I'm really fearful that the club won't be able to wean itself from the Telstra money. If the club is making big money from Telstra, they're probably going to laugh at anyone who comes along and suggests going it alone once the contract is up. They'd be looking at going from significant income, to a significant expensive (with little to no direct income).

I believe the benefits of putting together a quality website would far outweigh the costs, but I'm not the one that's been responsible for multi-million dollar losses over the past few years. Without someone who really understands what can be achieved, and the benefits it can bring, I just can't see the club foregoing that short term income.

The fan contributed material is about the only thing the current website has going for it in my opinion. The membership/shopping section is poor. I tried to re-new my membership, and ended up going round in a circle a couple of times, always ending up at the page I'd started at, with no idea how to get where I wanted to.

There is so much going on at the football club, but the website can have no new Carlton content for days at a time. We have these new recruits coming in, with all these great angles for stories/photos/videos/whatever, but next to nothing comes from within the club. The fan reports are great, but they're really outsiders reporting on the club. People want to know what's going on inside the club, they want to feel involved, but the club just doens't seem that interested.

Training reports are an example, nothing comes out of the club regarding training. They're one of the most popular things on this website (4000 views for some days). They keep the supporters interested over the off-season, involved in the club etc, yet nothing. Another example is during the season. Injury/fitness reports come to us through the newspapers/tv, why not directly from the club (subject to all the games they like to play with other clubs etc)? Why not create a direct link between the supporter and the club?

GWS is correct, Carltonfc.com.au should be the first place to go for carlton information. It should be the main connection between supporter and club. But it isn't. The current website is almost like a little online newspaper, without a real connection to the club. The content is mostly written from an outsiders point of view. There's nothing wrong with this content, but it should be a part of the overall package. There should be the latest day to day stuff from the club, much more involvement from players/staff/officals/executives, there should be a proper membership section, etc. In the longer term, there should be pay-per-view of all Carlton games (new and old), a webcam showing the OO turf so people can check in at any time and see what's going on. There is just so much potential, and I'm worried that the club isn't going to take advantage of it.

Excellent idea. The weekly program that is on SEN I think? Would be perfect for a podcast. I always miss that show. It could be downloaded at any time.

http://carltonfc.com.au/default.asp?pg= ... eid=240726

McLAren's official first training session....
Article with and interview and some audio...
I've been looking for it since about 11:30

The Club's getting the message....

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“Every single element of the Club has to be the best in the league, meticulously and methodically, and only by doing this will we be elite and challenge for number 17.”
Greg Lee

To be fair, the coverage the Club has got the last month has been exceptional. Lots of media to training, lots of Age and HS articles in addition to a whole heap of Sportal articles (of which this is one).

Don't doubt the Club has clear intent on the media side, and the effort they are going to, and the improvement 2005 has been over 2004 (Note the player profiles, a lot of you were howling the Club down last year and they were exceptional this year).. The question to me is resourcing and how much more they can do.

Anyway, Steve, Bombs Away, the Club has this thread and the note

The club has been very good about placing the new profiles on the site and even better taking down traitorous individuals!.

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"The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, and the young know everything." Oscar Wilde

Absolutely - this comes back to what I was saying about the strength of communities. If you have a community based on a hierachy the pool of ideas is minute by its very nature. When you share ownership of a resource you open that pool to so many resources it's not funny.

I'm one idiot sitting on the end of a computer. KK you're another. Jarusa's another. No matter how smart any one of us are there's no way that any one of us could ever come up with 1% of the potential functions for a true online CFC hub let alone provide the resources to implement them. The strength is in the diversity of the ideas.

The Blueseum is great but last time I looked only four people had contributed. To some this might be an argument for the idea of a CFC being doomed to failure. I don't believe this is the case. The incentive to contribute to a central CFC site of the ilk we're discussing is way stronger than any one fan site which may or may not survive. I don't doubt Jarusa will follow through on the Blueseum but the authority and continuity inherent in the "official" site means people are much more confident that there work will be lasting and not trashed 6 weeks down the track when there's not enough interest shown.




As Jarusa mentioned earlier I doubt Telstra will be offering anything like what they did last time. It's just as possible they and others will be charging for their hosting and content services.

If they want to front up with 3-4 million a year then I'd say take it but a properly run site should be generating that yearly via the various intangibles it would promote. Essendon* understand this and use the various media channels to grow their supporter base better than most. You don't have to extract income directly from a source in order to gain revenue. Every time Sheeds sticks his head on the box the exposure and the membership dollars are strengthened.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Hey, speak for yourself.











I'm an idiot sitting on the end of a Mac.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

[quote="GWS"]I'm one idiot sitting on the end of a computer.


So many responses, so little time.

_________________
"The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, and the young know everything." Oscar Wilde

Let me help you...



"...and I'm another!"

_________________
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Our club site should take a leaf out of the quality that one of the NFL team sites has, the Seattle Seahawks

http://www.seahawks.com/Default.aspx

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For some silly reason, you people want to assassinate him, and it's just rubbish. You people. All of you, ALL of you!

The truth always makes me laugh.

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"The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, and the young know everything." Oscar Wilde

There's nothing about that site which is particularly special.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

I agree KK.

It's basically cfc.com with a few more resources which comes from having a bigger pool of supporters.

What I'm advocating is a total change in the way these sites run. Essentially they need to be supporter driven rather than top down broadcasts.

The SeaHawks site covers most of the obvious basics (video, etc) but it still misses the point; it's still saccharine fluff that lacks any imagination and the content is basically what you'd expect from a corporation.

Obviously it's a step up from cfc.com but they're both of a type. No sign of a community just a bunch of jocks telling you what you already know.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Done............

put me down for stuff...............!


kindest regards tommi





if there's one thing i can do............it's stuff........!

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that'siti'mnotchangingthistagain......!

Any response yet?

This is too big an issue to let it slide onto the second page - keep all eyes on the screen (page 1) to make sure something comes of this.

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Formerly: Ackland the Wonderkid / Army the Wonderkid / quivering mess / molsey / Tony Lynn Fan Club

Fair go buddy - when I hear back from the Club I'll pass it on.

Incidentally, where were you when the Club put out it's requests for assistance late last year?

I've written a couple of rants in this thread, that perhaps had some good ideas, but were probably clouded by my frustrations, so I'm going to put down my thoughts in a constructive manner that hopefully someone can pass on to the club.

I'm a little tired of pounding away at the keyboard today (coincidentally writing a website proposal for work) so I'll try and be as brief as I can.

The current Carlton website is moving in the right direction, but very slowly. It's hard to navigate, and missing a lot of content that I'd consider mandatory, given that it represents the number one communcations method for the club to it's supporters and members.

As far as content, I'd like to see it offer:
* More supporter/volunteer articles in the same way it does currently.
* A summary/link to all Carlton related articles in the online media (a.f.l.com.au, theage.com.au, heraldsun.com.au etc).
* Training and match reports from the club's point of view. We get analysis from the fan sites and media, but this would offer a different perspective, and help strengthen the relationship between the club and its supporters.
* Team selection lists, at the very latest, when they're officially submitted each week. It's rediculous that I have to watch the Eddie show, or wait for the Papers the next day to find this information out.
* Injury/player reports. Again, waiting for the print/tv media to report what Carlton releases it just silly. I should be able to get it direct from the club.
* Player contributions. I don't know if there are issues with CBAs or whatever regarding what the club can ask players to contribute, but surely it's a perfect (and easy for the playesr) way to allow the supporters to get a feel for the players by having the players make some contributions to the website. They don't have to be in depth articles, or perfectly written/structured. It might be Fev writing on locker room rumours (no names, just the general banter that goes around a club). Tell me that wouldn't drag the fans in.

You get the idea, there is a lot more I'd like to see, multimedia, pay-per-view games and highlights etc, but this would be a great start.

The navigation and design also needs to be greatly improved. I know this is currently the domain of Telstra (and in my opinion it shows all the hallmarks of a Telstra website, hard to navigate, cluttered and confused etc).

Everything posted to the website should be navigable by all the relevant subjects. For instance a player page should contain their profile, plus a list of all articles they feature in, including supporter articles, media articles, articles they contribute, articles about their milestone games. A supporter should be able to come to the site and keep themselves busy reading about their favourite player. I should be able to find all articles about a player, a match, a year, by a writer, by publication, an opponent etc. A good content management system (either bought or designed specifically should handle this with relative ease).

This is probably more personal opinion than fact, but the website should be clean, interesting, and draw attention to the correct areas. At the moment I visit the site and my eyes end up flickering all over the screen because I can't determine where I should start reading.

The shop and membership sections need to be redone. At the moment they're unprofessional and extremely hard to use. An online store needs to inspire trust in it's customers. They need to feel secure, and that they're going to get what they're expecting. If not, they're unlikely to hand over credit card details. The current shop doesn't do this. And most of the membership functions I'd expect are non-existant (or I can't find them).

I hope this is seen by someone who might be able to make a difference. If it is and I can help in any way, please contact me.

yuou forgot to mention and the Ghost should be granted his own space rather than a shared space with those other contributors....

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Oops, almost forgot about this. Further to this thread and an Issues Paper prepared by 'steve', I contacted the Club to get their views on the issues raised. This was the response:

"In regards to the website, I will be discussing your paper with Couttsy [Ian Coutts] when he returns. Now the TV rights are done the Internet rights will hopefully move through quickly. "

This suggests that the club will continue to look to out-source the management of the site in the next phase of the internet rights. Will follow up next week or so.

And I think that's a good idea Ghost - perhaps somewhere on essendonfc.com.au?

* bump *















Sorry, always wanted to do the bump thing and this is the first thread I've deemed worthy.

Great work, Molsey - this project typifies the innovative & fluid ways of the web. There are so many wonderful resources [i.e. posters] on this and other fan sites that could make the mother site a beast of great beauty and the such

And, just for good measure: * bump *

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"In better news for Blues fans, Jarrad Waite was not named on the club's injury list."