Ct Online V Official Website

[BornCaley]

Hey

just wanted to gauge some opinions on who is the better site. I rarely use the official website anymore, due to their iceberg pace in announcing ICT news

Does anyone know who runs the the official site anway, they need a kick up their a*se if you ask me.

I think CT online is a far better source of news, and even the rumour threads give me the odd gem as well

any comments

BC

Edited August 3, 2008 by RiG

[RiG]

I barely use the Official one at all. Would be handy to book tickets online but I don't find it very useful or interesting. In fact I think it is quite amateur.

[Glen Mhor]

Very rarely look at or use the official ICT site. I rely on CT Online for all the latest on what's going on at the club. The official site is just so slow and behind with news and developments - needs a revamp.

[Alex MacLeod]

I'm sure Scotty or CD will correct me if I'm wrong but I've a feeling that things put on the official site have to go through Premiumtv to get there.

Things like match reports seem to get there quick enough but news items can take a lot longer.

[Council Juice]

Always preferred this site mainly for the forum.

[RiG]

BornCaley - I hope you don't mind but I added a poll into your first post so people can also vote on this

[BornCaley]

BornCaley - I hope you don't mind but I added a poll into your first post so people can also vote on this

I did think about it after i posted...thanks

[CaleyD]

I think the official site is hindered a great deal by other factors further up the chain which prevent those who are involved in it's day to day operation from being more pro-active.

I get the impression (certainly in more recent years) that the club see the website as a necessary evil as opposed to a really useful tool for communicating with the fans and getting information out which isn't cloaked in media spin.

Alex, as I understand it the club are 100% in control of what news they put on and how long it takes them to get it on there. PremiumTV is basically a portal and a set of tools that allow the club to do that. However, the person responsible for updating the site can only do so when they have been given the story to go on, and it's the attitudes above which I believe lead to the delays.

As I understand it Fiona is responsible for doing most of the stuff and you can see what a great job she does when, as you point out, the Match Reports are added to the site very quickly after the game....I think I may have even seen instances where she's given a first half report before the games has ended, so she is, IMO, doing the best she can.

We're lucky in that we have a very active forum and although we might not get news up on the front page there's every chance that someone will have picked up on something and opened up discussion on it within minutes of the news being available.....so in effect we have 1400 or so members watching for stories and bringing them to the attention of the rest....even if the club had someone working full time on such a thing with the authority to comment and put up articles on the Official Site then they'd never manage to compete with that as they can only be in one place at one time doing one thing. Also, whilst we might talk about things good or bad, you wouldn't really expect the Official site to publish a story which isn't favourable to them...and they can't be expected to write about or release "Rumours or Speculation".

As a slight aside, we also have to look at the platform ICT, and other clubs, choose to use for their websites. Most of the SPL Official sites at the moment use PremiumTV which is basically the same idea as the setup we used when we were on SportNetwork. It's a basically a template that sites can change the colours etc on and add their logo to in order to make it look like it belongs to them, but for the most part they are all the same. PremiumTV design the template, provide the systems and operate the technical side of things and clubs pay them (a fair bit) for that service.

CaleyThistleOnline.com was the Official Site on that setup until we moved off it about 2.5 years ago. We moved off of it because not only was it not meeting our needs as a site for fans, but it wasn't meeting the needs of the club in it's "Official" capacity. It therefore came as a very strange decision that when the club decided to go it alone that they chose to jump back into the same setup that they had just got themselves out of not so long before and that the negatives being highlighted by fans are the same as the ones we were witnessing way back then.

A good, up to date website = more visitors and more vistors = more income. However, until such time as clubs (not just ICT) learn to embrace the internet and make effective use of it then they'll continue to fall short in realising it's full potential.

[MissICT]

The official site is so slow!

They don't update it!

But I sometimes go on it to see what the club are saying!

[AJS]

This site is always more up to date with regards to breaking news. I only ever use the official site for up to date interviews.

Part from that im always on this one.

[+Gringo]

This site is the dogs danglies in my opinion. The official site is browsed very occasionally but is useful for ticket info' and press releases etc.

[Scotty]

Thank you for the nice comments folks. we appreciate it.

No need to recap much as CaleyD has got it pretty spot on.

I would however like to echo what he said with regards to Fiona. She basically IS the website, adding updates, stories etc and I am sure she must get frustrated when things cannot be published in a timely fashion for whatever reason. The problem doesn't lie there, its further up the food chain and in some cases outwith the club's control.

Clubs can and will be held accountable to the SPL for official website content which is likely why Niculae stuff never got there until weeks after it had been discussed on here .... we can use "it is my understanding" or "we believe", or "it has been reported in ....." they cannot.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Thank you for the nice comments folks. we appreciate it.

No need to recap much as CaleyD has got it pretty spot on.

I would however like to echo what he said with regards to Fiona. She basically IS the website, adding updates, stories etc and I am sure she must get frustrated when things cannot be published in a timely fashion for whatever reason. The problem doesn't lie there, its further up the food chain and in some cases outwith the club's control.

Clubs can and will be held accountable to the SPL for official website content which is likely why Niculae stuff never got there until weeks after it had been discussed on here .... we can use "it is my understanding" or "we believe", or "it has been reported in ....." they cannot.

The main website is boring as you cant really get barred from it plus it is full of inaccuracies or so itappears or so I am given to believe. :thumb04:

[Guest WynessLegend]

This site is always more up to date with regards to breaking news. I only ever use the official site for up to date interviews.

Part from that im always on this one.

The Official Site had a full report on the Burnley game before we even had the score on here.

For those who say they don't like it I'd suggest paying it another visit as it has improved so much over the past 6 months or so.

[Mee]

The "Official" tag on the old site seemed to be far more hassle than it was worth

[Scotty]

The "Official" tag on the old site seemed to be far more hassle than it was worth :thumb04:

Indeed it was Mee.

For many years we tried to be everything to everyone and although that seemed to be fine for a while, in the end it just didnt work as the club got bigger and as the opinions got broader. We were either seen as censoring people (from the fan side) or for being too lenient (from certain club officials)

A few people know where my breaking point came and courtesy of a few misdirected emails I know that the same incident was the club's breaking point in terms of letting an "outsider" run the site.

Independence is a lot more cathartic and I think we have flourished when we have been in control of our own destiny

[Alex MacLeod]

In my opinion there is no versus. The ICTFC site is a club news and information site whereas CTO is a site by the fans for the fans. I've looked at many official and unofficial sites and all are much the same. I check out ICTFC every day to see whats new and I use this site for information, fun and banter.

I have come on to this site and found people asking for info that had they looked on ICTFC would have found it for themselves. I have also encountered people on here ask for info that had they looked on the opening page of this site would have found thier answer which leads me to believe that a lot of people will come straight to the forum and will likely have never explored the rest of this site.

Oh! and well done Scotty and Don on the new format and on the smooth changeover from the previous one. This is a lot better and quicker and eventually and old codger like me will have found my way around it.

[Scotty]

In my opinion there is no versus.

I totally agree with that comment, and if you speak with myself or CaleyD you will find you are preaching to the converted, but can you tell the club that as well Alex ........

How we came to split from the official site and the machinations of what went on during that time is a long and somewhat boring story best told after several beers. However, even though it does have a few twists and turns and the odd stab in the back from those you least expect, we have always been happy to help the club in whatever way we can if they need it.

We have offered help and assistance from day 1, we had a temporary official site running on a custom template for them 72 hours after the 'split' (it took 6 months+ for PTV to be up and running despite using a standard template), and we have suggested collaborating on several joint official/fan-site joint ventures yet many at the stadium, or at least those "advising" them, have kyboshed it before it starts. We are not the ones thinking its <site> V <site>

[Phill]

To be honest I really wasn't a big fan of the previous version of caleythistleonline. It has always been the forum here that keeps me coming back (although I am mostly in lurker mode!). However, couldn't read through this post without saying congrats to those responsible for the changes seen recently to the site (I've never seen Joomla! look so good!), making this a very professional and easy to use website that really does seem to be light years ahead of most other football sites.

[jamie ictfc]

i was on the dons website not long ago,there official website is run by the same people as the official caley one,yet aberdeens one has many more features.the official caley one is "dated"

[CaleyD]

We used to get far more out of our SportNetwork site than most because we did a lot of custom coding for things. If ICT employed the services of a suitably experienced IT person then they would certainly be able to get similar results.

[Scotty]

i was on the dons website not long ago,there official website is run by the same people as the official caley one,yet aberdeens one has many more features.the official caley one is "dated"

It is hosted by the same people ... the club's actually run the content and features side of things (in most cases).

I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but it is my understanding that PTV offer the clubs the basic platform for nothing more than a percentage of the advertising revenue generated. It is therefore (like we were on sportnetwork) essentially a free site. PTV also do the work of sourcing that advertising taking away any effort on the club's part. This was a big selling point for the club at the time as they are basically making money for allowing PTV to sell advertising using their name ...... That is not a criticism by the way, its pretty good in my eyes.

However, where it falls down in my eyes is that many clubs choose to use their website revenue to develop their sites and offer some of the additional features that PTV make available to clubs as 'bolt-ons' (like the audio/video or <club>TV sections) . ICT have not done that ... maybe they arent making the money they expected?

[HighlanderICT]

If ICT employed the services of a suitably experienced IT person then they would certainly be able to get similar results.

They do

[L_G]

They do

So why are they not utilising the site to it's full advantage? If this person is suitably qualified in IT we should be using their skills to generate a revenue from the site.

As people have said before, Fiona is excellent at getting info online as soon as she gets it, or match reports when she is at a game, but she can only be as good as the info she is given.