I've been desperately trying for 2 days to get access to the AENA web page without success. I read recently that Isport have been providing this service free of charge...it's so frustrating to try when today's commerical businesses all rely on internet and email to find our own governing body system is failing us. What can we do? With the membership growing, why arn't we up to speed. I am going to write personally to AENA to ask what is happening about this site. Why don;t you?
No it's not just you, it's AENA yet again. Do they ever get anything right. Probably running true to form tho' if they picked the system the way they choose players. Big, know the right people, come from a certain area..........but then they tend to want athletes and aena site is a non- runner!!!!!!!!!
It is clearly an iSport issue since all their sponsored sites are currently off the air.
My understanding is that although iSport provide a basic 'free' service they charge like the Gordon Highlanders for any 'extras'. This makes life very difficult for Siobhan since any quest for what are seemingly small changes come with a large invoice which can only come out of our affiliation fees. Lottery and Sport England funding is usually given for specific purposes; the website isn't one of them
Well here we go again. We again can not get information from the AENA web page. Other countries must be laughing at us.
I disagree with the caller re England players. If you are not good enough you wont get in. Very simple. No good complaining that you played well - you need to play exceptionally well to get in - and it doesn't matter which part of the Country you live in. So perhaps some individuals should think themselves lucky that they are in.
So, are AENA doing anything about the non-appearance of their web site, or are they happy to keep it out of comission?
Did anyone say anything contraversial by any chance? Or have they simply not noticed? Perhaps it's time to redo the whole thing and kick 'isport' into touch, the site seems to go down far too often.
Am I just too cynical for my own good?
If All England Netball Assoc. cannot print the league tables can Storm do it for us like they did last year. We are coming to the end of the season and nobody knows what is happening. Ok Bury hasn't lost a game yet but what is the position of the other teams in that div.
iv only just discovered this forum and its a great alternative as i have been trying to get on the aena site for ages!!! thought it was something wrong with my computer,obviously not!
Have just been talking to Head Office and they are as frustrated as we are at the disappearance of their website. iSport were planning a swop of servers when the site went down. They had hoped to have it up and running last Tuesday but the server failed again. A further attempt will be made to get it up and running later this week. (All the other sports who use iSport are in the same boat).
Because the iSport site has a CGI (Customer Generated Interface) there no on easy options for loading the website onto a different server the vast majority of which do not have CGI. (Its needed for the chat pages by all accounts).
For the longer term AENA want to develop the website and have it under their own control. A small working party is in the process of being set - I hope Malcolm and Andy get invitations to join in due course
But Gordon,the real point is not that the AENA website has been down 2 weeks - and you explain why very well
- but that AENA Head Office,"as frustrated as we are", didnt bother to tell us during the same fortnight.
AENA know Malcolm's and Andy's websites perfectly well and could easily have posted a message there at once.
It would have been nice if in due course,they had posted an explanation as full as yours - perhaps they were too busy in the process of setting up that small working party you mention.
However,based on their many failures to use their own website to date,I rather fear that AENA are simply incapable of giving timely information.If so,this must reflect on their relations with the media as well as with their members and supporters.Members will then rightly ask what use is being made of their fees ans some will be lost to other sports,particularly football where women's registered membership at 55,000 now almost equals netball.
What a pity when the more information,the better netball will be widely known and appreciated
- indeed any information on the AENA website will help to allay the frustration of members.
This is not a technical matter - merely the reasonable need for timely authoritative information.
National results and league tables are a case in point.
Not much to ask,so what is the problem,Gordon?
And not who's to blame in the past,but who will ensure that from now on we get the minimum information we seek on the AENA website.
Surely it must be the Chief Executive - and if not,then the Chair of the Management Committee.
Failing either,then Gordon(or Malcolm or Andy)for salaried Head of Information!
Thanks Colin - I don't disagree with your points at all. (I'm not so sure that many people at HQ actually know what the internet is - let alone understand how its suposed to work).
At the time iSport offered to set up and run the All England website it seemed like a very good deal which was not going to consume a large proportion of our affiliation fees. Hindsight (being a wonderful thing) was proven that this was not perhaps the best way to go. (I guess Malcolm, Andy and I could have told them that from the outset).
Those of us who depend on the monthly newsletter coming via snail-mail to keep us informed don't *actually* get much in the way of up to date information via that medium either.
I fully agree that AENA should run a smaller, more effective site under its own control. However... pardon my cynicism, but will it ever happen?
I offered AENA my services free of charge on more than one occasion to help develop a website, the first time loooong before the Isport fiasco, only to be repeatedly ignored. OK maybe I'm persona non grata for stirring things up, but...
I'd still be more than happy to help out on a working party, but judging by the progress the Men's & Boy's Participation Group has made with AENA I wouldn't hold your breath for results. AENA is so stuck in the mud...
Wouldn't it be NICE to be proved wrong for a change?
Andy
ps CGI actually stands for "Common Gateway Interface" and is a script (computer program) written to interface a web page to a database (which is where the messages reside). Any server implemented since the dark ages has CGI support. However, they would also probably need to move the database, which is far more likely to be the reason for their intransigence.
Thanks Andy, as you see my knowledge (or rather the lack of) has let me down. The purpose of my discussions with Sibohan was to remind her of your kind offer to give help and guidance. I hope its not too long in coming this time........
Oh! well at the the sites back up and running. More sagas from: Oldham, National Youth and Junior regional rounds may be even more tales from Worcester
The only way that I can see the AENA site being better managed is to have a webmaster employed to to the job of loading on all the information that all we 'readers' want to see. I undertand that there is no money to employ such a person. Perhaps someone would like to volunteer there services for free? Well there are people out there who may be interested?
Isport is another issue and the only way to overcome this problem is to part company with ISPORT?
Well, the AENA chat forum is apparently up the spout AGAIN (29/11/01). You can get a list of topics but not read anything.
Interestingly, I've been corrseponding with IFNA and it seems that its members are invited on the basis of them being the "sole national governing body" for the sport in a country. This gave me the evil thought of setting up an alternative netball association (one which caters for guys too) and trying to replace them with something that works...
I have always said that the problem with netball is women! And I am a woman! If we could get some mens attitudes into the sport we would be able to get up there amongst it! What say you! You know I was told recently by a well respected local netball volunteer that when trying to get some decent sponsorship going for a new idea that 'we had always managed without a sponsor before and why did we need one now!' Well I could fall about laughing but others just think 'well Ok that is true I suppose we have always managed! I rest my case and they wonder why I have taken a back step!
Isn't becoming very frustrating when you can't get on to the AENA web page. All I want is the results from yesterdays fixture: Eng Dev v? Eng Snrs v Barbados.
Does any one know them.
Yes it appears the AENA site is down once again. The Welsh Net. Ass. seem to have it together now with their new site www.welshnetball.co.uk
While the AENA site is down can someone in the know post the scores from Ireland here for us all to see. Thank you.