from the President

[Piepark]

Thanks for the opportunity Eddie. From a personal perspective, I guess like most people we use the internet as a quick, efficient way of gathering news, information and shopping. I use the CFC site for the latest news, scores, training times and to find out 'why we won' and, I hate saying this 'why we lost'. I often travel with work interstate and overseas and find the 'news' component of the CFC site out of date at times, and in particular too slow in updating or providing fresh news. E.G. Injury updates. If that area could be improved it would be great. As has been said, so long as the site is easy to navigate and research that would be fantastic as well.

My big positive to all the staff at CFC is that I have purchased on numerous occasions through the web site clothing, memorabilia and other gifts from the online shop. With each and every purchase the site has been accurate, efficient and a pleasure to deal with. The club has even contacted me by phone when an item has been discontinued or is out of stock. Please continue and if you can expand the shopping items available to supporters online as this must be potentially a huge revenue pool especially if you live in the country or interstate.

Just as an example this the New York Yankees online shop to browse;

http://shop.mlb.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=1452360

The following is their homepage which I find a bit difficult to navigate but it's a just a guide to compare;

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/index.jsp?c_id=nyy

Thanks for the input and best of luck to everyone at the club this year, Go Pies !!!!

[nitric]

Fantastic, Eddie.

I am on Broadband but am also trying to raise a family etc so I aint with Telstra.

Living in Canberra, often the ONLY show in town is Nicks Scoreboard. A link to Nicks from CFC would be cool and maybe some streaming linked to an Interstate Membership package.

Most m/ship deals assume close proximity to Melbourne and offer benefits available only in Melbourne.

Flick some benefits into cyberspace and watch your membership soar.

Go Eddie.

Go Pies!

[the president]

Great stuff. "From The Outer" boys are already involved. Most things mentioned so far are on the slate so we are all heading down the same road.
Love Nick's and Extreme black and white so don't know if we need to replicate on the official site? Over to you keep it coming.
Eddie.
PS Excuse me, I have a show to do!
PSS. Remember the more hits we get on the official the more money we get from Telstra?AFL so even if it's not flash at the moment hit and look at a few pages if only to get a result for the Pies.

[stoliboy]

Hi Eddie,

As a member of an interstate supporters group (Sydney Collingwood Supporters Club), an improved supporters section on the web site for the country and interstate supporters would be great.

I remember last year some of the ideas being floated by the CFC for the supporters clubs included:
1. Providing web space for each of the supporters groups on the CFC site
2. Section to promote upcoming supporter club events
3. Revamped contact section which perhaps shows more than just a contact phone number
4. Easier access to the supporters club page i.e. atm it is hidden under the section 'About the Pies'... is there a way we can make this more accessable to casual browsers
5. Allow supporters club space to upload photos from their events so that prospective members might be convinced to join
6. Place to download a membership form straight off the site.
7. Even other things like newsletters, etc being available online...

Thanks for providing an avenue for feeback and ideas...

Ben

[HAL]

[Woewonderful]

[Johnson#26]

Great to see FTO is involved. Keep it up Eddie, BTW - could you give us a plug on the Footy Show? Just kidding.

As for replicating the sites on the new offical one, I think most people want just the link there, so people have the alternative.

[Wildman]

Just give us a site that actually does something thanks Eddie.

[RUPERT ROCKS]

I think a staff list is imperative, you need to know the right people you should be talking to. Every Monday should be a injury update with training times for the week.

Thursday should have a selection story written by the club with a media release outlining all match day activities such as guest speakers at presidnets Lunch and Williamstown game deatils and team. if i knew what I was missing out on I might actually buy a ticket to a luncheon.

The benchmark of club websites is cleary hawthorn's ( 3rd most visited site in AFL. it is updated several times a day and even has an entertaining gossip section. I visit the site regulary just to enjoy something that is updated!!! Collingwood has a long way to go...this guy better be good.

Aside from the internet the club could also do with a friendlier receptionist...I am not too keen on her phone manner.

GO PIES!

(Sorry for the spelling mistakes)

[Eunos]

Thanks for the reminder that the footy Show is back.

Pity I'm an "Amazing Race" addict!

[interested]

Very impressed that you take the time to please your supporters.
As a Melbourne supporter, I can assure you that Collingwood is not the only club that despises the current website setup with Telstra.
One of the main things is to have news items and training info updated quickly, its often better to come onto unofficial sites to find out info as it comes up days before the official site.
Also, specific news from inside the club - everyone loves to hear it.
Thanks again Ed,
Interested.

[Hiya-and-Higher]

Part of the site to be a members only section as I suspect the information given to us there may be more candid away from the prying eyes of casual surfer and the media who seem to coincidentally come up with articles paraphrasing stuff I've seen written on these boards, as their own.

A question and answer section which I appreciate may not be able to have 100% response for internal reasons and for reasons of letting 'the enemy' spies peer into our secrets. Nevertheless there might be enough there to make for fascinating reading. We post the questions and those that the club wishes to attend to, are answered when possible.

I am on broadband with ozemail and I too was looking to subscribe to the video content and saw it was Bigpond only which is verey undemocratic and actually irritates me enough to deliberately dislike and avoid Bigpond for trying to corrupt my freedom to choose.

I would be very interested in seeing streaming vision from Williamstown games to see our future and recovering players perform. It might boost both Willy and the players to know they are being supported from afar.

I have long been pushing for a Foreign Legion support of Interstate and International members. I suggest a new membership for us that would include access to Internet options that might normally need some sort of extra subscription.

Personally I would prefer to pay extra as an Interstater, get a special Interstate membership medallion or pin and get Internet extras included rather than bonus stuff we can't use such as a discount voucher to a melbourne restaurant when you live thousands of miles away. The Internet is a NATURAL way of including people who would rarely if ever get a chance to physically be in Melbourne for a game or social club function.

[jo_loves_steven]

I would love to be able to e-mail the players and get a personal response.

I also agree with dillo_09 about paying off the memberships, i think you would increase the amount of people buying memberships if you allowed people to pay it off weekly or something simular.

Maybe the interstate and country supporters could be encouraged to buy a membership that allows them access to all the features that currently have to be paid for on the website.

And I would love more pictures and reports on events like the black and white ball and club nights.

[willl]

How about hopping onto some of the latest "tech trends", such as podcasting and videoblogging.

A podcast is basically just an mp3 audio file. I've heard many quite entertaining ones. (And no, you don't need an iPod, just need something that plays mp3 music files)

The great thing about the audio format is that you can take it with you anywhere you go. You can listen to it during those long drives to/from work or other trips.

What type of content? Well, player interviews, casual chats between suppoters, supporters reminiscing about great games in the past, and so on.

And I mean, there's so many people with mp3 players these days, that it's just another medium to explore. (Maybe this can be made a part of the members section).

Oh, and with the video blogging, most people just buy a cheap videocamera and there's a great technology one that I download quite often where one guy goes around interviewing various different staff members of different departments at the company he works for (ok, he's not the only one producing the videos, but a few others as well).

Basically, the concept is simple, keep things on the cheap side of things, not only in terms of logistics, but also in terms of production.

Wouldn't it be cool if someone was to say, give one of the young players one of the video cams and he would go up to another player and start doing you know, a very casual interview? Maybe not even a player, interview oen of the fitness staff. Of course, the interviews would be done according to some set of guidelines, but in general, a more lighthearted approach and more 'natural' than a regular tv interview.

You only need to have a single person doing the interview, and holding the video camera at the same time. Anyone see that dateline episode on SBS where they talked about some of their reporters going by themselves overseas armed with just a video camera? That's the type of thing i'd like to see.

And it doesn't need to be one of those more expensive video cameras either.

From memory, Collingwood has a sponsorship with Sony, so perhaps they could provide the club with some video camera and other things like that?

Imagine doing a short little video at the conclusion of the game of the guys singing the club theme song along with a few other things from the games?

Although this would probably also have to be restricted to members only (so as to provide additional benefits for signed up members).

But of course, there should be some "teasors" or something available to the general public. You don't want it to feel like it's some sort of "exclusive" club. (People hate being left out).

There are many many ideas that could go towards making the club website the best out there. But one thing to remember is that everything takes time. There's no such thing as a magic wand that will make everything just "appear".

I hope that you'll prioritise all the various ideas and see which ones can be implemented first and are of the utmost important, and then start going at the other things.

I have more ideas, but this post is getting long. I'll try to write more another time.

[leonmagic]

Update the site as soon as a story breaks eg. team selections, training injuries etc.

Would have to be THE most important thing - collingwoodfc.com.au needs to be our no.1 source for all things Black & White, and at the moment it's far from it.