GreenonScreen

What will happen to GOS? will it full into nools hands?


Tuesday 31 March

"When I get older, losing my hair"

I first heard The Beatles' “When I’m 64” when I was a fresh-faced 15-year old, and I can distinctly remember wondering what the world would be like in nearly 50 years time, and thinking how incredibly far away that was. Ha! Not any more. I’ll be reaching that landmark next season.
As many will know, I started GoS over 16 years ago, when I was a mere 46. The early years were exciting in all sorts of way, from building something new and a little bit different to having the pleasure of covering two promotion seasons and six years in the Championship. Needless to say, recent times have been more of a slog.
Heading to your mid-sixties doesn’t half make you think about life, and the recent news about Tyhee Slim couldn't have been more of a shock in that respect. Whilst I’m hopeful of a decade or two yet, I really have to think about how I how I want life to be now, especially with wife and family in mind (the grandchildren aren't Vera, Chuck and Dave, by the way).
The plain fact is that even if I stay reasonably healthy, I can’t go on forever, and worse case, who knows what’s around the corner. On the other hand, I’d hate for 16 years of work to go down the plughole, so the big question is, how can Greens on Screen continue in the long term? Frankly, at the moment I’ve no idea.
There are two fundamental issues for me. The first is how on earth can anyone take on the technical angle of the site, bearing in mind it was built up from scratch, and that started 16 years ago. So the technology it is based on is well past its sell-by date, and the whole site has grown into a bit of a nest of vipers too. Finding someone to take it on who would be (a) able and (b) desperately keen (because that's essential) feels like a very tall order, so for now I'm happy to stay responsible for the techie side of the site. Frankly, I don't see any other option, and it'll only be worse in a few years time, when I finally give up altogether. For that reason, I fear for GoS in the long term, but hey, let's leave that for another day.
The second problem is how to cut down the week-by-week management of the site so it becomes less of a burden. To some extent I've been introducing behind-the-scenes stuff in the last couple of years to ease the effort, but now it almost certainly means that aspects will have to go. It might also be necessary for someone to help with the routine stuff, depending on what's left.
So here's the bottom line. Whatever the solution, I'm sorry but the time has come for GoS to either move on or close down. I desperately hope it's the former, and to that end I'll be very busy in the next few months to be ready for next August, with a site that I suspect will be noticeably different to how it is now. And this is where you come in. I'd like to have a group of people who I could write to from time to time over the next few months, to share the latest thinking and get some feedback. So if you're a GoS regular and would like to hear about how the site might develop, as well as getting the chance to have your say if you feel strongly about anything, please send me an email (to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]) with the words 'The future of GoS' in the subject line, together with your name, and I'll include you in a mailing list for progress emails whenever I've something to say.

Thanks for reading!

Steve

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It must be a labour of love, a lot of labour. Good luck with finding a worthy custodian.

Anyone but nool

fancy it sam? perhaps gil might?

Well done for carrying the can for so long Steve, a great site that is an absolute credit to you. Deffo time for the youngsters to step up to the plate. Maybe the new site could be more interactive with fans sending in photos from mobiles? I'm sure that some energetic youngsters teamed up with modern apps and technology could make the site much easier to run.

Hasn't Steve recruited some aditional help before?

Maybe one of those or a combination of those could take it on.

Iggy wrote:

. Maybe the new site could be more interactive with fans sending in photos from mobiles?

God help us...

The last time that was tried we ended up with this abomination.

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A great site with all the right intentions when it began, and continued for many years.

The last few years however just don't feel right but the effort still has to be appreciated.  Just not my ting any more, ruined by too many pics of 'VIP'. Good fun for others no doubt, yes I have the occasional smirk.

Do whatever, you will anyway.

GoS is very much a spotters site and fair play to Steve for keeping it going if that's what he enjoys doing. But let's be honest, the world isn't going to crumble if the latest match report isn't there, or the same old matchday photos aren't uploaded, or an up-to-date 'ON THIS DAY' pic/caption isn't there.

I may be wrong, but I'd reckon the vast majority of hits to the site would be from people looking to reference historical match data from years gone by? The good thing with that is that it never changes, so just cutting back on a lot of the other random trivia that most people wouldn't miss anyway, would shorely ease the workload burden?

Steve either loves doing it, or perhaps after doing it for so long, simply feels obliged to keep doing it. If it's the latter, then he ought to stop and think about No.1 for a change.

Czarcasm wrote:

GoS is very much a spotters site and fair play to Steve for keeping it going if that's what he enjoys doing. But let's be honest, the world isn't going to crumble if the latest match report isn't there, or the same old matchday photos aren't uploaded, or an up-to-date 'ON THIS DAY' pic/caption isn't there.

I may be wrong, but I'd reckon the vast majority of hits to the site would be from people looking to reference historical match data from years gone by? The good thing with that is that it never changes, so just cutting back on a lot of the other random trivia that most people wouldn't miss anyway, would shorely ease the workload burden?

Steve either loves doing it, or perhaps after doing it for so long, simply feels obliged to keep doing it. If it's the latter, then he ought to stop and think about No.1 for a change.

Spot on.

The worst option would be, Mr Argyle jumps into save the site which would then turn it into a Look at me arn't i great Chariteeeee fvckfest, with lots of shots of Green Jim. and the superest of superfans! Lets hope a genuine person steps up to run it for the right reason.