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- evertonfc
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At the moment, Saintsational.com is just a forum.
We're proposing to go back to the old setup, where there was a front page to the site - eg: SS was more than a forum. Sadly, the old setup was pretty poor and more or less was useless.
So the forum remains, obviously, except we're looking to add a 'front page' to the site.
We're just tossing a few ideas around about what we'd want on that front page to make it something worth visiting. I'd like to think people would visit it first and then head to the forum, although obviously it will be possible to bypass the front page and come here.
If we did it well, it could a very strong supporter tool.
I'd like to form an alliance or integrated role with WOM, particuarly for archival stuff. Not sure how we could work it out, but at worst I'm sure the two sites would keep a close working relationship
We're proposing to go back to the old setup, where there was a front page to the site - eg: SS was more than a forum. Sadly, the old setup was pretty poor and more or less was useless.
So the forum remains, obviously, except we're looking to add a 'front page' to the site.
We're just tossing a few ideas around about what we'd want on that front page to make it something worth visiting. I'd like to think people would visit it first and then head to the forum, although obviously it will be possible to bypass the front page and come here.
If we did it well, it could a very strong supporter tool.
I'd like to form an alliance or integrated role with WOM, particuarly for archival stuff. Not sure how we could work it out, but at worst I'm sure the two sites would keep a close working relationship
Clueless and mediocre petty tyrant.
- saintbrat
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it would be good if there could be a scrolling saints archive system on a front page- with facts, figures, playrs, artciles etc.evertonfc wrote:
I'd like to form an alliance or integrated role with WOM, particuarly for archival stuff. Not sure how we could work it out, but at worst I'm sure the two sites would keep a close working relationship
what it looked like back when
http://www.saintsational.com/forum/view ... hp?t=48978
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evertonfc: Seeing the site will at some point be upgraded to a new forum version (think of this in Saintsational colours, from an admin and moderator perspective it is much more advanced than what we have here... mass PMs and warnings systems are built in ) any work we do now is wasted because it isn't cross compatible. That's why I would be much happier creating a simple page, and when we upgrade do something more permanent.
Mr Magic: It will be along the lines of what www.Bomberblitz.com with the articles on the front page to begin with. Over time (post-upgrade) then there is potential for player stats, ladders or whatever people generally want.
Mr Magic: It will be along the lines of what www.Bomberblitz.com with the articles on the front page to begin with. Over time (post-upgrade) then there is potential for player stats, ladders or whatever people generally want.
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- evertonfc
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Battye - sure thing, completely understand. For the initial stage, something like bomberblitz would be great. I guess my mind is tracking a little bit down the path towards my proposal...
...which has been ticking over in my head all day, so I thought I'd do up a mock for y'all (click the pic to enlarge):
As you can tell, the layout has been ripped from Toffeeweb and some of the graphics have been pinched from a few different sites, all in the selfish name of giving an idea of what's ticking over in my head.
It's been done in Paint and saved at a disappointingly-low quality (looked a lot sharper until I saved it as a JPEG!), but hopefully you get the gist of it.
It may or may not be feasible for the moment - maybe we could look at doing some mocks for the interim version - but down the track, it's something I'd like to think we could aspire to.
Thoughts/criticism/comments all appreciated.
...which has been ticking over in my head all day, so I thought I'd do up a mock for y'all (click the pic to enlarge):
As you can tell, the layout has been ripped from Toffeeweb and some of the graphics have been pinched from a few different sites, all in the selfish name of giving an idea of what's ticking over in my head.
It's been done in Paint and saved at a disappointingly-low quality (looked a lot sharper until I saved it as a JPEG!), but hopefully you get the gist of it.
It may or may not be feasible for the moment - maybe we could look at doing some mocks for the interim version - but down the track, it's something I'd like to think we could aspire to.
Thoughts/criticism/comments all appreciated.
Clueless and mediocre petty tyrant.
Yeah, something like that is definitely the right idea. Obviously we wouldn't rip off their design, but the idea of a feature article and a few other stories plus some fun things like polls and ladders is certainly something to aim for.
Feature article: KFC's "Double Down" burger!
TV Ratings: Hey Hey It's Saturday ratings overview
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Nice work Ev...
Still think tho that the focus of the front page can be an extension of the Forum, rather than re-inventing the WoM wheel...theres no way we can match even remotely the level of information on that site. Id be giving prominance to things like "On the Couch" and "Post of the Month" rather than making it look tooo "WoM MkII"
Whatever we have on that front page HAS to be up-to-date and accurate. Nothing looks worse on a sports site than out of date scores and information. People will just assume the Forum is similarly un-watched and unused
Still think tho that the focus of the front page can be an extension of the Forum, rather than re-inventing the WoM wheel...theres no way we can match even remotely the level of information on that site. Id be giving prominance to things like "On the Couch" and "Post of the Month" rather than making it look tooo "WoM MkII"
Whatever we have on that front page HAS to be up-to-date and accurate. Nothing looks worse on a sports site than out of date scores and information. People will just assume the Forum is similarly un-watched and unused
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I like how you put it "an extension of the forum", that is a good way to describe it. It will be exactly like that - grab existing content that has been posted in the forum and then draw attention to it by putting it on the front page.saint66au wrote:Nice work Ev...
Still think tho that the focus of the front page can be an extension of the Forum, rather than re-inventing the WoM wheel...theres no way we can match even remotely the level of information on that site. Id be giving prominance to things like "On the Couch" and "Post of the Month" rather than making it look tooo "WoM MkII"
If you try and turn it into a pseudo-news site then there is that potential that it could look out of date, so using forum content which is forever changing (and always up to date) is the way to go.
Feature article: KFC's "Double Down" burger!
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- evertonfc
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I see what you're saying, but maybe this raises a bigger question about WOM and Saintsational...saint66au wrote:Nice work Ev...
Still think tho that the focus of the front page can be an extension of the Forum, rather than re-inventing the WoM wheel...theres no way we can match even remotely the level of information on that site. Id be giving prominance to things like "On the Couch" and "Post of the Month" rather than making it look tooo "WoM MkII"
Just putting this out there - what is the chance that one day WOM could evolve into being the front page of Saintsational, with something similar to my design, but with all the beef and depth of WOM?
I don't know if Peanut would be interested and whether he'd fancy doing it - he may feel it would be a loss of identity, which is fair enough - but would probably evolve into the most definitive and influential fan sites in Australia (and if bloody Everton can do it, surely we can too!).
Naturally, we'd use the front page as a channel to drive traffic to the forum, likewise, the forum would be a great place to generate a lot of content.
True. Think of all those hideous web pages made from 1998-2001 that were update every six months with Times New Roman font and garish backrounds....eek! No good.Whatever we have on that front page HAS to be up-to-date and accurate. Nothing looks worse on a sports site than out of date scores and information. People will just assume the Forum is similarly un-watched and unused
But I think between an editorial team of five or six, we could update the front page at least two-three times a week
---------
NB: Not trying to get ahead of myself - just tossing out some ideas.
For the moment, if battye says what we're aiming for in the short-term is a little more simple, then that's what we're doing. If it works, great. Then we could look at stepping it up into something bigger.
I'm just excited we're getting a front page
Clueless and mediocre petty tyrant.
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Everton and The Powers That Be.
I think what you are hinting at is just a simple CMS mod that plonks into the PhpBB engine. No real brain power required, it will just require access to the SS server, and install the mod. Then you can add articles and generally format the look of the website via templates, the board will remain the same.
You can read more about mods at www.phpBB.com
a CMS system can be found here:
http://www.phpbb.com/mods/db/index.php? ... ib_id=8555
I think what you are hinting at is just a simple CMS mod that plonks into the PhpBB engine. No real brain power required, it will just require access to the SS server, and install the mod. Then you can add articles and generally format the look of the website via templates, the board will remain the same.
You can read more about mods at www.phpBB.com
a CMS system can be found here:
http://www.phpbb.com/mods/db/index.php? ... ib_id=8555
Seeya
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- evertonfc
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I guess my view on that stems from the belief that we already have so much content on the forum that could easily be turned around into front-page content.battye wrote:I like how you put it "an extension of the forum", that is a good way to describe it. It will be exactly like that - grab existing content that has been posted in the forum and then draw attention to it by putting it on the front page.saint66au wrote:Nice work Ev...
Still think tho that the focus of the front page can be an extension of the Forum, rather than re-inventing the WoM wheel...theres no way we can match even remotely the level of information on that site. Id be giving prominance to things like "On the Couch" and "Post of the Month" rather than making it look tooo "WoM MkII"
If you try and turn it into a pseudo-news site then there is that potential that it could look out of date, so using forum content which is forever changing (and always up to date) is the way to go.
For example, match reports and previews are posted here frequently, as are:
- The Fox Report
- Training reviews from those who go to training.
- Tactical reviews (these are frequent)
- Reports from Sandringham
- Membership/ticketing issues
- Off-field issues: redevelopment/boardroom/financial
etc
All that would add up to some serious content. It would not be a news-breaking site, just as Toffeeweb is not.
What they do is get probably 70% of their stuff from Everton forums, and the remaining 30% (for news in brief) is from the major news websites. But the intro blurbs to those pieces is very important; it basically tells you whether or not it's a story worth reading.
However until we get to that stage, what we could look to do is to create one part of the front page for the 'highlights' of the posters - as I've mentioned above - and then use a Google news feed, similar to that used on BigFooty's club portal, to give it a newsy feel.
That would be a low maintaince option and would still ensure most content was user-generated, all the while giving our fans the latest news.
http://www.bigfooty.com/portal/saints/
I would put more emphasis on quality posts rather than latest posts...but it's not the worst concept going around (even if it is visually awkward and text-heavy).
Last edited by evertonfc on Wed 31 Dec 2008 12:37am, edited 1 time in total.
Clueless and mediocre petty tyrant.
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PS I like the operation of yellowandblack forum over bomberland. The inclusion of google ads can generate some revenue, there is plenty of info, good structure, LOVE the talent spotting category, the colour scheme sucks (yellow text on black, but cant change that i spose) and would absolutely love to see a points system for posters implemented here.
Seeya
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Looking forward to the revamp of the main page. Just for interests sake (although a fairly budget site) I thought you might want to take a look at the #1 voted Football Forum Site in the SANFL.
www.rocketrooster.com
very simple design, easy to navigate and recent stories about club happenings.
www.rocketrooster.com
very simple design, easy to navigate and recent stories about club happenings.
Poochy 1 2 3 4 and 5 should be reinstated!
There are some great ideas coming up, but to really get the ball rolling we need a couple of articles. At the moment we are designing an empty front page
Just to gauge interest, is there anyone that is interested in writing an article over the next week or so?
Just to gauge interest, is there anyone that is interested in writing an article over the next week or so?
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- saintbrat
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that is most important- up to date and changing regulalrly for people to come back-saint66au wrote: Whatever we have on that front page HAS to be up-to-date and accurate. Nothing looks worse on a sports site than out of date scores and information. People will just assume the Forum is similarly un-watched and unused
several posters over the eyars have started website/ forums and if not updated people don't go back.
I like the idea of it being extended versions of some posts- as already stated- sometimes longer posts are hard to read in forum style-
- as articles would be better
- is there then the option for people to comment on them rather than extending posts via copying and recopying......
and certainly as a better option for putting information out there for people in a better way than sticky's ( which peo ple ignore )- it being placed on a front page would be easier- ie travel options, ticketing options, broadcast info- all the ' fact ' info..
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- saintbrat
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not sure where things are up to but a post by Dools got me wondering
would there be a spot on this front page for "wanted to buy", 'For Sale' or "Has anyone seen for Sale"
would there be a spot on this front page for "wanted to buy", 'For Sale' or "Has anyone seen for Sale"
StReNgTh ThRoUgH LoYaLtY
Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly..!!
MEMBERSHIP 2014 31,134 Membership 2015 32,746 MEMBERSHIP 2016 - 38,101
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- st_Trav_ofWA
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hey guys .. im some what back love the new ideas for the site especially the on the couch seris that was always a good read to get to know the people on here on a more personal level ... a while back i did a weekly post on "our greatest " purely to remember our former greats and mybe educate our younger gen. posters about players they never got to witness running round in the Red White and Black
"The team that wins in the most positions and makes the least amount of mistakes, usually wins the game." -- Allan Jeans
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