Write an article for Saintsational?

[evertonfc]

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

[saintbrat]

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

it would be good if there could be a scrolling saints archive system on a front page- with facts, figures, playrs, artciles etc.

what it looked like back when

http://www.saintsational.com/forum/view ... hp?t=48978

[battye]

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.

[evertonfc]

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.

[battye]

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.

[saint66au]

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

[battye]

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"

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.

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.

[evertonfc]

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"

I see what you're saying, but maybe this raises a bigger question about WOM and Saintsational...

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.

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

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.

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

[sunsaint]

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

[evertonfc]

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"

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.

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.

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.

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).

[n1ck]

Geeze I like that mock Ev... the articles are brilliant!

[sunsaint]

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.

[LennyBoy]

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.

[battye]

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?

[saintbrat]

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

that is most important- up to date and changing regulalrly for people to come back-
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..

[saintbrat]

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"

[st_Trav_ofWA]

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