ACC Web review

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

[quote="Elliott M"]I run a few financial websites as bulk of my job. With the hours I work I am unlikely to be able to lead this, but am happy to be a member of a team and do some initial work.

I would advise starting by

1. collecting (very) raw ideas on what members want the website to do
2. distilling these into a set of features the website should have (perhaps split into need now, need later, and nice-to-haves). This should give some clues about the number of people required in the team going forward, approximate spend and amount of ongoing work required (not just content, but database admin etc)
3. flesh out a full spec, probably in consultation with the contractors.

What if I open a thread (and someone else make it sticky) to do (1) and give it a month to fill up? Then whoever is interested in taking forward convene (in a pub?) EDIT (Sean) mid Jan to do some thinking?

[George]

link to the active forum

download membership form

download all race entry forms

calender of all events

faces of VC's and other people in the club

video section

[Stu Merckx Man]

racing pictures and results!

[Snoop Doug]

Keith's Stuff looks good to me:

A "Calendar-Event" based website?
Much of what cyclists are involved in is based around some form of cycling "event". A Club Run, a race, an off-road ride, a social get-together.

Want to know what's happening next weekend? - look at the future events calendar. Choose what you fancy joining-in with from all of the events entered for that day.
Let others know you're planning to go to a particular event by logging in and ticking the box. Share lifts this way.
Want to organise support for an event? Get people to subscribe to it.
Attach a map to an event so people know how to get there.
After an event, attach a write-up.
Add results for an event.
Attach your photos to an event.

[Snoop Doug]

maybe an honours page, club records, who has got their bronze, silver, gold standards (I didn't know what they were either until I read da roolz) that kind of thing??

[Rob C]

you mean like this:

[url]http://www.southlondonharriers.org/[/url]

[Elliot M]

Marco - I guess I should have said "those that will build the site, whether internal or external " rather than specifically contractors. But if there are funds for an external developer, I would suggest that their use is considered?

I would agree with your open source point, but setting up Wordpress (or TextPattern, or ExpressionEngine) to do exactly what you want it to do and look exactly how you want it to look is not necessarily a simple process, not one anyone has the patience to get to grips with and it is something that you can get developers to work on.

That being said, I think a good idea of what people want should come first. Purpose and audience - valid points - this thread should cover a major (the majority?) audience and what they want, i.e. existing members. Other audiences might be prospective members and media -- what do they need?

[George]

I'd say more like this

http://www.expeditionkilimanjaro.com/index.php

[Andrew G]

As a front page the Kingston Wheelers site ([url]http://www.kingstonwheelers.com/[/url]) is very user friendly with a clear simple layout. Click to obvious links for the info you want.

For a calendar the Old Ports one [url]http://www.oldportlianscc.co.uk/2008_dates_29.html[/url] is excellent. Very easy to read and scan ahead with the info a click away, just click on a Saturday or Sunday ride entry and you get the info and a link to a map of the meeting place. Superb.

[Snoop Doug]

Old Ports calendar thingie is a good spot indeed Mr , tidy. Personally I think the K Wheelers page looks a bit.....kinda naff? Mind you, says they meet every Monday down the pub, didya see that Sean

[Andrew G]

[quote="Marco"]what is the purpose of the website ?
what is its target demographic ?

[Antloony]

I had a word with my friend Rob the web designer and he's more than willing to take on a bit of work and help us out. He can basically do whatever we want with the site and give control of it over to someone for updates and general maintenance etc.

I'll put his link up here [url]http://www.neutroncore.com/[/url] for his site which has links to some of the work he's done over the past couple of years. The lad knows what he's doing and is so approachable and friendly (well he would be being a mate of mine )

Whether we use him or not the club site needs dragging out of the dark ages and needs a fresh new look.

(Sorry if my remarks upset those involved with the running of the site, they're not intended to at all)

[Keith]

There's 2 groups of people the website should cater for:

• Non-members (or to put it another way, prospective members ), and


• Members

Non-members:

• A bit about the phenomena that is The Addiscombe Cycling Club.


• The Club Run.


• A bit of history.


• Membership.
  
  
  
  • The benefits of membership.
  
  
  • How to join.

Members:

• The Members bit should act as a showcase to the non-members, showing what people in the club get up to.


• It should also provide a tool enabling the members to:
  
  
  
  • Get together with others at "events".
  
  
  • Organise Events.
  
  
  • Post reports about events.
  
  
  • Share pictures and video of events.
  
  
  • Post results of events.


• With a suitable calendar system, members could use the site to organise their racing calendar.


• Much of this member stuff is already provided by this Forum, but in a form not accessible to the non-member. A suitable website could either replace a lot of the Forum activity, or at the very least provide a seamless gateway into the Forum. (Note, the topic of who can post may need addressing. Authorised users? Anyone who pays their subs? The Forum would then remain "open".)


• By being the place where we all post about coming and recent events, the website remains fresh and continuously updated.

The Events can cover

• The Club Run


• Races: Road races, Time-Trails, CX, MTB, Track, etc.


• Long distance events: Sportives and Audax.


• Social events.


• Committee.

Not sure where the on-road / off-road distinction should be made, if at all? Off-road do all of Club Run, Races, Long distance, Social and Committee, so perhaps just be able to filter within these sections rather than have separate on/off road sections of the website?

• That's ..


• .. enough ..


• ..lists!

[Toks]

I like everything thats been suggested. With the calender idea the OldPorts thing looks aesthetically displeasing. Don't present it in that format unless you're gonna have a lot of those dates filled up. It looks like a shop with loads of empty shelves. The Kingston Wheelers front page was probably great when they first put it up - to me though it looks a bit dated.

How the current website has helped us secure new memebrs I have no idea. At least 5 people emailed me over the summer asking when and where club runs took place.

[Alex P]

I know this is jumping the gun but when we have this up and running, the control of the website (running of and content) cannot fall to one person, several people must have the capability to look after site (behind the scenes) and upload items relating to the club. Perhaps the team should be decided early on to ensure that all the thoughts are gathered and actioned (if agreed), then run it when live

The future direction and governance should then be controlled by the ACC Committee.