New Website Coming to Bobcat Athletics!

[msusportsinfo]

Greetings to the nation!
We are in the process of putting together a new website with a company called Sidearm and would like your input on what you'd like to see on the new site. Could you take a couple moments and fill out the survey at the link below. Pass the link along to anyone else you think might be interested. Thanks for your help!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=t ... sCaQ_3d_3d

[wbtfg]

Thanks sportsinfo.

I am really excited to see an updated website, as I believe ours has been lacking (nicest word I could think of) for quite some time.

I filled out the survey, but one thought that I didn’t put in there is PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not skimp out on this. I believe outsourcing the website is a fantastic idea, and provides a great opportunity for the MSU athletic department to provide a place where people go for the latest and best information on Bobcat Athletics, as right now it’s about the 6th or 7th best place I check for Bobcat info.

[GOKATS]

I completed the survey earlier, but would like to add something I forgot. Can you include Media Guides for FB, M&W BB, VB, whatever? The BSC site used to carry an extensive media guide for each school but they cut their content considerably and no longer include individual all time school records, etc. Thanks.

[msusportsinfo]

All our media guides will be online starting this year. There were some on in the past, but they will all be on now as we are trying to cut down the number we print and put them online instead.

[GOKATS]

All our media guides will be online starting this year. There were some on in the past, but they will all be on now as we are trying to cut down the number we print and put them online instead.

FANtastic!

[codecat]

Thanks msusportsinfo

I too have taken the survey but wished to make a few suggestions as I have been accumulating a short list of changes that I thought would be helpful in the football section...as follows:

1.0) With regards to the football roster, it would be helpful to have some information designating the red shirt status.
2.0) The "Last Season" link shows about 4-5 years of season schedules with no differentiation of what year they are.
3.0) With regard to the front page, new stories don't float to the top as the 'feature story' (which is often outdated and the second or third story now) holds that position on the page.
4.0) The statistics page is not in order, either in chronological or revers chronological.
5.0) Stories are divided between current "News" and "Archives"
5.1) Archives searches are limited to stores x-days old where they could easily include current stories (because they should at least be in the same table and if not should be able to joined with a UNION as it is similar data).
5.2) The search would be extra special if it included a feature where the user could provide a "key word" to search for in the subject or body as well.
6.0) Internet users love streaming audio and video stories/clips so the site needs to make use them more and organize them by sport.
7.0) Live game stats might be something to consider, although I would think they would be redundant considering that internet users now have Big Sky TV available over the net.

Now as far as the firm the you have enlisted to develop the new site, would that be Internet Consulting Services Inc., I will be disappointed if an out of state firm is employed to develop this site. There are many capable Montana firms, which employ an numerous Montana educated students, that pay taxes to our university system and are in a less than desirable situation where the University System is not accountable to them or the rest of the taxpayer base. Yes, I am in the IS consulting business, but am not beating our firm's drum as we would not seek this type of work.

[msusportsinfo]

We are going to use Sidearm out of Syracuse, New York. It's tough to use an in-state firm as there are none that can offer us the price for what we are getting. (we checked around) Sidearm is a great company and they do a great job for schools about our size and are reasonably priced.

About the suggestions you made--thanks. We will be able to incorporate most of these into the new site. Much of what you pointed out is due to constraints on our admin panel on our current website that is run under MSU's domain. With the new company, we will be able to operate a lot more efficiently in the areas you pointed out.

We do live game stats now--we will continue to do them. We've had some trouble with basketball (arena internet connections are not good, but we are working on it), but football and volleyball have been pretty good over the last couple years.

[codecat]

We are going to use Sidearm out of Syracuse, New York. It's tough to use an in-state firm as there are none that can offer us the price for what we are getting. (we checked around) Sidearm is a great company and they do a great job for schools about our size and are reasonably priced.

About the suggestions you made--thanks. We will be able to incorporate most of these into the new site. Much of what you pointed out is due to constraints on our admin panel on our current website that is run under MSU's domain. With the new company, we will be able to operate a lot more efficiently in the areas you pointed out.

We do live game stats now--we will continue to do them. We've had some trouble with basketball (arena internet connections are not good, but we are working on it), but football and volleyball have been pretty good over the last couple years.

Thank you for the reply - I am satisfied as long as Montana based firms were notified and allowed to compete.
It sounds like Sidearm has a customizable package already produced.

Another thing that I thought of was with regard to the statistics provided. I have noticed some sites treat the stats as table based and then report/render them in a data-grid in the page - one such site that I have bookmarked for this reason is...
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/conferenc ... ?confId=20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you go to the bottom section titled "Team Leaders" and click on "Complete Leaders" which will bring up a table based grid that is sortable by column and available for an array of individual and team stats.

[msusportsinfo]

stat formats are dictated by the software you use and how the programmer (in this case Sidearm) sets them up. We use Stat Crew, as most NCAA schools do, so all the stat reports look pretty much the same. Some schools use alternate programs court- or fieldside and then import them into Stat Crew as that is the official reporting program for the NCAA.

To see examples of Sidearm's work, look at the following sites:
http://hawaiiathletics.com/ - University of Hawaii
http://gocolgateraiders.com/ - Colgate
http://www.suathletics.com/index.aspx - Syracuse
http://www.emueagles.com/ - Eastern Michigan

There are many others, but this is a good cross section

[Gidal Kaiser]

All our media guides will be online starting this year. There were some on in the past, but they will all be on now as we are trying to cut down the number we print and put them online instead.

That's good to know. Look forward to seeing them.

~Gidal Kaiser
BDC Sports Writer

[GOKATS]

In the audio/video section list the tv stations that carry FB games statewide- MaxMedia or whatever it's called. The radio stations are listed, Big Sky TV is listed, but no tv stations I'm not talking a game on the BigTen Network, Altitude, etc.).

[HelenaCat95]

fyi - on the FB roster part of the website, Everett Gilbert's name is spelled "Everette". I've seen it spelled both "Everett" and "Everette", and I think it is spelled without the last "e".
Thanks again for making changes, and soliciting fan opinion as input in those changes.

[codecat]

stat formats are dictated by the software you use and how the programmer (in this case Sidearm) sets them up. We use Stat Crew, as most NCAA schools do, so all the stat reports look pretty much the same. Some schools use alternate programs court- or fieldside and then import them into Stat Crew as that is the official reporting program for the NCAA.

To see examples of Sidearm's work, look at the following sites:
http://hawaiiathletics.com/ - University of Hawaii
http://gocolgateraiders.com/ - Colgate
http://www.suathletics.com/index.aspx - Syracuse
http://www.emueagles.com/ - Eastern Michigan

There are many others, but this is a good cross section

Thanks again - had a chance to look at all the sites and came to realize that at the team level there wasn't a need for anything more than plain vanilla stats as these sites have, and what I had suggested makes more sense at the Conference level with team comparative stats.

[JDoub]

Did the survey

Only suggestions I can think of are a bit smartazz like pls include a bear hunting game with selectable griz faces cgi blended into the bear's face, and fun stuff like that. Maybe online fans could vote for BN look-a-like and hottie of the week?

[Wayman]

...Any idea as to what the new website's name is going to be?? I tried going to msubobcats.com, and it looks like it's been expired since 9/16, and this morning, I'm not seeing the page... (montana.edu is linking to this site as well)...

[GOKATS]

...Any idea as to what the new website's name is going to be?? I tried going to msubobcats.com, and it looks like it's been expired since 9/16, and this morning, I'm not seeing the page... (montana.edu is linking to this site as well)...

I'm just passing on what has been posted- the name will be the same, it's in the process of being changed over and updated- last I heard was they're trying for the end of the month. As for the website itself, they had a major snaffu yesterday when campus web services failed to renew the domain. Apparently the athletic department has taken over the domain and it was renewed late yesterday but some servers are having trouble with the connection. I finally got the website last night and haven't had any problems since, but apparently others on different servers are still having problems- keep trying, you'll get it sooner or later, the address is the same as always. Good luck.