As some of you are aware, I am developing the structure of the site heavily over the next few months. I have been listening to people who have contacted me personally, and also to those on other fan sites, and the resounding opinion is that you want to see a forum, so I have created one for you.

Why a forum?

It might be a logical question to ask why the site needs a forum – after all, there is the ability to comment on articles, and surely that is sufficient. Well the feedback I get is that sometimes comments can stray totally off topic, and that leads to a lack of ability to read things coherently. In a forum, the setup is totally different, with dedicated topics where people can discuss such things as transfer rumours, or other fan opinions, without impacting the relevance of article comments.

I will need one or two moderators in the future so if you are interested, please contact me via the “Contact” option at the bottom of the site.

Future developments

I have a lot of plans for further development once the forum is working well. These include Facebook connect functionality (so you can log in with your Facebook ID rather than a dedicated site account), video content, partnership with other companies of interest, as well as a host of others that I still have to iron out. Obviously I want to know your opinions too, so please leave them below.

The site already has a dedicated mobile portal, for those who may not have known, for iPhone/Android/Blackberry Torch users. If you have any feedback regarding that, please leave it below too. Users of the mobile site can login by pressing the arrow in the top right of the screen, then selecting “Login” from the menu.

Possible upgrade of the servers

We will, at some point, have to upgrade the servers that this site runs on. The site has taken off very well in terms of traffic, and if we are going to bolt on extra functionality, this means a better server to handle all those forum posts. We will let people know when it is going to happen, but I just wanted people to be aware for the future. I am committed to making this a great community for all of you, and therefore we will need a big platform for this to work. It is just a case of when, as obviously these things will cost money, and things are ticking along at present.

It is all about you

I really want this site to be a community rather than just being all about me, and that is why I am looking to garner other people’s views as writers, moderators, and testers. Part of making this site is about the fans – and the fans are you guys and gals.

In the meantime, I am pleased to announced that in the first 2 weeks of this blog launching the site had over 4000 hits from over 30 countries, so thank you to each and every one of you for your contribution to this site. I’m glad to have you all involved.

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