Need Russian speaker help on iremember.ru

[John Kettler]

There is now a huge difference between how the Russian version of the site is set up and the English version. The Russian version and the English version before both had veterans' accounts neatly broken down by category, making it relatively quick to find a particular person's story. This approach is still used on the Russian side, but no longer on the English side. Instead, there is a series of thumbnails of soldiers (no category listed), together with the first few lines of the narrative. This almost totally breaks the site as far as the English speaker is concerned. In an effort to notify the webmaster of the problem with a few to getting it fixed, I searched in vain for a Contact Us but found nothing. Would someone who speaks Russian please go to that side of the site and pass the word? Whatever genius designed this new English version at a stroke rendered it practically useless because the reader can now only go through each account in a long list, rather than simply diving into a category. Nightmare!

Regards,

John Kettler 

[76mm]

Hey John,

Yeah, it looks like the English version is not particularly helpful; also no search function.

I suggest you write to the Project Leader, Artem Drabkin, he is also a Russian historian. His e-mail is on the website:  drabkin@yandex.ru

Don't know if he speaks English, but I'm sure someone involved in the site does.

[John Kettler]

76mm,

Thanks! I'm sure he does, since he's the one who's led the charge in translating the veterans' stories and getting them out in the West.

Regards,

John Kettler

 

[John Kettler]

76mm,

Have E-mailed him and very much hope he not only implements the restoration of the format on the English side from before but also responds to a few questions I asked him.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

76mm,

Have heard absolutely zero from Mr. Drabkin.

Russian speakers,

Would one of you please, please contact iremember.ru and urgently request that the English side of it be restored to what it was prior to the site redesign? It's quite clear the Russian side has things done as before, with the English side but a shadow of its former self. It is, in fact, practically useless presently, whereas before it was a fabulous resource. Thanks for any and all help.

Regards,

John Kettler

[DMS]

I gave Drabkin a link to this topic.

[John Kettler]

DMS,

I get over here seldom, so am very late in responding. Thank you very much for reaching out to him. The way you phrased what you said, it sounds like you know him. Is this true? How I wish more of the GPW veterans memoirs were available in English. I own about four books total in that category, which is why those veterans' accounts on IRemember.ru mean so much to me, for they provide a broad spectrum of experiences and are rich in insight producing detail.

Regards,

John Kettler

 

[76mm]

22 hours ago, John Kettler said:

I own about four books total in that category

In the meantime, you can buy more books by Russian veterans, dozens are available on Amazon, of varying quality.

[John Kettler]

76mm,

As it happens, a have a few more coming, but my book budget is small, whereas the wealth of wide-ranging veterans' stories on IRemember.ru is free and doesn't require the high levels of sustained concentration so hard for me to come by. A few weeks ago, something tripped in my brain, and all of a sudden, I was back in full-blown reading mode: five books at a time, during which I devoured several, one of which was very challenging. I dared to believe this presaged a lasting improvement, but in fact it was less than a week before I was back to slogging through pages as and when I could. The old IRemember.ru had tons of great material in a form and quantity even my battered brain could assimilate. I've been amazed, stunned, horrified, shocked, delighted, thrilled, choked up, even moved to tears by those veterans' accounts, many of which embrace events before and after the GPW. IRemember.ru has helped put a human face for me on the vast numbers of Russians who fought in the GPW.

Regards,

John Kettler

[DMS]

On 25.04.2017 at 9:29 AM, John Kettler said:

DMS,

I get over here seldom, so am very late in responding. Thank you very much for reaching out to him. The way you phrased what you said, it sounds like you know him. Is this true? How I wish more of the GPW veterans memoirs were available in English. I own about four books total in that category, which is why those veterans' accounts on IRemember.ru mean so much to me, for they provide a broad spectrum of experiences and are rich in insight producing detail.

Regards,

John Kettler

 

No, I follow his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/artem.drabkin

Yes, his work is great. It's surprising that noone else did it earlier.

[Nikolai Kulinich]

John,

I communicated with Artem Drabakin on this subject and according to him, the enhancement of the English language content of iremember.ru site is not his top priority.

[Nikolai Kulinich]

John and other readers of iremember.ru site,

If you like the translated stuff, why don't you leave comments down below? An impression persists that nobody cares!

Artem Drabkin reads all the comments and immediately responds to them, in English!

[John Kettler]

Nikolai Kulinich,

Welcome aboard!

Thanks for doing this, but I'm not asking him to enhance anything but to simply put back what was there before the, ahem, site upgrade. Slick design at the expense of effective communication is regress, not progress. I know enough Russian (and have eyes) to verify that the Russian side is as it was before, with memoirs available by category, rather than the situation on the English side now, where there are no categories, just pictures with tiny squibs which reveal little about the person until the link is selected. If the intention was to ruin the usefulness of the site to Anglophones, then it is a glorious success. Otherwise, it is the Great Leap Backwards™ to near uselessness.

Regards,

John Kettler