LG - was checking messages etc when having breakfast - up at 5:30am most mornings as I have to leave for work at 7am :010: :007:
As i briefly mentioned above - I would have liked them to perhaps have mentioned a few salient points in the article regarding this site, but at least what they did mention was - for the most part - correct
MY COMMENTS ON THE ARTICLE
I have been running an ICT site since July 1994 so thats 12 years, and I moved to Toronto on 15th May 2003 so thats a little over 3 years. I would also have liked them to perhaps have used the expression "existing site at caleythistleonline.com, which will still continue to operate as an authorised but unofficial fan site" instead of saying "previous"
Totally true. The club were often unhappy about some of the content on the boards, and although they only rarely actually asked for specific postings to be removed, this was because we had already removed some of the worst comments.
True. It was inevitable that the 'split' would happen, it was only a question of when. I think the club were actually quite surprised when I readily agreed to it, and equally surprised that myself and CaleyD offered assistance to them 'without strings'. We put the cherry on top of the cake by giving them a temporary site and temporary club shop while the PTV site was being developed and are happy to continue working with them if they need assistance in the future. At the end of the day we are all ICT fans and if we can help the club we will.
The only disappointment we have over the new official site is that the club chose to go with PTV. We could have designed a very similar site that the club could have run from the stadium and which would have allowed them to keep all revenues instead of sharing them with a 'partner'. However, the tie-up with PTV will give them access to some commercial features we could not have hoped to match. The new site will have SMS messaging and various commercial advertising as well as hopefully, somewhere down the line getting access to live audio and video of games (via subscription). I personally look forward to paying for some of these new features when they become available.
I dont know what their internal communication is like, but the club's external communication has been going downhill for years. I am delighted that the Chief Exec has seen this as a very important area that needs to be addressed (and - to be fair to him - he did say this to me in a few phonecalls as well). I would have liked to see them mention in here that it was myself and CaleyD who designed, produced and hosted the temporary official site for the club (as well as the shop) in the full knowledge that it was only going to be used for a few months until PTV site was ready. This makes it sound as if they did it themselves.
would it have been so difficult to say. The CaleyThistleOnline.com site still operates as a 'fan site at www.......' ?
With an attitude like that she will succeed. I come across many people who think they know it all about how much work or effort it takes to run a site, but if Fiona remembers that she is 'always learning' then she will always succeed. I also hope that she is not too stubborn to consider asking for advice privately from myself or CaleyD if she thinks we can help answer a particular question for her. As fans of the club we will be happy to help as we have already indicated.
MY COMMENTS ON LG's POST
To be fair - it should be !! - The club are FINALLY going in the right direction as far as online presence/content is concerned. I am under no illusion that what I provided them with over the years was far from perfect but then again, I wasnt working on it full time, nor was I getting paid for it so they definitely got value for (no) money :015: :015: :015: They do have a link to this site in their menu and I would hope that (sometime in the future) they might consider adding links in the odd (big) story to direct users to 'talk about it in the message boards'.
Yup. The ONLY time that communication was excellent was when Kenny Cameron, Ken Thomson, Debbie Ross and Les Kidger were liaising with me and the driving force behind that was Kenny who introduced features like the Boardroom Banter series of articles. Kenny was also responsible for getting the ball rolling with a club shop and trying to see if he could get the site developed a little more commercially. The other good thing about Kenny's contribution was that in all my dealings with him his primary concerm seemed to be to get good and accurate information across to the fans in a timely fashion which is what we all wanted.
At the end of the day, a few people didnt view the site like that. Some seemed scared of 'new technology', some felt I was trying to 'gain power', some were critical that fans 'just wanted to moan' but only a few realised that this new technology was a medium where the club could get their point across to a 'media outlet' that is intrinsically biased in the club's favour ... unlike the press !!!
Although the last two years have been a nightmare trying to get information out of the club for their own official site (as quite a few know), I am happy to see that Mike Smith has given Fiona the task of working on the new site full time and Fiona seems to be getting content up very regularly at the moment.
Thats the aim. I have been very open to the idea of a separate official site for at least the last two years. many fans told me that the message boards on the official site were too restrictive/censored and the club on the other hand used to wince at some of the comments fearing it might get them in trouble, or that some of the fan 'opinions' were too critical. This was a very uncomfortable position for me in running the site as it was a delicate balancing act and to be honest, I am happy that we now have what amounts to an authorised 'fan site' that will work in tandem with the club's own official site. It means that the fans can have their say and that these opinions do not need to be sanitised or censored (so long as they are within acceptable limits as per our TOS and Site Guidelines) and the club can distance themselves from any comments as its not on an official site.
We will be happy to promote the club's initiatives in making the official site a success - such as promoting their commercial services or directing fans there for services that we will not be providing ... we would hope that once they realise that both sites can work in tandem that they will show some reciprocity. We have also offered the club our assistance should it be required - advice, help, information regarding web design etc
... sorry this has been a bit of a marathon posting, but after 12 years doing this site in various incarnations, I wanted to add my tuppence worth on a subject I think I know a fair bit about !!!
