40, Dave O'Neill

Hi Martin

There is a RISO for sale in the resources list that was sold ages ago, but the seller has not deleted it...

The more I think about it a section for bits of kit like RISOs, folders etc for sale, or spares for free etc, seems a goods idea - there must be plenty of others like me running on a shoestring budget trying to keep old equipment going far longer than a commercial operator would...

Dave
:-)

2008-02-03 17:17:29, Darren Fower

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2008-02-03 17:23:25, Martin Tod

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2008-01-28 16:13:45, Martin Tod

A quick test to see if the Flock Together Twitter function works properly

2008-01-29 02:07:02, Martin Tod

And another test...

2008-01-27 08:48:05, Peter Hartwell

Hello Martin,

I am becoming rather concerned that this site seems to be taking up a great deal of your time when you have a Lib Dem parliamentary seat to hold onto in Winchester.

Is there no-one else with your skills to take on this very valuable but time consuming task, or at least to give you some help?

Dont't want to see you lose Winchester by three votes when one of our "armchair" members could come to your rescue.

By the way you have probably seen the hotch-potch that has occured in Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea where we again have constituencies overlapping Borough boundaires.

Fulham has been severed from Hammersmith and Chelsea from Kensington to create a new Chelsea and Fulham constituency but with still only two local parties for the three seats.

This means we will need a Chelsea and Fulham Campaign Group or something to ensure we are masters of our own destinies when it comes to the General (and before). The Execs (mainly K&C have objected to splitting up because they have one council target seat some distance from Chelsea (Colville). The new seat of Hammersmith has one target seat in Askew (where you once lived).

Is the Party's priority that all Local Party's should be based on Parliamentary Constituencies - especially if there are enough members (at least 50) to do so?

Both Boroughs have no councillors and as the next General is very likely to be before or on the same day as the Locals does anyone suggest how I can appeal against this retrogade decision (i.e. one Exec (and no Branches) for 130,000 instead of the previous 85,000.
It is like an ant trying to stear an elephant :-)

We are all black holes but that does not mean to say we should not behave in a more democratic fashion.

Best wishes,

Peter

2007-08-28 17:29:28, Stephen Robinson

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2007-09-05 15:43:11, Martin Tod

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2007-12-31 07:21:42, Peter Hartwell

Hi Martin, Your answer is made incomprehensible by an Amazon windo/Ad which I cannot remove. Peter

2007-09-29 17:37:33, David W Wright

Re 3 - as you say it's almost impossible to have a 3-column layout using only CSS that works in every browser. Especially as IE is so idiosyncratic, and older browsers don't understand CSS anyway. So why try, and fail?

What I do is use a table to define the columns, and then use CSS for all the rest. This seems to me the best compromise between the desire to do pure CSS and the practicalities of making your site work with Any Browser.

2007-09-11 17:04:54, Martin Tod

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2007-10-03 16:48:39, David Bartlett

As Flocktogether gets more and more popular, presumably it should be possible to edit the quantity of events to a certain radius of where one is, as with the by-elections?
Also,once again,I'd like to make a plea for us to use the 24hr clock - and even - since we're supposed to believe in Europe - to use kilometres......

2007-09-22 16:28:32, Reuben Thompson

Thanks for your advice on the London event.

Also, Holborn & St Pancras is a current organisation name. Could we please alter it to Holborn & St Pancras so the RSS feed parses.

2007-09-22 16:28:57, Reuben Thompson

Sorry - the second one should show &

2007-09-12 14:18:52, Ian Neill

I understood from regional conference that there was a buddies opion of people nearby. How do I access it?

2007-09-01 17:32:52, Reuben Thompson

I use the Hackney feed from here at http://www.hackneylibdems.org.uk/events.php to show our upcoming events.

However, our garden party on the 23rd Sept is currently being overtaken by a canvas day in Wimbledon. How can we remove this from the Hackney feed? Much as I sympathise with Merton LDs needing people, this isn't relevant to Hackney - it really is far too far away!

2007-09-05 15:38:33, Martin Tod

I've done this. They'd flagged it as a London event so it was appearing in the feed for every local party in London...

To remove London events from your feed, add &showparent=no to your feed URL. See http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/blog/2006/10/03/options-for-an-organisations-rss-feed-on-flock-together/ for details.

2007-09-03 17:40:10, Jaki Brown

It would be *really useful* if we weren't sent multiple copies of emails in quick sucession - it is becoming SO ANNOYING that I am seriously of unsubscribing!!!!

2007-09-05 15:35:52, Martin Tod

Just change your settings so that you receive one email a day or one a week....

2007-08-30 22:21:03, Robert Wingate

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2007-08-20 14:39:42, Roger Stephens

Just clicked on "Comments on BBQ" and all I then get is a screen full of hieroglyphics (probably some sort of programming data). Reason I clicked on is to enquire as to the LOCATION for the Lincoln BBQ!! So if anyone is reading this, can they (1) do something about the apparent "glitsch" and (2) put BBQ place on the site.

2007-08-19 13:49:47, David Bartlett

By-Elections: we need an address and phone number for contact please.
For enthusiasts, we'd like to know not only which party is defending, but what the percentages were at the last election to take place, for each main party.
Then we'd like to know what the makeup of the Council is.
Could all these details not be put on the main site.
Another thing, for those that travel around a lot, could those posting events instead of just putting "campaign meeting" or "pizza and politics" could we see the a name of the place ie "Reading Liberal drinks", in the heading.

2007-08-10 13:51:45, Tom Papworth

It would be really useful if one could post a nearly identical meeting with the click of a button rather than having to fill in the identical details a second time.

Just a thought.

2007-08-10 16:59:07, Martin Tod

You should be able to see a 'schedule a follow-up meeting' link on the page for any meeting that you create. But it's either not appearing - or we need to find some clearer language for it. Any thoughts?

2007-07-14 13:20:12, Evelyn Knowles

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2007-07-30 01:28:29, Martin Tod

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2007-06-12 12:35:23, Robert Wingate

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2007-07-29 21:10:01, Martin Tod

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2007-07-18 19:11:31, Barend Breet

Oppose the "Blanket" Smoking Ban. Sign the Freedom to Choose Petition at http://www.freedom2choose.co.uk/online_petition.php

Freedom To Choose is an unfunded volunteer group of licensees and members of the public who feel that the Government has lied to them on the smoking ban issue by not carrying though the promises made in its manifesto. Even more concern is surfacing since the Health Minister, Lord Warner, declared that there is a possibility of the ban extending to outside areas.

The argument that secondary smoke is dangerous was certainly not debated or held up for scrutiny and media debate has greatly over-represented the views of the NHS and ASH, whose scare-mongering tactics are all that most of the public saw and heard. What about the publicans, club secretaries, restaurant and cafe outlets and their patrons? Who consulted them?

Feelings are so intense that many of our members have given up their own free time to take a firm stance against this ban and are working toward making the Government listen to the people of this nation, who feel cheated and disillusioned.

2007-07-08 19:24:14, David Bartlett

I wish we could get modern and be educational: why not kilometres and the 24hour clock.......

2007-07-10 01:02:21, Martin Tod

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2007-06-29 21:44:24, Dominic Haney

I think this website is heavily underused. Perhaps there should be an email to all local party agents urging them to advertise meetings and facilities here. We need to work together and have good communication in order to be as effective as we can be.

Dominic Haney.

2007-06-15 11:22:04, Paul Smith

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2007-06-06 13:12:19, James Guise

hey all just to thank everyone who has helped with the by-election in manchester and to tell everyone that we still have lots to do but we could actually win another seat off labour

2007-05-27 15:33:51, Paul Minter

New here/ just registered. Anything happening in East Sussex, near me in Bexhill? Our local web site says nothing at all, a total blank for up coming events! Thank you. Paul.

2007-05-19 22:50:01, Hugh Warner

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2007-05-20 19:22:27, Martin Tod

Many thanks for pointing this out.

It was a bug and is now fixed.

2007-05-25 00:23:21, Hugh Warner

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2007-05-21 21:44:26, Rob Speht

How can I add a "lift" in? it's not obvious where i should enter the details...

Thanks, Rob Speht

2007-05-22 14:30:00, Martin Tod

Rob,

On a specific "meeting page", go to the section entitled "Register for this (meeting)" and select 'Lift Wanted' or 'Lift Available' and then hit the 'Register' button.

I think the whole 'meeting registration' thing may need fixing since it's not currently very clear.



Martin

2007-04-23 10:23:50, David Turner

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2007-03-14 23:30:08, Rachael Collins

Hi,

We recently changed our local party name following boundary changes but I've just noticed it's listed incorrectly - could you please amend to Lewisham and Beckenham North Liberal Democrats.

Many thanks,

Rachael Collins.

2007-03-14 23:22:47, Rachael Collins

Hi,

We recently changed our local party name following boundary changes but I've just noticed it's listed incorrectly - could you please amend to Lewisham and Beckenham North Liberal Democrats.

Many thanks,

Rachael Collins.

2007-02-19 00:10:04, Alex Foster

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2007-02-20 00:20:01, Martin Tod

I've added the event and think I may have fixed the issue. Let me know if you still have a problem.

2007-03-07 22:58:38, Alex Foster

Yes, I'm afraid I do. I was trying to add two new events, as per www.nottinghamlibdems.org.uk/events - and got the same error message.

Is it just me? :)

2007-03-08 15:26:55, Martin Tod

Nope. It's not just you. But it is now genuinely fixed.

Your previous meetings may now have appeared on the list.



Martin

2007-02-20 00:21:40, Martin Tod

PS: the date on your website is Tuesday, not Thursday! Please let me know what date you would like it to show.

2007-02-19 10:33:17, Alastair Ross

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2007-02-20 00:12:11, Martin Tod

Sorry about that.

It was defaulting to 'recently added meetings' if there were no meetings to show.

Now it should show no meetings.

The new feeds announced on the blog should mean that it's dramatically easier to add Flock Together meetings to Prater Raines sites which should help.

2007-02-08 18:45:43, David Toombs

My postcode was changed five years ago, yet the site doesn't recognise the new postcodes for our region.

Also due to boundary changes my ward now falls out of the Braintree area and into the new Witham area.

2007-02-12 00:05:24, Martin Tod

Let me know what postcode is missing and I will sort it out.

2007-02-11 20:27:10, Paul Smith

Living in Enfield, N. London, I was surprised to be told about events in Winchester, which is claimed to be only a mile away. Is something amiss with your "distance generator"?

Paul D Smith

2007-02-12 00:04:19, Martin Tod

Sorry about that. I was doing some work to speed up the site and had a little mishap.

It shouldn't happen again.

2007-01-13 00:14:15, Nigel Ashton

I've just added an event for the first time, but the map pin is out by about a mile when zooming in on the map. Is there any way I can fix it to the correct location?

2007-01-13 00:56:56, Martin Tod

Sure. Just go to the page of the meeting you have set up and click on the map where you would like the pin to be.

2007-01-13 11:36:41, Nigel Ashton

Thanks Martin, that worked fine. I'll be adding future events for Southport now I know how to do it!

2007-01-13 23:48:29, Martin Tod

Happy to help! :-)

2007-01-10 23:41:32, Susan Kendrick

Boundary & party changes - London Borough of Ealing

Following boundary changes Ealing has once again become a borough party as all the parliamentary seats are within the London Borough of Ealing. These are the new constituency of Ealing Central and Acton (ECA), Ealing North and Ealing Southall. The latter two have lost wards to ECA. Shepherds Bush now rejoins Hammersmith.

2007-01-10 23:07:19, Elaine Woodard

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2007-01-10 20:47:04, Jeremy Hodge

Buckinghamshire. Upcoming boundary changes to Parliamentary constituencies have resulted in recent reconstitutions for Aylesbury, Buckingham and Chiltern local parties, but the names have not changed. Quite a few members have been moved from one local party to another.

2007-01-10 20:30:42, Rachael Collins

Following the separate Annual General Meetings of Lewisham and Beckenham North Lib Dems, members agreed to form a new local party in response to the Parliamentary boundary changes that come into effect on 1 January 2007. The new party, Lewisham and Beckenham North Lib Dems, covers the three Parliamentary constituencies: Deptford Lewisham, Lewisham East and
Lewisham West & Penge.

2007-01-10 16:34:50, Jason Zadrozny

Ashfield and Mansfield local parties have now merged. From now on will be known as Ashfield & Mansfield Liberal Democrats.

2007-01-10 18:47:07, Martin Tod

Now added.

Martin

2007-01-10 12:28:06, David Hendra

Woodspring Constituency (between bristol & weston-super-mare) is to be called North Somerset
from now on.

2007-01-10 15:45:14, Martin Tod

Done.

Martin

2007-01-10 13:47:28, Sid Cumberland

Rayleigh has become Rayleigh and Wickford.

Sid

2007-01-10 15:45:00, Martin Tod

Done.

Martin

2007-01-10 13:59:25, David Henderson

Outer York constituency will include all the outer wards of York Unitary Authority, which at present contribute to Ryedale, Selby and Vale of York.
All of our councillors exceps one (independant) are Liberal Democrats.

David Henderson (EARS officer)

2007-01-10 15:43:17, Martin Tod

Do Ryedale, Selby and Vale of York continue to exist?

Should I create a new constituency or replace one of the old ones?


Martin

2007-01-10 14:21:39, Stephen Robinson

Chelmsford & Maldon local party (two constituencies) has become Chelmsford constituency and Maldon constituency, but that covers quite a few ward changes.

The western part of West Chelmsford constituency has gone into Saffron Walden.
See http://www.chelmsford-libdems.org.uk/pages/Profile.html

2007-01-10 15:41:51, Martin Tod

Done. Many thanks.

Martin

2007-01-10 15:18:33, John Whitehouse

Rugby & Kenilworth local party has split into two to reflect parliamentary boundary changes for the next General Election.

The new Rugby local party covers most (but not all) Rugby borough council wards, plus some wards from Nuneaton & Bedworth. See website www.rugbylibdems.org.uk

The new Kenilworth & Southam local party includes all Kenilworth wards and five other Warwick district council wards, three Rugby borough council wards, plus five Stratford district council wards. See website www.kandslibdems.org.uk

2007-01-10 15:39:39, Martin Tod

Done.

Martin

2007-01-10 12:11:09, Martyn Moss

The Derbyshire Dales Constituency Party is really a renaming to the West Derbyshire Constituency Party to take the boundary changes into consideration.

We have lost a lot of members who were in the Amber Valley District Council area (Belper and Duffield) who are now in a new Mid Derbyshire Constituency Party.

We have gained a smaller number of members from High Peak, and Amber Valley, but of course these members may revert to what is now their old constituencies because that is where they vote and pay their Council Tax. We shall see but we have a nett loss of membership.

Martyn Moss _ Chair Derbyshire Dales Liberal Constituency Party (was West Derbyshire)

2007-01-10 15:38:11, Martin Tod

Done. Many thanks.

Martin

2007-01-10 11:11:48, Stephen Gilbert

Some Local Party changes in Cornwall too.

Boundary changes have given the county a new seat - moving from 5 to 6.

New seat is St Austell & Newquay. Roughly coterminus with the Restormel Borough council area (minus the ward of Lostwithiel).

To achieve the new seat, Truro and St Austell was officially split at the end of last year.

There's now a Truro & Falmouth LP and a Camborne & Redruth LP (in place of Falmouth & Camborne).

This leaves the LPs of South East Cornwall, North Cornwall, and St Ives unchanged in name - although the area covered by North Cornwall and South East Cornwall has been reduced.

Hope that's clear - to someone!

Cheers,


Stephen Gilbert

2007-01-10 11:43:02, Martin Tod

Done (I think).

See http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/showOrganisation.php?Organisation=4 for details.


Martin

2007-01-10 11:09:32, Gavin Grant

We are still North Wiltshire but with new Wards added from Swindon North (Cricklade) and Devizes (Calne Town Wards and Calne With out Rural Wards). We lost Corsham & Lacock, OPickwick (north of Corsham) and the whole of Chippenahma to the newly formed Chippenham seat. So our colleagues forming the new Chippenahm have all the hassles of new bank accounts to open etc

However our new year is off to a great start.

* Our new full-time Organiser has started (funded by North and West Wilts Lib Dems - Donna Mattfield who joined us having been a staffer at Greenpeace International in Amsterdam!

* Our joint HQ is being expanded, refurbished and new kit installed (we have a new folding machine to add to the A4 and A3 Risos)

* Our PPC hustings are the week-end after this and we have three good candidates to chose from.

* we have had a very amicable resource split with our Chippenham colleagues and a good sense of how we will work together with our shred resources.

So Happy New Year to all Flock Together people from new North Wilts!

The only sad note is the news in our part of the world is that Jack Ainsley died last Friday. Those of us who knocked around in the old Liberal party in the 70s and 80s will remeber Jack as a passionate Liberal and tremendous PPC in Devizes. he was also a great benefactor to the Party and terrific person!

2007-01-10 11:07:25, Denzil Coulson

We are still known as Woking Liberal Democrats.

Regards

Cllr Denzil Coulson
Woking Lib Dem Chair

2007-01-10 10:27:09, Paul Daly

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2007-01-09 16:28:46, Iain Dale

My local party amended it's Constitution at our December 2006 AGM and has changed it's name from Cunninghame LP to Ayrshire & Arran LP. How can I change this as one of my tracked organisations?

2007-01-10 10:00:29, Martin Tod

I've changed it.

Are you still the only party in the country that's in two regions?

2007-01-10 10:08:30, Martin Tod

PS: to change a local party's name, just post a comment on the local party page or here on the discussion page.

2006-11-04 10:59:42, Richard Atkins

I can't see how to edit or delete our Ipswich resources of a Riso & folding machine, only how to add resources. Help please.

2006-11-04 20:17:55, Martin Tod

There should be an edit link on the page itself immediately under the description.

Alternatively, does http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/registerResource.php?editMeeting=1353 work for you?

2006-11-05 10:51:11, Richard Atkins

The link you supplied got me to the required page, where I discovered a "status" drop down menu: by changing status to "deleted" instead of active , and updating, I was able to remove the items. But I wouldn't have found my way to that page without your help... Thanks Martin.

2006-11-06 02:22:39, Martin Tod

I'll bear it in mind for a future version of the software.

Martin

2006-11-04 07:58:14, Elaine Woodard

There should be a contact facility on the site. I have a particular issue I want to address not a general comment I want everyone to see and I can't find a way to do this.

2006-11-04 20:16:51, Martin Tod

I'll add it.

2006-10-25 09:05:06, Ian Shephard

Martin,
We have just launched a new web site for Louth & Horncastle Lib Dems and I thought it was a good idea to log it as a resource so people could use it to contact us about issues in our area. However your resource page only treats websites as address/contact info. Can they not be resources in their own right? (We are at www.e-lindseylibdems.org.uk by the way).
Best wishes,
Ian Shephard

2006-10-27 23:51:54, Martin Tod

Ian,

Potentially a good idea. Might it make more sense to have geo-locations for local parties perhaps - and then show the website at that address?


Martin

2006-10-17 17:34:25, Eleanor Bell

Martin

The idea behind this site is great (although I agree the logo looks a bit odd).

But down load is VERY slow, even on broadband, mainly I think because it is loading map plus data at every click.

For example, when I first go to the site it automatically starts loading a map centred on Dartmouth and wont let you interrupt it for over 2 mins. If I enter my postcode or log in, it takes another 2 minutes to load a new map. Is there a faciltiy to make it remember my postcode and open on that? .

Once in my map area, if I click on an event or meeting for more details, again it loads a map, when I might well know where it is, just need a name and tel no. Really infuriating if you don't note the contact the first time and want to go back and look a second time.

So my suggestion is to load up lists of events and dates etc and let users click on a map button if they want to. That would speed up download considerably. I do understand the amount of data processing that is going on, which is brilliant, but that is why the amount of data offered at one time may need to be slimmed.

Cheers :-)

2006-10-06 12:17:13, Ben Jephcott

Hi, I have not read everything above, but I think the site is potentially a very useful campaigning tool, though at the moment it reacts rather slowly. The front page could do with a re-design and a more professional looking logo.

And threaded discussions on the ameol / cix model are so much easier than one huge long list of posts. Not that I can afford cix these days.

I have just posted details of a by-election, including location post code - the resulting map location is a bit out and I wanted to amend the post code, can you do that?

Ben

2006-10-06 12:36:43, Martin Tod

Ben,

Any suggestion for the logo most welcome.

In terms of speed, the main thing is likely to be an increased use of caching combined with a move to a dedicated server and excluding search engines from certain pages.

You should be able to put the pin in a more accurate place (and thereby also correct the record for the postcode) by clicking on the map.



Martin

2006-10-02 21:10:33, Peter Wilson

Martin,

I've seen the new "add a resource" link.

How do I search for a resource(s)?

Peter Wilson

2006-10-02 23:13:12, Martin Tod

Peter,

Just type what you're looking for into the search box to the left.

Alternatively, if you're logged in, look at the table at the bottom of the front page.

Finally, you may need to edit your preferences to ensure that you see the kind of resource you need at the range you need...



Martin

2006-10-02 17:09:43, Gareth Epps

A good function would be a repeat meeting device - eg for Reading Liberal Drinks.

2006-10-02 19:07:33, Martin Tod

Good idea.

I'll start thinking about how to do it.



Martin

2006-08-17 16:12:31, Joe Otten

Martin, to set up the second Sheffield Liberal Drinks, I'm sure I could click somewhere to create a followup meeting. That feature (or the old meetings) seems to have disappeared. Is this deliberate?

Joe

2006-08-17 16:37:44, Martin Tod

Does it not appear on http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/showMeetingPage.php?Meeting=936 ?

2006-08-16 13:46:27, Kathy Pollard

I've just put in an event in East Bergholt, Suffolk CO7 6QX and its location has appeared as Elmstead Market in Essex.

2006-08-16 17:58:08, Martin Tod

You can move the pin for any meeting you create by clicking on the map to place the pin in a new location.

I've moved it to East Bergholt, although you may want to place the pin yet more accurately.

2006-07-19 00:35:32, Stewart Morris

Martin

The map seems to be crashing Firefox (1.5.0.4) with a 'Warning: unresponsive script' message. I can either stop the script (generally OK) or continue, which results in Firefox locking up.

Probably related to this problem, the map is just a grey background with yellow pins on it - I can't see the map data.

Stewart

2006-07-19 00:42:19, Stewart Morris

I have sorted the map problem (it was because I'd set Firefox not to load images from other websites) but the Stop Script / Continue warning still occurs.

2006-07-22 00:13:12, Martin Tod

Are you using Unix? I had the same problem with SUSE Linux, but don't have the problem in Windows.

I wonder if there's some kind of Javascript timeout happening (is this possible)? Not sure whether it's possible to reset the timer from within Javascript. Something to investigate.

2006-07-24 16:33:25, Stewart Morris

No, using Windows 98. Admittedly it's an old computer, but IE6 and Opera both seem to handle the Javascript just fine.

2006-07-01 09:36:41, Geoffrey Payne

I have just put in some events, and now I want to edit them. However I cannot see how to do this.
Our "Hackney Lib Dems Summer Curry Fest" on the 20th August costs ?8/?5 low income.
We also want to know in advance anyone who is coming along.

2006-07-01 10:53:43, Martin Tod

PS: You can also click on the map to change the location of the pin.

2006-07-01 10:52:40, Martin Tod

You should see an edit link on the page just under the description.

2005-10-25 11:19:29, Duncan Hames

When you start zooming in on locations, the accuracy of the pin appears a little suspect (e.g. Chippenham Town Council on 24th November). Can we do anything about this, or at least provide a health warning?

2005-10-25 11:35:22, Martin Tod

Yes. Longer-term we can buy a better database. I also intend to add a nudge function to make the pins more accurate. And we can add a health warning.

2006-05-13 10:59:24, Debra Storr

Thanks for the nudge function - I've nudged a couple and it seems to now show both pins ... old and new.

Also does nudging for a postcode move all other pins for that postcode? This is probably desirable behaviour (the odds are that we only have one meeting location per postcode although it's _possible_ that there could be multiple ... )

2006-06-11 11:37:44, Martin Tod

Debra,

Nudging now moves the pin for all future lookups of that particular postcode.

You're right to say that it should move the pin for all look-ups. I'll think about doing that next. It might mean some minor reconstruction of the database set-up.



Martin

2006-05-17 00:42:11, Martin Tod

Currently there's only a database for the first half of the postcode. But I guess we could get into storing complete postcodes and linking them to specific locations when people moved the pin there.

Either that or I can finally get round to buying a better database (although I will probably put a PayPal button on the site when we get to that point!).

Something to add to the development list...

2006-05-13 11:02:05, Debra Storr

sorry - old pins do disappear.

Debra

2005-12-24 13:12:06, Chris Boyle

The pin accuracy is a little suspect around Newcastle and Durham too. Just noticed its already been noticed though. A health warning could be a good idea otherwise we could have newbie members meeting each other in a field whilst we're in the local !

2006-05-31 23:01:47, Andy McGregor

I know this is not the right way to add a meeting, but I am not the organiser of the Northern Region and don't think I can put details of other peoples' meetings on.
So can some one please investigate why there is no mention, at least that I can see, of the
Northern Region LibDems AGM, on Sat 10 June in Gateshead.
northreglibdem@cix.co.uk is the contact, I think.
If you Email me, andy@mcgelmbank.f9.co.uk I can forward the notices etc.
Hope this helps and is not treading on anyone's toes.
Andy McG

2006-05-31 23:33:52, Martin Tod

Andy,

You are completely free to add anyone's meeting.


Martin

2006-06-04 23:24:43, Andy McGregor

I see it is on now.
Ming Campbell will address conf at 2pm with Q&A afterwards.
Andy McG

2006-05-18 19:02:59, Nigel Amor

is that you, Martin?

if so, greetings from Ealing

I thought this was a Lib Dem dating site - maybe that could be something else you could set up?

best wishes

Nigel A

2006-05-24 22:15:48, Martin Tod

Nigel,

It is indeed.

Neat idea for a dating site (I'll add it to the list of things to do). As a first step, it might make sense to have a category of meeting (Liberal Drinks?) which people can use to set up informal meetings in their local area.... and then let things proceed from there.



Martin

2006-05-18 16:07:32, chris_corby

there's no mention of the national by-election in kent the sooner we get the ball rolling the sooner we do another Willie

2006-05-14 20:05:23, Ian Eiloart

I don't like this page! I'm scrolling horizontally. I guess you've specified an absolute table width, and the table is wider than my laptop screen. Also, it's getting quite long. Any chance of a topic index - a full blown BBS system, for example!

2006-05-17 00:40:42, Martin Tod

There's no table at all... everything is placed and designed via CSS.

There's also the capability for me to point the site at external CSS stylesheets and let individuals write their own CSS.

I can't for the life of me see why it's going the whole width. I'll dig about in the CSS to try and understand why...

2006-03-13 00:04:31, Alan Muhammed

Whilst this site does a great job in being able to provide maps of locations and times of meetings, runs fast, is simple to use etc...I was quite surprised to learn that just by searching for my own name on a certain search engine, I could find the contents of my posts on this website (specifically relating to a question regarding PMQs.)

I don't personally have a problem with this, but I'm wondering whether anybody has considered that it could for example, give opposing parties a more direct idea of where we are concentrating our resources, what regions we are focussing on, where we draw help from & general grass roots sentiments - all of which, are likely already known, but with the speed of the internet, could providean unfair advantage in giving an indication of our true strengths & weaknesses.

I would seriously suggest we consider making the system more closed and less open to being seen by the entire world if this is the case, or to advise users to be careful with the nature of what they post. At the same time, I understand we need to be as open and transparent as possible in order to encourage widening participation and make people feel included.

2006-03-14 11:27:54, Martin Tod

We're working with the Federal Party to see if we check the membership status of people on Flock Together automatically - this would, in theory, let us make discussions private and confidential. Obviously though this needs to be balanced with ease of use and making it as accessible as possible.

2006-03-22 18:23:03, Alan Muhammed

I entirely understand, and kudos to those who are responsible for running the site.

My point is that comments are currently searchable on web search engines, as an example, if you copy and paste this link into a browser, you can see the contents of an earlier post I've made:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=alan+muhammed

My suggestion would be to have something similar to what LDYS has in terms of a forum section of their main website, that has a 'public' and 'members only' section ( http://www.ldys.org.uk/forum/ )

2006-04-12 13:28:55, Martin Tod

Alan,

We've now got an online membership checker available to party websites so this should be possible. I agree on the need for members and non-members comments.


Martin

2006-03-16 17:55:37, Keith Watts

Martin

I sorted out my problem with logging in (the Logo over the login box) by changing my screen resolution. I did this in response to a warning from Google Earth. I am going to change it back, though, because the font size on IE is too small for the old eyes that use this machine. Can't you change the spacing so the login box is always accessible?

Keith

2006-03-19 17:42:53, Martin Tod

Keith,

I should do this, because you're not the only one who's had this problem. The design and the content are strictly separated - indeed the code's in place to allow people to have personal stylesheets if necessary.

Any other comments that people have as to how the design could be improved would be appreciated.


Martin

2005-11-18 00:28:23, Susanne Lamido

I tried to add the London Region Conference coming up on Sat.
It kept rejecting the entry saying it doesn't accept HTML. I only typed words so in annoyance I've given up.
We need to add the London Region and GLA under London.

Susanne

2006-02-09 19:40:01, Debra Storr

I've occasionally got this error ... usually when copying text from Cix to here. taking out mailto: in text helps as does just fiddling about at start and end of text.

D

2006-02-10 11:41:20, Martin Tod

I think it's having a space at the beginning or end of a post that does it.

Next time I look at that bit of code I'll fix it.

I also intend to make 'ALL CAPS MEETING DESCRIPTIONS' show an error, as well as repeat entries of the same event.


Martin

2005-11-18 09:41:19, Martin Tod

I'm looking to add a more sophisticated discussion board to this page.
The London AGM is already listed at http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/showOrganisation.php?Organisation=7
I'm not sure why what you typed didn't appear. Can you email me what you tried to type in?
I'll look into adding the GLA group

2005-11-18 09:42:23, Martin Tod

PS: The GLA group is already listed at http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/showOrganisation.php?Organisation=224

2005-11-12 07:13:46, Michael Miller

I don't know what browser you are all using, but whoever is in charge out to try Firefox (mine is 1.0.5) as all I see on the map is a blank square with lots of little squares all over it (presumably the locations of things). Good luck!

2005-11-12 09:21:36, Martin Tod

The site was developed on Firefox and has almost always worked fine with it. Internet Explorer proved a much harder nut to crack. I'm looking at it now with Firefox 1.07 and there are no problems. I also tried looking at the map centred on CO7 and that seemed to work too. What happens when you look at the GoogleMaps site directly (http://maps.google.com)?

2006-02-08 08:20:51, Michael Miller

(1) Sorry - I thought I got notification of messages / postings ~ didn't realise you'd pposted reply.
(2) Your site does not seem to display maps at all on my IE5.5 browser, whereas google maps works just fine. There are no "pin" images on your pages on my IE5.5 either.
(3) Firefox does not show google maps at all on my PC ~ multimap and streetmap both work fine.
(4) Firefox show empty background on your site where map ought to be, with "image not found" tags all over it.
Where are your images coming from? Is there some firewall setting I need to change to let them in?
MRM

2006-02-08 09:08:01, Michael Miller

Update!
Sorted it after visit to
http://local.google.co.uk/support/bin/topic.py?topic=1498
which gives things to do with IE and Firefox to make Google maps work. (IE things seem a bit drastic, reducing Internet Security settings as far as I can judge...)
May be worth a link from the maps page perhaps?

Good luck!
MRM

2006-02-09 14:58:45, Martin Tod

Crikey - that's quite a list of things to do.

Just for interest, why haven't you upgraded to IE6?


Martin

2006-02-06 17:31:31, John Thomson

I have today entered a Chris Huhne meeting at Chippenham on 12 February and it has appeared on the general list, but has not yet appeared on the Leadership page. Can this be rectified?

Also I believe the Chris Huhne meeting in Cheltenham on the evening of 12 February starts at 5.00pm, not 6.00pm as stated. Can you check please with the Chris Huhne campaign?

2006-02-07 02:02:52, Martin Tod

You need to link it to the Chris Huhne 'organisation' for it to show in the list. Or categorise it as a hustings.

I've corrected the Cheltenham timing.


Martin

2006-02-01 12:04:55, Kevin Moore

Can a election date be added for 04/05/2006 for the Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough council elections please so co-ordination of target ward litrature can go ahead?

2006-01-20 16:02:53, Penny Hopkins

I've entered a social event in Yateley (Branch Quiz on 28 January), which comes up if I enter "Yateley" in the search box, but doesn't appear if I enter my postcode. Have I got the categories mixed up, or is there some other reason?

Penny

2006-01-21 16:50:25, Martin Tod

Penny,

There's was no postcode in the postcode box, so Flock Together didn't know where it was. I've put one in and it should now appear.


Martin

2005-12-22 19:41:08, Martin Land

Martin

As you can see, I have added the Fenland DC by election - part of my patch. This is a really important one. The West Suffolk mob just got our 1st councillor on Forest Heath DC and this is our chance to get the 1st in the Fens. However, I can't see anyway of adding comments or letting people know why it's so important.

Martin Land, Campaigns Manager, Cambridgeshire LD's

2005-12-22 21:22:09, Martin Land

Thanks

2005-12-22 19:57:22, Martin Tod

Martin,

If you go and look at the Fenland DC by-election page, you should be able to add a comment.



Martin

2005-12-20 10:37:01, Craig Drury

any chance of splitting the by elections up into council elections and parliamentary ones? I want to set different distances for them....

cheers,

Craig

2005-12-21 15:35:17, Martin Tod

Yes. I'll add it to the list of things to do.


Martin

2005-12-22 13:35:41, Martin Tod

And now I've done it! :-)


Martin

2005-12-16 12:36:28, Jon Whitehouse

The East of England Exec meeting at http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/showMeetingPage.php?Meeting=440 and http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/showMeetingPage.php?Meeting=439 don't appear on the East of England Liberal Democrats organisation page - http://www.flocktogether.org.uk/showOrganisation.php?Organisation=6. It's not clear to me why they aren't associated.

2005-12-16 16:52:42, Martin Tod

Now fixed.

Martin

2005-12-17 16:05:54, Jon Whitehouse

Thanks. Two more minor pieces of feedback.

(i) Under "Your registered by-elections" a past by-election is listed (Dec 8)
(ii) It would be better to have "Your registered meetings" listed chronologically rather than alphabetically.

Congratulations on the site. It's getting to be a useful place to look things up.

Jon

2005-12-12 17:24:03, Debra Storr

I'm really upset.

I placed an article in a Scottish Party all members publication .... and we haven't had a flood of new Scottish users. :-(

Debra

2005-12-12 17:40:53, Martin Tod

Perhaps all the ones who were interested had already responded to the Cowley Street email?! :-)

When did the article go in? Even with the email, the effect lasted about a week altogether.


Martin

2005-12-14 20:24:23, Debra Storr

A Clifton Terrace Focus arrived (along with an Xmas card from Elspeth Atwool MEP) to all members at the weekend.

I've been looking at the dates registered by the Scottish users.

Debra

2005-12-01 20:04:03, Debra Storr

I noticed that Stephen Glenn wants a lift to the Harrogate Conf and I listed myself as able to give such.
But I only knew that Stephen was anywhere near me because there are rel few Scots.

What we need for any individual meeting is
a) a way to map lifts offerred and wanted geographically (start with the postcode of the person)
b) a way for folk to contact each other.

Or (prob better) we need a feed into www.liftshare.org

And BUG
I found Stephen via the Admin Users map ... but Find out mroe failed ... couldn't find Stephen ... suspect problem with space in name.

Debra

2005-12-03 16:06:37, James Graham

I think the liftshare idea is an excellent one.

2005-12-03 17:36:48, Martin Tod

Should we just suggest to people that they register their trip on the www.liftshare.org website? There's no obvious method of automating the process since people need to separately register on the liftshare site.

One rather wacky idea for flocktogether.org.uk might be to do a single-page overview of potential lifts and lift shares tailored to you - lifts wanted to meetings in your list - and lifts available to meetings in your list.

A precursor to that might be a little car icon on the meeting list to show that a lift is available or wanted.



Martin

2005-12-11 13:20:45, Debra Storr

Could we add a flag in flocktogether so that people can advise others than they have also offerred or requested lifts in liftshare?

That would let people us one, the other or both sites as they will - and might increase the uptake of liftshare...

Debra

2005-12-03 01:37:01, Martin Tod

I've now added a rough estimate of the diversion needed to give a lift and a link through to the person's personal page. Comments welcome.

Still puzzled about the search. Searching for Stephen worked for me.


Martin

2005-12-04 18:37:22, Debra Storr

It was the Find Out More link from the Admin Users map that produced the bug.

Debra

2005-12-04 18:49:19, Martin Tod

Aha. Found it. Now fixed.

Many thanks.


Martin

2005-12-01 23:27:14, Martin Tod

Good idea. I'll add a distance calculation to anyone who's offering or wants a lift.

I'll also make the names linkable (which I can do quickly and easily).

I'll go and have a look at liftshare too.



Martin

2005-12-04 18:40:58, Debra Storr

Liberal Democrat Party (sic) is a group within www.liftshare.org

It is a poorly advertised initiative originally I think associated with conferences.

Debra

2005-12-06 09:23:56, Peter Welch

Great site. Pages take ages to load at present (in office with IE) but I can always get on with some work while waiting...

2005-12-06 09:48:21, Martin Tod

Thank you.

The slow part appears to be the SQL queries. I've done quite a lot of work in the background to speed these up. The system also slows down for about a minute or so when a lot of emails go out (although this was not the case here). Older versions of IE are also a bit problematic (I'm told). The main problem is that I appear to be sharing use of the database server with someone who is doing occasional hairy things with it during the day. It all works brilliantly outside office hours.

I suppose at some point I should look into standalone hosting of some kind. Although at that point, I may ask for donations!

2005-12-01 10:36:48, Tim Hill

On IE5.5, the map with pins showing locations doesn't work. Nothing appears :)

2005-12-01 11:09:45, Martin Tod

IE and Google Maps don't work very happily together. It was hard enough to get them working on IE 6.0.

Given that IE 5.5 is the most popular browser visiting the site, I guess I should do something about it. Was it every page that had this problem or just the meeting pages?

2005-12-05 18:04:18, Tim Hill

Every page

2005-12-04 15:03:09, Roy Taylor

Lifts have traditionally been organised locally through constituency organisations or more locally through branches or word of mouth. Any IT solution that offers a wider net to arrange transport is welcome and worthy of support. Don't be afraid to try wacky ideas, they often work better than more obvious ones.

2005-12-01 10:39:09, Tim Hill

I also want to add that this web site is a brilliant idea.

I also support the idea of different distances for parliamentary and council by-elections. I travelled 200 miles there and back to visit Hartlepool three times including polling day but wouldn't do the same for a council by-election.

2005-12-01 11:05:29, Martin Tod

I'll put this on the list of things to do.


Martin

2005-12-01 10:49:23, Tim Hill

Sorry about this but I just saw the CMLD entries.

Can I ask everyone not to use TLAs (three letter abbreviations) as the e-mail we get doesn't give any more detail on what they mean ?

2005-11-15 15:15:12, John Masek

Could the Log-in frame be moved, as it is blocking off part of the home-page Logo, which is a shame, especially when new users sign up and log in. - A superb site which The Chelmsford and Maldon Liberal Democrat Local Party will support and keep updated.
John Masek
Secretary.

2005-11-19 16:59:50, Martin Tod

John,

I've done some rearranging and it should all be OK now.

Martin

2005-11-16 18:25:03, sfl

On my computer the Heading 'Flock together' is cut across the letter r by the overlay of the birds.
The birds picture needs a trim on left side.

2005-11-18 20:41:47, Martin Tod

I've made them transparent. Does that help?

Martin

2005-11-18 21:20:45, Martin Tod

I've also made them go under the logo if they overlap. The login box goes over the logo.

Martin

2005-11-18 23:06:50, Susanne Lamido

Martin

It has spoilt the look - bit tacky. Can't you leave it as it was and just crop one of the birds.

The login box is now clear but it still needs shifting up a bit. Presently it is sitting on the head of the ? Doesn't look good. Try and align the bottom of the box with the bottom of the birds square.

Susanne

2005-11-19 16:58:34, Martin Tod

Susanne,

I've replaced the bird graphic with a GIF version and aligned the login-box to the bottom of the bird box. Hopefully it will all be OK now!

Martin

2005-11-18 22:50:21, Susanne Lamido

Martin

The thread is good especially with the reply link. However it needs fine tuning. The yellow down-lines are all over the place and as you graduate down the page the left side of the text for each posting is not visible.

Susanne

2005-11-18 23:42:13, Martin Tod

Susanne,

Many thanks for spotting this. I'd been working on the site in Firefox and it looked great, but hadn't tried it in Internet Explorer yet. It turned out the vertical lines were making it very unhappy so I've taken them out for the time being.

Martin

2005-11-18 21:39:31, Debra Storr

How do you delete an event?

Not that I;ve had cause yet but ....

Debra

2005-11-18 21:55:38, Martin Tod

Currently you can only cancel it, by hitting edit on a page you created. If I need to delete pages, I go into the MySQL database which I recognise is not the long-term solution! Martin

2005-11-16 22:42:38, Colin Taylor

Perhaps wrongly, it strikes me that folk might be interested in by-elections further away if they were parliamentary than if they were for parish councils - and at intermediate distances for county or local councils.

2005-11-18 20:19:17, Martin Tod

Colin,

I think you're probably right. It would be a fairly major piece of reprogramming. Let me think about it and come back to you.

Martin

2005-11-18 00:31:56, Susanne Lamido

Is there any way we can have a thread under each posting so an individual can answer a specific post or when a bugs sorted one knows which posting you are referring to.

Susanne

2005-11-18 20:13:22, Martin Tod

Done. :-)

Many thanks for the suggestion.

Martin

2005-11-17 19:31:33, Helen Watt

Could a feature be added where you could nominate another user to be a co-owner of an event so that its entry can be edited by more than the original poster? Helen

2005-11-18 20:12:47, Martin Tod

Helen. Anything is possible! The easy route is to create a new tier of users who can edit meetings, but not change system or user settings. There's already a category of "party member" in the system and we could consider letting any party member edit any entry. A slightly more complicated approach would be to associate people with organisations and then allow anyone associated with an organisation to edit the entry. Martin

2005-11-18 00:05:31, Debra Storr

I've been thinking more about ownership of meetings. It might be useful to have a small list of people able to edit all meetings associated with an organisational unit. This will then allow those designated people to keep things under control in their "patch". I think this is easier to manage than having one user designate another as co-owner of a meeting ... we'll get folk who are habitual "flockers" (sorry couldn't find a more elegant term to coin) for meetings e.g.

Me. - Scottish anything, Gordon, NESLD (acting as general watcher/tidier)
helen watt - Scottish Conference, Scottish Business, SWLD, East Dun
etc

so I suspect it will be pretty easy to have designated flockers for organisations.

So of course if folk want to "spam" their meeting across lots of organisational units, they risk a cross flocker cutting them down to size and so control of abuse is distributed and self-insflicted! Perfect!

Debra

2005-11-17 12:38:27, Tim Stone

How do I filter out those events which are hunreds of miles from here?

2005-11-18 19:53:48, Martin Tod

You can click on 'edit your preferences' in order to set the range for meetings or by-elections.

2005-11-16 19:45:47, Helen Watt

Please also add Scottish Membership & Development Committee to the list Debra already supplied.

2005-11-17 00:05:29, Debra Storr

Helen,

I only gave the constitutional committees - I'd put M&D meetings under its parent body (as I've put office bearers meeting under the exec). Similarly I;d expect Policy Committee Working Groups to go udner the Policy Committee rather than be their own organsiational unit.

Debra

> 2005-11-16 19:45:47, HelenWatt

> Please also add Scottish Membership & Development Committee to the list Debra already supplied.

2005-11-17 19:29:17, Helen Watt

Scottish Membership & Development Committee meetings listed under Scottish Business Committee to mirror the reporting structure.
Debra - can you add ASLDC

2005-11-17 14:03:44, Susanne Lamido

Is there any way to remove yourself once registerred.
Can't see anyway to unsubscribe

2005-11-17 14:43:10, Martin Tod

Click on 'edit your preferences' in order to stop receiving any emails.

2005-11-17 13:25:05, Graham Rix

Do you have to wear a kilt to use this website!?
I tried to enter details of two meetings and got a lot of mumbo jumbo about SQL syntax etc. Don't understand this.
Graham Rix
Norfolk

2005-11-17 13:30:58, Martin Tod

Graham - this is now fixed. Apologies for that. Fixing another problem had created a new one. Now fixed.

2005-11-17 00:26:13, Debra Storr

Under AOs in Scotland, we need

Scottish Women Liberal Democrats
Scottish Green Liberal Democrats
Scottish Young Liberal Democrats

.... any more Helen?

(and Yes it's AOs as we don't have different classes)

Debra

2005-11-17 01:20:13, Martin Tod

Debra - new organisations added. The alt text is present for all the graphics - although not all browsers display it.

2005-11-16 19:41:18, Debra Storr

Like the new default styling .... must play with the other options.
Like the icons rather than text for Edit, View - much neater.
Debra

2005-11-16 19:42:15, Debra Storr

... but DDA good practise and ALT tags on the Edit and View icons, please.

2005-11-16 20:18:47, Martin Tod

Debra, I thought I had - but perhaps on only one of the tables. I?ll check & fix as soon as I?m using my PC not my Palm! Martin

2005-11-16 18:35:36, SFL

I only typed the comment once but it appeared twice. What happened?

2005-11-16 20:14:38, Martin Tod

SFL, did you perhaps reload the page? Martin

2005-11-16 20:05:07, Helen Watt

I have added a number of events to the site. How do I cross reference these to other areas e.g. I would also like these to appear under East Dunbartonshire & Clydebank Liberal Democrats and under West of Scotland Region in addition to general applicability?

2005-11-16 20:13:22, Martin Tod

Helen, you can any number of organisations to a meeting when you add or edit it. Just search for an organisation, select it, then search for another one. Martin

2005-11-14 13:39:45, James Graham

Suggestion: add seperate pages for the Executive Committees (and for that matter the other committees) of the State Parties. Currently, if you look at the RSS feed of a local party in Scotland it is filled with Scottish Executive Meetings - useful things to have on the site but not so useful for the feed (which ideally could be used on local party websites). Wouldn't it be better to keep them in a different section?

2005-11-14 19:52:04, Martin Tod

Agree. I've emailed Debra to get her suggestions for the hierarchy.

2005-11-14 20:19:50, Debra Storr

Yes, looking at the meetings I've put in, I think breaking down the Scottish Party would be useful.

so please add under SLDs

Scottish Policy Committee
Scottish Conference Committee
Scottish Executive
Scottish Campaigns and Candidates
Scottish Business Committee
(these are the constitutional units)
but it'd also probably be worth splittting out
Scottish Officer Bearers

and I'll update the listings.

2005-11-14 20:33:08, Martin Tod

Is there a general category name for these meetings? The federal name is "Federal Committees". Should I go with "State Party Committees" (which can also work for England and Wales?

2005-11-14 20:49:28, Debra Storr

State Party Committees works for me.

>2005-11-14 20:33:08, mpntod

>Is there a general category name for these meetings? The federal name is "Federal Committees". Should I go >with "State Party Committees" (which can also work for England and Wales?

2005-11-14 21:56:38, Martin Tod

New committees in place. In the end, I found a simpler solution: renamed 'Federal Committee' to 'Party Committee' and put them all in there.

2005-11-15 00:26:41, Debra Storr

Thanks for the Scottish committees.

Can I own the Scottish Conference next March so I can change its details?

Would it be possible to have multiple edit rights for meetings? I've put in the Scottish main committees but it'd be sensible to let the Party administrator edit these as well as me. Ideally, we'd be able to nominate a userid as always able to edit meetings for an organisational unit.

2005-11-15 00:32:41, Martin Tod

Agree. Something like that would make sense.

I've given you Admin Rights in the meantime so that you can go in and edit everything in sight!

2005-11-15 00:35:44, Debra Storr

Coo. Power. I think I'll go to bed with the stress.
Thanks.

I've updated the Scots ... just need to put in C&C and office bearers meetinsg that that's them done!

Debra

2005-11-14 20:56:59, Debra Storr

just hope we don't get a by-election etc in Shetland ... as it's off the map ....

Not unusual.

At least one can scroll to it :-)

Debra

2005-11-14 21:39:39, Martin Tod

If we get a by-election in Shetland, I will change the shape or magnification of the map!

2005-11-14 20:21:32, Debra Storr

Looking at the listings, there is some variety in titling. I haven't been consistent.

Would it make sense for there to be an extra column of organisation? and then folk needn't include this in the title and we don't get the mystery where exactly is the mulled wine?

D

2005-11-14 20:35:32, Martin Tod

I can in theory add an extra column for organisation - although some meetings are linked to two or even three organisations so it might get quite complex.

2005-11-07 18:45:02, James Graham

As an addendum to the Graham formula, note that in the case of distance, marginality and time, it is the square root of each number that should be used. In the case of no date being fixed, time should be set at a default value of 50.

Election level is set at 100 for a Parliamentary/Assembly seat, 10 for a primary council seat and 1 for a parish/town council seat. Finally, the Rennard Override should be set at 10 in all cases.

:o)

2005-11-12 02:41:41, Martin Tod

James. That is a scary comment.

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