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HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
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| Why dont you just call them? Why? |
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annewilo
Joined: 22 Mar 2003
Location: Victoria Park
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I tried to call him but his mobile is switched off Hal
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HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
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| Did you enjoy the experience? |
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Mike 
Joined: 20 Sep 1996
Location: Lilydale, Tas.
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| It's safe to ignore HAL Anne - it's impossible to offend him and if you make the mistake of allowing him to suck you into a conversation you'll never get away - he always has the last word. |
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HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
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| Umm. . . . . that response was really, really long. . . . . You think you could like rephrase it? |
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annewilo
Joined: 22 Mar 2003
Location: Victoria Park
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Yes Mike, I am aware of Hals humour, I think its quite fun and quirky. BTW Mkie, I have to say, this is a great site and lots of real supporters in here, which is great. Whats the history of the page and who is Nick?
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Mike
Joined: 20 Sep 1996
Location: Lilydale, Tas.
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| Hang on... I've got a history lesson around here somewhere. I'll dig it out. |
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annewilo
Joined: 22 Mar 2003
Location: Victoria Park
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its actually 2pm in the afernoon here...lol
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Mike
Joined: 20 Sep 1996
Location: Lilydale, Tas.
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Here you go Anne.
Nick's my son by the way. Bought him a telecaster for his birthday a few years back and haven't seen him since.
| Quote: | Post from September 2000
In response to Joffa's request for background info on this site:
| Quote: | | I hope im not boring the shit out of you here but can you do us all a favor and i know a lot of others are interested it was a talking point in the cricketers arms this year when we were all half pissed well i was the others were fully pissed.Can you give us some stats on and about nicks board i.e when it started who was the first member what was the first post that sort of stuff. |
Nick's page started in 1995. It was a single page that he used mainly to keep his footy links. It was just stored on our home computer for his own use. I had a computer support business at that time and had been developing some small web sites for clients and could see the potential in the web. I needed a working site that I could use as a test bed for ideas and practice. Nick often visited the then new official site and Magpie Magic, which was, I think, the first footy site on the web and was put together by Driver who now runs Buckley Surfers). So I suggested to him that he put his page on line and that we develop it together, so he did and that's where the name came from. 'Nick's Collingwood Page' was just that - a single page on the web. That was about October 95 and Nick had just turned 11. During the off-season we developed it into a small site ready for the 96 season. A lot of that original site can still be seen in today's site.
After that it was just evolution. Some key points along the way were:
March 97 - Introduced the first live scoreboard in Australia. The present scoreboard although slightly changed in appearance, still uses the original code written to run the first scoreboard - and we believe that it's still the fastest.
March 97 - Introduced the Guest Book and Bulletin Board
April 97 - Introduced the fan mail facility which allowed users to send fan mail from the site directly to the Club.
Late '97 - Created the database holding results from all home and away games since the inception of the league (VFL).
From this point on new development on the site took a back seat to its running. The amount of hands on involvement had grown enormously and was continuing to increase, so it became a matter of developing what we already had and keeping things current and operational.
In January 99 we introduced registration and forums to the bulletin board to help control ratbag elements from other clubs, protect usernames and allow moderation. Although this change came about as a result of user requests, we lost a lot of users at this time. The main complaint was that the new board was too formal and the board had lost its feel. People didn't like having to remember passwords either.
We're almost ready for a major upgrade. Hopefully during this long break we'll get a chance to completely revamp the site and bring its appearance up to date.
Justifying the money and expense has always been a problem, especially seeing that it keeps us broke enough not to be able to get to the footy. We're about to try again to offset the cost by selling email addresses. We've tried this in the past, but as soon as money is mentioned, nobody's interested. If you value the site and would like to keep it up and running, you'll support us, if not, we're wasting our time and we need a break anyway. The email system will consist of Hotmail/Yahoo type webmail accounts or will redirect to your existing email address. The cost will be about $20/year and you'll get magpies.net email addresses for that (username@magpies.net) - your usernames on here will be reserved for your use, but you can use a different one if you prefer. It would be a good idea to get in early while the popular names are still available. There will be an online order form, but I'll take username reservations whenever you like - email me.
Some stats:
The first post on the bb 12/3/97 (after a few test postings)
Early BB members. We only started registering at the beginning of last year, but the first registrations (after Nick and me) were from Tom (hasn't been seen since) and Charlie who still posts from time to time (especially when someone rips off his posts from elsewhere).
Traffic. We are currently getting between 1500 and 3000 hits a day from about 300 unique addresses. That means that about 300 people look at approx. 5 - 10 pages each, each day. For some perverse reason traffic has actually risen slightly since the end of the season, it normally dies to almost nothing at this time of the year.
If you'd like to see the old sites and the old bb messages, they are archived here.
Well - that's about it I think - any questions? |
Last edited by Mike on Sun Apr 06, 2003 12:11 am; edited 3 times in total |
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London Dave 
Ješte jedna pivo prosím
Joined: 16 Dec 1998
Location: Iceland on Thames
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dave@magpies.net
My phone is off...I wonder where I left it last night????? |
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Black_White
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Mike
Joined: 20 Sep 1996
Location: Lilydale, Tas.
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You must have missed my post when daylight saving ended Tessa. I don't control the time you see on the BB, you do.
Go into your profile and set your timezone to GMT + 10 Hours. |
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annewilo
Joined: 22 Mar 2003
Location: Victoria Park
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Dear Mike, thanks for the history lesson. Would you be better rather than charge, have some sort of advertising and sponsorship. I am sure there are a few ppl out their who could do this, rather than charging, because you are right, as soon as you do this, you will lose a great number of members and they will head off to somewhere like yahoo etc. Iknow its exp to run servers and manage them etc, my bf is a webby, but to be honest, it would be sad. One other thing, I know that you are unofficial Collingwood but is it not worth having some sort of officialdom and allow the club to be involved ( Iknow in my head I can hear your answers but just some thought)
Anne
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Mike
Joined: 20 Sep 1996
Location: Lilydale, Tas.
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Don't forget that that post is two and a half years old Anne, there's been a lot of water under the bridge since then.
The cash flow hasn't improved much and I reached the point of closing the site a couple of times, but both times backed away from it when it came to the crunch. We are now committed to keeping the site going while there is a demand for it.
Official support is not an option. We are not the only unofficial site and can't ask for, or expect, preferential treatment, especially after FTO closed down earlier this year. The Club has always been very supportive and has been much more involved than any other AFL club has been in an unofficial site.
Time is a more important issue now, but I've spent the last 12 months setting up systems to allow the users of the site to operate it and allow me to spend less time on the site. This has actually meant that the demand on my time has been greater over the past 12 months, but we've now reached the point where I can start to back out and leave the site to its users.
With a few minor (and one major) exceptions, the users of the board have been very patient and understanding during this period and have put up with us while a heap of inexperienced people have turned themselves into a moderation/administration team.
We are in our 9th season and, I think, are ready to move forward into the next incarnation of Nick's. |
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annewilo
Joined: 22 Mar 2003
Location: Victoria Park
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sounds as if alot of work has gone into it all. I wasnt making suggestions for any ohter reason than interest, I apreciate what you say.
Good work and thanks for the history, it is a great site and power to you. I have looked at it for a few years on and off but only as a guest, never wanted to post until I had something to actively contribute and I feel that is what we are doing now.Its really hard when you first leave home and then you miss all the things you were used to doing and Collingwood was a great part of my famlies life.
Oh well, will get back there some day, sooner than later I hope
Anne
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