YTFC Forum

Woeful Yanker · Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Posts: 10

When this site and the green room came to prominence with the withdrawal of the ciderspace facility, I thought that ytfc had more of a professional "feel" to it and am surprised by its sudden demise. Not to decry the efforts of the green room in any way, but ytfc appears faster and easier to navigate.
To the web editor, well done, but obviously the preference for the green room is now evident.

RJH Glover · Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Posts: 369

I'd like to hold my hand up saying I'm one of the guilty party. I'll still post on this forum but it's true that this forum is unfortuantely Yeovil's Number 2.

Mrs Miles · Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Posts: 117

i do both!

Somertonian · Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Posts: 145

I use both forums but have little to say during the summer.

When the new season starts, we may see more activity on both forums. I agree that the green room is more populated at the moment and I'm not sure why.

Whether there is room for two successful forums at such a tiny incey wincey little club :wink: like Yeovil - we'll have to wait and see.

Cracking weather.

:)

S

bowerboy · Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Posts: 619

I read both forums and contribute to both of them. I do prefer this format and that is why I have posted more on here than the other.

I have just taken a couple of week off reading the forums, but I am back now :D

I do think the little club can support 2 forums and as the season picks up again this site will, I am sure flourish again. :wink:

Musey · Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Posts: 121

If I want to be entertained, I generally read here - But if I really need to know something I generally tend to read the green room.

Balamory Glover · Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 130 Location: Mull

I stick to this one. I only read the green room if my internet is being slow andI can't get this one to load!

darren · Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 335 Location: Yeovil, Somerset

I have to admit it does feel a little disheartening to see the forum isn't heavily used these days, but I'm not put off. As Yeovil gets more popular the forum will become busier. The format of this forum is similar to many other clubs and other non football forums and I'm sure we'll get more visitors next season.

What probably caused the lack of interest is the hack attack in the first couple of weeks. A lot of people went to the green room during the downtime and stayed there.

This forum does have a lot more flexibility, as you've no doubt noticed I can create several subforums. This means certain subjects can be covered outside of the main forum. Also, I can easily add other modules to this forum to add other features.

My other business interests, advertising and contributions pay for the upkeep of this site, so it's here for at least the next couple of years. We're still in need of contributions, any news or gossip about the club. And if you've got friends who are YTFC fans but don't visit any site, point them in our direction.

Yorkshire Glover · Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Posts: 284

I think its inevitable that the fortunes of various sites about the life of the Club will vary. What kept a number of us going after the season ended was the speculation about new manager(s), new players, etc. Now that is pretty much settled its that difficult time waiting for the real action to begin.

See you all at HP on Tuesday night I am going to be at the Exeter game.

darren · Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 335 Location: Yeovil, Somerset

Having had a think about this, and reading the post on the green room, I'd like to ask people if they'd like this site to close.

It's disheartening to discover that the hard work and expense I've put into this site is going to waste. I'd like to continue running and supporting this site, but if it's something that people don't want, then it's pointless continuing.

Do people want me to pull the plug? Or would you prefer to see the site continue?

Jack Adams · Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Posts: 20

Darren,
Keep in open.
Ultimately it's a question that only you can answer. But I'd say keep it going.
Certainly keep it running for a few months into the season and see what the usage is like then. You cann't judge usage on the close season. Turn it around to a Football Club. You wouldn't close a Football Club because no one set foot in the ground during the month of June, would you?
So definately keep it open :)

bowerboy · Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Posts: 619

Darren,

I would like to see it stay open. :D

I do think the numbers will come back when the season starts to at least the level they were lasts season. As I have said before I do prefer this sites format but even I have not found the time recently to get on here as often as I would like.

I can understand why you would consider shutting it down as it must take a lot of your time with little appreciation. :?

If I were you I would have another think about it after the first 10 games and see where we are by then! :lol:

somethingsporty.com · Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 46

I like this site very much Darren. It is user friendly & good fun, just think there's not a lot going down at the moment.
Hot summer people aren't glued to PC's + wait til season kicks off proper & we can all get posting about our joys & woes!
I've been checking back regularly through summer & people are just being laid back i think (or hope)
Don't chuck the towel in just yet & please don't sell the site to TBCUTR :wink:

darren · Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 335 Location: Yeovil, Somerset

Thank you all for your messages of support.

I've traced the problem as to why people do not participate much any more. Aside from it being outside the season, I did notice a tailing off over the course of the season, to the extent that on some days there were no posts at all.

The problem was due to some security software that was installed when I set this forum back up after the hack attack in January. It set a limit of 3 failed login attempts before it automatically banned that user for a few hours. Even if that user got the password right after the 4th attempt, they would stay banned. This was to protect user's accounts.

If the user then requested a new password to be sent to them, they would then have their password reset and a new one generated (and emailed to them). This would also not work if they were still banned. After a few hours, the user would then try again with the old password. This would then result in the failed login attempt counter going back up until they were banned again.

One other problem is that if the email address supplied by that user was incorrect, they would not receive the new password. I can understand people not wanting to give their email address out, but it's only used on this site for administrative purposes. We don't have an intention of selling the addresses.

Unfortunately, of all the people it happened to, only a handful ever reported it to me. I was therefore unaware of the problems, until yesterday when a user told me exactly what he'd done, and the times he'd tried. I was then able to trace exactly what had happened.

I've now made a change to the security settings to allow for such problems. I haven't removed the security settings, just relaxed some of them and changed the way it is dealt with.

If you know anyone who used to visit this site regularly and now doesn't, please tell them the problem has been identified and fixed. I do think there is a lot of life left in this forum and hopefully I've caught this before the forum dies through lack of use.

bowerboy · Joined: 08 Jan 2006 Posts: 619

Thanks Darren,

I must say you make running this site sound so simple whereas I have to say much of the workings beyond this keyboard are like double Dutch to me! :?

Keep up the good work. :D