Things Slowing Down

[einwindir]

I seen other groups use more of a board then 1 guy. This way the choices seem fair and not 1's preference. We should maybe try a meet during a USMNT game that way we can all come united under the RWB. Honestly what drew me to you guys was the NY IS BLUE scarf. I seen someone designed stickers which is great as well. These items can used to bring in capitol. Right now this is a big brain storm. Companies also like to do conference calls. I don't know if everyone uses the Fb or Google+ but we can designate a time and day to have a online meeting.

The team might not be ready but we can be ready for the team and be at MLS events supporting the boys in blue!

Forza Azul!

I've actually requested these exact things. An IRC - online chatroom - for meetings, or just a way to shoot the shit with users.

I've also suggested a board of users that act as the voice of the group. We can have an official BOARD thread where the users will bring up talking points and what WE want to see happen - and the board can bring those talking points up to the FC and try to make actual decisions.

The board would work as a hub for all the Supporters Groups. Everyone has a member that belongs to the board. The FORUM will also have a member who will take part on the board. When there are meetings with the FC the board can decide how we go about participating and recording the meetings.

 

[Vinjay]

I've certainly suggested a chatroom (via PM) but Dan said he wanted to get people posting in the forum first. That makes sense as right now it wouldn't be good for a chatroom to become more popular than the boards. You could argue though that on other boards the chatroom is the least popular/utilised area. Once one is used its good to include a private chat option as well. Do these boards have a built in chatroom or would something such as Xat have to be considered?

 

[einwindir]

I've certainly suggested a chatroom (via PM) but Dan said he wanted to get people posting in the forum first. That makes sense as right now it wouldn't be good for a chatroom to become more popular than the boards. You could argue though that on other boards the chatroom is the least popular/utilised area. Once one is used its good to include a private chat option as well. Do these boards have a built in chatroom or would something such as Xat have to be considered?

If we decide we want to have some sort of meeting in real-time in an IRC I will use an IRC from another site that will be closed to non-members. I created an inactive sub on Reddit.com (http://www.reddit.com/r/nycfc_supportersgroup) it is currently a dead/in-active subreddit. It's more of a placeholer than anything - through there we will be able to open an IRC channel...for lack of a better term, it will be used 'by appointment only'.

 

[Mikeylito]

What's this Google+ page you're talking about?

la la la

 

[Mikeylito]

I'm a little surprised that the club is aware of these groups but isn't doing anything to coordinate them, especially when everything is being built from the ground up.

I don't have any contact with the club, but I can guarantee they have a marketing plan and it will probably ramp up when Kreis gets back from Manchester after the World Cup. At that point, I'll expect pretty regular announcements about player signings, academies, community events, etc. steadily running through the SuperDraft in January and the pre-season shortly thereafter.

I'm discouraged that a siting plan, presumably, isn't being made at the same time as the temporary stadium announcement whenever that happens. (Aside: Why is anyone surprised that Yankee Stadium would be the temporary home for the club?)

Anyway, Google+ has interactive features built in and eventually some supporters' group is going to have a YouTube presence; if you have a YT presence, you have a G+ presence whether you use it or not.

Just something to keep in mind.

 

[einwindir]

I'm a little surprised that the club is aware of these groups but isn't doing anything to coordinate them, especially when everything is being built from the ground up.

I don't have any contact with the club, but I can guarantee they have a marketing plan and it will probably ramp up when Kreis gets back from Manchester after the World Cup. At that point, I'll expect pretty regular announcements about player signings, academies, community events, etc. steadily running through the SuperDraft in January and the pre-season shortly thereafter.

I'm discouraged that a siting plan, presumably, isn't being made at the same time as the temporary stadium announcement whenever that happens. (Aside: Why is anyone surprised that Yankee Stadium would be the temporary home for the club?)

Anyway, Google+ has interactive features built in and eventually some supporters' group is going to have a YouTube presence; if you have a YT presence, you have a G+ presence whether you use it or not.

Just something to keep in mind.

I think the club is trying to feel out the different "groups". I feel like we should do more to make our presence heard though. It's just a matter of finding the right person (or people) that can speak eloquently and on our behalf...a skill that I do not possess.

This group is getting bigger everyday. We are seeing new members everyday, who bring fresh content, who in turn bring in a fresh perspective which helps grow the community activity exponentially.

If you have a YT channel, or know someone who does, start a new thread with a link. The more content we have here, the more people will want to come, stay and share.

 

[BlueWolf]

OK.
For a forum that is so young and concerning itself with something that (effectively) doesn't even exist yet, you should all be proud of what has been accomplished so far.

However, forums like this will always have lulls - just wait until the club starts playing and everyone's excited and then the off-season comes and members crawl back to their drab lives, leaving this place with just the fanatics. It's frustrating as hell, but there is little you can do about it.

There has been a lot of good suggestions already as to what you can do to keep people active on here, but ultimately no matter what you do it is down to them and them alone. However, do not try to do too much at once; it never works. A live chat system is good, but I would advise that you do not have it on 24/7 as it will greatly impact the forum itself, as was the case with us. Members drifted on to that and the forum began to starve of content, so now we only have the chat system for City matches and it works perfectly. On top of that, it can, depending upon what chat system you use, eat heavily into your bandwidth and operating costs.

I mentioned elsewhere that you take things slowly, and introduce new stuff at different periods. There will be times when you will be tempted to do too much, but it is best to resist this feeling and continue to take it slowly.

 

[einwindir]

OK.
A live chat system is good, but I would advise that you do not have it on 24/7 as it will greatly impact the forum itself, as was the case with us. Members drifted on to that and the forum began to starve of content, so now we only have the chat system for City matches and it works perfectly. On top of that, it can, depending upon what chat system you use, eat heavily into your bandwidth and operating costs..

I never even thought of using an IRC for that...which is kind of ridiculous because I normally use an IRC when watching Ranger (NHL) games. As far as IRC is concerned with the Forums, I thought it would be a good feature to use to conduct official business or 'meetups'. It's easier to chat in real time with a number of a people than it is via forum. Hopefully it's something that can be considered in the future.

 

[Vinjay]

When it comes to live matchdays it might be better to utiltise the NYCFCForums account on twitter than use any chat on here. Or at least do the utmost to direct them here. Since Dan like myself won't be able to make most games its convenient and many phones are well equipped with twitter for those at the games. Much better promotion via twitter too when it comes to live action. Not sure chatboxes like xat would do anything to bandwidth though aesthetically it might not be a good mix with the forum design.

 

[einwindir]

When it comes to live matchdays it might be better to utiltise the NYCFCForums account on twitter than use any chat on here. Or at least do the utmost to direct them here. Since Dan like myself won't be able to make most games its convenient and many phones are well equipped with twitter for those at the games. Much better promotion via twitter too when it comes to live action. Not sure chatboxes like xat would do anything to bandwidth though aesthetically it might not be a good mix with the forum design.

I'm sure both can be used with success. The IRC is more for users who want to watch together and shoot the shit together. I'm not saying Twitter is a bad option, it serves it's purpose. But the chat function is less a ticker and more of a social atmosphere. Twitter is equivalent to the scroll at the bottom of a newscast. IRC is equivalent to talking on the phone with a bunch of people.

During match days we will definitely have game threads. At that time, I'm sure someone can write a bot that will transcribe everything to twitter.

 

[BlueWolf]

I think Twitter was mentioned when we were discussing how to go ahead, but ultimately rejected it for a number of reasons:
Not everyone has Twitter
Not all followers/followees are club or forum related
It takes people away from the forum (members start to look at the forum as a home-from-home)
You can't have massive chats on Twitter with multiple people

So the chat system we went with. But as said, I switch it on 1 hour prior to KO, and then switch it off once I have written the post-match thread. We do this for every single City match - friendlies included. And whilst we forbid links to live streams on the forum itself, we do allow them within the chat - this enables everyone to be able to watch matches and talk to everyone else at the same time.

Because it is done this way members still post on the forum whilst in chat, whilst others use just one or the other, and yet others still, use Twitter. It gives all members a choice and nothing is forced upon anyone.

Of course we utilise Twitter a hell of a lot - some new threads appear on an automated feed, and forum members can embed posts into tweets direct from the forum.

 

[NYCFC_Dan]

Yeah I kind of figured we'd have our ups and downs. We get very busy here after news comes down.
I think continuing at this rate with the great help our members have been in getting the word out we can definitely see a steadily active forum by kick off.
It's been great seeing NYCFC actually tweet out our forum address as well.
I definitely appreciate all the suggestions.
Once we get in the swing of things we'll definitely implement some if not all!

 

[Falastur]

I'm a little surprised that the club is aware of these groups but isn't doing anything to coordinate them, especially when everything is being built from the ground up.

Back a number of months ago, shortly after Reyna was announced as the club's first employee, he held a Q&A over Facebook. One of the questions asked about development of the fan base and the club's culture. He answered that NYCFC want all of this to come directly from the fans themselves, not the club. There are enough accusations floating around that the club is plastic and true clubs start from the will of the fans, the club wants to strenuously avoid any involvement in the creation of supporters groups and so on as it wants to ensure no one can accuse them of manipulating the fans and trying to tell them how to operate. Rest assured that in due course the club will interact with the fans in the right ways, but for now it wants to leave that stuff up to us to arrange.

 

[NYCFC_Dan]

Yeah and I'm totally fine with that. We've shown amazing growth here and it's been without much outside influence. They Tweeted our site address out the other day which was great. I don't know if that's because they recognize us as established now but it's good to see they recognize us at all.