We are already looking ahead to the next stage in the development of CaleyThistleOnline...in fact, we have been for a while.  Don't worry, we're not about to drop a load of new stuff on your lap and the changes won't be happening until after the end of the season.  New software will operate in much the same fashion as the existing stuff...we are more focused on improvement as opposed to wholesale change.

Issues such as site speed etc are always at the top of the priority list, and sometimes in our battle to keep on top of these things we don't take the time we should to think about what we can add/remove/change on the site to make it what you want it to be.

We have been throwing around some ideas for other services we could provide for fans and one of these is a webmail/email service whereby we could provide users with a personal e.mail address such as [email protected] or whatever.  Having looked at the many different ways to do this, the most flexible solution would be to offer the service in partnership with Google Mail (GMail), many of you may use this already and will be aware of how great a product they offer.  It would involve a small annual fee for each user, but if enough people were interested then it is a service we could provide.  Feedback would be much appreciated to allow us time to develop this if people want it.

If you can think of anything else you would like to see added/removed/changed then let us know, and if it is possible/practical then we'll look in to it.

Some of the stuff we currently use will be changing so please keep your ideas/suggestions as generic as possible.

PS. If anybody wants to relive old times on Rivals.net, and remind themselves just how shocking a setup it was, then your old ICT login details still work!

The format hasnt changed a jot in the last 100 years.

[edit to add link: http://web.archive.org/web/20010304171510/...tle.rivals.net/]

All noted Caley D. Thanks for that!

S.P. :003:

How about a links section that points to other SPL teams' forums? e.g. jambos kickback, welltrustfc etc.

Always interesting to hear the opposing fans' viewpoint.

What about having stuff underneath the username of each poster's post with info like their favourite ICT player etc?

how about a players blog on the site, there feelings on the game or the weeks events, or backroom staff on their part of the running of the club.

or

a Q and A with  members of the squad  & backroom staff :symbol_exclaim01:

It would be great to have a section which gave links to all online articles about ICT, from the Courier and P&J to the nationals. Otherwise we would miss good pieces like this:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Repor...2228551,00.html

It would be great to have a section which gave links to all online articles about ICT, from the Courier and P&J to the nationals. Otherwise we would miss good pieces like this: http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Repor...2228551,00.html

Go to the "Main Site" and have a look underneath the pictures showing the latest gallery links .... We added a number of ICT specific RSS feeds from BBC, Setanta & P&J about 8 months ago ... We also have a link on the left of the main page for NEWSFEEDS where you can find some more generic football or SPL stuff. We are happy to add any others who have a dedicated ICT feed ..... The Courier has a generic sport feed, the nationals dont tend to have a specific ict feed, and the official site has nothing .... but if you know of any that do have ICT feeds, let us know.

However, what we will do, is make things like this more apparent via the use of what we hope will be a simple and easy to use menu system, and we should also have the ability to pull some of the feeds right into the forums for discussion

Caley - Until about 3 months ago we had a "links" tab at the top of this page right next to the calendar/chat links .... We added a few sites to it, but in nearly 6 months it was hardly viewed and not a single link was submitted so we removed it ! If we come across this feature we may add it, but it wont be something we spend a lot of time on.

TCF - what you describe can go in a user profile. There will be plenty room for people to do that (or not)

Calum RnB - Think this might be something for the official site as we dont have unfettered access to those at the stadium. We did have a Q&A with Alan Savage a while back and he said he would be happy to do it again so who knows what might transpire. Its one we can keep in mind for ongoing discussions about how (if) this site can work alongside the official one ......

The feeds are useful but they can disappear quickly, and as you say, don't include the nationals as far as I understand.

I was thinking of maybe a more (semi?) permanent place where good articles, not just news feeds are collected together, so we don't miss a good interview or whatever. Somewhere, as people spot them, they can add them to the pile, and maybe let people know in the forum. Just a thought.

Something like that would involve a huge amount of time/effort to keep up to date.  Links expire and change as newspapers move stuff in to archives etc and someone would need to work daily at keeping on top of it to remove/change links to keep them up to date.  Copying articles across on a permanent basis means you start flirting with copyright issues, not to mention the server space required to store it all and the costs involved there.

The function of having the articles pulled directly on to the forum for discussion would mean that links to articles of most interest would stay around longer as they are being discussed, and in practical terms this is probably the most realistic compromise.

We're not averse to the idea of things that need a little work and effort, but we only have so many hours in the day and if users want such things then they need to volunteer some time to assist.  We have the moderators who have taken over a lot of the stuff Scotty and I used to do on the forums to free up some of our time, which is great.  Not everyone is positioned to give time, and we understand that, but if we could get even a handful of the other 1200 site members involved in writing match reports and stuff then that would be a great help, not only in easing the burden on us, but in moving the site towards becoming more community orientated. 

It annoys me on occasion that we can't get volunteers on here to write a match report as nobody seems to have the time, but I can then log on to the likes of Pie and Bovril and find that users from here have written a full page report on their feedback for the match over there within a couple of hours of the final whistle.

The door's always open for users that want to contribute more to the operation of the site, all they need to do is drop us a PM or E.Mail.  Not just writing stories or articles, but we always have things on the go that we could do with a hand on and things like our stats section are in need of constant update and entry of previous season information to bring us up to date.

I wasn't suggesting one person took it on themselves, and I do appreciate the amount of work involved. That was why I said if there was a central place for them, users could add links as they find them eg for the Herald or whatever. Many newspapers keep their archives online, so links can stay active for quite a while. I don't know if the people posting match reports on Pie and Bovril use this site, but if they do, an email to them asking them to copy them over here might get them going perhaps, so they get into the habit of posting theme here as well.