Spent a total of 8 hours trying to get NOTAMs this weekend. The new site continuously crashed. When I was finally able to do anything, I found the information totally useless for gliding. This system is totally unable to cope with weekend demand.
When setting a cross country task, it is normal to plot those NOTAMs in the planned task area on the map and then set a task avoiding them - notamplot was great for this.
According to the very hastled person I spoke to, our best option is to request a series of overlapping "narrow" routes running north/south giving a 99 mile corridor. Then try to locate the information that is required, plot this manually (again) and then set a task.
The new system was meant to provide the required information for all involved in aviation - it certainly fails miserably for gliding - which has been recognised, and by the comments here and elsewhere, it seems to be failing for many other forms of aviation. The other reason I was given was that it was very costly to produce the A1/A8 and they are trying to cut costs - Sadly, this was resulted in a masive reduction in safety for all.