Temporary site header design

[Ian]

You may have noticed that the site header has changed slightly. It's just an intermediate tweak which is part of our quest to make sharing of forum pages to social media and some other sites more effective.

The current arrangement may not look great on tablets and phones but once we have implemented the final design that should be fixed.

ian

[OM USer]

Hello Ian, I may be missing something but I can see no "Welcome" forum/post when I look at the Forum Index page. Ideally such a forum and its post should be easily visible at or near the top of the forum index, locked & sticky (so it doesn't disappear) and the post should give a quick introduction to the forum, any help needed to navigate (i.e links to the new pages on how to post images), and perhaps explain why we are the "E-Group". I am sure this information is somewhere but I can't find it !

[Ian]

Hello Ian, I may be missing something but I can see no "Welcome" forum/post when I look at the Forum Index page. Ideally such a forum and its post should be easily visible at or near the top of the forum index, locked & sticky (so it doesn't disappear) and the post should give a quick introduction to the forum, any help needed to navigate (i.e links to the new pages on how to post images), and perhaps explain why we are the "E-Group". I am sure this information is somewhere but I can't find it !

There is some information that members logged-in don't see, aimed at newcomers, but yes - there is room for improvement there. Thank you for highlighting this.

Ian

[OM USer]

Sorry to increase your workload even further.

[Bruce Clarke]

Looking at the header reminds me, I never quite know what we are called Ian! Olympus E-Group or Olympus System Talk UK? Or indeed Olympus UK E-System User Group (at the foot of the forum index page), or The Olympus E-User Group UK (Facebook). I'm confused, so newcomers are probably doubly so. I think some rationalisation would help.

[Ian]

Looking at the header reminds me, I never quite know what we are called Ian! Olympus E-Group or Olympus System Talk UK? Or indeed Olympus UK E-System User Group (at the foot of the forum index page), or The Olympus E-User Group UK (Facebook). I'm confused, so newcomers are probably doubly so. I think some rationalisation would help.

"Olympus System Talk UK" was a slogan that the designer came up with (and we don't need to keep that) but the long-winded official name is Olympus UK E-System User Group. Of course 'E-System' Four Thirds DSLRs have been retired but Olympus continues to use the E-prefix, thankfully! It has been suggested that we ditch the 'UK' but I feel we are a UK-focused site with many welcome friends from around the world. The short and simple name, though, is E-Group, although there is a company unrelated to photography using that name. So E-Group UK or Olympus E-Group differentiates us. I decided our social media hashtag should be #egroupuk and we try to use @olympus,egroup for social media accounts.

Ian

[Bruce Clarke]

Thanks Ian, Olympus E-Group or Olympus E-Group UK sound good to me, but it would be good to rationalise the variables on this website and social media. I presume Olympus UK (the company) are OK with these?

[Ian]

Mark Thackara from Olympus UK actually commissioned this site and funded it for many years.

[Phill D]

"Olympus E-Group" works for me. The UK focus is pretty clear from the forum but it's really nice to have more members from around the world so best not specify UK in the title.

[Ian]

A high percentage of the recent new members who have signed up are from outside the UK, so it's not putting them off.

[Phill D]

That's great Ian.