Ronald's activity

 Have used these ones - http://www.monclick.it/ - a few times. Very good. Also (not a solution in this case), but keep in mind that Amazon UK now delivers far more things in Italy than what it did in the past (just books and dvds). So its worth checking out.

Speaking as someone who has moved from sandwich in front of the screen in the UK to a two hour break in Sicily I kind of understand the strong reaction the minister's comments got. Judging from reports Italians seem split on the issue - and the minister's corrective statement where he said he only meant the advice for himself show how sensitive things can get around the issue. This Tiscali website poll shows that most disagree, likewise here and here. The last two links are from Como and Emilia-Romagna so while not the "shallow" north - certainly not the "deep" south  On the other hand Rotondi himself paid for a poll which (suprise, suprise) came out in his favour.However, when one then hears that the parliament lunch hour costs about 10 million a day - well banning the whole affair seems like a good idea!As for me - I will ponder further over my break today!  

Seems to me there are a few issues here. I will try to answer each one separately in the hope that it provides part of our take on things.One is important and I care about - which is navigation, ease of use, etc. We reacted to a lot of the early comments and got some positive feedback on that and some improvement but clearly there is a lot to do yet. As the Italians say "devono parlare i fatti" so we will leave actions speak on that front. We hope that what we manage to do over the next few weeks will help there and make the site easier. I hate the fact that we couldn't have done things quicker but the world crashing around us didn't help! Now that things are on a more stable footing work should resume  Secondly, there is an issue of what type of community one wants. I realise that this is a more "bland" place than the old forums. I am sorry to see some of the past members go - but this community cannot be a continuation of the old forums. We've went over that a thousand times. It will take time to build a new community but at least the process has started. Anyone that finds the post that have been going on boring and this the first bit of excitement is best served somewhere else. I appreciate that internal fights between a group of people that know each others various virtual personas and past history is fun for those people and generates lots of views by those people but it is really boring for anyone else looking into it. We cannot follow what one told another forum that then got continued here, that links to some previous action/post/member in the past, etc, etc... We don't really care. It is not about avoiding confrontation - it is simply not that interesting and that is very distracting to anyone else.We do expect people not to be rude to each other - at least not in this forum. It seems some ex-members confuse debate with the possibility to exchange insults. Again... we find that very boring. If the sum of that is a more boring community - so be it. If we just wanted page views trust me that is the easiest thing in the world to do. Stir up some trouble - throw in some confusion - sprinkle with rudeness and stir for 20 minutes and hey presto - page views off the roof.Finally, in the past few weeks we have been tackling what I think are some great stories on Italy Magazine. No more bland ANSA stuff - but some of the things we find really interesting. Please feel free to comment on those if you are in search of things to discuss 

While in the past the online version was essentially a repetition of news from Ansa -  adriatica I invite you to revisit the front page and see if you still think it is just regurgitated stuff.

The past two weeks we have made quite a few changes  and outside the occasional article that we pick up from past versions of Italy magazine (revised for the web) the rest is all hand-lonigly created original stuff. I don't think it is fair to call Carla and Pat "just translators" https://www.italymagazine.com/content/about-us 

Although one can, of course, not like or agree with the content they produce.

Are you still finding the website slow to load or has it returned to normal loading times now? 

  Not quite sure what the issues you are having are - I find the website relatively responsive. let me know if it persists and if anyone else is having the same slow response.

Hi Russ,currently the website generates revenue from advertising (and has been self-sustaining for quite some time). The plans are to build on that rather than membership schemes. We will also have a series of print / e-book products  coming out that will be accessible via several means (pay for each book individually, pay for a group of books, buy in advance, etc). If we ever decide to create a membership scheme for Community pages it should be for services above and beyond what is currently offered - the website's value is in the people coming to visit and participating every day in the community and I don't think asking people to pay is the right way to go about motivating people to do that.If we come up with some great idea for a service that adds additional value that we think we will consider that.

Hi Lorraine,completely understand your point of view - and believe me Poundbury Publishing did not take the decision lightly. They've had long discussions about whether and how to continue. However, circumstances have fundamentally changed which made continuing for them an option that could not work.We also realise that the website is not the perfect solution for all and we certainly agree that there is nothing like a printed magazine to relax on the terazza with.We hope that with Carla (our website editor) and the rest of the Istos team we will improve what is available online but also return to print in different forms. We are putting together a series of print publications that will be available on-demand rather than through the rather unforgiving monthly cycle of magazines and will allow us to sidestep the whole game of advertiser vs publisher vs distribution channels giving us more time to focus on the actual content.So in a way what Italy Magazine set out to originally do - provide great content about Italy to lovers of Italy - will continue. The ways and means of doing that will change - both because changing times mean you have to adapt but also because changing times afford new possibilities that were not there before.We will be announcing more soon as if you are interested check back with the website or sign up to the newsletter! A prestoRonald 

Hi Francescaaware of this and should take care of it this week - thanks for flagging ronald 

 I am sure many would agree with you including Mr. Berlusconi himself