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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Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Thomas W-P »

zootMutant pointed out that the menus had disappeared from the part of the web site under the "Home" link. This may date back to an update I did a week or so ago. Thanks to his prompting and a few emails and PMs back and forth the site is now running fine again. Whilst looking at the problem I got downhearted about fixing it (though in the end it was a very quick and easy job - always the way once you work it out, but the working out takes time) and thought about starting from scratch, copying everything over manually.

But this got me thinking...

How better could we use a "content" part of the site? If we do, should it look the same? Should we make more of it by putting the reports on events like Madchester/CRASH-B actually in to that format so people can comment on it (like a BBC news story). Should we just have a forum and nothing else?

I am open to suggestions, ideas, discussion. I will "global" this thread for a while because I would like some views.

9th October 2012
I have been having a play with the "warm up" site.
Have a look at: http://warmup.freespiritsrowing.com/

Comment in this thread (or on the "News" part of that site). I am sure there will be loads of problems so post here. As people log in I can give them "author" rights so they can add stories.

14th October 2012
I think I have fixed the "visual integration" of the forum with the Wordpress bits, and certainly learned a lot about doing it another time.
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Re: The (not forum) part of the web site

Post by Thomas W-P »

For what it is worth, I would love to have better integration between forum and content. I would like the look and feel to be similar but found that very difficult to achieve when I worked at it a couple of years ago.

I know that the forum works well for us, but I think a story published **as a story** in a content part of the web site with comments below it sounds nice. Better somehow. It would take a bit of work to get there though.
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Re: The (not forum) part of the web site

Post by AlanS »

My opinion, I would love the team to have what you just outlined above, Thomas. However, it would be a lot of work to put such a site together, and then a lot of work to maintain it, to keep it updated and fresh. Would it be left to a handful of individuals to produce content? Probably. Would they eventually get tired of being the only ones doing it? Probably.

Unfortunately, I know all about this, as I used to run a sim-racing team and maintained a website and forum. The forum was an active, lively place, and all team members posted there regularly. I spent a lot of time on the website, though, but it always felt as if it was for my own benefit and that no-one else really looked at it. Even when I created a webform where members could submit their own news stories, it was still only myself that used it. Eventually I killed the website, and no-one was bothered in the slightest when I did so.

So for that reason I say we just leave things alone. I'm almost tempted to say let's just have a forum, but I wouldn't want to get rid of all content, such as the meter board and the kit page.

On a different but somewhat related note, I would be willing to try and get the special C2 challenge icons working on the meter board again if someone could provide me with access to the code, etc.
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Re: The (not forum) part of the web site

Post by plummy »

I think the Website/Forum needs a refresh of some sort. Many of the tabs at the top aren't relevant any more (PPL/Newsletter etc) and I think it would be great to have some of the historical reports/threads much easier to find. I don't think many would disagree that Scoops posts should be kept in an "easy to find" place as they are superbly entertaining and hugely useful to anyone considering going in future.

There's a huge pile of historical pictures and video out there that could be corrolated and grouped into events for future reference/referral and there must be a better way than the current "3 uploads at a time" method and then bury them in a thread.

Also - how do we get more contributors? There are 369 people currently registered on the meterboard and I bet there's only 30~40 ever type anything here. That's only 10% of the "membership". I fully appreciate that many may feel they don't have anything to say/offer but everyone is welcome here, even if just to say hi every now and again and relay some news of training or chip in with a joke - whatever. This may be off topic but I'm just trying to think of ways to get the whole thing a tad more inclusive.

I certainly don't think we should have a forum only.
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Re: The (not forum) part of the web site

Post by Mike Channin »

The site probably does need a quick refresh to clean up the links etc.

I (personally) think that there is value in generating articles that condense out the wisdom from the forum into a more accessible form. (There is a lot of good information in there, but forums are never the easiest place to find the gems in).

I agree with Alan that there may be an issue with getting enough content articles produced, and there may even be a lack of interest once it is done, but on the other hand people seem to be pretty passionate about their rowing, and the team, and I'm sure there would be enough interest (both from content producers and content consumers) to justify at least making an effort.

We're also in danger of losing some of the history of the team already - when I came back after 5 years away, it was quite hard to see what the team had been up to as the info was all buried in long obselete threads in the forum. The team and its members have achieved a huge amount, and it would be a shame not to preserve some of that for the future...

So I for one will volunteer to condense and write up some stuff about rowing and training, and maybe the race reports and yearbooks too. I'd also do a blog on here, provided it was team member access only. So the next question is 'what are the Content Management facilities like?' and 'what other functionality do we have available? (Blogs, Image Galleries, etc.)?'

One other thing that we may be able to do to get a bit more participation is to run internal challenges/competitions (especially some lighter hearted ones) and maybe to run some kind of virtual training buddy system (to get team members to buddy-up and help motivate each other)
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Re: The (not forum) part of the web site

Post by Mike Channin »

Oh, and I think we should probably write up our profiles in a more article based way too. I did like the Hall of Fame thread, but ideally that sort of thing should be done in an article format too. Maybe also, the new members info.
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Re: The (not forum) part of the web site

Post by billwright »

Mike Channin wrote: .......(There is a lot of good information in there, but forums are never the easiest place to find the gems in).............it was quite hard to see what the team had been up to as the info was all buried in long obselete threads in the forum.
Spot on. For example when new team members express and interest in the Wolverine Plan, Pete Plan, Interactive Plan & etc we inevitably send them to the C2 Forum via links. Maybe we have some sort of reference area that is only explaining the basics of a plan (PP/WP/IP) and links in that section. Thereby keeping the activities for those plans as they are.

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Re: The (not forum) part of the web site

Post by Thomas W-P »

Mike Channin wrote:One other thing that we may be able to do to get a bit more participation is to run internal challenges/competitions (especially some lighter hearted ones) and maybe to run some kind of virtual training buddy system (to get team members to buddy-up and help motivate each other)
I was pondering this whilst warming down the other day. A "how many strokes can you match your watts to your heart rate" thing. Remember them? I was wondering about doing a special "crazy challenges" forum.

And I also agree about the great history being a bit buried. And accept your offer of help. I think that there is a lot of scope for improvement. I think the current CMS can do what we want, but the challenge is integration so that your forum ID allows you to post comments. I don't want to have people needing two logins. Madness.
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Re: The (not forum) part of the web site

Post by webberg »

I would simplify a lot.

Any topic with no post in the past 12 months I would archive/remove.

I would also ask other rowing teams if we could have a mutual link as I suspect the sub 7 team forum might be interesting and allow for a cross pollination of ideas and themes. Equally the views and attitudes of the bigger teams (in terms of members) would be interesting.

The blog section could be advanced. I think I'd like to do that but I'm intimidated by the technology.

We should also poll the team for those with suitable IT skills and willing to share the burden.

Any decent film script has several writers as it makes for pace variation and interest. We could learn from that.

By the way - great job Thomas
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Re: The (not forum) part of the web site

Post by Thomas W-P »

I think the old posts have value in many cases. They naturally fall off the front page, so I don't think it is worth the risk of casting aside the diamond in the dust.

Yes, a team of techies would be a good idea, but, as Alan said, it is continued effort that counts. Over the years I have had offers of help and asked people at times, but for whatever reason in most cases this ebbs away (I include myself in this, though I never truly, fully disappeareed...). There are notable exceptions!

I'd love an expert in Joomla or something similar to offer their help on the CMS side. I think zootMutant will in a few months, but it is making this stick that is hard. We all have busy lives.
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Re: The (not forum) part of the web site

Post by Grobi »

Many good ideas mentioned so far. I'd like to add that we could fix Plummy's lifetime meter table somewhere on the website?
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Re: The (not forum) part of the web site - updated Oct 9th 2

Post by Thomas W-P »

Just a post to bump this - please look at the OP (Opening Post) for latest updates.
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Re: The (not forum) part of the web site - updated Oct 9th 2

Post by Mike Channin »

In case that isn't clear, Thomas has put a link to a 'warm-up' site on the original first post at the top, which is a demonstration version of a potential new look for the site (I think, correct me if I'm wrong, Thomas).
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Re: The (not forum) part of the web site - updated Oct 9th 2

Post by Thomas W-P »

That is true! Progress today - I like the look (if a bit grey) and the forum needs work, but it is coming along. Wordpress is amazing.

http://warmup.freespiritsrowing.com/
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Mike Channin »

Great stuff Thomas - what would you like me to do?
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Thomas W-P »

Try posting some comments there - you'll need to log in but it should be identical to your FS password (unless you changed it in the last couple of weeks). Once you have done that I will enable you as an editor and you can see what happens when you add a news item.

Hopefully we can get familiar with it before cutting over - this format (Wordpress is AMAZING - not sure I had mentioned that) - should allow us to have our cake and eat it. Forum integration, static pages, news pages that can be commented on...

We'll just need a team of volunteers copying and pasting over the historic forum articles. I know "leave well alone" won the vote, but it was only 6 votes and Wordpress is (I may have mentioned this) amazingly flexible.
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Thomas W-P »

I can see that some people have logged in, and have made Grobi, Colinbradley and Mikkel all "authors" so you should be able to add test articles to the site under the news tab now.

Anyone else please try to comment on news items.
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Thomas W-P »

Anyone tried to comment?!
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Doc RowSlo »

Thomas W-P wrote:Anyone tried to comment?!
First impressions are very good. I like the resurrection of the blogs and the potential for archives of one sort or another.

I made a comment, which is now "awaiting moderation" FWIW

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

Post by Grobi »

I also left a comment there, but it doesn't appear under "recent comments"? I'm also missing the "Utilities"-tab? Or is it just me?
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Thomas W-P »

Your first comment has to be moderated, so I've approved the ones that you have made. Please try to comment again and we'll see how that goes. Thanks.

I'm working on visual integration at the moment....
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Grobi »

I commented again and it's working now.
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Thomas W-P »

Grobi wrote:I commented again and it's working now.
Yes, I'd not approved your first comment, but now you are good to go. :)
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by Thomas W-P »

I think I have got the visual integration working now, so that it will be (relatively!!) quick to keep the forum looking the same as the Wordpress part of the site. For geeks like me, I have been having fun and games getting it to validate with xhtml strict

See link in my signature to give it a whirl.

In case people are worried, it will be the same exact forum except for a different header (I think the fourth header the forum will have had in 6 years, which is not too bad.)

N.B. I have not yet managed to (satisfactorily) get the target text in to the header, but it *will* look nice in the end).
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Re: Future direction of web site - updated Oct 9th 2012

Post by slwiser »

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.
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