Does anyone still use this?
I ask because I just got an email with, what appears to be, the latest trickery to get me to visit more often. Watch for yours soon titled Let’s Choose a Motoring ID.
Sure, I did mine (talk 977 if you must know) but that’s not the point.
I actually hate the owners lounge. Mostly from a usability stand point. It’s impossible to navigate anywhere easily and up until very recently, I had to log in every time. What a pain in the arse. As an aside to the developers of the owners lounge, welcome to 21st century! I know in the grand scheme of things, 6 years is but a small chunk of this century, so I’ll cut you some slack.
Then there is reading it. Black background, white text with bright colored borders. When I do stop looking at the damned pages, I see spots for 15 minutes. Sure the text will resize in FF using the handy [ctrl] + key combo (in Windows), but it doesn’t change the color.
Back to navigation. There is a reason why I don’t do usenet anymore (or the Roadfly boards). The email list-style of navigation sucks. Give me more organized, threaded discussions ala NAM, MINI2 or Cooperspeed. As an added bonus, they’ve added a bit of scripting to the main menus that automatically opens the ‘folders’, making it impossible to actually click on where you want to go.
About the only good I can find there is the gallery. Easy to use and they allow cross-linking of images. Sure the images get sized down to about 500px, but hey, a free gallery is a free gallery.
And don’t even get me started on the resume and the other ‘features’ of the lounge. They are just as bad.
Anyway, just my $.02.
I hate the owners lounge simply because I can never remember my password to get in in the first place. They have crazy password requirements so I have it at some ridiculous complex one that I can never remember.
DITTO
Okay, I have to admit I don’t visit it that often also. So it surprised me when I learned about my resume.
Anyway, I got that same email and relented.
My ID? —> CURV666
I only use the OL to pay my bill.
I’m “CARVE042”. I do hate the OL, tho. It’s a usability nightmare and, aside from little widgets like your “motoring id”, not worth the effort to get signed in. And it is an effort. The links they send you (at least for *me*) don’t work unless you’re already signed in, and if you’re not, they don’t remember what you were trying to do before you signed in! Grrrr….
I too hate the owner’s lounge. It’s got the worst UI out of any ‘professional’ site I’ve ever seen. I thought it was interesting what gabe said in a previous woofcast: that the same people that designed MINIUSA didn’t design the OL…that’s a friggin’ shame.
We all pretty much ranted about it on that one. Do you think that if the designers of MINIUSA were to take it over it would be flash based? :)
The only thing I use the OL for is to see if there are any new owners in Oklahoma. Then I shoot them an email to join our local forum.
Other than that, it’s pretty much worthless.