FF redesign, restart of the blog (and new logo!)

[m0nty]

I have been working hard already this offseason to implement a new design for FanFooty. The results can be seen on the front page, as well as other parts of the "main site" - i.e. not the forum yet, that will come later. I just got done fighting with Wordpress, but SMF (the forum software) is a whole other beast to tame.

From next season, I will be posting player news, blog logs and chat logs in the FanFooty blog, for those of you who like to use such things with RSS/Atom feeds. Those resources have been obscured a bit up to now, they deserve more prominence. Not sure whether I will start writing longer blog pieces again, as that has tended to burn me out in the past... I have been trying to train myself to post smaller items, which I haven't got the knack of quite yet.

I will also be making more use of the FanFooty Facebook page in 2015 to post from the blog and cover breaking news, which I would encourage you to join... too much discussion of AFL news is barely enough!

There is a new FanFooty logo as well - not much different I know, mainly just a clean up and moving the FF from the original Impact font to the DIN font which is now standard for headlines across the site - it's the same font used on the MCG scoreboards.

I am also working on expanding FanFooty to other sports in 2015. Watch this space, especially in the next month or so for a particular summer sport.

One thing I would like to do is work more on pushing the great stuff that you guys do here on the forums onto the main site. Many of you do sterling jobs on player profiles, news linkage, lower league coverage, and other things that it would be great to see on the front page. If some of you want to have a think about which things you'd like to see merged with the main site, I'd love to hear some brainstorming in this thread. I will be watching it and responding.

I realise I had let the site go a bit stale this year, if not for a couple of years. New wife, new house, new baby... I had a lot of things going on this year, and still do, and it will only get more hectic. No one is more disappointed about that than me. I've managed to find some productivity just lately, however, and hopefully I can ride it to finish a bunch of projects I've had on the back burner for too long.

Thanks for reading this far! You guys are the best.

[kilbluff1985]

sounds cool m0nty just don't forget team picker :P

[Hellopplz]

Awesome m0nty :D :D :D.

As for the player profiles, reckon they deserve a spot in new blogs/actual player pages for that season (if not too much effort). Think it was a suggestion a few years back as well.

That and reckon quite a few guys on here could do a decent blog here and there for the main site. Can be casual writers who can add to the main site, upon your approval after you read their pieces. Certainly can add a bit more into others taking some load of yourself during the season while still putting out quality pieces for the blog!

[Nige]

Sounds great m0nty, can't wait to see it!

[GoLions]

Looks pretty good m0nty.

With the new home page of the site, you currently have "Latest Forum Posts" that links to the main index of the forum. Would you be able to change it so that "Fanfooty Forum" links there instead? Increases useability IMO.

Great stuff though :)

[Jroo]

Good stuff m0nty, sounds exciting!

[LF]

Front page looks great m0nty can`t wait to see all the other changes

[Torpedo10]

Front page looks great m0nty can`t wait to see all the other changes

[m0nty]

Looks pretty good m0nty.

With the new home page of the site, you currently have "Latest Forum Posts" that links to the main index of the forum. Would you be able to change it so that "Fanfooty Forum" links there instead? Increases useability IMO.

Great stuff though :)

This particular Wordpress theme does allow links on the widgets generated from RSS feeds, but not other ones, dangit.

[m0nty]

Oh, and I forgot to mention there will be a new "matchcentre" page which will have the option to view chat and/or blog on the same live stats page.

[kilbluff1985]

Any estimate when team picker will be done? Like after trade period maybe?

[Ringo]

Great work M0nty - looks great- trust can all go smoothly when converting all.

Can not wait to see the finished product and the new match centre

[m0nty]

Any estimate when team picker will be done? Like after trade period maybe?

Correct. Once trade week is done, then we'll get rolling.

[m0nty]

Oh, and I changed the default color scheme from grey to blue.

[Spinking]

Like it m0nty. Particularly drawing attention to the forum and XV games from the main page. Loved your suggestion about using some of the forum users to contribute to the main page. We have some fantastic footy brains on here!

Layout looks perfect to view on mobile devices or tablets, but seems to position itself poorly on my iPad (huge strips of blue up each side and the actual page very small and needs to be zoomed into). Possibly just my device but thought I'd put it here in case anyone else finding the same thing