Worcester Warriors

There’s a thread on the Tigers board which is polling contributors as to a potential move to another platform.

I don’t know about others, but I often use the network navigation button on here to have a quick look at what’s being discussed at other premiership clubs.

I don’t read Quins any more, since their move away is probably 90% effective, and although I’m registered on Shedweb I rarely bother to read.

I know this site is a long way off perfect, but I’d regret it if Tigers moved.

Any views?

[m.rugbynetwork.net]

I enjoy being able to see what other clubs' supporters think. If View From the 22 is better that Sportnetwork, that's fine, though I wonder if there's a lot of work involved for someone (Lindsay?) I would certainly miss the Tigers' board if we were on different platforms.

View from the 22, does not look as good as this site so why bother.

I feel they will stay with sportsnetwork

JP

I wouldn't say no to sportsnetwork updating their framework. As much as I like this place, it feels like reading a bulletin board forum from 2002. Certainly a more modern framework will help share news stories from here elsewhere to get more (and probably younger) fans on here. I mean there's 90k+ people signed up to the Rugby Union board on Reddit (not many Wuss fans on there btw, if people want to sign up), there's still a good call for forums to discuss and joke about the game, but it's making sure it's easy to use and attractive to return to.

Enjoy the occasional crossovers - and the usual responses of fair point or get back in your own box. Good to have all on one platform, but others such as shed web worth a look before or after our derby games -so others can exist

For anyone who feels strongly enough to bother, it’s perfectly possible to register a vote , and voting numbers are very surprisingly low....your vote could make a difference.

How entertaining it would be to have more Wuss voters than Tigers, it wouldn’t take many of our regulars to achieve that. There are only 26 votes registered in total, and one of those is mine.

Go on, you know you want to.

I am not a regular poster, purely because of the very poor mobile interface. Compared to other message boards I comment on this is very much bottom of the pile for ease of access.

Quote:

Faithful_City
View from the 22, does not look as good as this site so why bother.
I feel they will stay with sportsnetwork

JP

Out of curiosity why do you think here is better, I'm always open to ideas as how to improve VFT22 to make it more attractive for people to switch over to.

2 very simple aspects

Ease of use and clarity

JP

What have you found difficult to use on VFT22 and what changes would you make to improve the clarity?

I certainly do not intend on helping a competing site, sorry.

JP

Quote:

Faithful_City
I certainly do not intend on helping a competing site, sorry.
JP

Designed to be a better iteration but if that's the way you see it then fair enough. Thanks for your help!

Pleasure

Quote:

Faithful_City
Pleasure

The main gripe for posters on their club forum on the Sportnetwork site is the regularity of the site going down. This effects some clubs more than others. I believe this is something to do with posting "articles".

Glos have their own site, as well as Quins and a good proportion of the Wasps posters have moved away from Sportnetwork and have their own forum site as well.

I agree that its useful to be able to access other clubs forums to see what they are discussing or to just ask for general information about away games etc.

On the downside inter-club forum spats can develop (Wasps and Sarries posters) which can become very tedious as the conversation moves away from a rugby topic to a playground type argument.

View from The 22 looks good but people are adverse to changing unless they are almost forced to.

The VFT22 site is somehow beginning to look more and more attractive!

Seems to be a similar debate on the Briss site too

I think the more clubs that move the more attractive prospect it will be. You've also then got total control as to how to develop the site because I'm more than willing to mold it how the users wan whereas SN is totally unflexible and your details aren't even secure.

The key to me is easy viewing of the other clubs.

As already stated, we’ve lost Quins, Tigers are wobbling, Briz starting to discuss, and Glaws have been a law unto themselves for years.

However, we still have 10/12 on Sportsnetwork, and I can’t see a mass move to VFT22 being at all easy to engineer, however much easier to use it may be.

We haven't lost Quins as far as I can see, a board has been setup and a "few" supporters have signed up, but not a lot of material posted by different people.

SN is a huge set of forums for many sports with probably 100's of thousands of memembers and even more that view only.

If view from the 22 can somehow sneak some rugby supporters over they can then approach companies for sponsorship AND advertising.

Adverts will appear at some stage to fund the boards and make the owners several 1,000 bucks

JP

Quote:

Faithful_City
We haven't lost Quins as far as I can see, a board has been setup and a "few" supporters have signed up, but not a lot of material posted by different people.
SN is a huge set of forums for many sports with probably 100's of thousands of memembers and even more that view only.

If view from the 22 can somehow sneak some rugby supporters over they can then approach companies for sponsorship AND advertising.

Adverts will appear at some stage to fund the boards and make the owners several 1,000 bucks

JP

Quins left some time ago. The only person who still posts on SN is Jim Jam as he fights his personal war with blucherquin. Unfortunately, the forum that Quins now use has to be one of the very worst in terms of user friendliness. It is considerably worse in my view than SN.

Its a shame that the clubs who have left or are considering leaving, havent all gone to the same alternative forum as it is extremely convenient to have everyone in one place. That is about the only thing that SN has going for it these days and it is unfortunate that the owners/developers havent moved with the times and continued to develop the site.

I dont understand Faithful City's total aversion to VFT22. Everything is there and set up for all the clubs. It is infinitely more modern and user-friendly and, in that respect, probably the best of the various other alternatives currently being used/trialled.

Quote:

Faithful_City
We haven't lost Quins as far as I can see,
JP

Disagree.

The traffic on SN Quins board is extremely sparse.

There are 14 threads started this year, of which 6 were started by one particular poster, and all of which have zero replies.

Only 3 threads have replies, one has 2 posts, one 3. The third has 16 posts, the subject is “welcome back”, and it was started on Nov 30th 2018, and the latest post was 16th March this year.

Quins not gone?.....come off it JP.

In your view

Oops

Not quite sure I understand,,,,

“In your view”, well, facts are facts, aren’t they?

“Oops”.....very profound!

View From The 22

Club.        Topics.  Posts
Bath.           1.      2
Bristol.        3.     16
Exeter.         0.      0. 
Gloucester.     0.      0. 
Tigers.         3.      9
LI.            11.     40
Saints.         0.      0
Sale.          63.    455
Saracens.       0.      0
Wasps.          1.      1. 
Worcester.      0.      0

I wonder who setup the sites?

Active on Sportsnetwork as I type is 119 people spread across the network with Bristol the busiest with 11 people

Did you also notice the little sub title on the right on VFT22 "Advert" guess what?

JP



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 16/07/2019 18:20 by Faithful_City.

It was a reply to Chris 1850 TT

I need to be more accurate

Ooops was reply to you agreeing with you that i cocked up

JP



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 16/07/2019 18:18 by Faithful_City.

Quote:

Faithful_City

Club.        Topics.  Posts
Bath.           1.      2
Bristol.        3.     16
Exeter.         0.      0. 
Gloucester.     0.      0. 
Tigers.         3.      9
LI.            11.     40
Saints.         0.      0
Sale.          63.    455
Saracens.       0.      0
Wasps.          1.      1. 
Worcester.      0.      0

I wonder who setup the sites?

Active on Sportsnetwork as I type is 119 people spread across the network with Bristol the busiest with 11 people

Did you also notice the little sub title on the right on VFT22 "Advert" guess what?

JP

I don't think it is a secret that Alex who is Admin on VFT22 is a Sale follower. However, I don't understand why that should be a problem? Surely the main requirement is a decent site that caters for all clubs?

Quote:

Faithful_City
It was a reply to Chris 1850 TT
I need to be more accurate

Ooops was reply to you agreeing with you that i cocked up

JP

Thank you for the clarification...posts clearly crossed in cyberspace.

There's a couple of adverts on the site but they're to pay the board owners for their contributions like on here and then the remainder of the money will go towards the prize for the prediction league and then advertising to increase the sites popularity.

This site isn't designed to make me any money, it was purely set up to offer a safe site and an easier place to have rugby discussions. If a hacker really wanted to this place would have all the details stolen in hours from here as its not even got https.

Quote:

Faithful_City
We haven't lost Quins as far as I can see, a board has been setup and a "few" supporters have signed up, but not a lot of material posted by different people.
SN is a huge set of forums for many sports with probably 100's of thousands of memembers and even more that view only.

If view from the 22 can somehow sneak some rugby supporters over they can then approach companies for sponsorship AND advertising.

Adverts will appear at some stage to fund the boards and make the owners several 1,000 bucks

JP

It isn't a decent site.

It is bland boring lacking in graphical excitement. More space allocated to everything but the actual written text, small font which on a mobile phone is not easy to read.

With just a few people on there it it is average speed/refresh if it got the numbers from SN how would it cope.

Time will tell, many have tried and fallen, SN has always been there especially to the admins and mods.

JP

Quote:

Faithful_City
It isn't a decent site.
It is bland boring lacking in graphical excitement. More space allocated to everything but the actual written text, small font which on a mobile phone is not easy to read.

With just a few people on there it it is average speed/refresh if it got the numbers from SN how would it cope.

Time will tell, many have tried and fallen, SN has always been there especially to the admins and mods.

JP

Interesting as Sport Network scored lower in both performance and site speed on a metrics site, so possibly just your internet.

The text is exactly the same size as the mobile version of this site so that's another interesting observation....

Keep it going 23Shark, its not me you need to persuade because that has failed, it is other club supporters to walk away from all the other supporters to an unknown and unproven site with little or no benefits because you like it.

Not sensible in my personal view.

The admin on here has been exemplary, I would never walk away from PE and this site.

Yes it has its foibles and sometimes can be a little frustrating but it works and has a great national family atmosphere/feel.

VFT22 is definitely not for me.

JP

Voting is still open to help persuade Tigers to stay on here.

Quote:

TeflonTed
Voting is still open to help persuade Tigers to stay on here.

Oops. When you suggested going on their board to vote I thought you meant vote for them to leave.

---

Whatever you do, do it safely!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 16/07/2019 19:14 by Brummagem Bertie.

On their site BB

Lets show them we want them to stay in the family

Remember this is not just a forum but our own website with many interesting and useful pages for supporters news links, fixtures, bus organisations, articles, supporters match reports.

Lest get all the SN admins to work with SN as a group to find out what we would like and how they can privide it.

Build and change from within does not throw away all the good work done by SN and our admins

JP

I'm not trying to persuade you, I'm just pointing out what you said was factually inaccurate.

I'm also not asking you to walk away from PEs site, I've messaged them telling them about VFT22 in the same way I've messaged the various other admins on SN minus Sale and Newcastle.

Quote:

Faithful_City
Keep it going 23Shark, its not me you need to persuade because that has failed, it is other club supporters to walk away from all the other supporters to an unknown and unproven site with little or no benefits because you like it.
Not sensible in my personal view.

The admin on here has been exemplary, I would never walk away from PE and this site.

Yes it has its foibles and sometimes can be a little frustrating but it works and has a great national family atmosphere/feel.

VFT22 is definitely not for me.

JP

The VFT22 site is definitely beginning to look more and more attractive now.

Good for you, just register and start the first thread instead of making noises.

JP

I am a ST at quins

I look at the board about once every 3 weeks

I cant be bothered to look any more than that or generally with any social media

The same old posters start the threads and the same few reply which is the case on any rugby message board

Who cares if no one posts on Quins board

Maybe we just have interesting things to do?

Absolutely

Given a quiet hour sitting in the shade I’ve just had a look around vft22.

At first glance, there’s certainly traffic growing, particularly on the Sale board, but that’s not surprising. They’ve officially moved.

Other clubs, at first glance, seem to be starting, but it’s worth a little study.

IRISH
LI have certainly got live posts on vft22, 11 threads since June 27th. But 8 of those have been started by 2 participants, and have attracted little response, apart from the thread initiators themselves.

Meanwhile, on the LI SN site, there are 31 live posts since June 27th, and many more responses. Early days, but there’s dilution of content for LI supporters who want the overall picture.

TIGERS
3 posts, 1 with 0 replies, 1 with 2 replies, (the second from the author) and 1 with 6 replies, the last one being from a chap who says “I'm looking forward to mooching around other teams forums, picking up bits and pieces of tittle tattle, plus enjoying some post match analysis from the opposition teams supporters.”

Does he not realise he can easily do that on SN?

WASPS
It has been mentioned that Wasps are interested, well, there’s one post on June 27th with no replies. Doesn’t look like much interest to me.

ELSEWHERE...
It’s early days, and keen readers won’t be surprised that on the Wuss vft22 page there is one thread, from a poster who goes on to reply to himself twice, and makes 2 very good points in so doing.

Any guesses!!

But seriously I don’t give a flying feck if everybody changes, but the last thing we want to see is premiership forum traffic split across many platforms.

It is only fair for me to register and test out if i am going to criticise/praise.

There are many things we would lose, not just the forum facilities either.

JP

Yes.

I’m trying to remain open minded, my first reaction being let’s all stay where we are, not because SN is that great, but because I’m reasonably certain that mass migration to vft22 just isn’t going to happen, so we’ll end up having to dodge around all over the place.

Won’t change my life either way.

The plot thickens.

Wasps.

I said earlier that there was no sign of interest on vft22 by Wasps, which remains true.

But their sportsnetwork listing has disappeared now, and posters are active on
[onceawasp.com]

Seems like my fears about having to look around multiple sites are justified.

It looks alarmingly like that TT. I have asked a question of PE but as yet no reply so maybe SN are struggling to maintain and improve their site

I still use and run Sixwaysrugby in which i had a phpbb forum setup(similar to VFT-22)

Should i try and bring it back to life at least we would still have our own website and be in control of the Message Board

JP

Wasps could be it just needs an update, which happens this time of the year

Perhaps we should hold a referendum; the danger is that it may involve lies being told on both sides, and could lead to a "no deal" exit, which will get everyone's dander up and lead to squabbles. No, surely we British are above that sort of thing?

We should I suppose bear in mind a couple of factors.

I presume that all the SpNetwork sites are managed locally by a "volunteer" such as PE. They do not manage / moderate themselves and all rely on one such "volunteer" being available.

Equally the sites do cost money to run and I avoid the adverts which presumably pay for them.

So, in enjoying this site it costs me nothing and I rely on somebody to keep it going.

Quote:

Faithful_City
It looks alarmingly like that TT. I have asked a question of PE but as yet no reply so maybe SN are struggling to maintain and improve their site
I still use and run Sixwaysrugby in which i had a phpbb forum setup(similar to VFT-22)

Should i try and bring it back to life at least we would still have our own website and be in control of the Message Board

JP

You'd still be control on VFT22 as it would be a set up no different to what's on here which I have explained to Lindsay via email as we've had a bit of a discussion about it.

In reality you'd actually have more control than on here because I'd be more active in developing the site as I'm more than happy to shape it the way that's demanded by the users which is something that would never happen on here

I will be more than happy to take this back over if Lindsay wants to move over to VFT-22.

We then have our website as well as just a forum.

JP

VFT22 does have a website too.... that's where the prediction league will be hosted

But is noyOUR website wirh OUR match reports, our articles, our links to route maps to away games, our bus timetable, our fixtures our away travel arrange=,ents, our events notices and arrangements, our legends board, our supporters awards.

JP

Quote:

Faithful_City
But is noyOUR website wirh OUR match reports, our articles, our links to route maps to away games, our bus timetable, our fixtures our away travel arrange=,ents, our events notices and arrangements, our legends board, our supporters awards.
JP

If that's how they want it to be arranged then that's up to them, it would be "your" site just as much as here

If all Clubs moved then it would be a more attractive option - the mobile format and posting format is pretty horrible on SN but then again I have no idea what it will be like on VFT22.

Will give it a try but the most important thing (for me) is having more clubs using the same format, as looking at other teams opinions on their/your players are always interesting.

Next question....should we have our own thread polling contributors as per Tigers?

If so this should be led by Lindsay, she puts in the work to keep this one open, and I’d hope she’d consider moderating any new platform we might join.

My focus is on keeping all Wuss traffic on one board, which ideally should allow easy switching to other clubs’ boards.

Which, incidentally, vft22 does easily allow.

I have no axe to grind beyond keeping our posters on one site, and have easy switching.

I’m easily pleased.

Quote:

TeflonTed
I have no axe to grind beyond keeping our posters on one site, and have easy switching.
I’m easily pleased.

So just that and black pudding, really ...

... oh, and decent ale.

---

Whatever you do, do it safely!

Quote:

Brummagem Bertie

Quote:

TeflonTed
I have no axe to grind beyond keeping our posters on one site, and have easy switching.
I’m easily pleased.

So just that and black pudding, really ...

... oh, and decent ale.

And good company.....

If you have a look at VFT22, you can now go straight to the alternative forums for Harlequins and Gloucester. Presumably, for those who insist on setting up their own forum, rather than use the format provided by VFT22, this can be linked directly from VFT22. Accordingly, all 12 Prem clubs and all Championship clubs can be accessed from one site.

No more having to navigate seperately to Shedweb or the new Quins forum.

Chris, there’s a “presumably “ in there....

I put the links there because they're established separate forums which are unlikely to move, although you can access them through one site you'd still need different logins which is why it would be good to keep everyone on one updated and safe site.

No it would not be our site like this. Phpbb is a forum not a website. You could open up threads or sub forums for each of the above but they would not be web pages with .jpg's and spreadsheets.

PE has anybody spoken with SN to acertain how they see/plan for the future development of the sites

JP

Well I've got a bridge plugin to wordpress so it's simple enough to link the two so you can have a members section of the website... simple

Might be a start if SN made the site safe from hacking, if someone wanted to they'd have a field day on here

Quote:

TeflonTed
Chris, there’s a “presumably “ in there....

Ted - I am not the site developer, hence the 'presumably'!

However, it would seem that Alex, who is the site developer, has been able to provide a forum for all clubs, for those that wish to use the generic format (as per Sale, LI and Newcastle currently). For those that have existing alternative forums (eg Quins, Shedweb), it seems that an external link to these can be provided as an alternative.

IMO this is the ideal option. One site (VTF22) can now provide access to all clubs' forums under one umbrella. Some are generic, others are external links.

This enables viewing of all clubs forums.The only drawback is that if you want to post on another clubs forum, or identify new posts, you would have to register seperately with that forum. But you have to do that anyway.

I guess that it would be possible to link to a club's SN forum if that club wished to stay with SN. That forum will still need to be updated regularly to keep it alive of course.

Just waiting for JP to express his approval now!!

Here's an example of the prediction league, once you log in on the forum you automatically get logged in on the site.

Just registered on the Vf22 and quite like the clean look. But for it to succeed there must be content and there is none at the moment.

I am not averse to an alternative site, doesn't have to be a replacement in my view. I posted on a Premiership site via Guinness many years ago and I quite liked posting on both.

---

Warriors Rugby Supporters Club

But this an independent supporter's web site not just a forum, it just happens to have a good one built in

If traffic moves to an alternative site then advertising income, which SN rely on, will reduce dramatically ultimately leading to its demise and no independent website for supporters.

SN Rugby community has been brilliant for the sport and has helped keep us united, supporting each other, a dilution or destruction of will not be good for the future.

VFT22 is a free open source phpbb forum set up by a Sale supporter which he has added sub boards to the site to look like independent club message boards. Unless he can kill other SN boards and attract other club suers his board will die. He is trying his damdest to encourage users to lave SN and join his board.

We have been with SN since it was set up many many years ago and they have supported rugby fans and other sports fans all over the country. I feel we should be staying with SN, working with them to evolve into what improvements we would like and not walk away.

VFT22 is not an alternative board it is a board that wants to take over completely to the demise of SN.

JP

Rolling Maul was an alternative forum

The offy had an alternative forum

None of them went along to other clubs saying we are better that what you are using leave your provider and come to us (and I will get the advertising revenue when I can sell advertising)

JP

My 2p this forums architecture is quite limited.

Anything new is worth a look.

JP your constant negativity is quite depressing.

Supporting SN is negative??

No. But of late a lot of your posts on various threads have seemed quite negative.

Please give me some examples of lots of negative posts.

JP

Well the Wasps board has been down for about 3 weeks so I wouldn't be surprised if there is a mass exodus.

A lot of Wasps posters have already moved away from Sportnetwork site to the onceawasp website/forum.

It will be interestng to see if the remaining SN posters move to the View22 site.

Old habits die hard and people are naturally resistant to change though

JP, I get that everyones been on SN for years however the software is old, the site isn't even safe yet you're bashing someone who's trying to set up a more up to date community where people don't have to worry about their personal details being stolen.

Everywhere in life people evolve and change their habbits if a better thing comes along, I'm offering a site where I'll be an active developer and as a community we can shape and bring the site to life with what people demand rather than a company who has shown no interest in maintaining or developing the site until someone has threatened their revenue, what does that say about their intentions?

You’re aim is to migrate members to your site away from SN no matter you call it a better more modern software. Phpbb is not particularly a safe environment unless it is policed on a regular basis by the administrator. It is an open source forum available to anybody including hackers.

You need other clubs to join your board to justify setting it up and moving Sale to it.

Now if it was set up as Premiership Rugby on one board as an “additional” forum, fine. But that is not what you are doing you are trying to move all clubs over lock stock and barrel.

Yes there are failings with sportnetwork as there are with every other forum that has ever been setup. There are some people who find these shortcomings so annoying they want to move, equally there are 1,000’s who are still happy with what SN provides which is massively more than what a simple phpbb forum can provide.

SN is not like Facebook twitter and other social media outlets but guess what, thank heavens for that.

I trust you are not working with the admins of the respective SN club sites to build yours and encourage a move because that would be pretty underhand and disloyal.

Build you site and let it takes its chances without overtly poach clubs away from SN

Quote:

Faithful_City
You’re aim is to migrate members to your site away from SN no matter you call it a better more modern software. Phpbb is not particularly a safe environment unless it is policed on a regular basis by the administrator. It is an open source forum available to anybody including hackers.
You need other clubs to join your board to justify setting it up and moving Sale to it.

Now if it was set up as Premiership Rugby on one board as an “additional” forum, fine. But that is not what you are doing you are trying to move all clubs over lock stock and barrel.

Yes there are failings with sportnetwork as there are with every other forum that has ever been setup. There are some people who find these shortcomings so annoying they want to move, equally there are 1,000’s who are still happy with what SN provides which is massively more than what a simple phpbb forum can provide.

SN is not like Facebook twitter and other social media outlets but guess what, thank heavens for that.

I trust you are not working with the admins of the respective SN club sites to build yours and encourage a move because that would be pretty underhand and disloyal.

Build you site and let it takes its chances without overtly poach clubs away from SN

Mate, you're on half the boards on the forum posting about what a good rugby man the SN guy is. If someone is offering something clearly better than SN (IMO other than the adoption at this stage), how about letting the market decide

Besides, from what I've seen they've generally been posting on threads that had already been set up to talk about SN's many failings, rather than spamming every board on the forum as you have.

phpbb is much more safe than this outdated software, for one phpbb is in active development ensuring if anything is identified it is patched quickly. This has not been updated in years and doesn't even run https which is pretty basic and takes 2 mins to do yet the website owner hasn't and I feel this speaks volumes in the care they have for our data and security.

You keep harping on how this is much more than just a forum and I have answered this multiple times but you seem to keep choosing to ignore my comment but VFT22 is much more than a "simple phpbb forum" as there is a Wordpress site running alongside it which offers endless possibilities in terms of development.

Quote:

23Shark

You keep harping on how this is much more than just a forum and I have answered this multiple times but you seem to keep choosing to ignore my comment but VFT22 is much more than a "simple phpbb forum" as there is a Wordpress site running alongside it which offers endless possibilities in terms of development.

Realistically how many users actually use the other parts of this website which is what Faithful is banging on about.

I'm guessing a lot of users are the same as me and have their club's message board (forum) URL bookmarked in their browser and completely bypass the main board part of each club's section

bg, if you’re talking about an offie forum, we at Wuss don’t have one. Our owners closed it down, and there was little traffic on it anyway.

Quote:

TeflonTed
bg, if you’re talking about an offie forum, we at Wuss don’t have one. Our owners closed it down, and there was little traffic on it anyway.

BG is not talking about the offie site he is talking about the other areas of this sub-site such as the News section. The bit that needs updating every two weeks or the forum goes missing..

---

Warriors Rugby Supporters Club

Quote:

TeflonTed
bg, if you’re talking about an offie forum, we at Wuss don’t have one. Our owners closed it down, and there was little traffic on it anyway.

I wasn't referring to official club websites running their own forums (which in my mind would be madness on their part), but the other "website" offerings that Faithful refers to.. I.e. the links to other information or the "articles".

My guess is that hardly anyone uses the other parts of the Wuss section of their SportNetwork website and that most will have a bookmark/favourite url link straight to the list of topics.

If people want other rugby information they will use other news based websites which have the ability to update information on an almost daily basis.

Someone on the Saints board has replied to one of Faithfuls messages regarding the notion that Sportnetwork is more than just a forum where users can post messages. It looks like he thinks the same as me and questions this notion

An example of this is Wasps site continually going down due to lack of articles. The previous time this happened about 70% of the posters didn't actually know why it kept going down (and moaning about it whilst not offering to do anything about the problem), what articles were or even how to create and upload them (which apparently requires admins input). It appears that the admins have become fed up with administering the site based on such an old design.

They reluctantly get the Wasps SN back up and running but in the meantime have created a new forum which a lot of users have happily migrated to. Having access to other clubs forums is useful but not essential and 23Shark has said that he can create links from his site to those sole entity forums (Glos, Quins and Wasps)

I'm new to the Sportnetwork forum (3 yrs perhaps) but I get the feeling Durham Associates got a jump on the forum bandwagon, did really well in making supporters aware of it, built up its subscriber numbers and then effectively sat back and counted the advertising money roll in.

The fact there are multiple threads on other sites discussing whether to move or not indicates that not everyone (One of the Exeter admins has just announced that he's not going to administer it anymore) is happy with the status quo and perhaps a change is long overdue.

Quote:

Powick Eastander

Quote:

TeflonTed
bg, if you’re talking about an offie forum, we at Wuss don’t have one. Our owners closed it down, and there was little traffic on it anyway.

BG is not talking about the offie site he is talking about the other areas of this sub-site such as the News section. The bit that needs updating every two weeks or the forum goes missing..

Thanks Lindsay, understood.

I certainly don’t use anything on SN other than the message board. I used to use the search facility, but that’s been dead for ages.

Not sure if you’re following the discussion on the Tigers board, but here’s a recent update. Overall it seems VFT22 is trying very hard to be responsive. Following the exchange below 23Shark has confirmed that the link to external sites now opens in a new window, this is big advantage for those like me who want to browse places like Shedweb and the Quins new board.

FROM TIGERS THREAD:-
Quote:
TeflonTed
Quote:
Tiggs
And how many posts for each on view from the 22 ?

With respect I think you’ve missed the key point.

Which is that both clubs’ SN sites are moribund.

The new Quins site and Shedweb have multiple threads, and can’t be reached with one click from SN.

They can be accessed directly from vft22, although it is fair to comment that at the moment the links open the remote sites on the same window, so returning to vft22 requires the use of the browser back button, or a re-logon via your saved bookmark/shortcut.

Vft22 admin have been asked if they can tweak so that remote sites open in a new window.

Usual disclaimer.....I’m don’t care which site we (Wuss)end up on but I’d like it to be the one with the largest number of prem clubs all in one place.

I think it'd be a big jump to abandon the status quo and it might be something that happens over the longer term but most people who have begun to use VFT22 on a regular basis have said the experience is much better and easier to post.

My issue is people don't like change, especially when these sites have been the same for 10 years + so it'll take a lot for people to take the jump but I'm hoping that through word of mouth and my speed on resolving issues will show that going forward VFT22 will be the go to site.

Quote:

bg
My guess is that hardly anyone uses the other parts of the Wuss section of their SportNetwork website and that most will have a bookmark/favourite url link straight to the list of topics.

If people want other rugby information they will use other news based websites which have the ability to update information on an almost daily basis.

Someone on the Saints board has replied to one of Faithfuls messages regarding the notion that Sportnetwork is more than just a forum where users can post messages. It looks like he thinks the same as me and questions this notion

<waves>
FC hasn't replied yet...
I don't quite get their enthusiastic backing for SN and denigration of the alternative - for a significant majority of people I'd be willing to wager that SN is just a forum. Even the articles could be forum posts - it's only the SN rules that means articles are needed.

I think a tipping point is being reached - if SN don't come up with a significant upgrade *soon* then they're going to lose the Prem clubs. Has this update promised for Monday materialised yet?
It would be nice if everyone was in the same place - if there is an exodus, perhaps there ought to be an effort to bring the outliers in. Accepting that Glaws will stay where they are because that's where they've always been...

So are we going to have another poll on view from the 22 as PE didn't ask us the right questions ?

I rarely access the site on mobile and use a decent adblock so consequently never experience some of the problems others post about.

If the new site encourages new posters and more posts it will give a more representative view of our rugby fanbase.

Surely the way forward is to run both sites and just allow natural migration ?

It would seem that after all of the gum bumping denegrating SN in praise of how good VFT22 i and 1/2 others are the only ones posting on VFT22 FROM HERE.

If it is all so good why aren't you posting on VFT22.

Many stating how bad this site is but do not have the where with all to post on it.

Might i suggest you start some discussions on there and see what happens.

JP

I am the only person on the whole of the VFT22 at this moment.

There are 135 on SN with 9 alone on here?

Southstand, the first version of the poll posed the question
“Does ComeOnYouWarriors move to VFT22”, but had no button to vote “yes”.

If you really think that was OK, well......fine, you’re entitled to that opinion.

JP, well, I’m on it....and have clicked to who’s on line, (statistics, at the bottom of the home page) and I get a list of registered users (not necessarily online currently) which doesn’t include you!

So something’s odd isn’t it?

I am definitely on line

At the bottom of the page on the whole board index(bottom left) is a list of names who is online.

JP

I am "On the line" too (What was that film ? )

Quote:

Faithful_City
I am definitely on line
At the bottom of the page on the whole board index(bottom left) is a list of names who is online.

JP

If by “whole board index” you refer to the page that opens when you press “home” it currently shows 64 users, and yes you’re definitely there now!

The definition of “online” is as follows:-
In total there are 64 users online :: 15 registered, 1 hidden and 48 guests (based on users active over the past 60 minutes)

Which I’m reading as not necessarily actually online at the moment !!

Quote:

Faithful_City
I am the only person on the whole of the VFT22 at this moment.
There are 135 on SN with 9 alone on here?

You may have inadvertently answered your own question here.

Quote:

TeflonTed

Quote:

Faithful_City
I am definitely on line
At the bottom of the page on the whole board index(bottom left) is a list of names who is online.

JP

If by “whole board index” you refer to the page that opens when you press “home” it currently shows 64 users, and yes you’re definitely there now!

The definition of “online” is as follows:-
In total there are 64 users online :: 15 registered, 1 hidden and 48 guests (based on users active over the past 60 minutes)

Which I’m reading as not necessarily actually online at the moment !!

I think a lot of the guests are bots scraping the site for search results, although don't take that as gospel.

---

Whatever you do, do it safely!

The bots are counter separately and are included in the tally of online users

I see no-one is posting on VFT22,

BEFORE YOU VOTE TO MOVE THERE AT LEAST TEST IT OUT!

JP

Quote:

Faithful_City
I see no-one is posting on VFT22,
BEFORE YOU VOTE TO MOVE THERE AT LEAST TEST IT OUT!

JP

Um? I've tried but no one has bitten!

I’ve posted 4 times on the “site features” thread on the VFT22 News & Views” forum, posing 2 questions and have had positive responses.

The only bit I currently dislike is the “forum rules” page header (clickable to clear) which is unique to the Wuss forum, and apparently at our request, so even though I don’t like it the site management is open to the various moderators individual requirements.

Its a real pain in the ass, who has asked for it? There are only 4 people who have posted so it must be one of them or has someone already been installed as a moderator for the Warriors board and already taken arbitary decisions without consultation with the posters on the board.

Seems like someone is already making decisions on our behalf that we do not know about. I really hope and trust it is not our existing admin on this site because that would be a serious conflict of interest and incredibly two faced.

JP

TT why not post something warriors or rugby related on our VFT22 FORUM and lets see if there is an interest.

JP

I have now found that bit and all is revealled

Lindsay is the admin of the Sportnetwork site and is now the moderator of the VFT22 site!

By transferring the rules from this site, in fact the rules I wrote and agreed with all the original users of this site when I set it up, she is deciding to control and administer both sites.

It looks poor on the VFT22 as no other club has deemed it necessary.

It does not feel right thet the administrator of this site is also a moderator of an alternative site.

Quote:

Faithful_City
I have now found that bit and all is revealled


in fact the rules I wrote and agreed with all the original users of this site when I set it up, she is deciding to control and administer both sites.

And now it all comes out.. you're worried that you're losing control?