Is that right? Use Google to make my way around the BCA website because its own menu system is unfathomable?
And there is still no answer as how to find the link to the Newsletter 31 pdf file starting from the BCA home page. I know that I am not alone in being unable to figure this out.
Here?s one way to implement a drop-down list to retrieve a particular newsletter from a library containing hundreds of editions: http://dev.chelseaspelaeo.org/publications.htm
Select say 2012 as the year and March as the month, then click the View Selection button to see what your request matches, then click on Download. I know this isn?t beautiful, but it works, and it is only 50 or so lines of server side code knocked up one evening by an amateur (me). Access to recent CSS newsletters requires a login, but the older ones like 2012 are public domain.
The main issues I have with the BCA website are not its page geometry or its colour scheme but that its content doesn?t promote caving and doesn?t inspire anyone let alone new recruits. It?s more of a static reference work or document library that is also hard to navigate around.
Adverts aside, the BMC home page https://www.thebmc.co.uk/ is positive, inspirational, informational, with 13 bright photos leading to main articles, and a gallery of 14 little photos leading to further topics at the bottom. I know the BMC publishes a quarterly paper magazine too, but their website is effectively their newsletter as well as being a marketing and influencing tool.
We should be thinking of the BCA newsletter moving in this direction too ? online, modular, attractively presented, constantly bits of new stuff being added and old stuff dropping off. If it looks good on screen and the stories submitted by cavers appear on the website relatively quickly then other cavers will be inspired by what they see to contribute their own material, and it will gain a momentum of its own.
Wishing for better, making suggestions and pointing out a few issues isn?t being negative. It?s actually being constructive.