Site Suggestions and Ideas.....

[CaleyD]

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 yourname@caleythistle.com 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.

[Joonya]

A proper rogues gallery - just like the site of old.

even if it were possible for each indvidual to create their own page as to keep the workload on the moderaters to a minimum

[Scotty]

A proper rogues gallery - just like the site of old.

even if it were possible for each indvidual to create their own page as to keep the workload on the moderaters to a minimum

I believe this will be possible.  :004: - if all goes to plan, users will be able to have their own galleries pretty much within the forum, and also their own blogs within the forum which can be hosted blogs (ie from this site) or pulled in from other blogging sites.

[Alex MacLeod]

Could we change some of the users.

Back in the bygone days of div 1 and into the SPL the site was full of wit, humour and good natured banter with opposing fans coming in to have a go and join in the fun. Now it seems, there's nothing but moans about the team and players, bickering, animosity and downright rudeness towards fellow users.

Cant remember the last time an opposing fan came on for a dig. Other than HielanDee and Arab4ever, who are regulars, nobody else wants to make an appearance. And even thse two are fairly infrequent contributors now.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Could we change some of the users.

Back in the bygone days of div 1 and into the SPL the site was full of wit, humour and good natured banter with opposing fans coming in to have a go and join in the fun. Now it seems, there's nothing but moans about the team and players, bickering, animosity and downright rudeness towards fellow users.

Cant remember the last time an opposing fan came on for a dig. Other than HielanDee and Arab4ever, who are regulars, nobody else wants to make an appearance. And even thse two are fairly infrequent contributors now.

The reason that we got away fans on was becos we were bickering, showing animosity and downright rudeness - at least I was - now I fear moderation.  :blah01:

[Johnboy]

Could we change some of the users.

Back in the bygone days of div 1 and into the SPL the site was full of wit, humour and good natured banter with opposing fans coming in to have a go and join in the fun. Now it seems, there's nothing but moans about the team and players, bickering, animosity and downright rudeness towards fellow users.

Cant remember the last time an opposing fan came on for a dig. Other than HielanDee and Arab4ever, who are regulars, nobody else wants to make an appearance. And even thse two are fairly infrequent contributors now.

The only reason Arab4Ever hasn't been on here with "wit, humour and good natured banter" is that we completely stuffed his crappy DUFC on our last visit to Dundee....  :018:

Are you really missing him..?

[Guest TinCanFan]

What about bringing back the "Lets all laugh at County" page and the Who's Online thing.  Though, I do feel that anything that involves a fee of any amount, no matter how small may make some people shy away.

[Scotty]

Could we please keep this particular discussion on-topic and limited to the features of the website rather than the users of it. Myself or Don will routinely delete anything that we think is going off-topic in this thread.

Its probably going to take us 6 months or more of work to develop, test, and roll out the new or improved features and then launch the updated version of the site. It will be a lot of work for Don and myself and will also involve other people in beta-testing so we want to keep this discussion on track.

We do have have some firm ideas of what we want to include, or improve but the purpose of this thread is for users to give us feedback of the types of things they would like to see included or improved or to give a reaction to ideas we might ask about (such as the site email service mentioned above) so that we dont spend too much time (or money) developing ideas no-one will use.

[Scotty]

What about bringing back the "Lets all laugh at County" page and the Who's Online thing. Though, I do feel that anything that involves a fee of any amount, no matter how small may make some people shy away.

Laugh at County - possibly. we can give it some thought. the old one was just a static page with some dodgy images, but maybe there can be some ideas for enhancing it.

Who's Online - not sure what you mean? you can see who is online now if you look at the bottom of the front page of the forum. Anyhoo, the (proposed) new forum software also does this quite well too and will also allow you to see who else is viewing threads you are reading etc.

Fees - I agree and that is why we will never charge for access to the site, the forums or for the core features we include even though they cost us money. The advertising on the site just about covers our yearly costs for hosting, software, and suchlike.

There may however be some premium services introduced that users can choose to subscribe to (or not) and if these cost us money to setup, implement or maintain, we either need to charge for it or get a sponsor for it. The suggested email service is one such service and we are asking users so we can gauge whether there is a lot, a little, or zero interest in it.

[Guest TinCanFan]

Who's Online - not sure what you mean? you can see who is online now if you look at the bottom of the front page of the forum. Anyhoo, the (proposed) new forum software also does this quite well too and will also allow you to see who else is viewing threads you are reading etc.

It was up until just recently, it was the page where you would click on the number of people online etc and it would show what page they were on.

[Scotty]

we disabled it because it was adding extra queries to the database and had the potential to slow the site down a little. didnt think it was a crucial feature.

[RossP]

You could offer a "supporter's scheme"? Here's an example of the benefits that an aberdeen music forum uses...

If you want to help financially support this web site but also want to gain some benefits for yourself then why not become a supporter? This scheme is open to all existing members and only costs ?3 a month. Payment is automatically collected from you via a monthly PayPal subscription that can be cancelled by yourself at any time. All money collected goes straight back into this web site - it either helps pay the monthly web hosting costs or helps pay for new features and improvements to be made to the web site.

You can subscribe to this scheme by simply clicking on the Paid Subscriptions link within your Control Panel and then following the instructions displayed.

So why would you want to become an aberdeen-music supporter? Well, if you subscribe you will be automatically promoted from a Regular Member to a Supporter and this entitles you to the following extra benefits:

Increased Gallery Capacity

You can upload up to 25MB of photos to your photo gallery instead of the normal 2MB limit.

Use a Signature

You are permitted to have your own signature in your posts and private message. You can use both vB Code and link to images within it.

Increased Private Messages Capacity

You can store up to 1000 private messages rather than the usual maximum of 250 messages.

Add a Profile Picture

You can add an image to be associated with your user profile. This is similar to an avatar but can be much larger (up to 500x500 pixels and up to 100KB in size) and is displayed on your public profile page.

Access to The Lounge

You will have access to the exclusive The Lounge forum where access is restricted to aberdeen-music staff, sponsors and other supporters only.

Create Arcade Tournaments

You can create your own tournaments within the Arcade section of our web site.

No Advertisements

You will not have to see any of our advertisements on the web site when logged in as a supporter, sponsor or staff member.

Increased Avatar Size

You can upload and use an animated avatar and an avatar up to 25KB in file size. Regular Members are permitted non-animated avatars only and avatars up to 10KB in file size.

As further features and sections are added to the web site then this list of benefits will increase over time. Please note that all aberdeen-music staff and sponsors have all the benefits stated above already.

[Guest TinCanFan]

What about starting a rule of one smiley per post and what about a Caley Stadium webcam?  I'm pretty sure Hibs had one once but it might be a bit expensive.

[Yngwie]

What about starting a rule of one smiley per post

:010:        :018:

:029:

[Scotty]

What about starting a rule of one smiley per post and what about a Caley Stadium webcam?  I'm pretty sure Hibs had one once but it might be a bit expensive.

no and no. we will definitely reduce the number of smilies available but no plans to restrict their use. A webcam at the stadium would be an idea for the official site not this one although when i suggested it a few years ago there were mutterings about media rights .... guess they would have to turn it off during matches !

[RossP]

Hearts have some sort of download that automatically launches a new desktop background on your computer every day, all of course incorporating either pictures of players, tynecastle, goal celebrations, crowd etc.

That'd be pretty cool. You could charge ?3 or ?4 on an annual basis and make quite a bit i'd say...

[Scotty]

some interesting suggestions coming in ..... wouldnt say all are practical, but interesting nonetheless .... I must re-iterate though, that the plan is not to find things we have to charge people for, but to enhance and improve what we have got and only charge a premium for features whose costs cannot be absorbed by our meagre advertising income.

[RiG]

I would like to see an improved Quoting function - like the one on P & B where you can mark posts you wish to quote as you go through a thread though you might have this in the future...

I would also like to see a return of the POTY forum. I know you have the poll somewhere else on the site but I NEVER remember to use it despite being a regular on the forum. You could set up a POTY forum, 3 polls for the various points that are awarded and only allow votes - no discussion on the thread (unless you wish) so that no disagreements can come about and potentially escalate.

Some kind of improved ignore feature would be good as people who you have on ignore still have their posts shown up when someone else quotes them.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Seriously lets have a fanzine blog.

[Scotty]

I would like to see an improved Quoting function - like the one on P & B where you can mark posts you wish to quote as you go through a thread though you might have this in the future...

Improved quote capabilities WILL happen

I would also like to see a return of the POTY forum. I know you have the poll somewhere else on the site but I NEVER remember to use it despite being a regular on the forum. You could set up a POTY forum, 3 polls for the various points that are awarded and only allow votes - no discussion on the thread (unless you wish) so that no disagreements can come about and potentially escalate.

We will look into other possibilities for POTY voting, although to be fair, the current way - where we put links in the matchday thread, down the right side of the forum (if you use the little + button) and on the main site have meant we are getting a decent amount of votes cast. we will look at it but the big issue with POTY voting done the old way was the amount of time taken to collate it.

Some kind of improved ignore feature would be good as people who you have on ignore still have their posts shown up when someone else quotes them.

Unlikely to happen as even the commercial forum software can only handle ignoring the actual posts not the ignored user's quotes inside someone else's post. You shouldnt be ignoring anyone anyway ... you're a mod and should be reading everything  :004:

Seriously lets have a fanzine blog.

Any user will be able to have a blog ... including you. I believe the software we are considering can also do a "company" blog so we may also be able to have a site blog to go along with any user ones.

[Johnboy]

I'm very happy with this site in it's present form, and wouldn't wish to see it radically altered.

Some background music might not go amiss.... That could be in a kind of rolling form and open to requests....

Scottish/Highland traditional stuff would be fine with me - but anything considered - except Runrig..!!

:music03:

[Scarlet Pimple]

This site is as busy as each poster wants to make it.  Change for the sake of change is not always necessarily good.

Iam not sure that introducing many more options will improve it --it will take up much more space and maybe the site will become just too convoluted and confusing.

Current email is effective and fine for me -why get involved with Google any more than you have to ? Google is a big space drainer. If it aint broke don't fix it is a good motto always.

My main goal would be to introduce anything that will speed up access to threads and one other very useful tool that I would love to be functioning would be to click on ''new posts since you last accessed the forum" and  then be transported to the exact spot where you left off in each unread thread--thus avoiding having to troll through several pages of threads to find exactly the last post that you read in each thread so you can pick-up where you left off to contimnue reading that thread when you forget what day you were therebefore.

Now that would be a time saver  indeed, especially for those who spend a lot of time trying to read as many threads as possible. :022:

[CaleyD]

This site is as busy as each poster wants to make it.  Change for the sake of change is not always necessarily good.

It's certainly not change for changes sake....and although we would like nothing better than to put a site in place and then leave it to it's own devices it doesn't work like that.  Security upgrades, bug fixes, hardware development which needs changes in software for compatibility, operating system upgrades that need changes for compatibility...many of these things are forced upon us and if we don't keep on top of it all then the site would ground to a halt.  And that's without getting in to the minefield of recent changes in software licensing which about crippled our ability to keep things going!!!

Iam not sure that introducing many more options will improve it --it will take up much more space and maybe the site will become just too convoluted and confusing.

I totally agree...and our aim is not to keep adding stuff on aimlessly, it is to make what exists run a little slicker, to add value and where things aren't being used or aren't necessary then to take them away.  The fact is, we have far fewer extras today than we had 12 months ago!!!

Current email is effective and fine for me -why get involved with Google any more than you have to ? Google is a big space drainer. If it aint broke don't fix it is a good motto always.

It's a service we may be able to provide and that proves popular elsewhere so we are throwing it out there as an option if people want to take us up on the offer.  It would not be hosted on the same servers as the website and it would have no impact on the operation of this site whatsoever.  Many people already use Google Mail (GMail) and like it...we are offering them the chance to have an e.mail address with some relevance to something they are interested in which operates on that service.

My main goal would be to introduce anything that will speed up access to threads and one other very useful tool that I would love to be functioning would be to click on ''new posts since you last accessed the forum" and  then be transported to the exact spot where you left off in each unread thread--thus avoiding having to troll through several pages of threads to find exactly the last post that you read in each thread so you can pick-up where you left off to contimnue reading that thread when you forget what day you were there before.

Now that would be a time saver  indeed, especially for those who spend a lot of time trying to read as many threads as possible. :022:

We are installing and implementing the new software with the prime objective of squeezing a bit more speed from the servers, and you will see access to things around the site speeding up.

This forum already has the function to read all replies since your last visit.  If you can't see the link then press the little plus sign below the ICT badge in the top right corner of the screen and it will expand a window where the link can be found.  This will still be available on the new software.

That probably all sounds like a bleeding heart story...but it's not really as I enjoy the challenge - if I didn't I would have jacked it all in a long time ago.

[Heilandee]

Hows about a more comprehensive guide to Inverness with pubs etc that footy fans would use,updated with whats on type stuff,quite often see away supporters asking advice /directions etc,mebbes even get a bit advertising revenue for the site, talking of which, is there availability for local advertising on the site? costs?

[Scotty]

Hows about a more comprehensive guide to Inverness with pubs etc that footy fans would use,updated with whats on type stuff,quite often see away supporters asking advice /directions etc,mebbes even get a bit advertising revenue for the site, talking of which, is there availability for local advertising on the site? costs?

quite like that idea ..... was wondering whether a wiki format might work for that ...... as for local advertising, the answer is yes and costs are negotiable based on who it is, what it is, and whether the advertiser has some form of affiliation with the club or this site ...... if its for yourself, then give me or Don a PM and we can discuss.