Let’s start by saying thank-you to the VWML and EFDSS for preserving so much of the material essential to our field, making it available, and providing online access, for free, to everyone, over the years. I am particularly grateful. I do not have the money or resources to make my indexes available on my own, and without the VWML’s consistent support and technical expertise the indexes simply would not exist. Nor would the ‘Full English’ project have happened without their dedication. And so on.

The old system that many of you seem to love is, in computer terms, ancient. It is well over 10 years old and has been held together with sticking-plaster for some time now. If a new system had not been designed it would soon have crashed completely. Yes, it was designed mostly by one person – and I for one was extremely grateful for the pains he took over it – but he is no longer involved, and things have moved on. Things do.

You all seem to love the old system but it generated similar howls of anguish when it was launched. It took a while to get right. And user-suggestions were key to that process. Angry posts to social media weren’t helpful.

The EFDSS does not have a ‘turnover of millions’. It survives on membership fees (and membership of all such organisations is falling) and on grants from bodies such as The Arts Council – and they have slashed their funding dramatically in the last 2 years. The Society does not have money to spare, but the present re-design has not been done on the cheap. The external digitisation funding some of you mention was Lottery money, over 10 years ago and was, like all project-funding, finite. The EFDSS is far from perfect, but it does not deserve the calumny included in your posts.

I trust that all of you who say how essential the site is have supported it over the years by being members or giving donations?

You all seem to believe that the VWML is the enemy, and your language is hurtful to the staff who spend their working lives providing you with the materials to feed your interests and passions. It is not difficult to understand. If you have specific queries, suggestions, etc., contact them direct, instead of venting in public. Be part of the solution, not the problem.

If you have an urgent need to use the old site, there is a place you can click on the search page. it says:
'For a limited time, you can continue to access the old website'.
The danger there is that you will continue to rely on it and be completely flummoxed when it is finally turned off. Exactly the same thing happened when the old site was launched.

You all seem to love the old site, but you are easily outnumbered by the people – especially casual users and newcomers - who disliked it and found it very difficult to navigate. On the whole, I am very pleased with the part of the new site given over to my indexes – and I asked for the semi-separation which has been achieved. My section is a lot easier to explain and most of the important functionality is still there, plus some new features. Some tweaking is needed, and it will take some getting used to.

I will be presenting a tutorial on how to use the new interface (my indexes only) at a special TSF zoom meeting, probably 5th May – details will be announced soon on TradSong, Ballad-list, and the TSF newsletter.
Steve Roud