Practical Sailor's Terrible Website

[Dustymc]

Does anyone have an "in" with Practical Sailor? I've been trying to get into their craptacular website, which will let me log in but then just asks me to log in again, for a couple weeks now, and various emails and contact form submissions have gone un-answered.

In other news, if anyone has a copy of the November 2011 article on washdown pumps, I'd appreciate receiving it. (Or if you know where my daughter hid my paper copy, that would be great too.)

[bstreep]

Let me see what I can find. Yes, it is REALLY bad. What's "funny", is that I've always been able to negotiate a renewal deal with them... Unlike Lats & Atts, which is 3X what Cruising World costs.

[marc2012]

Craptacular,new word,LOVE IT.marc

[SaucySailoress]

Originally Posted by Dustymc

(Or if you know where my daughter hid my paper copy, that would be great too.)

In the veg drawer of you refrigerator, under the tomatoes

[Dustymc]

No tomatoes in my fridge - makes 'em all mealy! And I looked in the veggie drawer - nothing about washdown pumps. Dang!

[rebel heart]

Maybe they can do a review on websites next.

[Dustymc]

I suggested that, and pointed out that their spam server seems to be working just fine, when I replied to my weekly "buy our e-book now please" "newsletter," more or less out of desperation. Anxiously awaiting their response...

[Dustymc]

Yet another new week is upon us, I still haven't heard back from any of my inquiries, and the information on Practical Sailor remains inaccessible.



I bought a Jabsco washdown pump. I remember something about the goofy fittings in the PS article - hope it wasn't "pops out and floods your boat..."

It's enough to make me wonder why, exactly, I'm giving them my money, and it's certainly enough to make me not want to recommend them to my friends as I've done in the past.

[four winds]

As a non subscriber the site is working fine for me. Fast page loading and no apparent problems.

Surfed the archives and read the first paragraph of several articles, including the one referencing Shurflo. Clicking on "read more" goes to the join or subscribe page.

This of course is where they want my money, and now makes one wonder if after that things go downhill for the user.


edit to add, .. Interesting, the article on Sea trial of the IPad from the home page is available in it's entirety. Yet the adjacent articles on holding tanks and the magic eraser go to the subscribe page. Going back to read that before they catch the code error.

[Dustymc]

Originally Posted by four winds

As a non subscriber the site is working fine for me. Fast page loading and no apparent problems.

Surfed the archives and read the first paragraph of several articles, including the one referencing Shurflo. Clicking on "read more" goes to the join or subscribe page.

This of course is where they want my money, and now makes one wonder if after that things go downhill for the user.

You got it. I can log in just fine, but when I'm logged in I see what you do (plus a little "welcome back, you" thing at the top). Clicking on one of the articles times out, or asks me to re-enter my credentials and then times out. That in itself doesn't bother me much - I run online services for a living, and know that shtuff happens. But, I also get email when something happens, and I fix it or at least let users know what's going on. PS has been ignoring me for weeks, and I'm really not OK with that. If they ever decide to stop ignoring me I'm sure they'll blame it on technology, but it is at best a problem of people refusing to use technology - people who many of us pay for advice of an often-technical nature!

[AnnKey]

DUSTYMC: Hi, I'm Ann Key, the managing editor of Practical Sailor. I'm sorry you guys are having issues with the website. If tech support has not yet gotten back to you, send an email to the editors at practicalsailor*at*belvoirpubs*dot*com -- while we're not the folks in PS's tech-savvy, website-tinkering department, we can usually help subscribers sort out any problems quickly, and we can definitely help you find an archive article. We also appreciate direct feedback and take what you guys have to say seriously. Cheers.

[Dustymc]

Thanks Ann, and thanks Darrell who sent me a PM and lots of follow-up emails. I now have access to PS, and I'm back to feeling pretty good about them.

I'd still like to vigorously beat about the head and shoulders with a keyboard whoever designed their website login/contact forms, but it turns out that it does work. Sometimes. Sort of. Like most of the stuff on my boat....

In other good news, there are now at least two folks from Practical Sailor on this forum!

Thanks guys!

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Ann Key.

Hope you’ll stick around, and perhaps even contribute occasionally.

[cfarrar]

I don't find the PS website interface very pleasing, but it's never given me problems.

[msponer]

Originally Posted by Dustymc

I'd still like to vigorously beat about the head and shoulders with a keyboard whoever designed their website login/contact forms, but it turns out that it does work. Sometimes. Sort of. Like most of the stuff on my boat....

Well, you did better than me. I could not access old articles, but thought it was intentional, that subscribers no longer have free access to back issues, so I let my subscription expire.

Now I know it was just a bug in the website.