from the President

[the president]

Hello all, big night on The Footy Show and the skipper is on the panel.
Now to the reason for my post.
I have often read the criticism of the official website on here. May I say the vitriol extolled here isn't even close to my personal feelings.
Having said that the good news is that the club has just appointed an internet expert with international sporting experience to crank up our site to the level expected of our club.
In the next few weeks I will invite all interested supporters to join me for a meeting to make sure the site is delivering what you all want.
So far, from what I've seen and from the meetings I've been involved in, I am for the first time very excited about what we will be able to produce.
To get a head start for the upcoming meeting and to give those like London Dave and country and interstate users the opportunity to have their say can I ask you to tell me what you want.
Don't let this become a whinge session, I am well aware of the shortcomings on the current site (wrong photos, out of date stats and info and the one that kills me stories written from a non Collingwood prospective!!!).
Instead let's make this a forum for positive suggestions.
Broadband gives us a huge opportunity to do great things how many are on this?
So away we go.
In the meantime all those that haven't bought their membership for 2005 please do so as soon as possible. Membership underpins our club.
Go Pies! Eddie.

[labrooy]

It would be nice if the features of the site were available to all, not just those who wish to pay Telstra's over-inflated prices for Bigpond....

Anyway the obvious point is easy navigation. Bells and whistles are nice but all but the hardiest net user will give up if it takes forever to locate the one thing that they are looking for. The CFC website should be the best source for news on our favourite club but, at least from my perspective, if you want to know something about what is happening boards like Nicks provide a much better source.

Keep things easy and up to date and you can't go far wrong.

[foreigner]

I will start the ball rolling then (in addition to the things Eddie has already mentioned),

1. Better sructure. The current site has too many things compressed into it and is difficult to find anything.

2. Up-to-date information about games - played and upcoming, training days and times, injury news etc.

3. Club history better presented - not in excel files but in a searcheable format - preferably in a database. This include match records, player information, stats etc.

4. Club contact information for each catagory - with online submissions (either as email or other method).

5. Maybe an online Q&A chat session (fortnightly or monthly) with a player or one of the coaching staff - where fans can ask questions on the fly (or maybe they can post questions before and get answers later) - as you said this is the age of broadband.

6. Club events - more information

7. Sections and links for supporters groups/forums to disseminate information, especially for interstate supporter groups.

8. A section for members - maybe with access to match highlights,interviews etc.

That's all I could come up for my wishlist at the moment. Will keep it updated.

[dillo_09]

Thanks for your post Ed, great to see you online.

I have a 512kbps broadband connection and am looking forward to veiwing match content, interveiws and the magpie TV I have heard about.

Things I would like to see -
Competitions with GOOD prizes
Special "members only" areas that add value to the legends/captains/social etc packages
purchase guest passes online and print them off like ticketmaster
Live webcams at training for those who cant make it
Staff photos and contact details if possible
Positions vacant at CFC with full job descriptions etc
A better, more dynamic, online store.
links to ALL our sponsors websites with online discounts for members

Also Ed, I have had an idea in my mind to help people pay for their membership.
A while ago it was touted that our sponsor, at the time, Primus were working on a program that allowed people to put the cost of their membership for next season onto their phone bill and pay it of in a disciplined manner over a year. Obviously as Primus are no longer a sponsor this never came to fruition and I imagine the administration of such a program would have been a nightmare.
However, I have an idea that may be easier to implement and simpler to administer.
I understand that the NAB is the clubs financial institution and was thinking that the club could arrange, through the NAB, to create a "Membership savings account" which is a bit like a cristmas club.
This account would be a deposit only account and would mature at a certain time of year. For example November 1. Any withdrawls incurred penalties etc. This forces people into a savings discipline.
This would also improve the clubs cashflow at this time of year as those who would pay membership off over Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb/March would be paying earlier.
Parents and grandparents could set this up for the kids and come christmas there would be a seasons ticket under the christmas tree because the club would be able to plan and distribute tickets/reserved seating better.
When people fill in their membership renewals they quote their NAB account number on the form or over the phone and the club withdraws the required amount, assuming there is enough in there to cover it. If there isnt enough money in the account, people could then pay the difference by card or cheque.
The account is accepted as a non interest bearing account and any interest accrued is donated to the club dirtectly by the NAB. If 10,000 members accrued $5 interest each a year thats an extra $50K the club earns for nothing. Alternately the interest could be paid into the account to reduce the membership a bit if the member so chooses.
Then, if people changed their banking to the NAB (CC's, savings, mortgages, investments etc) the NAB could then arrange for interest payments through a year to be placed into the membership account. They could also offer donations to the club (or nominated charity) for each new customer they get from the program or people could nominate a percentage of interest to be donated to the club.
I am sure there are a number of other things they could do to attract new customers who take on the membership account.

I hope you are able to pass this onto the membership dept and the people at the NAB. The NAB would get all my banking business if I could do this.

Anyway, just an idea.

Regards
Mark Dillon
Legends Member 1738

[dillo_09]

[Your Joking Me!!]

I think the Club should have a look at essendonfc.com.au and how they run their site. It's independent of the AFL run sites (ie the current Collingwood site).
Amongst other things, it gives you a small insight into the players with profiles which inculde questions like favourite bands, food etc.
As others have mentioned, an area of the site only for Captains and Legends members would also be a good idea. As well as giving those who currently have such memberships the chance to view content others can't, if the material was of a high quality, it would encourage people to upgrade their memberships and would be a win-win for club and member.
And those pop-up adds that the site has (currently for membership) are a real pain.

Cheers.

[Mossi]

Couldn't agree more with labrooy and foreigner. I feel the CFC site should complement with Nick's. It should be the provider of information from the club (without reiterating what the others have said) there are many ways to improve the site and I am sure by doing so more people will visit the site on a regular basis. No doubt Eddy you love Nicks site, as it's alive, the topics are vast, there is room for all collingwood supporters and the live chat and scoreboard are the closest thing to being at the game.
While I have the chance and there is a chance you may read this, I don't know who at the club could help us. Have you read the posts on John Greening one of the greatest players some of us feel has ever worn the Black and White. What are the chances of putting toghethor a memorbilia DVD on the guy?
Ciao

[the president]

For what it's worth we are all singing from the same hymn book so far.
Great stuff, top ideas keep'em coming. Eddie

[stoid]

Now Ed, it’s great to see you are taking a proactive approach and asking us fellow members and supporters for some much needed input to bring the CFC website into the 21st Century.

There appear to be some really good and innovative ideas already displayed by our board members. I hope to put my own thoughts on this by tomorrow evening.

One thing I will say, since I see you are reading this thread, could you make an offer to Malcolm Blight for the position you offered to Rodney Eade last year. He has already said he is ready to get back into football and what better way than join the almighty Pies!!

[Woewonderful]

make it look like from the outer used to be. they were a fansite and had their own training videos and radio show etc. many considered it to be one of the best sports sites let alone collingwood sites. if you can do that, you can't go wrong.

[Johnson#26]

G'day Eddie. Thanks for coming online both here at at Hotrods. Here's a few ideas/tips for the new site.

1 - I have written many articles over the past year. You mentioned you would like some articles from a Collingwood point of view. I would be more then happy to write dayly/weekly reviews, as well as the match previews and review (as long as they could still be posted on Nicks Collingwood Page (www.magpies.net/nick/ ). Here is the achieves of work done:

http://www.magpies.net/nick/article.php

http://www.magpies.net/nick/match.php

2 - More info on the players, interviews and the like.

3 - Extensive club history, profiles etc

4 - Less 'exclusive areas' for broadband members/afl.com members. That stuff is very annoying

5 - Less adds, apart from the membership department. Who wants to purchase a Brisbane Lions premiership momento anyway?

6 - A more indepth site, which concentrates on Collingwood, and has up to the minute news and views, and make sure that you don't have to be a broadband member to be able to use the audio.

Thanks for listening to us Eddie. One of the many things you do so well.

When the details on the meeting are released, could you please post it here so as we can know when/where to attend?

And if you are interested in having someone write articles from a one-eyed-pies pies point of view, I'd be more then happy to help.

[Canberra]

Your Eddieness. There are two people you should seriously consider getting on board. I will PM you their names. You will be familiar with both for very different reasons. I would put them in here but it gets down to whether you think they would be worth a run and if they want to put in their expertise.

[Clokey]

Thats awesome that Eddie McGuire posts here. Haha thats cool. Can you say hello to me on the Footy Show? AHAHA well worth a shot.

Okay the site I think some video clips of the players highlights would be cool. But yeah I think a nice clean layout thats not clogged up would be cool. Cool thanks.

[perthmagpie]

Thanks for the invitation for our ideas Eddie. I've been an avid supporter of the Pies for 35 years and been a full time Web designer for the last 9. I loved most of Dillo 09's ideas. In principle our new Website should be updated with news and statistics as quickly as all the major media sites. I believe that is the most important thing. I once again refer to Dillo 09's ideas:
-purchase guest passes online and print them off like ticketmaster
-Live webcams at training for those who cant make it
-Training reports
-Dedicated out of hours webmaster (who is a passionate supporter and has a feel for the issues and news supporters want at their fingertips 24- 7)
-A better, more dynamic, online store
-Special "members only" areas that add value to the
legends/captains/social etc packages

I would definitely be interested in offering my design expertise to the club.

[Northern Pie]

As an Interstate Supporter I was really impressed with the Input coming from Williamstown about the up and coming future stars of Collingwood. There is always so much written about the big stars of the game i.e your continuing love affair with Bux (BTW if Kristin ever catches up with you, you know you are history!) but we never ever hear about these young blokes, who they are, where they are from and how they are enjoying their AFL experience, better yet how they are enjoying being a part of Collingwood...So more info about them would be awesome.

Interactive stuff previously mentioned is a great idea and with broadband so much easier..bring it on!

Is there going to be a Cyclops View or a view from the outter? was great to read things from a Collingwoods fans perspective.

May I suggest it does not all have to be New and done by the club, links to other sites stuff like The Scoreboard Chat on here etc...could be placed on the the site so they can be accessed by those Collingwood people who have somehow never heard of what Nicks has to offer!

A weekly Chat (I think it was mentioned) with a person from the club whether it be Coaching, Admin ( I Know about a Million guys who would be willing to talk to Bree....Hi Bree....lol), players etc...would be great! with transcripts available after the event.

Lots more ideas....to come

Oh I have no design ability at all so can I have a job Cutting up the Oranges at half time....(wonder if Collingwood would relocate me and my family for that job?)

Cheers