Fabian Society’s lousy website
I have a lot of respect for the work that the Fabian Society does, but they just do not seem to understand that the old channels of influence do not work in quite the same way as before. The new Fabian Society website is one of the worst new sites I’ve seen in a while.
The Fabians have a few thousand members, all of them full of ideas ready to be expressed. So how much chance is there on the new website to express any of those ideas? Absolutely none. The site acts as little more than an online pamphlet list. That’s just not good enough. A major component of think tank work needs to be conducted online, especially if – like the Fabian Society – it’s possible to become a member of the organisation. Look at the websites of Compass, Progress or Demos, all of which do a far better job. I wonder who was advising the Fabians. Whoever it was did not do a very good job.
Given that fivehops only seem to have even registered their own URL two months ago I think we can assume they’re not market leaders with years of experience behind them.
Shame really, the Fabians do great work but having such an awful website doesn’t give a good impression. They should have given me a ring, could have done them something far superior for next to nothing.
I find it hard to find any redeeming features… I actually had some contact with the Fabians and Young Fabians about web work about 18 months ago. Nothing came of that – I reckon I could have managed to make something a lot better, and as I am a member could have done it for little cash.
Anyway, c’est la vie.
I’m learning xhtml and ccs at the moment and the fabians site looks like the work of an ethusiastic amatuer. I hope they didn’t pay to much for it. Quite rough around the edges as well.
http://fivehops.org/ are the stunning people who made it. Doesn’t look like they put much effort into their own site either.