jhq Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 I've read on here that there are plans to upgrade/renew the website. I was looking through it this morning and have to say it is high time this was done, if this is indeed the intention. Got a family party (in the Barossa Club funnily enough) this weekend. With family travelling from outside Perth, including some coming up from London, I thought I'd suggest a lunch at McD tomorrow. One of my reasons was to give a few extra pennies to the club. Now when you drive past McD, there is a sign stating the restaurant is open all day. But according to the OS it is still only open 12-2pm for lunch. This must be costing the club money. Surely the site could be updated - doesn't need to be renewed for this. It's quite frustrating really. SaintinReading and Dave Ferg 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintinReading Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 I have been thinking for some time that the site is in need of some major work. Maybe they could introduce something to do with Highlights also . (Saints TV) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tranmere Saintee Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 Have you rung the club and explained your concerns and asked them to do something about it? I know they read this site, but direct action is often the best way of getting results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ex-montrosesaintee Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 When I suggested the added the twitter feed to the site last year, I made a few other comments, and was told it was in hand and a new site was planned for the start of this season. I have a head full of ideas about it, having done a couple of courses in web design, but it is a difficult situation for a club like Saints. They could either outsource the web design work, but then any updates would be delayed by a third party being in control, or they could have an editable website managed by a design coy and edited in house, but these are notoriously of poor quality (in my experience). I doubt the club could justify employing someone full time to do website work. I guess this is a conundrum shared with many clubs - and Saints' current situation is better than many. By the looks of the Peterborough site linked here recently it is outsourced to a fan or fans, and it is an absolute joke. We are spoiled to an extent too because Jamie and the mods do a good job of keeping WAP as a valuable resource, and not a mess of adverts and spam. If there is anyone out there who has web-design skills and is looking for a new career - set up a business designing, managing and maintaining websites for professional football clubs as an exclusive service. You'd make a bloody fortune. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garydavidson Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 Sure there was a post about the restaurant page not that long ago where the individual contacted the club. As has been said above the best course of action to get something done is to contact the club. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truefaith Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 Montrose it's fairly standard for a developer to build a good framework for a site and for the club to have control over its content through a content management system. It's would be a big job to do a proper job of overhauling the Saints website, partly because you're not just developing it for today - and there are big features I'd like to see tomorrow - but you also have to put in some flexibility for future years (ie thinking about the devices people are likely to be visiting the site on). I've been involved in developing several large websites and working out the functions you need and how they will work is often the most time-consuming bit; only beaten by the interface work (how do you organise information logically and clearly - the current site is very confusing - see all the different navigation choices). Anyway, the functions I'd like to see are: e-commerce to handle club shop sales, online ticketing (matchday and season), PDF versions of programmes, restaurant/pitch bookings etc. the framework for some sort of media streaming (for current needs this could be handled by embedded YouTube videos in match reports, but club might want to think ahead with at least the technology to support audio/video streaming of games if it becomes commercially feasible) Introduction of subscription services (ie restricting certain website features to paying subscribers). A good way, perhaps, to make Ross Cunningham's excellent video work pay for itself. And more trivially: A blog with contributions by trusted fans or even a board member; Ability to subscribe/unsubscribe to newsletters etc I've always liked season-ticket countdown counters; a bit easier to implement than the above. The website - particularly club shop and online ticketing - could be an important additional source of revenue for the club, so an exciting job and certainly worth investigating. But in defence of the current website, it may look like it was developed 10 years ago, but whoever edits it does a good job of working within its constraints. Maintenance is actually the biggest problem for any website: the site can look great, but if it's not frequently updated, it will die. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhq Posted August 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 Phoned the club and spoke to a very nice lady who was happy to give me a full run-down of restaurant opening times and facilities. I realise that phoning the club is always an option, I was merely asking if there was in fact a plan to update/renew the website as had been mentioned on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ex-montrosesaintee Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 Montrose it's fairly standard for a developer to build a good framework for a site and for the club to have control over its content through a content management system. It's would be a big job to do a proper job of overhauling the Saints website, partly because you're not just developing it for today - and there are big features I'd like to see tomorrow - but you also have to put in some flexibility for future years (ie thinking about the devices people are likely to be visiting the site on). I've been involved in developing several large websites and working out the functions you need and how they will work is often the most time-consuming bit; only beaten by the interface work (how do you organise information logically and clearly - the current site is very confusing - see all the different navigation choices). Anyway, the functions I'd like to see are: e-commerce to handle club shop sales, online ticketing (matchday and season), PDF versions of programmes, restaurant/pitch bookings etc. the framework for some sort of media streaming (for current needs this could be handled by embedded YouTube videos in match reports, but club might want to think ahead with at least the technology to support audio/video streaming of games if it becomes commercially feasible) Introduction of subscription services (ie restricting certain website features to paying subscribers). A good way, perhaps, to make Ross Cunningham's excellent video work pay for itself. And more trivially: A blog with contributions by trusted fans or even a board member; Ability to subscribe/unsubscribe to newsletters etc I've always liked season-ticket countdown counters; a bit easier to implement than the above. The website - particularly club shop and online ticketing - could be an important additional source of revenue for the club, so an exciting job and certainly worth investigating. But in defence of the current website, it may look like it was developed 10 years ago, but whoever edits it does a good job of working within its constraints. Maintenance is actually the biggest problem for any website: the site can look great, but if it's not frequently updated, it will die. I agree with what you say. My methods of building websites is to develop templates with editable regions, so it is easier to pass it on to a client and be sure they won't bugger it up, but I am also aware that I may well have to go back and edit those templates to suit as times change. Most of the web-deign solutions that I have seen pay far to little attention to creating templates suitable for the job - it's far to easy to simply cut and paste a solution from another site or simply use standard template. I believe that Saints should use the splash page to split the website into a fans information site and a commercial information site, and keep the two separate. I think that would immediately address the clutter on the site and make it more user friendly. Having tried various media solutions, it's hard to beat just embedding youtube videos onto the site - which would make the integration with Ross's stuff on youtube a doddle. A bit of HTML tweaking and it can look pretty professional too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhq Posted August 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 MS - would it actually be difficult for Saints to update the timings of the restaurant on the current website? Not trying to be a pain, I'm just clueless with this sort of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truefaith Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 jhq: no, it's easy. If the club is made aware they'd change it quickly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhq Posted August 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 jhq: no, it's easy. If the club is made aware they'd change it quickly Having phoned the club earlier, I would say the club are already aware that the website is out of date in this matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lincolnshire no More Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 I suspect it is all about time, money and priorities. For the second summer in a row they were rather busy with unexpected fixtures to organise Also I saw on Twitter that they asre looking to replace the scoreboard which is beyond repair. I gather the new one, when they get it, will probably be capable of showing video. David123 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Christmas Jones Posted August 22, 2013 Report Share Posted August 22, 2013 Also I saw on Twitter that they asre looking to replace the scoreboard which is beyond repair. I gather the new one, when they get it, will probably be capable of showing video. Sponsored by BAM's.............Brittain Adams MacGregor Saintee 14, sleepless and Barty1884 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al C Posted June 7, 2014 Report Share Posted June 7, 2014 Does anyone know if there are any plans to upgrade the Saints website? This thread seems to suggest it was getting done for start of last season? It could really do with a refresh, there is quite a lot of out of date information on there, not least on the honours page where we've yet to note our Scottish Cup win! I know there is a feeling that the Facebook/Twitter have lessened the need to have an effective and properly functioning website but I'd argue there is still definitely a need for one. A simple thing an an example would be to have a Saints TV section; the current video highlights page is years out of date. Wee Barra and ejksjfc 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edstar101 Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 Does anyone know if there are any plans to upgrade the Saints website? This thread seems to suggest it was getting done for start of last season? It could really do with a refresh, there is quite a lot of out of date information on there, not least on the honours page where we've yet to note our Scottish Cup win! I know there is a feeling that the Facebook/Twitter have lessened the need to have an effective and properly functioning website but I'd argue there is still definitely a need for one. A simple thing an an example would be to have a Saints TV section; the current video highlights page is years out of date. The OS is a bit of a bomb scare. Never up to date. It needs a re-think and redesign as to what it is trying to provide - if the staff don't have time to keep it relevant, design something that somebody can manage appropriately Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cagerf Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 Maybe another sponsorship opportunity for a business to pay for redesign? Bydand 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slf Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 The OS is a bit of a bomb scare. Never up to date. It needs a re-think and redesign as to what it is trying to provide - if the staff don't have time to keep it relevant, design something that somebody can manage appropriately You do it then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheYellowBox Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 The OS is a bit of a bomb scare. Never up to date. It needs a re-think and redesign as to what it is trying to provide - if the staff don't have time to keep it relevant, design something that somebody can manage appropriately It is a bit. I think the power of social media was proven to saints in the lead up to the cup final, so maybe it is time to employ someone as a social media manager. I think the wage cost would be more than worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rik2304 Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 It is a bit. I think the power of social media was proven to saints in the lead up to the cup final, so maybe it is time to employ someone as a social media manager. I think the wage cost would be more than worth it. Jim Traynor is available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byebyedundee Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 An absolute disgrace of a Website equivalent to a League one presentation... Needs to jump up a few gears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldPoster Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 To me Social Media and Website are the task of a Marketing Department, An up to date website built with a CMS backend would give you the ability to post to social media at the same time as posting to the website, There would be one update and it would hit all possible media MySpazz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essexsaint Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 An absolute disgrace of a Website equivalent to a League one presentation... Needs to jump up a few gears I agree. The website is and should be the first point of contact for those wishing to obtain details about the club etc. linked to this should be our Facebook page and twitter as it is. I know when I look for info on others clubs I go to their main club webpage. Saints are defo lagging behind on this as it never really gets me motivated/excited/engaged as the Facebook page does or this forum. It's a shame that when I want to get up to date info on what's happening at the club I come on this and get the info from someone in Athens, Rwanda, Abernathy LAUGH OUT LOUD No offence lads! Common saints we are a top Scottish premiership team and a regular in Europe.....let's sort it out! rickardo, Cagey, Inchcolm and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slf Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 An absolute disgrace of a Website equivalent to a League one presentation... Needs to jump up a few gears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slf Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 If you think you can do better .go for it. Fuq sniping from the background waz man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slf Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 I agree. The website is and should be the first point of contact for those wishing to obtain details about the club etc. linked to this should be our Facebook page and twitter as it is. I know when I look for info on others clubs I go to their main club webpage. Saints are defo lagging behind on this as it never really gets me motivated/excited/engaged as the Facebook page does or this forum. It's a shame that when I want to get up to date info on what's happening at the club I come on this and get the info from someone in Athens, Rwanda, Abernathy LAUGH OUT LOUD No offence lads! Common saints we are a top Scottish premiership team and a regular in Europe.....let's sort it out! I had a girlfriend called Claire.my mates called her Essex cos she was thick as fuq ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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