Community Announcement Shock Horror

Well Ciao finally admit there is a problem, and have posted an announcement on the Members page. Not before time...

It reads "Dear Ciao members! Concerning to a temporary technical problem with our database comments/evaluations are not visible temporarily. The same problem with disappeared/appeared reviews on the review lists. We are aware of caching issues, we are taking them very serious and are working to solve them as soon as possible.
Sorry for the inconvenience. Your Ciao team"

I had exactly the same thought when I saw it. Too little, too late but for once they ACTUALLY did put out an announcement.

Perhaps they are starting to notice long term members voting with their feet (or finger pressing delete)

I'm waiting for the announcement that says:

"Dear Ciao members! We are now acting on racist statements made by members. Got someone you want to annoy? Simply make a thinly veiled racist comment about them and we'll see what we can do. Your Ciao team"

Didn't one Cafe review sort of gave them an ultimatum "I, ..., the undersigned will delete my account by 30/3 and join dooyoo" or something similar?

Must be that exit interview they asked Rachel for. :-)

Yes there have been a couple of those posted. I bet the departure of thingywatsit and Nar has shocked them.

It's probably shocked some members, but Ciao? Don't bet on it.

I doubt it too. Ciao has thousands of members, and hundreds of active ones. I doubt reviews are slowing down are they?

Still at least they have said they recognise the problem we all recognised 4 months ago..!

I don't think any of its writers individually are important enough for ciao to give a toss quite frankly.

That announcement shocked me to, as it was only yesterday that I contacted then again regarding the technical problems. Lisa x

Yep, The announcement has probably sent a lot of us running for the smelling salts.

It's a shame they couldn't manage to write an announcement that actually made sense, but I'm probably being too picky.

Hello Lisa,

Thank you for your mail. We have been experiencing some temporary technical problems on the website, but our technical team are working to fix everything as quickly as possible. We are very sorry for the inconvenience.

Best regards,

Ciao UK


Well there you have it I've eventually had a reply from them, although I won't be holding my breath! Lisa x

I have to say I find the timing of the community announcement hilarious. This announcement came up just after I told them what I thought about their total disrespect for writers, in not keeping them informed of what was going on on the site.

Sure, coincidental timing perhaps, but kind of ironic.

All day today the site is behaving and so far I've not had problems at all, GB deletions stick, ratings and comments stick...

fingers crossed.

Yeah it does seem a little better today. Maybe the volume of complaint emails and suggestions of a boycott are beginning to ruffle their feathers?

You are all missing the point. They post a message about the problems having already run a programme to fix it. Then a day later they can add another massage saying pRoblem fixed, then in their own minds they are super efficient having fixed a problem within 24 hours of announcing there is one. Has no one ever done an end of year review for someone in IT?

Yep....the site seems to be 'normal' again......whatever normal is!

atticusuk wrote:

You are all missing the point. They post a message about the problems having already run a programme to fix it. Then a day later they can add another massage saying pRoblem fixed, then in their own minds they are super efficient having fixed a problem within 24 hours of announcing there is one. Has no one ever done an end of year review for someone in IT?

I think you have hit the nail on the head.

So far all my rates and comments are sticking first time. How long though until the next glitch I wonder, shall we take bets ? Lisa x

Overall, I see http://www.reviewwritersforum.co.uk/ is better than http://www.ciao.co.uk/ - because this forum's still online and never experiences down time.

Funnily enough the Ciao announcement has already gone. Perhaps they withdrew it with a blush after the poor grammar was pointed out

To be fair to them, English is probably their second language (and it's still much better than some Ciao members).

You would think they'd have an English person managing the English site though, or at least an English native speaker to help word anything important

I'd far rather have someone that can give diamonds to reviews that match Ciao's criteria of good writing, that can fairly and consistently apply Ciao's T&Cs to abuse reports and has the wherewithall to investigate all sides of an argument/dispute before acting, that can sort out technical issues quickly to a proper worded announcement.