I wanted to start this discussion in here first before going to the general population for suggestions. I'd like to reboot and come up with a new list of features for the site, outside of the scope of the forum. I know we had discussed it in a previous thread but I wanted to start fresh here. Sorry if my below ramblings get redundant. I'm just going to start typing and not really proofread so I'll probably repeat myself.

Basically I want to make it more of an "informative" site but keep the forum as it is. The forum serves its purpose well but adding additional content will only boost traffic. More traffic equals more money. More money equals more options (for my next vacation!). Seriously, though, more money will allow for more (read: any) promotion of the site.

I know we often joke about the "articles" at the huddle and this would probably be viewed as the same thing at first, but I'd like to set up a "blog" part of the site. It would not focus on just high school sports and basically anyone could write an entry (which would be posted pending approval). Since I can't offer to outright pay a set price for blog posts I would allow for users to setup and enter their own google adsense information and do a revenue share on the content. This should be a win-win for both parties. The user gets some money in their pocket and the site gets money in their pocket and a new source of traffic. The more hits a blog post gets, the more money a user can earn so it should/could encourage them to put some decent thought into stuff they want to post. Blogs could be on any topic so long as there was some sort of connection to Ohio.

My future vision of the site is for it to basically be an informative site about all the shit that goes on in Ohio. This is a little weird but one of the inspirations for me is a site that was featured on our local news channel. It is some site a lady runs for mom's that like in Muscogee, I'm guessing county, Georgia. The lady is making bank on it just running ads for local businesses. Not bank like that sugar daddy site that's pulling in $500k, but much, much more than the OC currently brings in. Link: http://www.muscogeemoms.com/

Also, sweet breast feeding picture: http://www.muscogeemoms.com/category/parenting/newborns/

One of our designers is out on vacation but when he gets back I am going to work with him on getting a major league design for the site.

Give me your thoughts.

I think blogging about things in Ohio is a good idea. I would say stay away from Politics though.

I would probably blog about outdoor things.

And when I say "stay away from politics" I don't mean bitching about the new street cameras in Columbus or hunting regulations or things like that I mean the stupid rhetoric in the poli forum of "impeach kasich" "obama sucks" "this country is failing"

LJ;850546 wrote:I think blogging about things in Ohio is a good idea. I would say stay away from Politics though.

I would probably blog about outdoor things.

And when I say "stay away from politics" I don't mean bitching about the new street cameras in Columbus or hunting regulations or things like that I mean the stupid rhetoric in the poli forum of "impeach kasich" "obama sucks" "this country is failing"

I agree with your last point completely. An outdoor section would be cool, even outside of blog posts about it.

justincredible;850548 wrote:I agree with your last point completely. An outdoor section would be cool, even outside of blog posts about it.

I might be able to get guys from the conservation club to write articles and even an ODNR officer here and there. I know enough veterinarians that we could include things like "its hot, do this for your dog" and "this is why you cant feed deer corn in the winter". That stuff really pulls in hits

Here is a design my co-worker just put together for a site I am currently building at work. It's a "green initiative" site for the city of Cincinnati. Something similar would be good for the OC. I like the simplicity.

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justincredible;850614 wrote:Here is a design my co-worker just put together for a site I am currently building at work. It's a "green initiative" site for the city of Cincinnati. Something similar would be good for the OC. I like the simplicity.

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that's pretty cool.

I seriously already have like 10 ideas for the outdoors portion

LJ;850617 wrote:that's pretty cool.

I seriously already have like 10 ideas for the outdoors portion

Write them out so you don't forget. At least, I have to do that. I'll think of something awesome and then 20 minutes later be like "what was that idea? Derp!"

justincredible;850620 wrote:Write them out so you don't forget. At least, I have to do that. I'll think of something awesome and then 20 minutes later be like "what was that idea? Derp!"

oh trust me, thy are written down. I've been wanting to blog, but just havent gotten around to it.

justincredible;850620 wrote:I'll think of something awesome and then 20 minutes later be like "what was that idea? Derp!"

So that's why this site is how it is...

Uh, I mean, the blog stuff seems like a good idea. I like it.

This could also lead to a lot of local advertising/sponsorship opportunities, as well. A high traffic site based specifically on Ohio would produce a ton of legitimate leads for advertisers.

I'm thinking about bringing O-trap on board as a moderator, too. I think his knowledge in the internet marketing area would be a great help. Plus he's a solid dude.

justincredible;850634 wrote:This could also lead to a lot of local advertising/sponsorship opportunities, as well. A high traffic site based specifically on Ohio would produce a ton of legitimate leads for advertisers.

I'm thinking about bringing O-trap on board as a moderator, too. I think his knowledge in the internet marketing area would be a great help. Plus he's a solid dude.

Someone has a man crush!

LJ;850636 wrote:Someone has a man crush!

This is a serious thread. GTFO.

I like the blogging idea. It would be nice if we could get a good amount of bloggers from each region of the state, that can blog about the things goin on in there area.

What do you think about an event calendar? You could go in and post an event in your area(ie. music, festivals, benefits). I'm on a few event committee's and it would be a nice way to get the word out.

se-alum;850678 wrote:I like the blogging idea. It would be nice if we could get a good amount of bloggers from each region of the state, that can blog about the things goin on in there area.

What do you think about an event calendar? You could go in and post an event in your area(ie. music, festivals, benefits). I'm on a few event committee's and it would be a nice way to get the word out.

Yep, I love the idea of an event calendar. Just a list of a ton of shit going on around the state. Concerts, sporting events, charity events, etc. Everything could be filtered down by category so it would be easy to find what you are looking for.

Based on IP address, if the user was in Ohio, I could display nearby events on the homepage (see the bottom right of the design I attached). That would be a nice feature just to see at a glance what was coming up soon nearby.

I'm also heading up to the short north this weekend to take a look at some screen printing equipment. Once I get that I'll be able to do some shirts for the OC. I'd also like to do other Ohio based shirts that have nothing to do with the OC and sell them on here too. Similar to http://cleclothingco.com/ and the like.

I still think it wouldn't hurt to focus on at least being informative when it comes to HS football, mainly scores. Had that score page worked last year it would be nice, and someone today was talking about a site where coaches upload their game info and it shoots it out to sources automatically.

Though this isn't technically a sports site, we know that is the one sport that brings traffic/interests the members, and it's annoying to have to talk about it here and on yappi because there's no one left on jj, but you still end up at jj's because they get scores.

ts1227;850712 wrote:I still think it wouldn't hurt to focus on at least being informative when it comes to HS football, mainly scores. Had that score page worked last year it would be nice, and someone today was talking about a site where coaches upload their game info and it shoots it out to sources automatically.

Though this isn't technically a sports site, we know that is the one sport that brings traffic/interests the members, and it's annoying to have to talk about it here and on yappi because there's no one left on jj, but you still end up at jj's because they get scores.

I think a scoreboard is a good idea, i mean, we are trying to be a community based site. I just worry about bringing in more NCF's by being branded as a HS football site

ts1227;850712 wrote:I still think it wouldn't hurt to focus on at least being informative when it comes to HS football, mainly scores. Had that score page worked last year it would be nice, and someone today was talking about a site where coaches upload their game info and it shoots it out to sources automatically.

Though this isn't technically a sports site, we know that is the one sport that brings traffic/interests the members, and it's annoying to have to talk about it here and on yappi because there's no one left on jj, but you still end up at jj's because they get scores.

I can definitely bring back the scoreboard section. That wouldn't be a problem. I mean, I still want to keep sports as part of the site. Just not the main focus, ya dig?

When does the season start, btw? Is it this week, i.e. tomorrow?

LJ;850714 wrote:I think a scoreboard is a good idea, i mean, we are trying to be a community based site. I just worry about bringing in more NCF's by being branded as a HS football site

More NCF's are the least of my concerns. NCF is a walk in the park compared to most of the college and politics retards

justincredible;850717 wrote:When does the season start, btw? Is it this week, i.e. tomorrow?

Aug. 25

ts1227;850727 wrote:Aug. 25

Oh, sweet. That gives me time to get a shell up for it, hopefully. There will also be a built in pick 'em system so people don't have to track it manually. At least, that's the plan.

justincredible;850730 wrote:Oh, sweet. That gives me time to get a shell up for it, hopefully. There will also be a built in pick 'em system so people don't have to track it manually. At least, that's the plan.

Will score entry be mods only, select users, all members?

I honestly would recommend letting anyone upload them, and if it becomes problematic (i doubt it will) we can scale back down to select users. Mods only is bad, as it took me several hours the first and last time I tried to do a week last year.

If we do let everyone upload, the only thing we would need is a way for the system to flag someone trying to make a duplicate entry

I'd say letting anyone enter a score would be fine.

Any way you could use the OHSAA master schedule to have the games already in the system, then the user just inserts the score?

Since we collected the data last year for OHSAA ID's/names, thought there may be a way to grab from it for your system.

It will also eliminate an issue we had last year, as we couldn't enter games against out of state opponents since they weren't in the database (at least at first). Pulling from the master schedule should put the needed ones in.