[Curler]

For the past couple of matches I have looked at opposition teams websites to get their report on our games and I am amazed at how up to date some of them are (or not in most cases). My own club's website must be one of the best in the division for the following points:-

1 Usually posting the score after a game (home or away)

2 Brief match report within 24 hours

3 Photos of the game within 48 hours

4 Full match report within 48 hours.

5 Sons TV usually within 48 to 72 hours

High praise to all those involved in our website and long may this excellent service continue. I am sure away fans who do not travel having the ability to read a report and see match highlights of the game is a bonus (even although the result may not have gone their way) and encourage debate. It also lets the fans of the opposition see what the home club's slant on the game is as the club's reporter will try and be supportive of their team's play (can't see them coming out and say we were total rubbish!)

Hopefully other clubs will try and emulate the service provided by our website and keep their fans informed.

[The Minertaur]

I think Cowden have a great website just now. Regularly updated and with the recent addition of BBTV it's only going to get better.

['Steve]

If you go on our website the last news story is the one advising supporters of the early kick off at Dumbarton. Here we are two days later and still no mention of the result. This is happening more and more often unless of course if we win - then the result goes up a lot quicker.

I worked tirelessly on reports for the website for years and never got one word of thanks so don't particularly blame the website editor if he is a bit scunnered.

[The Moonster]

Curler, on 16 January 2012 - 21:12, said:

For the past couple of matches I have looked at opposition teams websites to get their report on our games and I am amazed at how up to date some of them are (or not in most cases). My own club's website must be one of the best in the division for the following points:-

1 Usually posting the score after a game (home or away)

2 Brief match report within 24 hours

3 Photos of the game within 48 hours

4 Full match report within 48 hours.

5 Sons TV usually within 48 to 72 hours

High praise to all those involved in our website and long may this excellent service continue. I am sure away fans who do not travel having the ability to read a report and see match highlights of the game is a bonus (even although the result may not have gone their way) and encourage debate. It also lets the fans of the opposition see what the home club's slant on the game is as the club's reporter will try and be supportive of their team's play (can't see them coming out and say we were total rubbish!)

Hopefully other clubs will try and emulate the service provided by our website and keep their fans informed.

The trust do a grand job of keeping the website up to date. Also with them being on facebook and twitter you always get notified when something happens. It's an excellent and highly appreciated service they give us and long may it continue.

[Pachyderm I]

i love our site and especially SonTV ! GOteamGaz rocks!

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

I really like our website layout and the fact it's updated on an almost daily basis. We're also kept right up to date with regular Twitter and Facebook updates, they are especially handy on game day.

I must admit I rarely visit another clubs website unless to maybe check out a new player we've got on loan/signed. I'd say this is down to not needing to. I've attempted to in the past (mostly in the 3rd division) but often found the websites hadn't been updated in weeks.

[GoTeamGaz]

Pachyderm I, on 17 January 2012 - 12:18, said:

i love our site and especially SonTV ! GOteamGaz rocks!

It's not just me mind, Tommy (edits the full 90 down to the 5 before I put the graphics on) & Andy (films some of the games) pitch in too but I'm happy to take all the glory

Just remember to all keep your trust membership going, thats what keep the website & everything else going

/on message

[theoriginalhedge]

'Steve, on 16 January 2012 - 23:33, said:

If you go on our website the last news story is the one advising supporters of the early kick off at Dumbarton. Here we are two days later and still no mention of the result. This is happening more and more often unless of course if we win - then the result goes up a lot quicker.

I worked tirelessly on reports for the website for years and never got one word of thanks so don't particularly blame the website editor if he is a bit scunnered.

Brechin City and thank you are two different languages !!

[lichtie23]

Dumbarton and Cowden have top quality websites.

Ours is poor to say the least

[Sir Richard]

'Steve, on 16 January 2012 - 23:33, said:

If you go on our website the last news story is the one advising supporters of the early kick off at Dumbarton. Here we are two days later and still no mention of the result. This is happening more and more often unless of course if we win - then the result goes up a lot quicker.

I said the same a couple of years ago on here and basically got telt to shut up! Now you agree!
Good to see we're mates again!!!

[big al]

whoever does the cowden website does a brilliant job and deserves lots of thanks!

['Steve]

Sir Richard, on 17 January 2012 - 22:16, said:

I said the same a couple of years ago on here and basically got telt to shut up! Now you agree!
Good to see we're mates again!!!

We've always been good pals.

To be fair it has gone further downhill since then. As well as the lack of updates, the whole website could be doing with a good freshening up as it has had the same basic layout for just about the last decade! The current editor can't get to many games, I've never even heard of the guy!

I'd always be open to helping the club in any way, including writing articles for the website but I'm told the board didn't like my 'free expression of opinions', presumably on here. Not that it ever affected what I wrote for the official website...

[GoTeamGaz]

the SFL should have centralised the whole thing, the amount each club spends on design & hosting would be massivley reduced, hold 'em all on a central server at Hampden, have all 30 sites have the same design in the clubs colours with different articles going on each. Would also make the highlights services way more streamlined, each club films their own home games & the footage is on a central server for the away team to grab & edit as they like too.

Much like the way the NFL do it (site wise - not highlights)

[RossC]

big al, on 17 January 2012 - 22:35, said:

whoever does the cowden website does a brilliant job and deserves lots of thanks!

yeah I'm pretty sure alot of that is down to Neil, he does a fantastic job running the site. like with other teams on here it would be easy just to put off posting news stories and stuff but the Cowdenbeath one is always fairly up to date reporting on alot of news stories going on whether it's about the youth teams, a player doing well while on loan to another team, along with match reports and general new stories. I'd be really surprised to find another site in the 2nd or 3rd division which is run and maintained better than ours.

[RossC]

GoTeamGaz, on 17 January 2012 - 22:52, said:

the SFL should have centralised the whole thing, the amount each club spends on design & hosting would be massivley reduced, hold 'em all on a central server at Hampden, have all 30 sites have the same design in the clubs colours with different articles going on each. Would also make the highlights services way more streamlined, each club films their own home games & the footage is on a central server for the away team to grab & edit as they like too.

Much like the way the NFL do it (site wise - not highlights)

hmmm I know what you're getting at, but I prefer it the way it is just now. alot of English clubs have almost exactly the same style of websites and just gets a bit boring and doesn't really seem like their website and all gets a bit same-y.

once the design of a site is done (can make really basic ones on your own) and hosting (which again if you shop around can be very minimal) you're basically looking for someone or some people to run the site as the main expense.

website's are fast becoming the way alot of people find out about a place or a company for the first time, so I'd rather have the Cowden site for example the way it is that has it's own look and design, which accomodates alot of different types of Cowden news stories aswell as promoting hospitality packages and the Cowden lottery, etc. than something that was the same as every other team. and with things like SFL TV it shows the footage from the almost all the games going on for all the fans to see anyway.

[Only coo in the village]

The Cowden website is very good and does the club real credit as does our programme.

For that alone we deserve first Division status
;-)

[GoTeamGaz]

RossC, on 17 January 2012 - 23:20, said:

hmmm I know what you're getting at, but I prefer it the way it is just now. alot of English clubs have almost exactly the same style of websites and just gets a bit boring and doesn't really seem like their website and all gets a bit same-y.

once the design of a site is done (can make really basic ones on your own) and hosting (which again if you shop around can be very minimal) you're basically looking for someone or some people to run the site as the main expense.

website's are fast becoming the way alot of people find out about a place or a company for the first time, so I'd rather have the Cowden site for example the way it is that has it's own look and design, which accomodates alot of different types of Cowden news stories aswell as promoting hospitality packages and the Cowden lottery, etc. than something that was the same as every other team. and with things like SFL TV it shows the footage from the almost all the games going on for all the fans to see anyway.

aye, I'm sure from the end user point of view everyone would be happier with their own thing going on but the number of people piling hours of their life into it, mostley for nothing other than the warm glow of helping, it would probably make a lot of sense to pull everyones resources together. Im not saying the content should be identical, each club could easily have autonomy over its own site while combining the stuff in the background

[Brechin City FC]

'Steve, on 17 January 2012 - 22:44, said:

We've always been good pals.

To be fair it has gone further downhill since then. As well as the lack of updates, the whole website could be doing with a good freshening up as it has had the same basic layout for just about the last decade! The current editor can't get to many games, I've never even heard of the guy!

I'd always be open to helping the club in any way, including writing articles for the website but I'm told the board didn't like my 'free expression of opinions', presumably on here. Not that it ever affected what I wrote for the official website...

I got that line when I wrote for the programme during Dick Campbell's time in charge. Apparently I'd said something about not agreeing with one of his team selections or something on the official message board and he wasn't happy that someone who was involved with the club was saying negative things. Like you, it never affected anything I wrote.

I would be more than happy to help the club in any way I can - whether that be with the programme, website or whatever.

With no disrespect to his replacement, I think the gap between club and fans has widened dramatically since Steve Mitchell stepped down and it's something that needs addressed.

[Nick_BCFC]

I don't visit the official site much any more. I pretty much stopped when they ditched the message board a few years ago. I used to visit daily when a lad called Keith ran it. Had updates most days back then.

[Cowden til i die]

Our website is one of the best in Scotland. Easy to navigate and everything you could possibly want.

['Steve]

Brechin City FC, on 18 January 2012 - 11:49, said:

I got that line when I wrote for the programme during Dick Campbell's time in charge. Apparently I'd said something about not agreeing with one of his team selections or something on the official message board and he wasn't happy that someone who was involved with the club was saying negative things. Like you, it never affected anything I wrote.

I can see their point to an extent if it was on the official site messageboard. I don't see the problem in voicing your opinions as long as it isn't under the club name ie on the front page of the website or in the programme. If they are going to get rid of anyone who voices their opinion outwith what they are helping with then they are going to run out of volunteers.

Nick_BCFC, on 18 January 2012 - 12:04, said:

I don't visit the official site much any more. I pretty much stopped when they ditched the message board a few years ago. I used to visit daily when a lad called Keith ran it. Had updates most days back then.

I was editor at the time of the forums being taken off the site. I had a meeting with Michael O'Neill and Ken Ferguson re the messageboard and I did try to change their mind, even if it was a case of setting up an unofficial forum with a link and disclaimer from the official site but they weren't interested. They were concerned about players reading any negative comments by supporters. Quite simply, if a player doesn't want to read negative comments then they shouldn't read supporter messageboards, simple as that.

[cowdenbeath]

'Steve, on 18 January 2012 - 14:32, said:

I can see their point to an extent if it was on the official site messageboard. I don't see the problem in voicing your opinions as long as it isn't under the club name ie on the front page of the website or in the programme. If they are going to get rid of anyone who voices their opinion outwith what they are helping with then they are going to run out of volunteers.



I was editor at the time of the forums being taken off the site. I had a meeting with Michael O'Neill and Ken Ferguson re the messageboard and I did try to change their mind, even if it was a case of setting up an unofficial forum with a link and disclaimer from the official site but they weren't interested. They were concerned about players reading any negative comments by supporters. Quite simply, if a player doesn't want to read negative comments then they shouldn't read supporter messageboards, simple as that.

Thats true if players are easily offended they should stay away from message boards.

[theoriginalhedge]

Brechin City FC, on 18 January 2012 - 11:49, said:

I got that line when I wrote for the programme during Dick Campbell's time in charge. Apparently I'd said something about not agreeing with one of his team selections or something on the official message board and he wasn't happy that someone who was involved with the club was saying negative things. Like you, it never affected anything I wrote.

I would be more than happy to help the club in any way I can - whether that be with the programme, website or whatever.

With no disrespect to his replacement, I think the gap between club and fans has widened dramatically since Steve Mitchell stepped down and it's something that needs addressed.

And the reason he stepped down?.......He had his own opinions which at times had to be said but were seldom taken on board !!

You are not alone in wanting to help out the club, but if you are not allowed to express concerns then it all seems pointless. I thought our club was run by elected season ticket holders on behalf of the season ticket holders. It seems the "ordinary" season ticket holders' views don't actually matter or count !!!

[Cowden til i die]

Any footballer who is offended by fans comments on here or any other football forum needs to look at themselves. Don't like it don't read it.

Obviously personal shit is different but I'm talking about things directly related to football or their club.

I guess people read it as they crave praise and don't like it when it doesn't come there way. As I have said before its better berating players on here than at a game.

[The Moonster]

Cowden til i die, on 18 January 2012 - 17:03, said:

Any footballer who is offended by fans comments on here or any other football forum needs to look at themselves. Don't like it don't read it.

Obviously personal shit is different but I'm talking about things directly related to football or their club.

I guess people read it as they crave praise and don't like it when it doesn't come there way. As I have said before its better berating players on here than at a game.

If I was a player and I read a bunch of supporters slating me it would give me the incentive to prove them wrong. I don't understand it when you hear of players getting upset over things some fans have said. The most recent case being Graeme Ramage whose confidence apparently took a dent after reading some comments on here. Quite why he cares what a bunch of fat/unfit/folk who couldn't kick their own arse think of him, I'll never know.