As an 'old timer' myself, I fully understand many of the...

As an 'old timer' myself, I fully understand many of the comments! However, I am also sensible enough to know that remaining in one place doing the same thng doesn't work forever while the world around you is moving forward. 

I have been around HotCopper for many years now, and love this site, and the people involved in it.

My apologies if sometimes comments appear arrogant! Anyone that actually knows me would know that isn't a good description for me, and though I may resort to sarcasm and humour a lot, ( )I dislike arrogance!

The reason I asked that people don't post "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" any more is because we have seen those comments a thousand times and explained several times that it is broken, as it also was back in 2012 to June 2014 as we made the last changes to the site you then loved, and became the site you now love! (If you saw a screenshot now of the site you all loved in May 2014, you'd say Noooooooo, as you'd have moved on as we do to love tihs last 4 and a bit years of layout!")

We have seen how these things happen, and ask you to show us more trust.

As we made changes to satisfy members back over that last change, so we have been now.

We did things differently this time and allowed the dual site, so that changes and improvemetns could be rolled out while members still had the comfort of being able to go back when necessary.

We know not everyone has the ability to adapt as well as others.

Believe me, we are working on member comfort.

However, you also need to understand that HotCopper is a listed company, paying 6 monthly dividends, and has a duty to improve shareholder value.

This isn't a small back yard or private company that sits and happily says 'we are earning enough, we're doing fine' so yes, you will see proactive moves as we aren't satisfied that shareholders would be content to see only this stagnant 20c share price forever. It isn't what one 'strives' for.

I say this but can't elaborate, simply want you to think outside the square and understand we actually are looking after members and shareholders alike. 

Nothing like this happens overnight, but the board and management team have a wealth of ability, and all of us, driven by the members too, will be working on keeping up with changes as the years roll by.

On the site there may still be errors, like Martin Gifford saying the international data isn't up to date. That's something that can easily be looked at, but it's something we didn't have at all before, so many new features, such as commodities etc. (yes, iron can be added, but I can't make notes for multiple threads here, but we have already receivbed a feedback request for Fe to go on the list) are new additions.

Patience grasshoppers.

We feel it's a luxury that members can return to the old site while building up the comfort levels with the new, so giving the two way options are all part of us looking after our members. 

Please bear with us while more updates and changes are made. Feel free to go back to Old HotCopper (link at bottom of the pages, as well as the grey and red text over the top of the site page) but come back often and check how it's going. 

Congrats to the many members like @ahjay who have stayed with it and now find it 'normal' in a short time. 

Thanks to members and mods who are helping us out in feedback with helping the 'first time viewers' to get used to the new site. 

We appreciate all of you for this, with special mention to  @NoBoDe @Bugsam and @roaminoz  for helping others along with our admin team.

Tech savvy members will all be appreciated as they help us to concentrate on other issues while they help the new members, as this site is all about us all helping each other.

Try to enjoy the start of this new experience at your leisure. We acknowledge there is a way to go. 

Next week, I will try to answer some of the more specific comments, but know that [email protected] is where we would appreciate seeing constructive criticism, ideas, etc, and is monitored by the techs as well as myself and management.

See the below image for the placement of the link back to Old HC. (Not avaialble to visitors, or new members since start of September)