Website Upgrade

We have recently introduced a number of significant improvements to our site.  For those interested in the detail, here is a list of the key, visible changes that we've made.

All of the changes have been made with one purpose in mind: to make it easier for you to arrange exchanges.  As ever, if you have any questions or comments, do just get in touch.

MDD - Multiple Dates & Destinations

This group of changes relates to how you can specify where and when you want to travel. The new systems give you much more flexibility in specifying your travel plans. The extra information is then used by our new search system to give you much more relevant results:

• You can specify up to 5 date periods in which you would like to travel. This makes it easier to plan two or more separate exchanges at one time and may be particularly suitable for those tied to the school year, such as those with children or teachers / academics.
• You can have unlimited destinations for each date period.
• You can have a different duration for each date set.
• You can now list the regions or states within a country that you wish to visit.  This is beneficial for large countries such as the US and Australia.

The new system will allow members with more specific requirements to detail them. For example, if you are looking to visit the US, you can enter "USA - All areas" as one destination, then perhaps enter "USA - Maine", "USA - New Hampshire", "USA - Vermont" because you are particularly interested in those areas.  With that information in your listing, you are more likely to get offers from members in those states as they will know you want to visit their area. You can do a similar thing for Europe - list all of Europe and the specific countries you are most interested in.

New Edit Forms

• The new forms no longer use the old abbreviations. You can easily enter your details using check boxes and "drop down" selectors.
• We have removed the tricky formats like Cambridge, 5m S, or A-6-2-1 and moved to drop down menus instead. 
• Languages spoken are now entered in a check box field and we hope that many more members will now list their spoken languages. If you speak any other languages to some degree, we recommend that you enter these in your listing.
• It is now difficult to enter incorrect or invalid data. This should minimise the chance of receiving inadequate search results because of (eg) having accidentally entered a country code incorrectly.

Upgraded search

• The search system automatically adapts to show you results for people seeking UK. You can easily change this, by selecting "Show all" in the "show members seeking.." field.
• In the search results, we just show the date set that matches your requirements. This makes it easier to scan through and see the people seeking UK or even your region.
• Our new systems have been extensively rewritten to make them faster.
• Next and Previous buttons.  When you do a search you can now click forward and backwards through the results without having to return to the result page each time.

Improved login and session management

• Automated login. If you log into the new system and tick the "Stay logged in" option, the next time you return to our site from the computer you were using, you will be logged in automatically.
• When you are logged in, the system automatically adapts the content to make using our site easier for you to use.

There are also many structural improvements that operate behind-the-scenes … but I'll not bore you by detailing those!