Hi ptoprincess

The City Guide Reviews from the old site have not been copied to the new site yet.

We want to build a better, more useful version of the City Guide, and once we launch it, we will copy all the reviews from the old site to it.

Next week we aim to re-launch the chat and to copy all the photos and tags from the old site to the new site, and after that, we will move on to City Guide and Groups.

Thanks,

Oded

Hi Miss Kate.

The 'City Guide' is my pet project, and I want to relaunch it as soon as possible, but it will probably take a few weeks before it's ready.

Thanks

Oded

Hi Maria

We've been working on a  bunch of other stuff, and the City Guide launch was pushed back a bit, but I hope to have it ready soon.

As soon as we have a time estimate, I will announce it here.

Thanks

Oded

Hello Oded, Just wondering whether you have a date for the relaunch of the city guide? I hope you are well! Maria 

Hi Maria,

Sorry, no firm date yet, but it's coming.

Next week I will try to commit to a date.

Oded

Hi Oded

Any idea of a date yet... the city guides were my favourite part of glocals.... I neeeed them!!

Victoria

Hi Victoria

We're aiming to re-launch the City Guide in 2-3 weeks.

Oded

As an avid PROFILED City Guide utiliser, listed under "Professional Services" I have now received NUMEROUS enquiries from former & potentially NEW clients asking whether Im STILL LIVING / WORKING here due to the LONG-TIME disappearance of the CITY GUIDE / REVIEWS?

To be totally honest I am not particuarly concerned as I do use an alternative web-site and Glocals only accounted for approx 10% of my potential clients, but it would never-the-less be nice to see it BACK ON LINE after almost 4 months of promises?????

I do fully understand ALL the efforts/workload involved when updating a web-site, BUT am inclined to agree with most people in that....If it Aint Broken?....DONT try fixing it!, and .....IF you cant better it???....Then LEAVE IT ALONE until you know you can AND more importantly HOW to?

Frankie66

Hi Frankie

If you're asking when the City Guide will be relaunched, my answer is right above your post.

If you're saying you don't like the new site  - I'd love to get some feedback from you on what needs to be changed/fixed/improved (aside from relaunching the city guide)

If you're just having a bad day and need to vent - I hope it helped.

Thanks

Oded

Extremely RUDE and VERY UN-PROFESSIONAL!!

I have read through the various replies on this thread as it was I who started it over 3 months ago. Confess I too along with others feel that perhaps there have been lots of promises from August but still to no avail.

And I agree with Frankie. I feel that Site Admins comment regarding "having a bad day" was not called for and very un-professional. He appears to be merely reminding all those interested that it has been some time now since the re-launch and having read through the replies the reappearance of the Reviews section has been an ongoing idle promise?

Looks like Oded is one who has a bad day or perhaps can not face direct comment for which I understand is what FORUM is for Yes? 

guys give the administrator a break! he is doing his best, and if u guys can do better then just do it and stop whining...thats what people are usualy good at doin in geneva...WHINING!

Cheers folks

Thanks Tony.

Folks - we appreciate feedback, cause its the only way we can know whats wrong and what needs to be improved.

But there's a difference between feedback and ranting.

When someone posts something like:
'If it Aint Broken?....DONT try fixing it!, and .....IF you cant better it???....Then LEAVE IT ALONE until you know you can AND more importantly HOW to?'
this is not actionable feedback that I can understand and fix, so I assume the person is having a bad day and needs to vent. 

I'm sorry if you find this 'Extremely RUDE and VERY UN-PROFESSIONAL!!' - for me it's just basic principles of conversation, regardless of whether its a face to face conversation or via an online forum.

Frankie - picture a scenario where you do some repair work for someone, and he then calls you up and gives you a monologue similar to the one you posted.  Would you understand what he wants and try to fix it, or would you tell him that perhaps he needs to calm down and explain what's wrong?

Oded

it seems to me you mean if one doesn't like a particular situation, s/he must shut up, and keep his/her criticism for her/himself.

 if I'm right...are you just pretending to be "open-minded" (as mentionned in your profile)? let people express their opinion, no matter you like it or not. if you do not appreciate what they say, instead of asking them to "do better" what they are not expected by anyone to do, give your own opinion and BASTA!

After all, is it bad or shameful to "whine" for something that is precious to you?

oh sure one can go on whining until one goes blue in the face...enjoy!

pppfff...not worth it!

Oded,

keep cool.

He probably really just wanted to vent - and now he feels embarrassed about it.

Site's OK-ish nowadays.

Do you do some more caching on your side now?

I did some quick tests with a caching-engine on my dedicated server and found that not much could be improved by doing this (which doesn't mean much - I didn't have too much time and there are certain constraints (for the cached website) about doing this).

Caching doesn't bring the city-guide back any faster, of course, but neither do forum-rages ;-)

Rainer

I have also been waiting for the relaunch of the city guide for months.. as have a lot of my friends and indeed people who have small businesses. I think everyone understands delays but 4 months is quite a long time. The promises in this thread have only served to make people who are actively waiting for the relaunch even more frustrated. I, myself gave up on it some time ago. I do not mean to be rude to anyone but it is also important to manage expectations... 

Thanks Maria. 

I agree that I should have handled expectations better. I thought we would be able to relaunch the City Guide quickly, but other stuff came up and we kept having to re-prioritize and push back the City Guide.

I understand people's frustrations, and, again, I appreciate feedback regardless of whether its good or bad - I just don't appreciate it when people SHOUT at me instead of just saying what they want/need.

To avoid further disapointments, I am not giving a launch date for the City Guide and not making any promisses. 

We're working on the City Guide, and we'll announce when its ready.

Thanks, and sorry for the delays.

Oded

I have now read through this forum topic several times and have to agree with most members who have commented. This is and can not be construed in anyway as a verbal forum attack on the site or Oded. Merely an expression, wish and reminder for the city guide to be reinstated after what appear to be many promises dating back to August?

I don't understand how you can ask for feedback and then when it is received? Interpret and accuse a member of ranting? Or having a bad day?
I also honestly don't feel that there is ANY need for any further feedback other than what has already been said, when several promises of time-lines/dates have passed with to no avail? Something is broken and obviously still cant yet be fixed, so several people have now enquired as to why & when it may be? And one person who chose to use a general express has received a negative reaction from the site in doing so!

This I consider to be very wrong, and it has certainly changed my opinion of what the site claims to stand for?!

Very interesting thread,

I would love to share my thoughts with you all.

I think the biggest challenge here is the fact that most members on this site come from various cultures, and each one of them have a different way of dealing with what I call "interpersonal awareness" aka the ability to understand one's behaviour before reacting to it.

@ Ingridjen, in my humble opinion, the main purpose of this site is:

 -  to facilitate networking amongst expats so that we can quickly get to know like minded people with common interests and build up a social network

- get to understand the gotchas and caveats of Switzerland and the swiss culture, as well as how to appreciate the beauty this very unique country has to offer

- to spread awareness of certain activities discounted for a community - the glocals community, e.g. skiing courses, etc.

The emphasis should be laid on the word community, glocals is a unique community, and I do not think that just because there are certain bottlenecks from a technical resource perspective that the value of this community should be questioned

If it is that important for you to have a city guide review, how difficult is it to find that on another website?

http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=switzerland%2Bcity%2Bguide%2Breview&meta=&aq=f&oq=

Having said that, there should be a balance:

My reply to the site administrator - here the emphasis should be laid on the word proactive, by setting expectations and not meeting them and not proactively communicating that, it would evidenty lead to certain "venting", "outbursts" or whatever you want to call it depending on which culture you originate from. So as long as you are proactively communicating issues in reaching deadlines, no would should be upset, on the contrary I am sure that there are several people working in the IT industry who should be able to assisst you from time to time to solve cerain issues or reach deadlines?

Had I have had the technical knowledge I would love to assisst you with it!

@ ALL - we have a very multi cultural unique community with the best brains from all cultures, otherwise you would not be working in CH. This is what makes this community interesting, imagine if we all came from the same cutlure, it would not be that interesting would it???

So lets nurture this community, and help support it and grow it rather than demote, or pull it down! I am not perfect and neither are you, but you certainly can help complement my weaknesses!

I will end by saying one thing, I am not even there in Zurich yet, but found this community by chance, and absolutely love it.........looking forward to seeing you all in January when I finally arrive there!

Cheers;

Andrash

For what it's worth (and i apologise for disagreeing with you all on this) it is impolite to leave a message where the majority of the text is in capitals (i refer to the original poster who left the message to Glocals/capital letters is as we all know the email equivalent of shouting) . I am as frustrated as the rest of you on this city guide (which in itself is a compliment to Glocals as it is soooo good and useful!) but i think that the original poster could have left a more polite post instead of phrasing it as he did.

There have been over 600 viewings of this thread, which would suggest that the City Guide section is a priority for members. Perhaps Admin should 're-prioritize' once again and keep the punters happy.

I notice that UBS, Orange etc had their so-called guides up and running from the word go.

As for Admin not making any more promises about launch dates etc, I can't make any promises about not complaining time and time again about the delay in lauching an integral part of glocals.

Happy Xmas

Guys if u read the administrators message on NOVEMBER THE 30th then u will understand everything... but u gotta know how to read first!!!! 

See u all at the party tonight!

..the one where it is said that using capital letters equals internet shouting?

yeah, read it, seen Scarface too.

I dont get to access & use the site as much as I would like too, but I have too read through this thread and am inclined to agree with the "majority" of comments. It is/was a valued utility of the site. Would also remind those that seem not to be aware? In a lot of cases the use of capital lettering can also be considered as a mark or note of respect or point of reference?.....Check the surname on your POST / Billboards & various amounts of other literature?........or should I say that lack of its use here, can be considered or taken as disrespectful.

From what I read I too feel the comments made by Frankie did not warrant the response or subsequent literal attack he received! He didnt even start the forum?, yet it seems he is the only person who received a very negative response from the site admin? That I feel was most certainly not warranted. 

Additionally, all he did was also make reference to wishing to see it back (as did those before him) & stating that perhaps if it was already ok, then why try to improve upon it or fix it if you dont know how too (ie; it was ok as it was, does it really need improving?). Perhaps it was mis-understood by those reading his comments? 

As with the case of other friends & members this particular forum post has annoyed me, and I find it some what hypocritical to read such comments from Admin whose headline used to read "BE GOOD OR BE GONE"?   

Please tell me that the city guide will be back in 2010...? Or give us an idea of when it will be back? The initial message was August 2009!! We are now January 2010...!!! seriously guys? An update? A glimmer of hope would be so nice right about now... It was the best part of your site...

Hi Maria and sorry for the delayed reply.

We finished designing and building the new City Guide, and are now testing it on our development site. 
Once we iron out the big bugs, we'll copy the info from the old City Guide to the new one, and then upload everything to glocals (the City Guide will be added into our 'Guides' section under 'Businesses & Service Providers')

With the above in mind, we're aiming to launch the new City Guide on Monday, Feb 15. 

I'll update this post again next week with updates.

Thanks for your patience and persistance :-)

Oded

Hi Oded,

The city guide's looking great.

I came across a slight glitch though.

If you click on Beauty/Spas and then try to click on Hair Styling, you are sent to glocals home page instead of local hairdressers

Cheers

Thanks for the feedback Albatros - this bug will be fixed asap.

Oded

This is now fixed Albatros.

Thanks again for the feedback and please let me know if you find more problems or have any suggestion.

Oded