lONDON?

[benedictjjones]

are there any plans for a london open night any time soon??

[Peter Coleborn]

There is one already booked. It's on the ... er ... er ...

Oh yes, Friday 5th December

[benedictjjones]

TA! barring any unforseen incident i shall be there.

[Martin Roberts]

I'm just waiting for Guy to confirm two guests and I'll be posting details far and wide

[Jec]

Which is just 7 weeks away... 

If anyone is travelling any distance - and needs to pre-book trains for a decent discount - they will need to know pretty much now.

[Guy]

As Martin says I'm trying to arrange for a couple of guests to attend before we do a publicity push but whether they attend or not the open night is certainly going ahead so people can make their plans as soon as they like.

As Peter (and the site) says it's the 5th December at the usual hostelry!

[Peter Coleborn]

But Jay is quite correct, in that we are not very good at publicising our own events. We should be reminding members on a  monthly basis on the BFS news pages (not just the blog). When / if special guests are booked, then make that a special announcement. I am aware that the BFS is going through a revamp in January, so fingers crossed that we can all do better next year.

[benedictjjones]

is this at 'the old cock' or wherever it was last time??

[Martin Roberts]

It is indeed at the same venue 'Ye Olde Cock Tavern', 22 Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 1AA and until we have the news on the guests we can only repeat what is already on the website.

One thing I can mention here is that there will be a mini raffle - I have a bunch of PS goodies, a signed copy of Army of the Fantastic by the editors and a few others...

A press release will be added to the news page but we have to be careful of repeating text too much as it can get classed as spam by google, which means poor results via their search engine.

[Jec]

A press release will be added to the news page but we have to be careful of repeating text too much as it can get classed as spam by google, which means poor results via their search engine.

Not being very technical myself I will show my ignornace for the sake of clarity  - is this in relation to the use of RSS? 

[Troo]

Nope. If you fill a single site with too many instances of the same words and phrases, the Google search engine tags your site as filled with pointless spam and will knock you further down a search results page. So rather than appearing on the first page, you could get knocked all the way back to the tenth or so, which drastically reduces the amount of random Googlers who will find your website.

[Peter Coleborn]

A press release will be added to the news page but we have to be careful of repeating text too much as it can get classed as spam by google, which means poor results via their search engine.

This is a slightly feeble argument about not advertising BFS events more frequently. Posting upcoming events need to be done regularly, monthly at least. Don't forget, not everyone remembers that Open Nights have been arranged. And additionally, new BFS members may have no idea that we have Open Nights -- what ever they be. As mentioned previously, people who travel any distance by train may want to pre-book tickets.

Likewise, the York Open Night must be advertised on the main BFS news pages -- not just on the message boards.

All I am trying to say is that the BFS committee must ensure that disseminating information is vital for the success of the organisation. I know it's not always easy and is often a thankless task.

[Troo]

Yep. I think all we need to do is mention it on the front page and provide a link through to the news page item. That'll avoid Google labelling us as an E/N site

[Jec]

Yes Troo

As you rightly say,  the front page needs to have all the news there - with links clearly marked.

There has been a habit in recent times of hiding important info away on  forums and blogss - which many members visit maybe once a month - if that - because they often have other things to do which are of a higher priority to them

On posting news - yes the dates for open nights were posted a few months back, which is good

but...

In the vast majority of instances the Homer Simpson rule applies...

i.e. As information gets piled in at one end something has to drop off the other end to make room. 

[Peter Coleborn]

The other thing I've been meaning to ask: is this an event for physicists? Anything to do with the smashing of atoms? Iondon -- sounds like a piece of laboratory equipment.