Where are the past issues of the American Woodturner?

[Sergio Villa]

I'm really frustrated. With the new AW site I cannot get the past issues of the magazine. The main reason I paid the subscription. Furthermore the site is so confusing and bland that is taking away the desire to visit it. I see everywhere the word donate that is very clear, and the menu list, besides the overlapping lines, an issue that they told me they are aware and working on, is so long and totally lacking any zaz, it is like the shopping list.
It is only me having these problems or my particular ipad?

 

[Dwight R Rutherford]

I am having the same issues. No American Woodturner, redundant info, overlapping lines.

 

[Jerry Bailey]

I might be misunderstanding what you want, but I've gotten all issues back to 1986

got to AAW site, mouse over American Woodturner, scroll down to AW Journal archives and click
choose the decade you want and click
new page opens up, scroll down and you have access to download each and every issue (or click on the issue and it will open in new window - pdf for reading)

does that help?

 

[Sergio Villa]

It does not work for me. Click on american woodworker, comes a bland looking page that telss donate, try sample articles and the last issue only. That' it.
Super frustrated.

 

[Jerry Bailey]

are you doing this on a mobile device? if so not sure how to help
But, with desktop or laptop, don't click, hover mouse over American Woodturner and you'll see drop down menu
scroll down to AW Journal Archives, then proceed like my above post ..........

 

[Bill Blasic]

The new site works flawlessly for me. Have no problem looking or downloading any of the issues of the American Woodturner. Using Fiefox without problems.
Bill

 

[Sergio Villa]

I use an ipad with the latest software.

 

[Malcolm Zander]

I-Pad and Journal archives

Sergio, contact Kim Rymer in the AAW office at kim@woodturner.org, and she should be able to help.

Malcolm

 

[Bill Boehme]

I'm really frustrated. With the new AW site I cannot get the past issues of the magazine. ..... It is only me having these problems or my particular ipad?

I am having the same issues. No American Woodturner, redundant info, overlapping lines.

No, you're not alone -- there's at least three of us.

However, it appears that things are getting fixed. It looks like things are working OK this morning, but for the past several days, they were a mess and the only way that I was able to get to the AW Archives was through the link in the floor sweepings at the bottom of the home page.

The problems appear to have begun when the AAW web person(s) addressed an issue in which some AAW members were confusing log-in credentials of the AAW secure website with those required for the forum. The problem with accessing the journal and the log in issue seem to be connected although not necessarily on purpose. For several days, the drop down menu bar at the top was not taking logged in members to the correct page -- instead, it was going to the page for non-members or those not logged in. Read more about that in THIS THREAD started by Charlie Knighton a few days ago.

.... got to AAW site, mouse over American Woodturner, scroll down to AW Journal archives and click choose the decade you want and click
new page opens up ....

It is working fine now, but it wasn't for a number of days. If memory serves me correctly, the "onmouseover" function was not working correctly during that time.

are you doing this on a mobile device? if so not sure how to help

It may support some mobile devices better than others. With my Android e-Reader, there are overlapping things all over the place, but most things appear to work although some of the issues of the journal were not downloading the issue that was selected. I have not had time to check out the iPhone and iPad yet.

The new site works flawlessly for me. Have no problem looking or downloading any of the issues of the American Woodturner. Using Fiefox without problems.
Bill

Almost, but not quite everything. Check out the archives of the Woodturning FUNdamentals. I reported that problem about a week ago and they replied back that they are working on that problem and will let me know when it is fixed.

 

[Sergio Villa]

Thank you Bill and the others that answered my question. I wish the people in charge of this thing should have come out with a public post and not let people feel like idiots and waist their time like I did.

Furthermore, but this is only aesthetics and could be only my feeling, but the site is absolutely boring, redundant and nothing stands up except donate, donate. It is not what a web site can be and should be.

 

[Dwight R Rutherford]

I just logged on and still get the same issues. Posted a message on the American Woodturner web-site about our problems. Will wait and see if I get a response

 

[Sergio Villa]

Nothing has changed as of now. Suspicious silence.

 

[hockenbery]

I use an ipad with the latest software.

I am using an ipad.

I just used the pull down menus selected AAW journal archives.
The I got another menus with year range selections picked one at random and down loaded feb 2013.
All from my ipad. Had the option to save it as PDF.

 

[Sergio Villa]

Thank you. But with such a long menu, why one submenu for the archives and one for the american woodturner also so distant from each other? also in the menu there are two on line store but one does seem responsive.
Thank you again.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I am checking out the functionality on an iPad and see a number of problems. Apparently, the site is not designed with mobile device compatibility as one of its goals. Somebody should have told them that for web browsing, mobile devices are rapidly displacing desktop machines. If this organization wants to appeal to younger turners, it's high time to get with the program.

I was concerned about the way that the beta testing on the AAW site appeared to be just a hand waving formality rather than an honest to goodness in-depth evaluation to flush out any problems. My experience with beta testing is that it is always a much more serious and structured activity involving large numbers of testers each spending several hours each day over many months -- a half year or longer. I just finished a phase 1 beta test that went about six months and phase 2 will be commencing soon. It will probably be just a couple months. Finally, there will be a release candidate test before it is formally unveiled.

It appears now that the AAW needed better guidance on preparing their RFP for the new web site. Maybe somebody will keep a repository of lessons learned for the next time that proposals are solicited.

Sergio, I can help you get to the journals, but it is a cumbersome path. On my iPad the there is no menu bar at the top, so it is necessary to scroll down to the bottom of the page. There is a shaded light blue box at the bottom left of the home page titled "Quick Links" and the bottom left link says "Journal Archives". If you are already logged in, you will go to a page that is titled, "American Woodturner Journal Archives". If you are not logged in, you will first go to a login page. There is a list in the middle of the page that groups the journals by decade. Click on the year range that you are interested in. For this exercise, I clicked on "2010 to Current" (I have already checked out the others and they work as well). The next page that comes up is titled, "The Journal 2010s". In order to see the journals, you will need to scroll down one full page and you will see front cover images for all of the issues from 2010 up to the current issue. Click on one and it will begin to download. Depending on you access speed, it can take a minute or several minutes. From here, I assume you know how to save the files to your iPad or to cloud storage.

 

[hockenbery]

With My IPAD using safari the home page has a banner with a pull down menu.
It is long menu but the 21th item is "AAW journal archives"
You must be logged in as a member to see this

The top of the web page will have "logout" if you are logged in or "login" if you are not.

 

[hockenbery]

Bill,

Are you using safari?

I just tried the photon browser
When I logged in the page had the menu at the top just like on the home page.

Not sure why I see the menu in two browser and you are not seining it in yours.
I have 7.1 OS installed.

It works in safari and photon.

 

[Sergio Villa]

I was concerned about the way that the beta testing on the AAW site appeared to be just a hand waving formality rather than an honest to goodness in-depth evaluation to flush out any problems. My experience with beta testing is that it is always a much more serious and structured activity involving large numbers of testers each spending several hours each day over many months -- a half year or longer. I just finished a phase 1 beta test that went about six months and phase 2 will be commencing soon. It will probably be just a couple months. Finally, there will be a release candidate test before it is formally unveiled.


Thank you Bill.
Now I can see the archive in that long, long, long menu. If is possible that it was there yesterday but I cannot be sure now. I just did not see it perhaps because I lost it in that enormously long list. Do you remember when you found that needle in the haystack?

I spent my life in medicine and research so I publish many scientific articles. There are excellent journals in Europe of course but the best and most red are american. One of the more important aspect of scientific writing is clarity. Every experiment must be described so that anybody with the tools and skills can repeat it. Clarity and simplicity go often together so redundancy is not tolerated by the reviewers because every journal wants/ed to save paper and make reading as easy and pleasant as possible. Clarity and simplicity avoid confusion and confusion is the opposite of science.

Internet is a great tool and an excellent means to put people together who can then share informations and experiences. These must be taken "cum grano salis" of course but even on the internet simplicity and lack of redundancy are key for a good page, forum etc.

Simplicity comes from a work of continuous refinement, eliminating useless repetitions, putting thing in their own place and in an easily accessible place for everybody to find. It is not easy and take a lot of work. Not everybody has the time, money of humility to do that.

Regards

 

[Owen Lowe]

I’d like to commend the folks in charge of the recent main site and forum changes. They have a tough job and can only hope that the changes satisfy the needs of the majority – past, present, and future. Consider how many devices, operating systems, plug-ins, incompatability issues between apps, personal preferences that modify display, novice or non-tech savy or overly content users who don’t install updates, and new update rollouts in general and you begin to see the difficulties of the task.

I, for one, thank them for their efforts. We all need to display some patience and charity when pointing out the changes that don’t seem to work as we expect. And, feel free to offer your web-design and debugging expertise in sorting out the complaints as they roll in.

 

[Bill Boehme]

With My IPAD using safari the home page has a banner with a pull down menu.
It is long menu but the 21th item is "AAW journal archives"
You must be logged in as a member to see this

The top of the web page will have "logout" if you are logged in or "login" if you are not.

..... I just tried the photon browser
When I logged in the page had the menu at the top just like on the home page.

Not sure why I see the menu in two browser and you are not seining it in yours.
I have 7.1 OS installed.

It works in safari and photon.

I had read in one of your previous posts to Sergio that you used the menu at the top of the home page to get to the journals. Since the iPad belongs to my wife, I didn't want to change any of the settings in her Safari browser. Anyway it is a brand new iPad with the latest OS. Not knowing Sergio's situation with his iPad, I figured that the most reliable path is to refer to the links at the bottom of the home page since they are static and don't depend on having Java enabled in the browser. I suppose that the iPad is nice, but being a dinosaur, I like my real keyboard and big 27 inch monitor.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Owen, I don't expect the AAW staff to be web experts, but they are paying a contractor big bucks to do that. The contractor needs to have their feet held to the fire if they haven't met their contractual obligations.

 

[Bill Blasic]

Bill,
Woodturning Fundamentals works fine. I click on any subject and a pdf file pops up, is it supposed to do something else?
Bill

 

[Sergio Villa]

After having red these post, being now able to read the past issue of the journal I concentrated a moment on the main page of the AAW. The conclusions are obviously mine and anybody can have his/her opinion.
It is too long, too jam packed with information, often in different place of the same page. This create confusion. If I see menu, i think that what I'm looking must be there. I do not think that I have to scroll down three times to find the same thing I'm looking in the menu. If I open the menu I expect something easy to read and helpful for finding what I'm looking for, and not an enormous list without any order that make sense. When I go to a restaurant, I get the menu, and the waiter try to help me with few (few) suggestions. When I read the list I see it organized in logic homogeneous groups. I do not see a continuous list of all the dishes I can choose without an order. When I go to a restaurant I want to feed myself but also relax, enjoy and be happy. If I go to a cheap pizza place is another story.
I do not know what other think and the bad news is that it may be too difficult to change things now, but the good news is that humans can get used to almost everything.
Regards

 

[hockenbery]

I had read in one of your previous posts to Sergio that you used the menu at the top of the home page to get to the journals. Since the iPad belongs to my wife, I didn't want to change any of the settings in her Safari browser. Anyway it is a brand new iPad with the latest OS. Not knowing Sergio's situation with his iPad, I figured that the most reliable path is to refer to the links at the bottom of the home page since they are static and don't depend on having Java enabled in the browser. I suppose that the iPad is nice, but being a dinosaur, I like my real keyboard and big 27 inch monitor.

Bill,
The ipad is definitely not a computer. You can get real keyboards for them.
I'm sort of half a dinosaur. We don't own any smart phones.
It is easy to get hooked on the tablet.

4-5 years ago I was assisting Trent Bosch at arrowmont. We showed slides. Trent pulled his iPhone out of his pocket and connected it to the projector.
I lugged out my laptop and it's brick and plugged in and I saw right away is should figure out how to use Sherry's IPAD.

The ipad is so easy to travel with. Light. Our library loans kindle books, all the stuff I need to read can go in PDF.
On a plane I can listen to music and read my books.
Don't need a reading light.

I often show a few slides from my ipad as an introduction to demos nearly every place has a projector I can plug into.
I still pass a few things around but using slides has everyone looking at the object while I'm taking about it.
I can also show diagrams that are in the handouts and relate it to the demo.
I can also take a photo of something I see in the show and tell and add it to the presentation....
The presentation interface with slideshark lets me tellestrate in 4 colors or use my finger as laser pointer.
This is the best interface I have seen for doing presentations. I also give presentations once a year not related to woodturning.
Doing a panel at a symposium no big stuff to lug around the battery does last close to 10 hours.

Al

 

[robert davis]

i agree it is much more harder to use than old one

 

[Jerry Bailey]

with all due respect to previous posters, If you're having an issue with the main AAW website
perhaps you should be posting in this section

AAW Information

"Information, messages and questions to and about the AAW organization"


And explain the problems you're having, this way the proper people will see, and possibly respond, but will be able to address the issues
You can't be sure they're checking this forum for complaints ...........

Also, with the database(s) they've had to deal with in the conversion to new website, and with all the different possible devices
There will be problems initially
It's up to ya'll to notify the proper people what's going wrong, so they can address the issues
And with Apple being as proprietary as they are with their stuff, and with YOUR personal settings, there will definitely be things that aren't the same.

But complaining here in this forum, isn't guaranteed to get the situation addressed
I for one think they've done an excellent job so far getting as far as they have
granted there's still things that need changing/addressing, but be fair and give them time (minimum 6 months)
And yes, with the amount of monies being paid to contractor, they DO need to address these issues/problems.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Bill,
Woodturning Fundamentals works fine. I click on any subject and a pdf file pops up, is it supposed to do something else?
Bill

Bill, when I reported the problem to the webmaster, all of the embedded images in all of the back issues of Woodturning FUNdamentals were missing. They replied that they don't know where the images went, but would try to get things restored back to where they were displaying correctly. I haven't checked to see if they are working since they indicated that they would let me know. Since you indicated that everything is back to normal, I assume they are rather busy and forgot to reply.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Bill, I just checked and the situation is still the same -- all of the images in all of the back issues are still missing. Are you seeing something different?

 

[Jerry Bailey]

I'm on a desktop, Windows 7 Ultimate, using Firefox (and checked with Chrome)
and I see the same errors, all images from back issues with the FUNdamentals are missing .........
(right)clicking on and trying to see where image link points to, and there's image not found error with no directory listed
pictures, and their stored directory has disappeared or been moved, and links not pointing to where they've been moved to ...........

 

[Mike Brazeau]

Works great on iPad

Just looked in with my iPad and all seems fine wrt the AWT. I love the fact that the journals are now all in PDF. Home page is busy, but I think it is just a matter of getting used to different flow. If the link was at the top of the page we would never read the rest of the page.

 

[Bill Boehme]

.Jerry, I agree that the forum is not an effective channel of communications for the purpose of reporting issues with the new web site rollout. However, using the forum to confirm or clarify perceived issues with other members does provide a useful purpose by helping to reduce false alarms being reported. I have identified and reported a couple problems and also have a small list of other minor issues that I haven't reported. I might report them later.

 

[Jerry Bailey]

However, using the forum to confirm or clarify perceived issues with other members does provide a useful purpose by helping to reduce false alarms being reported..

On that I completely agree Bill, "is it me, or is everyone having the same problem"
But it seems to me the "tone" of this thread wasn't in that direction, it seemed like people were expecting issues to be resolved from this thread ..........
and expecting a new html rollout/upgrade to happen without any issues .........
too many users + too many different devices + too many specific user settings = disaster waiting to happen & work arounds needing to be troubleshooted (troubleshot?)

 

[Bill Boehme]

I try to remind myself occasionally not to try too hard to interpret the tone of a post or thread because more often than not I might be reacting to my own way of seeing things. And, if somebody is having a problem such as finding things on the website, it can be really frustrating. When somebody gets frustrated, they blow off steam. When they blow off steam the power grid goes down. When the power grid goes down stores get looted. When stores get looted ....

Most people aren't computer geeks nor do they want to become one -- they just want to find some particular thing without going through a convoluted effort.

 

[Jerry Bailey]

When they blow off steam the power grid goes down. When the power grid goes down stores get looted. When stores get looted ....

grandpa gets punched over a can of soup ........

sorry , couldn't resist

and you're correct again, I like being a geek and figuring out why/how things work, especially computers,
and I keep forgetting most people just want to point & click & it works.....

 

[Sergio Villa]

People, among other things, often forget that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

 

[hockenbery]

People, among other things, often forget that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

While true.

We are turners and rarely use a straight lines to connect two points when a curve will do.

When Traveling between two points on the earth's surface a curved path is usually shorter in time than digging a tunnel to make the straight line journey.

We all have different ways of looking at reducing complexity.

Straight line solutions are often impractical.

Al

 

[Bill Boehme]

Or, if I want to travel to LA, I travel north for an hour to the airport sit there for three hours, go to Atlanta, sit there for three hours, and then to LAX and wait two hours for baggage and another hour for a rental car, and then go park on the freeway for a few more hours.

 

[Sergio Villa]

Or, if I want to travel to LA, I travel north for an hour to the airport sit there for three hours, go to Atlanta, sit there for three hours, and then to LAX and wait two hours for baggage and another hour for a rental car, and then go park on the freeway for a few more hours.

Definitely the most entertaining travel if you do not forget your 27 inch computer!

 

[Bill Blasic]

Bill, I just checked and the situation is still the same -- all of the images in all of the back issues are still missing. Are you seeing something different?

You're right Bill I can see the videos but the pictures go to page not found. I found I was on the front page and not into the articles themselves.

 

[Dwight R Rutherford]

Got an E-mail this morning from the AAW . They are aware of the problems we are experiencing with various devices, and ask for patience while they sort them out.