I have tested both image servers, my comments are; Public server - It's definitely slower but works fine. Users may be frustrated having to click on so many pages to get to the sheets and then play the guessing game of where the "Mayall" page is somewhere in the I-S list of from 1200 to 2000+ pages. I have never been on 1837 online but if their system is easier users may opt to pay rather than go thru this exercise each time. Would it be possible to target the pages a little better ie 1848D4-Mat-1234.tif 1848D4-Maz-1235.tif (examples) rather than 1848D4-I-S-1234.tif. Surely this would be easier on system resources too?. It took me 7 guesses to finally get to a target name. Another possible improvement, many websites nowadays display multiple list boxes on the first page and hold the data for each in the script code. ie when the type list is selected (1-3 options) the Year list is instantly updated (3 sets of Years) and so on, select the Qtr list (1-4 options) and then go to another page for the huge individual page list. An example site; http://www.auto.co.nz/used.php try selecting a Make which updates Model I randomly selected one Year. After going thru Deaths,1849,Dec ending up here; http://images.freebmd.org.uk/GUS/1849/Deaths/December/LDS-211-000-0951 only to find two files available; 00x0-000.tif - a useless message 0namefix.wbt - garbage All 4 QTRS are the same. What is the point of making this Year available at all . I wonder how many more of these are offered to waste users online time, which with some is costly. Notwithstanding, I'm sure the public will be appreciative of the another free service being available, so well done team. Transcriber server - I find it quite elongated (Password,type,year,Qtr,page#) compared to the simple table we once had. I would have tested further but I kept getting a Gateway Timeout error from the server. Garry Kiwiz Syndicate Co-ordinator ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Mayall To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 8:35 AM Subject: Image servers I'm pleased to announce that work on the new dedicated image servers appears to be complete. As they are ready early, I'd like to grasp the opportunity for some additional testing, and I'd like to ask Syndicate co-ordinators to assist with that. First and foremost, we need to ensure that transcriber scan downloads work robustly from the new address at http://images.freebmd.org.uk/GUS/ The current password arrangements apply. Secondly, we need to test a new facility which we will be anouncing next week, allowing the general public access to our scans. This access will be via a different route, and will not use passwords. It is however designed to be slower than the transcriber's route. To try it out, please go to http://images.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/choose.pl Any feedback to me please. I may not acknowledge it, but I will read it all. Obviously, the public access facility is going to generate a good deal of interest in the genealogical world (and is probably going to upset 1837online big time), so it would be much appreciated if co-ordinators would treat the information above about the new facility as embargoed until 12:00 Monday, at which time an official announcement will be made to all the FreeBMD lists, and to appropriate wider reading lists and groups. Once that announcement has gone out, it may be freely copied elsewhere. --