HOYA BLUE WEBSITE

[GUHoya07]

We need one really badly, so Im asking for all the advice and suggestions you guys have to give.

How do we go about this? I really have no idea at all so I need everything you guys have.

Thanks

[Joe Hoya]

I would suggest talking to someone in the school administration about getting something like hoyablue.georgetown.edu as an address (or at least a redirect page) for the site.

[Rockycat]

If you want the site to be a part of the GU website, you should contact the GUide Committee. The head of the committee is Peet Neiderhausen who works for UIS. There are some templates and other useful materials online that might help with the design, as well as logos and things that you can use.

[YB]

HB really does need one. I know from my experience that the U. does not like outside websites for its affiliates, but I know for a fact that it does allow them as long as nothing offensive is on them.

Drop me a line, I can help here (I designed the website for my job and have a buddy who's designed quite a few of them).

[hoya4ever]

As a now official club aren't you given a website? For example, GAAP has one, NSO has one, GERMS has one...

[lichoya68]

hoya blue did have a website is it still there.... also check with some computer science majors who are hoya blue members to see if they can help goood luck go hoyas congrats on the election great job this year and next year expect even greater things from you all go hoyas is it november yet??

[Boz]

GUHoya2007 said:

We need one really badly, so Im asking for all the advice and suggestions you guys have to give.

How do we go about this? I really have no idea at all so I need everything you guys have.

Thanks

I think that chick -- excuse me -- that lovely and courteous young lady from GoDaddy.com can help you out.

And even if she can't, I'm pretty sure you'll want to ask her if she can anyway.

[SFHoya99]

Simple website development is pretty easy. The cheapest way to get a decent site is to find people with skills willing to work on your site for free/cheap.

GU is not much of an art or computer school, but you probably know someone with good graphic design skills and someone who can program html. Heck, I'd consider going to professors on campus who teach classes in those arenas and see if they can advertise in their classes for volunteers. Most graphic design types will do it for free to have something in their portfolio and I bet there's a programming class that has a functioning website as a final/assignment -- why not yours?

[YB]

I can do html if someone else can do graphic design.

I'd consider it a donation to HB to get their communications up and running.

Just say the word.

[TigerHoya]

I can do HTML and some other stuff related to basic web design and basic graphic design.

That being noted, I think the content is more important than the look. Sure it needs to look nice, but it doesn't need all of the bells & whistles. It needs to be leveraged as a recruiting tool and a membership communications tool for the club rather than just as solely something nice to look at.

[hoya01]

With a link to this message board.

[TBird41]

hoya01 said:

With a link to this message board.

The New Hoya Blue: Giving you a myriad of sports related procrastination options since 2005. ;D

[NickHoya215]

Go do it at Geocities.com and make a free one and then get sponsors to make an official site.

[TigerHoya]

NickHoya215 said:

Go do it at Geocities.com and make a free one and then get sponsors to make an official site.

Very bad idea... at the least get some web space on University servers and redirect a domain name to it.

Theoretically the old domain name should still be controlled by HB unless they let the registration lapse.

[DFW HOYA]

One of the problems with the previous HB web site was the lack of experience (or interest) in maintaining it. Getting an account through UIS won't solve that, either.

One idea in the interim may be a blog through blogspot.com. The blogs run by the irate Marquette fans currently in "Code Red" (or is that Code Gold?) are very easy to set up and could be a bridge for regular updates and information until a formal site in the fall. Example: marquettebasketball.blogspot.com/

BTW, space on HoyaSaxa.com is also available. This was offered to the 1999 era HB but it didn't gain much interest.

[YB]

If you can get the space, you can always get one of the old farts (like me and DFW) to help update it.

I think getting the domain name is important. I actually would not recommend gettiong one thru the UIS server- you are then subject to the fabulous GU Legal Dept, and that is no great shakes, believe me.

I wouldn't go blog if you can at all get a website, it is less useful- but that's just me.

[FLHoya]

DFW said:

One of the problems with the previous HB web site was the lack of experience (or interest) in maintaining it. Getting an account through UIS won't solve that, either.

One idea in the interim may be a blog through blogspot.com. The blogs run by the irate Marquette fans currently in "Code Red" (or is that Code Gold?) are very easy to set up and could be a bridge for regular updates and information until a formal site in the fall. Example: marquettebasketball.blogspot.com/

BTW, space on HoyaSaxa.com is also available. This was offered to the 1999 era HB but it didn't gain much interest.

The most recent incarnation of Hoya Blue's webpage was hoyablue.org, which lasted...well, not very long. There's a story there of how it got started and then died, but it's not really worth telling. Basically came down to not having any interest in keeping it up or anybody willing to put content on there. Which seemed odd, b/c before the season I offered them my Recaps of basketball games and said I'd write articles for them, and I was told it's was okay, they had plenty of people lined up to work it.

I like the idea of putting together something in the interim, just to get the club's "name" out there over the summer to the kinds of fans who check this board, and new students also. Couldn't hurt to get new ideas coming in.

But in the end, I've got to think the best permanent solution is something that not only is done as an "official" georgetown.edu-style webpage, but is done in very close cooperation with the Athletic Department and the University.

An example from a place down the street from 37th and O, check out www.gwu.edu/ and look on the left side. There's a tab there that advertises not only Colonials Nation, but getting 05-06 season tickets. That particular announcement has been up on the FRONT PAGE of the university website since the previous season ended, and that same tab hosts some promo for Colonials Nation/GW basketball all year round. Once you click, you get the ticket info, tons of promotional stuff, and you're one click away from the official website of the Colonial Army, the GW equivalent of Hoya Blue.

I think in the end you've also got to have a "guy" in Hoya Blue (or girl) whose only job is to maintain the website. If you do this club right, there's going to be a lot of info and fun stuff to post, and just fielding all of it will be a challenge, not to mention doing design, etc. This doesn't have to be fancy, of course, but it'd be nice if it looked "smart" shall we say.

Guess that'll be the great thing about the new Hoya Blue--if you're a die-hard and want to make something your life, your one big activity on campus, they can definitely use you for stuff like the website and big promotions. And if you're someone out in Darnall who likes basketball but doesn't have a ton of free time and just wants to do SOMETHING to help, there's plenty for you to contribute also.

[TigerHoya]

YB said:

If you can get the space, you can always get one of the old farts (like me and DFW) to help update it.

I think getting the domain name is important. I actually would not recommend gettiong one thru the UIS server- you are then subject to the fabulous GU Legal Dept, and that is no great shakes, believe me.

I wouldn't go blog if you can at all get a website, it is less useful- but that's just me.

A blog set-up (or any other software module based things that allows form entries to be posted as news content) on the main website (via installing blogger, movable type or another platform on the server) but not as the main page would be a good low-tech way to update news items on a daily basis. The advantage would be that a person who wasn't that tech-savvy could still do it - leaving the main web person to do the more complicated things instead of just updating news content everyday.

[dairishhoya]

Student groups that are officially recognized can get access to university hosting and other services. For more information about the services and resources offered visit:

web.georgetown.edu/

I would recommend university resources for a variety of reasons, the best being that the site will be part of the overall Georgetown web and can be integrated into the sites students actually use on a daily basis.

An example of how this would work: HoyaBlue registers for a calendar in the university calendar system which would allow your events to be publicized on my.georgetown -- the homepage for the majority of students on campus. This is a great way to engage a broader student audience. Another example would be to use the university listerv software to manage email notifications to your members.

I would also reach out to SAC they are currently working on a project to provide student groups with a content management system (CMS) to update their sites. This removes the need to have students with technical skills and allows you to focus on content. As others have said content -- especially relevant content -- is the most critical piece.

If you feel this is limited or just decide to go outside the university, there are a bunch of free resources available. I would strongly recommend using Blogger as a free CMS. Its easy to set-up and doesn't take a bunch of technical skills (the help and hack documents are great). Don't get caught up in the word "blog." Unfortunately, most folks get consumed by the "journal" function of a blog (an entry or posting that may or may not allow for comments). A blog is simply a lightweight CMS.

Let me explain what I mean by this, blogger allows for you to integrate multiple "blogs" into "pages" that can be published as a website. The way you would do this is:

1. Register a domain with hosting service. Basically for a $100 you can get a domain name and hosting for a year. Most hosting packages should suffice. Once signed-up you will receive ftp information -- ftp server and password -- for your website (if DFW is offering space, you can do the same thing on hoyasaxa.com ... you just need the ftp information).

2. Register a blogger account. Create your first "blog" or page, this would be your main page. It allows you to select simple graphic design -- its all CSS-based so its easy to change and you can even create your own design. When creating the site, choose to have it publish on a server outside the blogger network (input the ftp information) and name the page index.html.

3. Create your first post. When doing this remove the normal blog features: date posted, comment option, et cetera. And post the page. A file named index.html will be published to your server. This file will have one post, so basically its an editable page.

4. Create more blogs to build a site out and give them different page names (e.g., news.html, event.html, contact.html). Some can be just pages (like the index.html page) and other can be blogs. Have each page/blog use the same graphic design and it will appear as a unified site. You've now turned blogger into a free content management system.

One quick note about blogs, I disagree with others and actually think a blog feature is important because it can produce an xml feed (blogger uses ATOM) which your members can sign-up for to get updates as you post them to the site. Create one blog to post news and another for just events, now you have two xml feeds delivering content to your members. [Georgetown has several xml feeds (using RSS) delivering university news.]

Before all of this, I would recommend that you sit down and work on what you want on the site and how it should be organized (the information architecture). You don't need to create it all now, but knowing how it will be organized will save you work in the long run. Good luck!

[Joe Hoya]

I don't know if anyone else reads Bill Simmons...okay, I know some of you do...anyway, he's featured Phoenix Suns benchwarmer Paul Shirley, who has a blog on the Suns' website, in a few columns.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...

"He Sead, She Said," the official road-trip blog of Sead Dizdarevic. Only on HoyaBlue.com.

Of course there can be others...but Sead MUST be involved.