Well peeps, that is your first month of Charlton Life !!!
It may seem like months ago already, but Charlton Life was in fact launched on the 18th August. At the beginning, LookOut and I had no idea at the time how popular the website was to prove, or where it was to head. We were just agreed that our long-term intention was to produce and build a well-respected community site, one that would offer a variety of options other than just a message board.
We've been staggered by the response we've received so far, both in traffic and from those of you kind enough to go out of your way to offer feedback. Thank you so much to everyone who has liked what they have seen, and come back.
Charlton Life has been visited over 30,000 times since its launch.
Ten articles have been published in the Blog and have received excellent feedback. The most visited article by far was 'Trying it on with Jordan', the story of my application for the Palace job, suprisingly attracting twice as many hits as 'Its AFKA, or gaffer to you sunshine', the story of my Charlton application. Me thinks a few Stripey Nigels got wind :-)
Kigelia's articles have been particularly well received, particularly his confession to being a plastic supporter, as had Richard Hunt's excellent 'letter to Curbs' following the book publication.
Steve Bridge's photos in the gallery have proved immensely popular, many thanks to Steve and this is something we hope to expand on.
But the most pleasing aspect in my eyes has been the way the forum has been built in such a short space of time. Just shy of 150 have become members so far, with over 20 members posting in excess of 50 times. The number of guests viewing continues to increase all the time.
We very pleased with both the quality of the posts, and the variety of the subjects. We hope the forum continues to grow and continues to attract informed, intelligent debate coupled with humour. If you're not yet a member, get involved !!
In the short-term, we are keen to expand on the amount of writers and articles produced in the Blog. The concept of the Blog was to give it a fanzine feel with something for everyone; a serious article followed by the ridiculous. It isn't aimed at match reports or transfer speculation, just everything on the periphary.
if there is anything you would like to get involved in, or have any suggestions on how this site can be improved, please get in touch. The object of this site is to be everyone's site, not just one or two individuals. Any suggestions on what can be done with the frontpage would also be welcomed.
Thank you once again for helping give Charlton Life the start it has had.
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Comments
Seriously , you and Lookout have done an excellent job with this site and it is good that the negative aspects of netaddicks are no-existent since they can get very tiresome.
Also like the lack of endless smileys and discreet pictures only. If only I knew how to add them!
In terms of being a fanzine I don't get that feel yet. I would like to see more features and articles (yes, I know i could write them) as the ones seen so far have been interesting and differentiate CL from other sites. More of that please.
It's nice to be on a site that doesn't have the wind up merchants that other sites have, and the reasoned opinion and knowledge that the others don't!
The objective is to build a strong Charlton-based community that captures all spectrums of our support, but i also enjoy intelligent debate from away fans. At present we have a hammer, spurs, and a stripey nigel that frequantly post and i see that increasing more over time.
But the focus will always remain Charlton.
Keep up the good work lads.
There are still things that I feel need to be done to take this whole thing to the level I think it deserves and to give it a real chance at success.
But what is "success" for a football fans' website? One of my aims was to make a Charlton website based on the newest of the newest web technologies available, with an eye on increasing the profile of our Club and its fans. With these techs come new ways of communicating, which leads, in theory, to a tighter and more organised, more powerful fans base. And eveything that underlies the entire site is just that. Unfortunately, with me being exiled and concentrating on another project that I really need to get done, I haven't been able to really make the most of what we are capable of doing with those techs. Like video and audio and more of the photoshopped images etc. So, bear with us, because in time I'll be in a better position to push things forward and make the project a lasting success. In a related note, it's also good to see the other projects, like addickted.net, that have also launched with something a little new and a little different. It all helps to raise our profile and make our fanbase that bit more special (er... I mean unique).
I'm most pleased with how the Forum has taken off and become a really engaging community in a matter of weeks. There's been some great discussions! It's Charlton for Charlton, so any feedback we welcome. We'll do our reasonable best to accommodate everyone.
Valley, Stanmore also said that the Forum seemed a bit slow to load the other day. It's difficult for me to tell, as my only connection now is dial-up, but I was really impressed with how quick the whole thing is even on a slow, slow, slow connection. So I welcome this feedback and wonder what others think?
The Forum software is built for speed, even with a large, active userbase. But this speed can be compromised by adding lots of extensions that enable things like the little info box you get that displays Account page info for each user and the control panel bit which displays the latest articles from the blog. But I think we have a reasonable balance, so my first question would be what web browser are you using at work and at home? If it's MS Internet Explorer 6 for both (which my stats say 74% are) then I'd suggest clearing your cache (under prefs somewhere) and seeing if that helps. Alternatively, you might want to try Firefox (tho I admit there is a display issue with the Forum tabs in Firefox for Windows... sorry). Firefox is a much better browser all the way round, and it certainly is much faster.
At any rate, I'd be interested to hear (or see) what others think about the speed of page loads etc.
Incomprehensible how much my life could change in 8 years. Genuinely feels like a lifetime ago. I'm sure I'm not alone.
Like to think reading that back we've tried to stay true to our objectives in terms of forum approach. Lot more difficult now due to size, people's approach to others in general, and the influence of other social media communications styles. We do try though.
And Lookout is still in a galaxy far away !
I (and others) had the odd spat with BFR from time to time but I miss his input on the cricket threads.