How Can We Make StateFansNation Even Better?

Over the past few years, Statefans Nation has been the leading blog devoted exclusively to NC State sports.   We have quite a robust community of users, some that go all the way back to the days of the old ACC Boards and statefans.com to others that found us and like what they saw and keep coming back.

With all due respect to the denizens of the two big NCSU message boards, I think it fair to say that StateFans Nation has the most intelligent discussion areas, some of the best analysis by the article writers and as was the case with the search for Coach Sendek’s replacement, a good source for news as it broke – and to be honest, SFN broke a lot of the news that was later reported in the traditional mainstream media.  Not bad for a bunch of guys that created this site and continue it because they love their school and its teams.

This morning, a few folks got together to brainstorm the future of Statefans Nation, specifically asking, how can we make it even better?

We had quite a number of ideas, and over the next few days, some will be implemented pretty quickly.  We’re going to update the site’s appearance, add new things like game schedules, things that are pretty easy to do and can be done quickly.  Others, we’re still talking about and have to make a decision on whether they will add value in the long run.

That’s where you come in: I’d like to ask you guys to toss out your thoughts and to share your ideas of things you’d like to see or possibly things you might like to see changed.  The best of the ideas that come forth, we’ll implement if it’s at all possible.

So fire away: how can we all make Statefans Nation even better?

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38 Responses to How Can We Make StateFansNation Even Better?

  1. choppack1 10/02/2008 at 12:04 PM #

    I would just say more articles.

    Oh yeah, don’t use the same pop-ups that packpride does. Some of those are blocked at my workplace – and that can’t be good. 🙂

    Seriously though – the site does a good job, the main thing I’d want to see is more discussion…And I think more articles would generate that.

  2. Leo 10/02/2008 at 12:04 PM #

    I subscribe to the site through the RSS feed. In my opinion, I do not like the summarized content that I get through my reader. It would definitely make me happy if you guys opened up the content and allowed a full post to go out rather then a summary.

  3. daughtry 10/02/2008 at 12:17 PM #

    Before I make this case, I will say that I am not a current student. I graduated years ago and haven’t lived in North Carolina since graduation

    I think State Fans Nation is in a unique position. The link between current students and alumni is channeled through official bureaucratic organizations at NC State.

    I would like to see a working relationship develop between SFN, Technician, and student government. For example, invite the student body president to post a monthly item on SFN.

    There are interesting things afoot on campus. For example, the current SBP is fighting to have a noise meter (a la reynolds) installed in the ESA (I hate calling my team’s stadium the Royal Bank of Canada Center).

    I believe that this community is a better place for sharing those things with alumni (and garnering support) than the official channels.

  4. Trip 10/02/2008 at 12:24 PM #

    With so many people commenting on each post, the pages start to get extremely long and it’s hard to quote other peoples posts or look for a specific entry. It lacks some of the functionality of say an actual Bulletin Board. I don’t doubt that we have some of the best discussions here by far, but the tools that we have to comment are a bit outdated.

    I think it’d be great if you could add some of the advanced forum-like posting features such as quick reply, quoting, customizable view area so people with wide-screen monitors don’t waste half of the screen space. Maybe have it so you can have 10-20 responses per page.

    One of the things I don’t want from a Forum though is the ability for ANYONE to post a blog. I like that only specific people can post a new blog, and then we all comment on it and keep the discussion focused. The last thing we need are people posting threads about “HOW WUZ UR WEEKEND? I GOT TRASHED!!” which just detract from the community as we’re here to discuss Wolfpack sports, not our daily lives.

    Oh, and I have no idea if Steven from Sectionsix posts here, but I think it’d be outstanding if he was linked more here or even brought over to make some guest articles. His sense of humor and crunching of the numbers always cracks me up.

  5. WW 10/02/2008 at 12:35 PM #

    I second the full feeds suggestion.

    I think a more advanced commenting engine would help out the comments/discussions significantly. You may want to check out Disqus, Sez Who or Intense Debate(recently part of WordPress). Each offer advanced user profiles and threaded replies, along with a number of other things. For all practical purposes, it can turn each post into an on-the-fly forum.

    I would also suggest an “about” page with the history of the site and some information on the authors of the site. I think that people could relate more to the author and it would also give you guys some well-deserved credit for your posts.

    A contact form on the site may be good as well (wordpress has several plugins).

    I’ve done some work on blogs and wordpress before — let me know if I can help with anything.

  6. SEAT.5.F.2 10/02/2008 at 12:49 PM #

    have a running timer in the corner of the days : hrs: seconds since last revenue sport ACC title

  7. daughtry 10/02/2008 at 12:50 PM #

    Another possibility would be a way to submit a story for review. As an existing member, having an easy way to write a story and submit it, to be approved or not by those with the power. Twice I have emailed something to the statefans gmail address, but never heard anything back. Feedback of any sort would be encouraging. Silence enforces a belief that I shouldn’t even try to contribute.

  8. swedish 10/02/2008 at 12:56 PM #

    change the corny state fans nation graphic on the top of each page. I liked the old look.

  9. RAWFS 10/02/2008 at 1:23 PM #

    Hi Guys,

    To answer some of your questions:

    Full feeds: I have added that to my to-do list. I will definitely look into it and institute it as soon as I can. Be patient, I have a lot of balls I’m juggling: 60+ hour work-weeks, a marriage, going to games and looking in the woods for my tee-shots. Seriously, I am blocking off more time to give SFN TLC and will get to this sooner rather than later.

    Submitting Articles: Funny you mention that. We discussed in a teleconference today the fact that we would like to have more authors writing relevant articles.

    If you are interested, we’d be more than happy to work with you. The pay is good (none) but truth is that you can get your ideas in front of a pretty large audience. On top of that, this place serves as a well-spring for ideas that somehow find their way into the traditional mainstream media. You might notice that something you notice and write up appears in the paper or gets mentioned in sports talk radio not long after your piece appears. Sometimes that’s mere coincidence, others, it’s directly from what you said.

    To get the ball rolling, write us at [email protected] and let us know what you have in mind.

    Timer Since the Last Championship That’s an interesting idea and one that would be fun to do. Then again, we’d likely have to write some new code because it has been almost twenty years since a revenue sports championship.

    Working With The University I think I can speak for all of us when I say that I would love to see that happen. Problem is, the school probably wishes that we’d just go away. They have their official site, and every other press contact is run through the Sports Information Department. Annabelle Vaughn Myers runs that group and while the old statefans web site had press credentials, none have been given to SFN.

    I would love to have one for the major sports in order to get a photo pass. As a part-time pro photographer, and one who has even had the football team use my work for recruiting, I can more than handle the task, not be in the way and also have insurance. All I have gotten through the past 5-7 years are request denied responses. To be fair, the university has to juggle a lot of press requests but I still think that they could find a spot someplace on the sidelines to let me shoot pictures for the site.

    Thanks for the thoughts and please keep them coming…more as I can get to it.

  10. Girlfriend in a Coma 10/02/2008 at 1:25 PM #

    Have some sort of screening process that prevents those with room-temperature IQs from posting responses. We don’t need another NC State “idiot board.”

  11. packpigskinfan23 10/02/2008 at 1:27 PM #

    I love the idea of working with student government. I happen to know that the SBPresident is a huge supporter of SFN and what you guys do for our University.

  12. tooyoungtoremember 10/02/2008 at 1:31 PM #

    This may be a space issue, but what about having a profile for each commenter? Or at the very least for each of the blog writers? I think it would be interesting to know more info about the person that’s behind a blog entry or comment. Such as when they attended State, what their major was, what their line of work is, their level of education, their favorite Wolfpack sports related memory, and whether they are a member of the WPC and if they have season tickets to any of the sports. People could choose however much or however little personal information they want to divulge about themselves so that they may remain anonymous (such as those that have inside connections that don’t want to risk losing them) or list all their info and brag about being a longtime WPC member and major financial contributor. I think this would strengthen our community and possibly foster connections in the real world such as at games or in the workplace.

  13. Time2Ride 10/02/2008 at 2:23 PM #

    One thing NC State Football is missing is some type of game day preview article.

    Yea, there’s a depth chart here or there, and yea, there’s an article here or there but you really have to search for it.

    We need a game day preview for EVERY game, i think this would generate a ton of visits to your site. I’ve seen Go Pack do a few of these in the past for some big games but never anything consistent.

    Here’s a link to Virginia Tech’s preview of Western Kentucky http://www.techsideline.com/news_archive/showArticle-3986.php

    VT does a great job every week, you should use them as an example.

    Good luck and GO PACK !!

  14. WV Wolf 10/02/2008 at 2:34 PM #

    I like the author profile idea as well. I think the suggestion of having some student contributions is a good one, that would put a finger on the pulse of those on campus that you can’t really get from a distance.

    I do like that the format is different from the free-for-all message boards, it does keep the discussion more focused and doesn’t seem to spawn as many idiots.

  15. Packfan4u 10/02/2008 at 3:22 PM #

    This is my first post and I have to say I am impressed with this site. Screening is tough and I too would like to keep our content as is. If we could get the school to recognize that the alumni is the lifeblood of the sports program then we’d have a chance. Get Fowlup outta here yesterday! Go Wolfpack!

  16. JeremyH 10/02/2008 at 3:37 PM #

    More basketball posts in the off-season to keep us addicts going ; D Maybe a while back I would also say less political stuff, but I understand the purpose it serves. I just would like it not to become the main purpose of the site, because it is generally negative material (unfortunately that is the “state of the union” though).

  17. highstick 10/02/2008 at 4:32 PM #

    I also like the profile idea, but realize that this might gobble up huge amounts of network space. Maybe in lieu of that, we could schedule periodic live meetings. Would love to meet some of you fellows in person, maybe have a beer and “do some bitchin’ in person”!

    The main thing is don’t change too much because this is the most intelligent site that I frequent. Not having a bunch of smart alecs just trying to increase their post count is very refreshing.

  18. BigRed 10/02/2008 at 4:33 PM #

    RSS –

    I would also ask for full content (but stripped down chrome) in the RSS feeds.

    There are options available for how this is done. I would like to see the full text content of the articles, but without the full webpage chrome. In other words, for the RSS feed view strip off the banners, sidebars, navigation, etc.

    I tend to read RSS on a small touchscreen device, and all that extraneous stuff just takes up valuable screen space. And touching the screen to resize or reposition will sometime register as a click on sidebar navigation items. Very frustrating.

    Calendars –

    I’d love to see calendars loaded up on Google calendars. One calendar per sport. Games, natch, but maybe also media and club events, etc. These calendars are very easy to subscribe to and share using a number of different programs.

  19. redfred2 10/02/2008 at 5:01 PM #

    I love the idea of the “championship” clock. I could even see maybe one or two other clocks up there ticking away until some other positive changes occur as well.

  20. WolfpackSteelersFan2 10/02/2008 at 5:01 PM #

    I don’t if you would even consider it, but you might look into joining the sports blogging network called SBNation. I have been a frequenter of their Pittsburgh Steeler blog, BehindtheSteelCurtain.com, and I really like their setup. From what I understand, it is a paid position, and there currently is no NC State blog in their network. Since this is the best NC State blog that I know of, it would make sense for you guys to run one if it ever got start on SBNation. But, it would put you on a different server, and you may not be open that. Just thought I’d throw that idea out there. You can look into it or reject it outright, as you see fit. Just keep up the great work, and I’ll be happy. 🙂

  21. john of sparta 10/02/2008 at 5:39 PM #

    1. swedish (above) wins: ditch corny, go retro.
    2. elim pop-ups. this is a Safe-For-Work thing.
    3. regarding SFW, please make it Super-Safe.
    4. profiles? mine’s too boring. wife/kids/etc.
    5. finally, a LF bash board.

  22. bth9673 10/02/2008 at 5:47 PM #

    I like the idea of the writer profiles. I read the site daily and wouldn’t mind knowing more about who’s writing this and that.

    I agree that making posting and quoting others in replies could be a bit more user friendly but I hope you guys don’t head to a forum type system. There are enough lunatics on the PP forums and the posts here are (usually) 20 times more in depth and useful than a lot of the stuff that gets put up over there. I swear that place goes into meltdown mode after every loss whereas the writers here are much more level headed and sensical.

  23. ruffles31 10/02/2008 at 8:56 PM #

    I do like the idea of having user submitted articles with a provision that they get approved by a majority of Jeff, BJD, etc. I also like the user profiles.

    What about a countdown clock until Tarantini is no longer coach for the soccer team? 🙂

    I don’t want to see multiple pages per blog entry, nor do I want to see a free for all message board like some other places I have been to.

    This is the best blog on the web BY FAR!!!! Thanks for all your hard work.

    I would

  24. caniac45 10/02/2008 at 11:10 PM #

    I think it would be freakin sweet to have a chat room on here. The amount of activity before and during televised games would skyrocket most likely. I just think it would be something neat, but certainly not necessary since the main purpose of the site is a blog.

    edit – this may also cut down on the hundreds of comments you scroll through on certain posts.

  25. Greywolf 10/03/2008 at 1:31 AM #

    Without a doubt this site is more informative than any official site going. I come here every evening to check to see who’s the latest casualty. ;-(

    It’s already mentioned but I’ll add my vote, some way to quote or refer to previous comments. Not only for my use but for ease in tracking other conversations worth reading.

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