As below a time to help if we have some spare time. A time to put down the pitch forks and support some loyal non game playing fans.
I know it's not the best time to raise the future of Greens on Screen, what with attention very much on the future of Home Park, but I need to say it and I suspect the next few weeks will be a difficult time too.
Of course we've all been suffering with the Argyle blues this last year or two (or five), and running Greens on Screen has been increasingly difficult, especially the many hours after every game. But it's not just a Saturday job; there's plenty to be done throughout the week as well, with some weeks feeling little different to full-time employment. Of course it's much easier when spirits are high, but those days feel a long time gone.
What’s more, I’ve had one or two health problems recently that are probably connected with the hours I spend at this damn beast. I know that reaching your early sixties does not mean that you’re old (many of you will disagree!), but it does make you think about life, the universe and everything. Having spent the last nigh-on 15 years running GoS, the time’s not far off when I need to think about how I want to enjoy the next 15, and I know that something has to change.
Therein lies the rub for the long-term. At some stage in the next few years, GoS with either die or I’ll be able to hand it on, lock, stock & barrel, to someone else. The latter, however, is nowhere near as easy as it might sound. That someone needs to have oodles of time, buckets of enthusiasm, boundless commitment and, crucially, a significant technical bent. If they’re not experienced in it already, they’d need to learn VBscript and SQL, as well as in-depth HTML.
These were all things that I had to learn, but at least I could do it gradually over many years, and I was lucky that I came from an IT career, with SQL very much part of my job. But someone will have to pick it all up much more quickly than I needed to do, and I realise that that’s a huge ask. In fact, I’m quite worried about the long-term. Hopefully it’s not an issue for a while, but the more time someone has to learn the job, the better; so if there is such a person, it would be really helpful to know with plenty of time to spare.
But that’s for tomorrow. For today, i.e. the next few months, there are a few more urgent problems that, if we can't solve, will mean a reduced site next season.
You might know that GoS is essentially down to me, but Trev Scallan and, more recently, Andy Chapman have been a great help. I'm sorry to say that Trev has recently told me that he needs to move on, so won't be contributing next season. That's very sad news, but also completely understandable and I've nothing but praise and gratitude for everything he's done these last six years for GoS, and four more before then with Semper Viridis.
That's just one example of things I need to tackle this summer. The other big one is that I personally need to ease off a bit. That was the reason for the couple of surveys I did a few weeks ago, and the answers were really helpful in thinking about where to focus. From my point of view, 'GoS-DB' is sacrosanct - it will continue and be kept up to date, and even improved. The History is something I've badly let slip, but again I'm determined to see it through because, apart from anything else, I've promised people I would. So that will happen, even if it continues to trickle.
Another aspect that's high on my shopping list is to cover the new stadium development. Whatever the outcome of the consultation, it'll take a couple of years to happen and I'd definitely like to publish regular sets of photos. Right back to the earliest days of phase 1, it's something I really enjoy doing.
Dropping the match photos is probably the easiest thing I could do because they account for a big chunk of effort, but the survey responses were loud and clear, so that can't happen. Instead I'll be working on a new method for the photos next season, which will make them simpler to produce and manage. That in itself will mean added work of course, but hopefully it'll be worth it.
One of the things I hinted at in the surveys was that a new helper or two could make a big difference. Unfortunately no one responded to that, so I'm asking again. Here are a few things that could benefit:
The Daily Diary – Trev currently does almost all of the diary and also mucks in with ad-hoc work that I dish out from time to time (e.g. the player pen-pics in GoS-DB). Trev’s diary is approaching its 10th birthday - an amazing feat - but he will stop at that point (after June). So if it’s to carry on, we need to get someone involved soon. It probably takes around 20-30 minutes a day, but it’s relentless, i.e. assuming there's news to summarise, it’s 7 days a week. In some ways it might be feasible to the share role, but that just means we need more people. Trev has done an incredible job - something like 3,500 diary entries – and I don’t blame him one bit for calling time on it, but it’ll be too much for Andy or I to take on, so if we don’t find someone, then it ends. Of course, online news is now much more abundant than it was 10 years ago, so maybe it won’t matter, but it is a popular part of the site, as the recent survey showed. And it’s now 10 years of daily PAFC news, which for some people is a really valuable archive, so it would be such a shame to close it.
The Match Reports – only a couple of hundred words or so each time, but again we’ve built up quite a stock and I’d like to connect them into GoS-DB (one of many aims) so that we can make them available as a history, but only if we think we can keep them going. Andy does a lot of these, and I’m not suggesting that he's ready to give them up, but I sense he would appreciate some help – perhaps someone to do them alternately. I’ve written many of the match reports in the past, and one of my daughters did them regularly for many years until she had her first baby, and then Andy took them on a couple of years ago. It doesn’t need someone to actually witness the action; they’re easy enough to put together from listening to the game or simply getting the gist from the PAFC or other site reports. The only requirement is that I can have the text within a couple hours of the final whistle (and that the person writes well of course).
The History – what can I say about this? The lack of progress is down to me and I think I’ll still need to maintain close control, but if there is anyone with a passion for the club’s history, it could help.
GoS-DB Profiles – i.e. the text pen-pictures for each player. Plenty to be done here – obviously new ones to be written when players arrive, but also changes to be made when players leave and also periodically over a player’s career to reflect the rest of his time in the game. There’s also a much bigger review I’d like to do because some of near-1000 pen-pictures could be better (some of the major players have only brief profiles). On this one in particular, it’s important that a helper has a keen interest in Argyle’s history, and that they write well.
There are plenty of other ad-hoc jobs that crop up from time to time too.
So those are some thoughts off the top of my head, but only at a fairly high level. Sorry this is so long, and if you reply here, please don't keep my part in (to avoid the thread getting swamped).
The big question is, does anyone have the time to help, and very importantly, the desire? That last bit is very important - a casual 'yes' is just not enough I'm afraid - you really have to want to do it.
Of course I’ll be very happy to go into more detail on any of this, and thanks to those who have reached this far!
Steve
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Sat 23 Mar - 21:29
