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Christine missing....?

• Message 1. 

  Posted by rick_yard_withdrawn (U14573092) on Monday, 27th August 2012

  Christine Barford appears to be missing from the Archers A-Z. A bit disappointing since Lesley Saweard will very shortly overtake Norman Painting as the longest-serving soap actor(ess) in the world....!

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Tayler Cresswell - Host (U14232848) on Monday, 27th August 2012

  Hi ryw
  
  Quite a few characters are waiting to be added back in to the new Who's Who - Christine among them.
  
  Tayler

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by rick_yard_withdrawn (U14573092) on Thursday, 6th September 2012

  Hi ryw
  
  Quite a few characters are waiting to be added back in to the new Who's Who - Christine among them.
  
  °Õ²¹²â±ô±ð°ùÌý Thanks for the answer. I think Christine must be the most glaring and surprising ommission, though....?!

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by Bruxanna Grips With Her Heels In A Galloping Trot (U13759521) on Friday, 7th September 2012

  What's the hold up? There's been a lot of characters missing now for a considerable lenght of time since changing to the new look.

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Seveek (U13636812) on Friday, 7th September 2012

  ‘A bit disappointing since Lesley Saweard will very shortly overtake Norman Painting as the longest-serving soap actor(ess) in the world’
  
  The list to which I refer says she is already in pole position.
  
  It is certainly strange that it is taking so long to update Who’s Who as all of the data was there and might easily be automatically converted or copied from old to new formats by an intern; it would take under a day’s work.
  
  Anyway, this was Christine’s previous profile for interest:
  
  Christine Barford
  played by Lesley Saweard
  
  Description
  'Auntie Chris' has had more than her share of trauma in latter years, being subjected to horrific treatment at the hands of Clive Horrobin before the sudden death of her husband George put paid to their dream of retirement in a newly built house. Christine has remained stoical throughout, despite having to give up her beloved Stables and the riding she adored due to a persistent back problem.
  Personal details
  • Born 21 December 1931
  • Address Woodbine Cottage
  • Status Widow (George Barford)
  • Children Peter (adopted)
  • Occupation Retired stable owner
  Most likely to say
  "Blessed back's playing up again."
  Likes and dislikes
  Likes Horses, gardening
  Dislikes Getting old, not being able to ride
  Highs and lows
  High Finding enduring happiness with George
  Low Being held hostage at gunpoint by Clive Horrobin
  Clips from the series
  Christine and George’s wedding day (1979)
  Gets on with
  1. Shula Hebden Lloyd
  2. David Archer
  3. Jill and Phil Archer
  Doesn't get on with
  1. Susan Carter (Clive's sister has sheltered him in the past)
  2.
  3.
  Family
  Brother Phil Archer
  

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• Message 6

  , in reply to message 5.

  Posted by Organoleptic Icon (U11219171) on Friday, 7th September 2012

  seveek where do you get that from?
  
  Is there a way into the old pages? I know Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú leaves loads of stuff accessible for reference with a note that it is no longer updated.

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• Message 7

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by Organoleptic Icon (U11219171) on Friday, 7th September 2012

  In reply to :
  
  Hi ryw
  
  Quite a few characters are waiting to be added back in to the new Who's Who - Christine among them.
  
  °Õ²¹²â±ô±ð°ùÌý
  
  Why could the old one not be left in place until the new one was ready?
  
  Any progress on picture freedom, or do we need to complain to the new DG?

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• Message 8

  , in reply to message 7.

  Posted by Tayler Cresswell - Host (U14232848) on Friday, 7th September 2012

  Hi OI
  
  I think Keri mentioned somewhere that they're looking into whether the images can be hidden as they were previously but it's not a priority due to budget restrictions.
  
  Tayler

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• Message 9

  , in reply to message 8.

  Posted by Organoleptic Icon (U11219171) on Saturday, 8th September 2012

  Hi OI
  
  I think Keri mentioned somewhere that they're looking into whether the images can be hidden as they were previously but it's not a priority due to budget restrictions.
  
  °Õ²¹²â±ô±ð°ùÌý
  
  Thanks.
  
  Of course they don't need to be "hideable". All that needs to be done is to arrange the data so that the words are accessible on a pictureless page.

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• Message 10

  , in reply to message 9.

  Posted by rick_yard_withdrawn (U14573092) on Sunday, 9th September 2012

  Hi OI
  
  I think Keri mentioned somewhere that they're looking into whether the images can be hidden as they were previously but it's not a priority due to budget restrictions.
  
  °Õ²¹²â±ô±ð°ùÌý
  
  Thanks.
  
  Of course they don't need to be "hideable". All that needs to be done is to arrange the data so that the words are accessible on a pictureless page.   Slightly puzzling this - if there are so many budget restrictions as all that - why not leave the pages as they were in the first place and not alter them....?

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• Message 11

  , in reply to message 10.

  Posted by Seveek (U13636812) on Sunday, 9th September 2012

  ‘Slightly puzzling this - if there are so many budget restrictions as all that - why not leave the pages as they were in the first place and not alter them....?’
  
  The answer is obvious if one reads extracts from these submissions:
  
  September, 1010. David Williams, Product Manager for the technical team delivering Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú messageboards, told us:
  
  ‘We had two main objectives when we began work on the messageboard refresh project:
  
  1. Bringing the visual design in line with the visual refresh happening across the rest of bbc.co.uk and that the messageboards have a consistent format that is familiar to audiences from around the site.
  
  2. Providing the hosts of the messageboards a simple to use, yet powerful set of administration tools enabling them to be kept more up to date and relevant to the audience.’
  
  
  May, 2008. Mat Hampson, the lead developer on a Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú project called Barlesque, explained in an extraordinary internal memo:
  
  ‘As you may be aware from the Barlesque mailing list, on May the 13th we are going to roll out a change to the Barley implementation used by DNA services in order to align it with the new global visual language being used across bbc.co.uk. This change will be carried out by the DNA team and will require no work on your part... See the attached PDF for details of the change ['Barley toolbar update - aligning legacy UK toolbars with the new visual language standard'].’
  
  ‘Barlesque is bbc.co.uk's new web page layout system. Without getting too technical and boring everyone to death, that means the masthead at the top, the footer at the bottom and some of the underlying setup of every new page appearing on the site’
  
  ‘Another thing Barley does is use technological restriction to enforce consistency of design [Still with us? - Ed]: the page content is nestled inside a big HTML table with a limited set of widths, the navigation has a particular structure to its HTML, and so on.’
  
  Mr Hampson describes the advantages of the changes:
  
  • ‘Valid, semantic XHTML and CSS - so it contains less code and is more accessible than its predecessor.
  
  • Support for many languages, useful behind the scenes technical tools and visual customisations. (Teal-coloured navigation? No problem. White footer? Sure.) That said, it also has...
  
  • A shallow learning curve for developers, since it works off-the-shelf, with none of the display configuration set up.
  
  • Easy implementation for Indies (the source of many of the Barley variants) since it only requires one line adding to the Apache configuration to get going.
  
  • Finally, the ability to deliver other pan-bbc.co.uk systems, such as user authentication, and surveys, which in turn makes them easier to implement and maintain too.’
  
  ‘Bundle this all together, and we think that Barlesque effectively removes the need for sites to make their own copies of the layout system. That means greater technical and visual consistency, quicker updates, and best of all, frees up precious developer time to work on more exciting things!‘
  
  
  July, 2012. Keri Davies, scriptwriter and web producer now tells us:
  
  ‘The Archers website will shortly be undergoing some significant changes, to bring it in line with many other Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú programme sites.
  
  The main reason is behind the scenes, and concerns the systems that we use to maintain and update the site. We've been very fortunate up to now, in that the The Archers has had its own bespoke website. But this means that we have been working with tools that only we use, which is complicated and expensive in terms of technical support.
  Following the 2010 freeze in the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's licence fee, there is considerable pressure on expenditure, particularly in online areas. So by moving to standard systems that are used across the whole Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú, we can rely on quicker and more knowledgeable technical support, and benefit from developments elsewhere in the Corporation.’
  
  * * *
  
  So on May, 2008 they implemented changes to ‘Bundle this all together, and we think that Barlesque effectively removes the need for sites to make their own copies of the layout system.’
  
  Mr Hampson tells us similarly in September, 2010 that his changes will ‘Bring the visual design in line with the visual refresh happening across the rest of bbc.co.uk and that the messageboards have a consistent format that is familiar to audiences from around the site.’
  
  And after four years Mr Davies now tells us that ‘The main reason is behind the scenes, and concerns the systems that we use to maintain and update the site.’
  
  
  It seems to be a somewhat circular development cycle to gradually achieve a goal which seems to be that less is better. And everyone who has mentioned keeping the old information available is correct.
  

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• Message 12

  , in reply to message 11.

  Posted by Organoleptic Icon (U11219171) on Sunday, 9th September 2012

  2. Providing the hosts of the messageboards a simple to use, yet powerful set of administration tools enabling them to be kept more up to date and relevant to the audience.’ 
  
  Exactly the opposite happened here!

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• Message 13

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Ginslinger Redux (U14830013) on Tuesday, 11th September 2012

  I pointed this out when the list was redone and hoped her seniority might push her up the list. And Harry can go now so there would be a space!!!

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