Scotty

The only time I ever laughed at one of his jokes was this one Reporter:"Can I have a quick word?" GS: "Aye, velocity" Kind of underwhelmed with this, but seriously, can he do much worse than recent incumbents? Last time I was underwhelmed with the announcements of Scottish bosses was Roxburgh and Brown .... both of whom did statistically better than most !

The words simple and database dont usually exist in the same sentence ..... Wikipedia is simple right ? well it is for the end user at least, they simply go in add the info maybe add a few square brackets with stuff inside to denote keywords or codes to format the stuff and hey presto .... the reason it is simple for the user is that the poor sod in the background has had to make it easier for them by spending hours adding code for that simple stuff ! As mentioned, over and above the stats program, we do also have a database capability within our content system and although not as 'sexy' as setting up a fully fledged wiki using the same software as wikipedia, it can do everything asked so far including allowing users to add/edit entries if they have the right permissions ... we just havent used it for that yet. (see talkchelsea.net for a super duper example) If someone wants to add a few 'test' entries into the forums, I can use them as the basis for testing on both the wikipedia style program and also our own one to see if there is a system that can be easy for all concerned. I still have fears it will be something that burns bright for a while then fades away though ... I know from experience that one person, even a keen one like RIVAL, cannot do it alone .... look how many people it takes to keep this site running smoothly !

ok. I did a little digging, and some testing ....... Installing mediawiki = no problem (10 minutes) Setting it up (just default, with no extensions or formatting templates) = no big deal (20 minutes) Creating Categories and a couple of basic pages = no big deal once I did a bit of reading (30 mins) BUT picking a random profile of a former ICT player from wikipedia (Ross Tokely) and then copying it over and installing all the required extensions, formatting templates and other bits and pieces required to produce a page similar to wikipedia player profiles was a feckin monster. It took 5 hours and required about 350+ different pieces of code to be inserted as templates, extensions, or snippets so that it recognised all the formatting, shortcodes and other stuff ...... I was surprised as I thought a lot of that was built into the program itself. It wont take 5 hours per player obviously as these templates and code snippets were (hopefully) one-time deals, but when you get to club details, squad lists, season summaries, nationalities, appearances etc etc etc then there are probably several hundred more bits of code involved as the formatting and layouts are different. I agree with CaleyD, this would be a great idea, but the setup and code preparation is likely to take hundreds of man hours and I am not prepared to put that in without an extremely significant undertaking from a group of people to populate it and maintain it. In the meantime, I would suggest the creation of a separate forum "ICT WIKI" perhaps and those interested in participating can submit articles as posts to that forum and if it looks like it will be well supported we can look to scaling that to a proper wiki ......... either via media wiki or as a database within our existing ip.content program.

2002 ... the exif info on my pic of the headline says it was taken on 27/04/2002 and that would have been a week or two (perhaps longer) after the article.

and that - from experience - tends to be the main problem. Getting it setup, and the first flush of data entry is a breeze because it is "interesting", but after you get a year or two entered, or maybe 30 or 40 players of the near 200 who have played for ICT then the enthusiasm wears off and it becomes repetitive, boring and a chore, especially for those players whose info you have to go searching for ..... I know this to be the case as thats why myself and CaleyD have taken so long with our own stats section and we have the benefit of Ian Broadfoot's stuff, as well as access to Bryan Munro's articles, and various photographers work. On the plus side, the info for any player who already has a wikipedia entry could be imported without any copyright issues as its a creative commons license. not sure how that is achieved, be it a cut and paste or an import script, but happy to take a look into it and maybe even setup a trial wiki if we get a few takers.

thats one of the alternatives I was thinking of ..... we do have the ability to get it up and running, and it seems 'Rival' is up for it, but will there be enough help ? Like I said, we have the stats minisite already, and we made several requests for help with that but none was forthcoming, hence the reason it is both incomplete and utilises the biographies supplied by the club programme editor.

We already have something similar to a wiki in our stats program: http://stats.caleythistleonline.com/ These are also picked up by the official site for use on ictfc.com as well as on here so get a wider audience than just one site. Although we have all the info available for every ICT game, data-entry has been the issue and the info in the program itself is not complete so there is plenty of scope for user driven content, or for volunteers to complete the data-entry. Alternatively - and this is something myself and CaleyD have discussed previously - we could add a Caley Thistle wiki to the site separately if the idea is to have a more irreverent set of listings, or for it to cover more than just players, matches and results. For the wiki idea, there are a couple of alternatives. The main program we use here for our content does have a database facility that some sites have used for wiki style content. registered users can add content and it can be made available to all. http://talkchelsea.net is probably about the best example of it in action. the other alternative is to use a separate wiki installation using the same software as wikipedia and locate it on a subdomain like wiki.caleythistleonline.com which can be pulled into the site on pages the same way as we do with the stats. We are definitely in favour of the idea, but lets hear more from volunteers or those who would commit to adding the info .......

County also have Canadian international defender Andre Hainault (26) on trial too .... He has 32 caps for Canada and currently plays for Houston Dynamo. He earns about £2000 a week but rumblings are that he wants to put himself in the shop window for a move to Europe ....... I am guessing that Dingwall will be a bit of a culture shock for him ... although he did play for a 2nd division Czech team before playing 2 games for Sparta Prague then moving to MLS with Houston.

I read this story yesterday and for research purposes only, actually went to the "club website" linked to in the article after reading this line mmm, ever heard of the SPL Mr Green .... that league where you played the same teams every year and structured it so you could even play the same team at least 4 times a year whilst, by virtue of your duopoly with Celtic, maintaining a stranglehold on both the finances of that league and also its voting power, not to mention finding ways to try and make sure it was difficult for the smaller teams to actually get in ..... there were a couple more belters on the site ..... Source: http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/3095-madness-to-snub-gers Can you say paranoia ? Do you want your ball back now ?

I wholeheartedly applaud Terry Butcher for deciding to stay with our club. I dont really care that it was a "hard decision" to turn down Barnsley, they likely offered a large salary increase compared to what we can offer, as well as a bigger transfer budget, and an opportunity to put himself in the shop window for what may be his ultimate goal of managing in the English Premiership. Nor do I really care whether there is any truth in the rumours that he wanted to go and either Mo or Marsella didnt so they all stayed. They are a team and that team displayed collective loyalty to each other and to the club. The bottom line is that TB is still ICT manager this morning, and the amount of positive press it has brought our club, and the pride in the club it has likely brought us all is immeasurable. I witnessed fans of many other clubs, including Celtic fans who probably loathe him from his time at Ibrox, posting on social media about how happy they were for ICT and for Scottish football that he decided to stay, and thats before you even head off to the BBC or to other news media outlets for a blast of ICT news .... If Terry can navigate us to a top 6 finish or maintain our current position and bring European football to the Highlands in time for our 20th birthday, secure the likes of Shinnie and others on longer contracts, and maybe even get us to the League Cup final (and/or a decent run in the Scottish Cup) then Barry Wilson is correct in the article linked to above ... he will be a club legend ... in fact, if he brings Euro football to the club, he wont be a legend, he will inherit the title of the immortal one from Johndo !!!!

Remind me why it matters ?

Page 26 ...... I guess the page 25 thing was a Mayan prediction !

now get Andy Shinnie signed up and it will be a great week

He is staying

They had to go by train ... the bus was full of a vast majority of refuseniks !

Paul Mariner is available !!! Just sacked by Toronto FC and replaced with Ryan Nelsen of QPR ... who will continue to play for QPR until he is allowed to leave or until June (whichever comes first) ... He will presumably manage TFC for the first 3 months of the MLS season over Skype ... which tells you how highly the new TFC Club President rated Mariner !!

No negative reaction to that to be honest .... there's been some slagging of Barnsley in this thread and he is coming on defending his team, just like we would do (and have done) on other forums in the past ......

Its the semi-annual merger threads The only unanswered question I have about the merger is which team IHE supported before Caley? Obviously he is Immortal and therefore born before football was even invented ........

I stand corrected ... it does seem like their away strip is currently red/blue stripes. I guess they always did want to be Caley Thistle ! Thursday 5th July 2012 Elgin City have launched a new away strip that has left their fans scratching their heads as it looks like the first choice strip of Highland rivals Inverness Caledonian Thistle. The Borough Briggs side’s second choice outfit has been light blue over recent seasons however it is now a red and blue striped effort that is a dead ringer for Terry Butcher’s side although the club insist it is more of a Barcelona design. http://www.scottishfootballleague.com/news/article/elgin-launch-new-away-kit/ However, traditionally they are known to play in black/white stripes and I think the identity of most teams is their home kit, not their away ones ...... just look back at some of the dodgy kits from any other SPL side or even that orange effort from ICT and try telling any fan that this is their identity !!!

Signs you know you are a long time ICT supporter ...... You just read through the 10 pages of the latest merger debate and are sure you read the exact same posts last year and the year before and the year before and the year before

This I agree with ...... I would agree that 'some' travelling on these buses may have been former Caley or Thistle fans but not "the vast majority". The simple fact of the matter is that there were buses going up and down the A9 while Telford St and Kingsmills Park were hosting Highland League football. I went to school with a fair few who were always fans of Celtic/Rangers or other clubs and who occasionally went to local football if they were skint or their big team were not playing that week. As I got older, I also socialised with a number of the same folk as well as others who did the same so it didnt start when Caley and Thistle merged, it merely continued ... but I will agree again, there may be some who formerly went to Telford St or Kingsmills who decided to jump on the bus in much the same manner as there are some who only started following ICT when they came into existence and had no allegiance to either of the pre-merger teams. I personally know of at least two on opposite sides of the world now so its not restricted to the central belt ! Having said that, we all know that many Inverness football supporters (regardless of allegiance) supported one of the two merger partners and also had a "big" team ... It stands to reason that moving closer to the home ground of their big team in the central belt would make it easier to go there than it would to the TCS ..... The bottom line for me is that Caley and Thistle ceased to exist. Some - like AD/Kavs etc - saw that as "the end" and made a personal choice not to have anything to do with the new club. I can respect that, and even sympathise with some of the venom that was spewed ... I (and this website) would likely be the same if it were suggested that ICT merge with County to form "Highlanders FC" or something like that. However, others (and I include myself in that) saw it as a "new beginning" and I would hope that the 'refuseniks' or at least some of them could respect that choice too. I know that some did as I had that conversation with more than one of them ..... and on more than one occasion. I was not a 'rebel', nor did I become a season ticket holder to vote in the merger debates. The reason for this was because my work schedule meant I typically worked 3 Saturdays out of every 5 and I was at best only a semi-regular at Telford Street so did not feel any entitlement to decide on the path to be taken. That work schedule changed around the time of the merger so when CT were formed, I was able to become a permanent fixture at home games and even got to quite a few away grounds ... I immediately dropped my allegiance to my "big" team and will be "ICT til I die" regardless of my geographic location. These merger debates that crop up every so often are usually pretty tiresome and we could basically regurgitate the ones from previous years and see the same responses, but one thing I have noticed over the last couple of debates is that there are more voices in the discussion who have little or no knowledge of the pre-merger teams. We have a fair number of ICT fans who are 18 or under and whilst us older folk have the merger and our opinions about it firmly entrenched, these young supporters dont have the same baggage as they were not even born at the time ! For them, our history is going from D3 to SPL in 10 years, it is beating Celtic at Parkhead and the ballistic headline, it is beating Hearts at Tynie a couple of years later, it is gaining promotion to the SPL at the end of the 2003/4 season, it is playing at Pittodrie as a home venue, it is our only relegation season and the bounceback, it is Pele, Robbo and Butcher, it is everything else that is mentioned in the other thread about what it is to be an ICT supporter ...... I will end with one final thought ...... I dont know what would have happened had Caley and Thistle applied separately to the league, no-one does. I can theorise, and that theory would see both teams flitting between D2 and D1 and having the odd cup run that ultimately ended in failure maybe around the QF mark, with the SPL and national finals a lofty but ultimately unachievable goal. However, one thing I do know for a fact is that Inverness Caledonian Thistle are on the world map. I talk to people all the time at Toronto games and huge numbers of them are quite knowledgeable about the world game. Most follow EPL or La Liga as opposed to SPL, but even those who only follow English teams have normally heard of ICT, know at least something about the club (even if only the ballistic headline) and have certainly heard of Terry Butcher ... if we had not taken that giant leap back in 93, then I firmly believe Caledonian FC and Inverness Thistle would have merely been seen as one of these "novelty" names that appeared every so often in the Scottish cup ..... a bit like when someone asked me "who or what are a Clackna-something-or-other"

Name them. Would you know them all? you must be the Electoral roll? I dont believe there are still 100s (if there were ever quite that many) ...... There may have been a fair sized group in 93/94 and beyond, but some have decided to follow ICT, for some life changes happened and football would no longer be in their weekly plans anyway, some are no longer with us on this planet, and still others have moved to the other side of various oceans ...... There may be 'dozens' around in total, but once you consider only those in Inverness or still attending football (at other grounds) then I would suggest the number is in single figures !

Elgin dont play in red/blue stripes ......