Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Where should the web site go - what should we do? Who has the time between rows?

Moderator: The forum police - (nee naw)

Which ideas do you think best? (Tick as many as you like)

Get rid of the content, just be a forum web site
1
6%
Encourage people to post their news stories in the "content" pages for comments (like many blogs, the BBC etc.)
4
25%
Leave well alone
5
31%
Huh? I didn't know there was anything beyond the forum?
3
19%
I am eager to devote my great web expertise and ample spare time to doing something amazing with the site (contact Thomas W-P by PM!)
1
6%
I have a brilliant idea that I will share below
2
13%
 
Total votes: 16

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Huw Thomas
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Huw Thomas »

Few thoughts:

Website Refresh is good although wouldn't want to loose the meter board :-(

Blogs tend to be already done on the c2.uk website so no need to duplicate IMHO

Forum and news articles and some historical and/or event articles would be really good to have greater prominence ..anything which enhances the team spirit =D> =D>
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Thomas W-P
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Thomas W-P »

I'm not planning to host blogs for that exact reason.

Meterboard as link will of course be part of it. The menu is very sparse at the moment.

It is all about making news more accessible rather than buried in the forum.
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Thomas W-P
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Thomas W-P »

slwiser wrote:I find it interesting that there are two polls (one for each site) one with one vote and the other with several. This suggests that the real answer is that most do not even know about a second site, I didn't.
That is a tough one. I had this thread as a global announcement for a few days, but hardly anyone noticed it. I then moved it to being a normal thread, now it is sticky. I suspect that of the few hundred members few spend much time (if any) in the forum anyway. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions sensible means of advertising the presence of the proposed site to existing members, but I suspect one day they will log in an "bang" it will be there. I may cut over to the new template soon just to see what happens ;) :twisted: At the moment, the only meaningful change is that the forum will not spread to the full width of the page, which in these days of tiny screens (phones) and giant monitors is probably a good design decision.

I honestly think that many people hardly visit the main site at all and for them Free Spirits *is* the forum, so I am keen to leave it virtually untouched. But I also think that we do a lot of stuff that is hidden away in the forum. Using the News functionality of WordPress should allow us to make it more obvious. I am hoping that there will be some volunteers to help add news stuff from deep in the forum. I found one from Madchester that I put up as an example.

N.B. The data on the "warmup" forum is now live - it is hitting the same database - there are some minor formatting issues but it is usable.
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Thomas W-P
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Thomas W-P »

Locking this - please use the "Free Spirits needs YOU" thread.
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Locked