Website idea - feedback please!

[gripper stebson]

Hi all,

Whilst frantically refreshing Twitter for transfer updates / latest scores and general football news a while back I happened on this idea. A one stop shop for all Official Club tweets and fan tweets from all clubs.

If this was available would you use it?

I have knocked up and Albion page to give you an idea how it would look.

http://pel12df4.sm4.biz/

Thoughts (good or bad - only took me half an hour to put together so I won't be offended!)?

Thanks.

 

[GingerBeerMan]

I would use it myself because any breaking news or transfer gossip is covered nicely by NSC. You also get the added bonus of discussion on NSC.

What differentiates your site from using twitter? Most people with a twitter account probably follow their club/important individuals anyway.

I'd also say it's worth a go if you fancied a little project. I assume you already have a server of some sort, so you'd only need a domain name and a little time to plug in the Twitter accounts of various teams and you're set. It doesn't seems to take much updating if you're just pulling info off Twitter. You could also make a little backend to the site if you're bored, and a updown voting system so popular tweets reach the top.

 

[gripper stebson]

I would use it myself because any breaking news or transfer gossip is covered nicely by NSC. You also get the added bonus of discussion on NSC.

What differentiates your site from using twitter? Most people with a twitter account probably follow their club/important individuals anyway.

I'd also say it's worth a go if you fancied a little project. I assume you already have a server of some sort, so you'd only need a domain name and a little time to plug in the Twitter accounts of various teams and you're set. It doesn't seems to take much updating if you're just pulling info off Twitter. You could also make a little backend to the site if you're bored, and a updown voting system so popular tweets reach the top.

I guess the upside is that you can move between clubs nice and quickly.

Maybe some sort of chatroom facility added may help keep people there - although it would clearly end in constant abuse!

Mmmm?

 

[8ace]

Not sure what it gives you above and beyond doing a #bhafc search on twitter

 

[ropey9]

Isn't your idea pretty much

http://www.tweetdeck.com

 

[gripper stebson]

Not sure what it gives you above and beyond doing a #bhafc search on twitter

No difference really. Just the ability to whizz around the league quickly. Probably a crap idea. I have alot of these!

 

[Monsieur Le Plonk]

No difference really. Just the ability to whizz around the league quickly. Probably a crap idea. I have alot of these!

I'd use it. I sometimes feel like I'm standing in front of a moving train by refusing to allow myself to get involved with twitter and all that goes with it. My life is already ruined by NSC. Your idea would be my conscience-friendly answer.

 

[Colossal Squid]

I think people are being a bit unkind to be honest. I like it.

Yes, the functionality is essentially just a way of using Twitter BUT never underestimate the laziness of people who don't want to set up multiple tabs in their Twitter client performing various searches.

PLUS think of all those who work in offices where they can't install third party apps, such as Tweetdeck et al. If they could simply navigate to a handy webpage keeping tabs on all this activity then they'd be laughing.

I find Twitter ever such a time hog and it makes me anxious about using it at times. However if I were just seeing a clear and clean interface like this for my footie goss, I'd enjoy it immensely.

There is also scope to give all those armchair fans who aren't attending a match on a Saturday afternoon, a really nice way to keep abreast of what's going on with their team and other teams.

Could you add the capability to dynamically monitor feeds based on fixtures? So on match day when Brighton play Leicester, you get the #bhafc and #lcfc tags monitored so you get a nice view of home and away fans together.

 

[jgmcdee]

I'd suggest that given the nature of twitter what would be really useful would be to classify tweets regarding purpose and allow people to select them that way. A quick look at https://twitter.com/officialbhafc shows tweets about merchandising, tweets about games, tweets about sponsorship, tweets about team/transfers, tweets about the training ground, and many more. Might be nice to be able to say "I want to hear about the games and the team team, but nothing else" and actually see just those tweets.

 

[tinx]

If you could propogate twitter feeds on there without the individual needing access to twitter somehow then I'd use it as twitter is blocked at work.

 

[joeinbrighton]

Gripper, coming at this from a slightly different angle. I sometimes produce some articles for a football website for freelance writers. Indeed, I have written 2 articles for it about Brighton which I posted the links to on here (I am currently toying with the idea of writing a third one). When I have written articles about other clubs (Southampton and Luton being 2 that got a particularly good response), in order to publicise them being out there, I have had to go on to Twitter and Tweet the Twitter accounts of various fans' forums etc, or post on the messageboards of football forums that those fans frequent in order to post up a link.

If there is a website that has news feeds for particular clubs and its supporters that is able to post up links to relevant articles about that club that have gone live on a given day, as well as posting up the transfer gossip about that club etc, I think that would serve a useful resource as there are quite a number of football websites out there now with writers posting on particular clubs, but I think the challenge sometimes for them is getting that exposure and wondering if people who might be interested in reading their material are actually getting to know that it is out there in cyberspace.

 

[gripper stebson]

Gripper, coming at this from a slightly different angle. I sometimes produce some articles for a football website for freelance writers. Indeed, I have written 2 articles for it about Brighton which I posted the links to on here (I am currently toying with the idea of writing a third one). When I have written articles about other clubs (Southampton and Luton being 2 that got a particularly good response), in order to publicise them being out there, I have had to go on to Twitter and Tweet the Twitter accounts of various fans' forums etc, or post on the messageboards of football forums that those fans frequent in order to post up a link.

If there is a website that has news feeds for particular clubs and its supporters that is able to post up links to relevant articles about that club that have gone live on a given day, as well as posting up the transfer gossip about that club etc, I think that would serve a useful resource as there are quite a number of football websites out there now with writers posting on particular clubs, but I think the challenge sometimes for them is getting that exposure and wondering if people who might be interested in reading their material are actually getting to know that it is out there in cyberspace.

Interesting thought.

I also had an idea of a magazine style site where fans wrote match reports. it would look very tabloid but be written (hopefully in a comic fashion) by the fans... The problem with any of these type of ideas is that they are incredibly hard to get off the ground.

 

[GingerBeerMan]

Would the frames on your site be blocked if Twitter is blocked?

I found an interesting article (here) about storing tweets on the server (there is also one about pulling tweets with certain hash tags). I was thinking you could have checkboxes with team names in the division, then when Brighton play Leeds, I could check "Brighton" and "Leeds" on the side, which pulls all Brighton and Leeds results from the database. It's a bit more long winded, with a lot more coding, but it looks like the hardest stuff is done in the link, and it's make the site better on two levels (not being blocked and relevant 'home/away' tweets).

 

[Was not Was]

It would work as a browser home page when I'm at my desk, as I'll have tweetdeck open (in Chrome) covering a range of topics, work stuff, etc.

so from my pov, you win if you can get ppl to set it as a homepage.

Otherwise, can't see anyone going out of their way to visit it, as the info is available elsewhere.

Hope this makes sense. Good to see someone having an idea and just doing it.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

I think it would be an excellent idea and bring some much needed organisation to the world of Twitter, making it far easier to browse. Great name for the site as well!

 

[sebtucknott]

Sounds like a great idea but I don't think you're allowed to do it...

http://blog.footytweets.com/2009/04/the-footytweets-cease-and-desist-story/

Seems stupid though as its just recycling public information.

 

[gripper stebson]

Sounds like a great idea but I don't think you're allowed to do it...

http://blog.footytweets.com/2009/04/the-footytweets-cease-and-desist-story/

Seems stupid though as its just recycling public information.

Good spot cheers.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Sounds like a great idea but I don't think you're allowed to do it...

http://blog.footytweets.com/2009/04/the-footytweets-cease-and-desist-story/

Seems stupid though as its just recycling public information.

What is it in this URL that stops Gripper doing what he is suggesting?

 

[sebtucknott]

Good spot cheers.

One of those ideas that I thought surely someone has done this already.

Might be worth looking at other subjects with no restrictions.

Or investigate further I didn't get a chance to read that post in full. I would have thought displaying tweets wasn't the same as posting live information. Otherwise would the fa have to fine twitter or the individual users?

 

[Mammoth]

I like. I have insufficient time for tech these days so something so user friendly is a bonus. No set up required. Cheers GS if you keep this project going.