Why the wait? New club website goes live
Monday, 05 November 07, 11:42 AM · Comments (36)
The new club website has gone live and while I know more questions will come in time, the first one is why the wait?
It's pretty much the same website, in terms of layout and functionality it just has a new design and we're told some new content.
In fact if you head on over to the Chinese site you actually get to see a new design that we might all be happy with.
I'm not having a pop at General Krulak here because I'm sure he was just repeating what he was told, but on September 16th he told us this wasn't a simple 'wickering' of a site and that it was an 'entire new site' with 'far more fan appeal'.
It was a wickering, it's not completely new and it has no more appeal, less actually if you factor in there is no forum for the fans.
While it's okay saying 'this is what I was told' once or twice, you can't keep using it without figuring out there must be a problem somewhere if everything some people are getting told is wrong.
Expectations were created with this new website and they were not met.
For me, the club site is about content but I just think the club have missed an excellent opportunity to move the club in a new direction. If this is what they wanted I could have sent them to people that could have done this in a day or two - I really did think we were going to get something impressive after all the time and hype.
There is good news however. If you watch to the free news on the right, you don't hear Jack Woodward. Well you do but not for very long - let's hope it stays like that.
This is just my opinion - shoot away, but the image below is what I've found after just a few minutes - the main reason to have left PTV - error pages everywhere!
Like this blog? Help spread the word: 
36 Comments · Add yours
I have to say, I'm quite disappointed. It looks nice, but that's all they've changed. At first glance it seems more difficult to navigate than before and I can't see any new content.
A change of background colour and new free news clip.........underwhelmed!!
reminds me of something ...
yeah that its - the summer and top class signings
i now its only a website but if they cant even get right the things you really should expect them too how can we believe they'll ever get right the five year plan ...
I'm really disappointed.... Looking at the layout, doesn't look like anything i couldn't have done myself. Months and months of development for this? That could have been done in a few weeks.
I agree. A complete letdown. It's actually harder to use than the old site - the message board is under the 'villa exclusive' section - WTF! It's surely better off in the 'community' section.
The RSS feed is welcome, but you have to dig to find it.... (it's buried as a subpage in the news section).
I can't even log in with my details to watch the old highlights. Error 404!
C'mon villa, get your act together.
the general said this wasn't going to be launched until it was 100% .. i'm starting to think he only feeds us the bo&&ox he's fed by other people
if MON gets rod of players and brings in new ones to make the team better isn't it fair to say that certain people at the club have to start going soon?
what was you expecting on a website
at avfc-anthony
i dont think it's so much about what we were expecting as to what we were led to believe was coming
- it was supposed to be completely new yet it isn't
- it was supposed to be luanched when 100%, hence all the delays
- there are error pages
- it's still nowhere near as good as say manutd.com or liverpoolfc.tv or arsenal.com
not meaning to blow my own trumpet (but am) but the team i work with could have done as good as what we've got in a week or two working at half speed and as good, if not better than the sites i've mentioned above in 3 months - probably for less than what the club have paid for what they've got and we would have been live well before the start of the season
it's simply not very good for a 'new website'. if it was new 2 years ago i'd say i was impressed ... but not today
the whole website (or media department if you want to call it that because i'm pretty sure that the website comes under media even though it should be seperate) outlook from the club is stuck in the 90's - go look at the sites i've mentioned above and see the difference. the club could have had this if they had someone there that was forward thinking and not someone who was trying to protect his or her (not pointing fingers at anyone) little empire ...
Jeesus, Villa fans will comlain about _anything_
New owner. top manager. young exciting squad. great potential.
the rest is all just noise.
some of us are maybe more passionate about the club than you trevor and i know why fans think like this because its new but i dont use the club site anymore not when there is this site VT and Vital Villa
but you right. the chinky site is much better!
Agreed Damian, it is a couple of years behind.
The main things to think about in any kind of design, particularly on the web is delivery of content.
Right now i'm struggling to find the things i want on the site. The technology used isn't really any different to the previous site. I think the navigation particularly is what lets it down.
But the content boxes look like something they resorted to because they were frustrated and couldn't find anything original.
(and that is a critique purely from a business point of view rather than as a villa fan)
personally i think its a huge improvement from the old one. the previous website was looking out of date. this new look one is a lot more modern a fresh. however there is a few things wrong with it. like the error mentioned above and a few things are still not ready, but overall i think its a step into the right direction. this website is one of the best in the prem.
at Nick123
your statement is way off, sorry.
the 3 i've mentioned above are better and i actually prefer the look of the standard template from premium tv (the new one) than what we've got as a club ..
it's like there was no imagination or thought put into it. like i say above, this site would have looked good 2 years ago (despite all the errors everywhere) but today it looks below average and is certainly no where near the best in the league, sorry
one more thing ... look at this page:
[url]LINK[/url]
is this amateur hour? its a new website and the people that use this part of it have to deal with this?? come on ... they must be having a laugh - a new one must becoming out soon??
3 scroll bars on one page!!
i think are website better than arsenal and liverpool theres just looks clutterd and hard to read. and whos made the new website by the way
an why does it look like are main colour is sky blue
anthony .. its the same people that did the last one and you'd have to ask teh club why they are using such odd colours ...
What a joke! Useless, absolutely useless. Someone has done the club.
Aren't the club still contracted to Premium TV though? I remember reading a document in February saying that they were putting the media rights up for tender. It may be that we are under contract to Premium TV, hence why the same website with new paint job. I don't have a problem with the site per se, but to me it just seems like a Premium TV classic website.
Even so, other sites that you listed may be better than ours, but I still think that the new site is better than the current Newcastle site which is also PTV, and looks like our old one in black, or the official Chelsea one.
Though I have to say, the Man City site is even better in my opinion than Man Utd's, Arsenals or Liverpools.
i see you still have to subscribe to most things and it is actually harder to navigate, but appearance doesn't bother me its the content so hopefully the content will be better
Theres bound to be a few problems when a new site is launched just like there was little problems on here with the new forum
Apart from that i think its much much better in terms of looks and whats on there have a mess around with the site for a hour or 2 and ull see its much much better than last one
Who cares?
For the life of me, I just cannot imagine anyone spends too much time on there to be honest with you. Its the same with all official club websites worldwide. The only growth model I can see is that potentially users in India/China/Thailand etc would actively use the official website. No-one else ever would.
Why? Well, because there are just too many established other sources out there to fill the need. Fansites for gossip. Newspapers for independant reviews of games. The inherent flaws in offical club sites are manifold. They are biased, they never print anything until it is 100% factual, they don't have the journalistic contacts to break any real news, and they can't show live football.
Based on all that, why would anyone ever use the official website?
Ours is definitely a disappointment, but as it stands, Liverpools site is a joke. Like much of what I associate with Liverpool it seems to hark back to an earlier era.
little disapointed in the pixelation on the villa badge (amongst others)
It doesn't even look nice. What wank. When I saw the seatexhcange i was quite excited - but this just looks shite and has the same shite functionality.
Baldy, you have a good point. I check the official site nearly every day and I am beginning to wonder if there's any point. It's very biased and it's filled with nothing stories all the time.
They couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery, but tell us don't worry it's part of the 5 year plan. That plan is bollocks it's only to distract from the shambles right now, were not idiots you know! well I suppose some blind loyal ones are on here.
Some of the comments are bordering on daft....it's a bloody website!!! If by this time next season we are not in both cups and look serious european contenders then is the time to raise such euphoria!!!!
Look up euphoria in the dictionary.
A complete let down. I'm sorry, but the new site is honestly something college students could have done in 2 days. All they've done is add a new template or "shell" to the site and left most of the other stuff on there. The header looks very amateurish and doesn't stand out at all. I wonder if they did this in house, or if they contracted it out. Anyone know?
Meh..............
Well what more do people want?
It's a website with information of matches past and present, with ticket information and interviews plus club shop links.
The only thing missing seems to be a forum.
I like the new colour scheme, its layout and unfortunately like a lot of websites there is some bad links from past material.
PTV is cack but if there is a contract in place... we will just have to wait and see.
its just a f***kin website who gives a f**k
samvilla1
do you care about anything? if you do, why?
Well said, Baldy. I never use the official site for any team other than for schedule or ticketing info. If official sites could do the job, none of these other sites would exist.