Well that was a good weekend to be a Villa fan. For the first time in a long while we are in the top half, and are showing some real signs of fight that should ensure we stay in the top flight for a 24th year. What this means for those who wanted the manager ousted is that we will most likely end up with Gerard Houllier in charge next year, barring some sudden resignation on his part. Anyway, I wanted to take this moment to have a quick recap of the opening four weeks of this site, and to detail what is coming in the future, as well as giving you a place to let me know what you’d like.
As many of you know, we launched very suddenly around four weeks ago and, as a result, we have been informed of certain issues that have affected things like new user registrations, the old server struggling to keep up with traffic, as well as a few other teething problems. Due to this, I will be making a few changes to the site in order to help it grow in a structured manner. If you have experienced problems during your use of the site, then I can only apologise and promise you that the ongoing development will be very structured in it’s implementation.
Missing passwords
It has come to my attention that some users have had issues where passwords have not been sent to them after user registration. After examining the problem, I have resolved the issue, and thus any password reset issues, or lack of an email when registering have now been resolved. I’ve set up a dedicated mail server for sorting these issues, which should help with the ongoing growth of the site. I have sent out a mail to all registered email addresses to offer any assistance but in the meantime if you have any issues with logging in, you can send your query to me directly via the “Contact” option at the bottom of the site. I apologise for the interim issues that people may have experienced due to the fast growth of the site.
The forum is live
It is obviously in it’s infancy at present, but the forum will be becoming an integral part of the development of the site. As the blog has to go through a form of editorial approval, then we understand completely that this may prove unwieldy for fast moving discussions that develop over the course of a day or two. To this end, there will be a variety of forum specific areas that allow people to discuss specific items. These include:
A dedicated forum post for in-match discussions (thank you to Tom aka Gabbygabby for this idea)
Forums for other sports such as cycling, rugby, golf, F1 etc
Other areas for people to arrange things such as car shares to matches, meetups for a pint and food etc, and any other general way we can assist.
We currently have a few forums open that you can contribute to. They are:
Goalkeeping transfer rumours – http://www.astonvillalife.com/forum?vasthtmlaction=viewtopic&t=4.0
Cycling Discussion – http://www.astonvillalife.com/forum?vasthtmlaction=viewtopic&t=3.0
Discussion on policing at grounds – http://www.astonvillalife.com/forum?vasthtmlaction=viewtopic&t=2.0
You can also add your own topic of discussion in any of the forum categories. For example, if you would like to start a discussion regarding a rumoured transfer in or out of the club, you can do so via the following link – http://www.astonvillalife.com/forum?vasthtmlaction=viewforum&f=1.0
We also would like your opinions on what you’d like to see in the forums as you, the fans, are the main focus of this site. Any suggestions can be popped in the comments box below, or mailed to me directly via the “Contact” option at the bottom of the site.
Aston Villa Life and the Express & Star
I am pleased to announce that I will be the Villa correspondent/blogger for the Express & Star starting next season, where I will be writing an article once a week. Given the significant local readership at the Express & Star, this partnership will help propel the site into a wide reaching audience. The Express & Star is the largest regional daily newspaper in the UK with a readership of 125,000, and therefore we are extremely pleased to create this link with them starting next season. What this also means for the site is that we should have increased direct access to press conferences at the club, and therefore be able to maintain a strong supply of news. Further details regarding this venture will be published over the close season.
Aston Villa Life on Facebook
An important part of the community at Aston Villa Life is focussed on developing relationships between the site and fans, and between fans themselves. In order to do this, we have set up a Facebook “Like” page, where you can stay posted on more general items regarding the site and the club, as well as being able to network with the people behind the usernames of this site. If you’d like to become a fan of the site on Facebook, you can do so here – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aston-Villa-Life/119566671453197
Aston Villa Life on Twitter
We have registered the username Astonvillalife on Twitter so that we can tweet news when we start using the service. However, we are not looking to use Twitter in the immediate future as we do not want to dilute the efforts on site development too far. We will keep you posted on when we do though.
Aston Villa on Youtube
Part of our development will involve the launch of Aston Villa Life TV, which will require the participation of both the fans on this site, and at Villa Park as part of a wider community. In doing this, we are not looking to echo AVTV or any other official angle, but we would like to spend part of this time interviewing fans when the project starts next season. If you are interested in participating as either an interviewer, interviewee, or just to help out, then we’d be very pleased to hear from you.
Home page restructuring
Due to needing to put items on the front page that need to be fixed (for example details that direct new registrations to a certain part of the site, or permanent items of importance), we will be restructuring the landing page of the site. For those of you who wish to just go straight to the blog so you can check the latest posts, you can do so by bookmarking the following link – http://www.astonvillalife.com/blog/
People who want to navigate directly to the forum, may also bookmark http://www.astonvillalife.com/forum/
The new landing page will, when launched, allow site news to be better managed, as well as including the site’s social media outlets in a prominent position. These changes will be phased in, with each step announced ahead of schedule. Your opinions are welcomed, as the site needs to reflect the needs of the community rather than just my thoughts. I will, as always, endeavour to enact as many ideas as I can over the medium term of the site.
Forthcoming project items
We are still working hard to bring further developments to the site in order to enhance our reputation as the fastest growing Aston Villa site on the internet. So far we have implemented the main blogging page, a shiny new forum, and a mobile version of our site. Over the next few months, we will be developing the mobile site, starting site based competitions, as well as looking to develop the site in such a way that it continues to serve the fan community. You can rest assured that we do not intend to rest on our laurels, and want to do our very best to ensure that this site becomes a central part of the Aston Villa community.
Apologies for the length of the post, but I wanted to put across some of the future plans we have with the site, as well as making you aware of our presence in other outlets. Thank you for contributing to a great opening four weeks to the site, and for making this site what it is today. I look forward to the continued contributions from you all going forward, and to some lively debate regarding our beloved club.
The Author
