The BHA official website

[The Large One]

Whenever I go onto the Seagulls website, the first thing that strikes me about the homepage is just how overly busy it is, with so much stuff on there being of such little interest, and with it laid out so awfully - trying to shoehorn absolutely everything in on one page - and slowing up my 'puter for it.

I'm just wondering, what with the nature of the club, and being in a meeja city and all, is there any value in the Albion striking out on its own and having a website that doesn't conform to a corporate, nationwide look - and that doesn't look so brain-fryingly shite?

I don't know what the commercial implications are, but bearing in mind we have designers who make an excellent looking programme, and the graphics on the big screen being pretty darn good, surely someone associated with the club could come up with something better than that hideous kaleidoscopic wipeout?

 

[Springal]

I don't think they have a choice? Especially with all the logistics behind seagulls player etc etc

 

[albionalex]

They've already said they're changing the look of the website.

 

[The Large One]

They've already said they're changing the look of the website.

To something the club wants? Or something they're going to get lumbered with?

 

[halbpro]

To the best of my knowledge pretty much every club below the Premier League (and some there as well) is locked into a contract with the same provider who templates all the sites identically. As noted it's to do with Seagulls Player, and is why all the club player thingies share the same logins.

It's a shame as the company that provides the services (I've forgotten their name) isn't the best to deal with.

 

[Storer 68]

I think its a league wide contract so we'd have to break that, which could have all sorts of implications for our league membership.....

not worth the risk IMHO

 

[Arthur]

Whenever I go onto the Seagulls website, the first thing that strikes me about the homepage is just how overly busy it is, with so much stuff on there being of such little interest, and with it laid out so awfully - trying to shoehorn absolutely everything in on one page - and slowing up my 'puter for it.

I'm just wondering, what with the nature of the club, and being in a meeja city and all, is there any value in the Albion striking out on its own and having a website that doesn't conform to a corporate, nationwide look - and that doesn't look so brain-fryingly shite?

I don't know what the commercial implications are, but bearing in mind we have designers who make an excellent looking programme, and the graphics on the big screen being pretty darn good, surely someone associated with the club could come up with something better than that hideous kaleidoscopic wipeout?

Don't think the club can really be trusted when it comes to websites. All of them (ticket site, shop, lottery with possibly the exception of the Amex's site) are f***ing awful.

Agree with you about the main site though, it's a design car crash. Aren't they tied into a deal the FPTV (or what ever they are called) lot though?

 

[Notters]

Very much agree oh large one. The content is good but the layout is shite. I HATE the way you always have to click through that first page advertising seagulls player (why did they change it from world - much better name?) so much that it puts me off going on there as much as I would otherwise.

 

[The Large One]

They might well be tied in with Premium TV, but this is what I mean about striking out on their own.

There are no shortage of web and meeja people in Brighton, many of whom could come up with something arty-farty or poncey - or just less cluttered.

I suppose I'm curious as to what pulling out of this deal, and going it alone would mean...

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I agree it is a shit website. I presume all FL clubs must have voted for the current situation though, either specifically or as part of a bigger communications package. If this is the case I would prefer the club to stick with the deal.

 

[Rodney Thomas]

Leeds have their own bespoke website (albeit even worse than this FL standard one)..

 

[Driver8]

Leeds have their own bespoke website (albeit even worse than this FL standard one)..

No doubt so Bates can squeeze an extra £1 or two from their fans.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Is the text content of the site on RSS feeds? Surely someone could redesign the layout to something much lovelier, drawing on the feeds?

 

[Bob!]

Leeds have their own bespoke website (albeit even worse than this FL standard one)..

Weren't they in the Prem when this deal started though?

 

[strings]

Don't think the club can really be trusted when it comes to websites. All of them (ticket site, shop, lottery with possibly the exception of the Amex's site) are f***ing awful.

The ticket website is designed by the ticketing company that the club work with - I can't remember their name, but it was dicussed on NSC during the run up to the final season at Withdean. Anyway, Wolves and Newcastle fans (amongst others) enjoy an identical website, just with different colours and photos.

 

[Driver8]

Weren't they in the Prem when this deal started though?

I don't think we had the Internet that long ago.

 

[halbpro]

Is the text content of the site on RSS feeds? Surely someone could redesign the layout to something much lovelier, drawing on the feeds?

As far as I can see there isn't an RSS feed provided. You can work around that without it being too much of a pain in the ass, but you end up getting a cease and desist for breach of copyright.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

As far as I can see there isn't an RSS feed provided. You can work around that without it being too much of a pain in the ass, but you end up getting a cease and desist for breach of copyright.

Just out of interest, how could someone work around the lack of RSS feeds? I ask as, for ages, I've wanted to have YouTube comments automatically appear on the Seagulls TV website but couldn't work out how to do this as YT comments weren't in RSS format or another easily redeployable format?

 

[halbpro]

Just out of interest, how could someone work around the lack of RSS feeds? I ask as, for ages, I've wanted to have YouTube comments automatically appear on the Seagulls TV website but couldn't work out how to do this as YT comments weren't in RSS format or another easily redeployable format?

You write something that parses the HTML to get what you want. YouTube's actually easier as they have an API so you can just call that to get all the comments for any given video.

Edit:

As an example take the following video (it was just one that popped up in my history).

video

You can get all the comments for it here in handy-dandy XML for you to read into an app at your leisure.

 

[seagulls4ever]

Leeds don't have that shitty template: Home | Leeds United | LUFC, Scores, News, Tickets, Transfers, Fixtures | |

It's the same provider I think, but they seem to have customised it a bit more so that it doesn't look quite so gash.

There are probably others but too much effort to look.