Just a few things about the site in general

July 14, 2013, 09:13:59 pm

I don't see a place for suggestions, I think it would be handy to have some site feedback and suggestions.

I want to start by saying as I have to the man himself and on these boards that I think Spanner does a sensational job in both hosting and maintaining this site for a number of years, but I am disappointed the opportunity wasn't taken to implement some great new features at no basic cost to get the site right into 2013 and beyond.

I think the color scheme is probably a little off, I think one of the best elements of the previous site was the color scheme, it was so unmistakeably Carlton.
I would like to see more BB Code implemented into the forum. BB Code is not hard to change, anyone with administrators access can add a number of features that allow for more modern and structured posts. The BB Code here looks like it is 'out of the box', options to change the colors of tables, rows, etc.
Have hidden/unhidden elements in posts for 'spoiler alert' options etc just make for better posting. In fact on a football site, something as simply as a 'scoreboard' tag that formats the score of a game would make such a difference to the whole posting situation and with not a real lot of work in the background for anyone with the skill set (or even anyone with basic html skills would be able to work it out).

The other element I would have liked to see (and still think the site should think about) is a Content Management system around the forum, so the forum integrates into the site. it could be very simple to start with with a pretty stock standard Drupal install (yes Drupal is free), then with an SMF integration. When you log into drupal, it will pass your password across to SMF forum (or PHP) to allow for seamless integration.

There could be within the CM system so many extra features... Editorials/blogging, historical logging of any Carlton articles, Player profile pages, video libraries etc. The world really is the limit. There is no need to go into the site we looked at building a few years back (and in fact which I only just deleted in the last 3 months) whereby a full stats feature is built, Drupal is very intuitive and in fact can be administered by a non-technical person. It doesn't have to happen of course, but surely it would be better to have this site be about more than a chin wag and add some real substance and push the website to the forefront of supporter sites.

As I mentioned the site I built with the help of Brendan a number of years ago was a lot more involved than what I am mentioning here and we had tracked every Carlton game every, plus all games of all Current carlton players, stats for said games etc, video libraries etc....
That required more technical skill, but there should be a happy medium imo.

Re: Just a few things about the site in general

Reply #1 – July 19, 2013, 07:23:11 pm

You may very well have lost me at BB code but I completely agree with your thoughts on the color scheme.