Official Club Stuff Ask Lions_Insider!

[BuntonRules]

Lions_Insider What does DNA stand for?

Do Not Answer

 

[WA Lion]

Do you need any volunteers when you are in WA and are there any events for WA members?

 

[Back2Back2Back]

So this was in the Gabba members meeting thread but once I wrote my input out it turned into a real rant, so I figured it deserved to be in this thread instead.

Some criticism of the website and the difficulties of navigating and finding information. I think that would be a common complaint of most large organisations, so I don't think it reflects too poorly on the club. Anthony (the new comms manager) confirmed the club controls it's own content, in case some believe the AFL dictates. There are obviously some restrictions, mostly related to commercial agreements, but content is decided by the Lions. There will be an effort to provide more written articles, to balance out the video content. While everyone enjoys the videos and interviews, there has been feedback that people also want to read articles and this should increase.

I like that the AFL and the Lions have embraced social media more in this past season. Though I have some feedback of my own which I hope Lions_Insider can take on board outside of the meeting - I absolutely hate the video sharing and playing method that you currently use.

If I get an email from you with coaches reports or injury updates and whatnot I simply delete it - I already know there's no useful content in it that I can read while doing my email reading task, because your emails just include links to the Lions website where I have to wait for the page to load before the content buffers and starts to play (further useful info here - if I get a team announcement email I'll actually delete it, and instead load Facebook and refresh my feed to find the latest post from the Ultimate Brisbane Lions fanpage - because doing that on my phone and ipad is faster than waiting for your website to load and for me to sieve through it to just find a full team list in text).

If I'm on Facebook and I see you've got a new post with a link to a video, I will wait until you share it on YouTube before I watch it - because again, I hate having to be redirected off and start a player embedded in a different website, to then have to come back to Facebook and resume my experience there. I'll wait until it's on YouTube because I've made the decision to load the YouTube site. Switching back and forth between apps and sites is just a clunky experience on a mobile device, I guess is what I'm getting at.

Also, the video player on your website is part of the problem here - it seems to stop and buffer, or drop audio and video quality at its own desire mid play - meanwhile I can watch Facebook videos, YouTube , Netflix, etc... all at 1080p/60 without any issues on my internet connections.

Please explore the idea of sharing videos directly to Facebook, just like the AFL does on their page. Thank you.

 

[Dylan12]

Further to the above, is there any reason why all videos uploaded to the Lions website aren't also uploaded to the Lions YouTube channel?

As Back2Back2Back mentions above, the quality of the videos on the website are nowhere near as fluid on the Lions YouTube channel.

 

[ZoBlitz]

Further to the above, is there any reason why all videos uploaded to the Lions website aren't also uploaded to the Lions YouTube channel?

As Back2Back2Back mentions above, the quality of the videos on the website are nowhere near as fluid on the Lions YouTube channel.

Cynically I think it's probably due to the club/AFL wanting to funnel hits towards the club's website instead of going to YouTube.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Cynically I think it's probably due to the club/AFL wanting to funnel hits towards the club's website instead of going to YouTube.

I would be stunned if Telstra's internet rights agreement didn't require the clubs to keep at least some content exclusive to the AFL/club site network.

I personally love the stuff being hosted on Lions.com.au because it's all unmetered on my Telstra mobile.

 

[M Malice]

The Lions are trying to get all their media stuff funneled through lions.com ASAP, such as player/coach appearances on 3AW, SEN, footy shows etc. Saves a lot of searching if you can go to the one site to access all your Lions related info.

 

[Dalions]

The Lions are trying to get all their media stuff funneled through lions.com ASAP, such as player/coach appearances on 3AW, SEN, footy shows etc. Saves a lot of searching if you can go to the one site to access all your Lions related info.

They have been doing that much more lately i have noticed. I think its great.

 

[Lions_Insider]

So this was in the Gabba members meeting thread but once I wrote my input out it turned into a real rant, so I figured it deserved to be in this thread instead.

I like that the AFL and the Lions have embraced social media more in this past season. Though I have some feedback of my own which I hope Lions_Insider can take on board outside of the meeting - I absolutely hate the video sharing and playing method that you currently use.

If I get an email from you with coaches reports or injury updates and whatnot I simply delete it - I already know there's no useful content in it that I can read while doing my email reading task, because your emails just include links to the Lions website where I have to wait for the page to load before the content buffers and starts to play (further useful info here - if I get a team announcement email I'll actually delete it, and instead load Facebook and refresh my feed to find the latest post from the Ultimate Brisbane Lions fanpage - because doing that on my phone and ipad is faster than waiting for your website to load and for me to sieve through it to just find a full team list in text).

If I'm on Facebook and I see you've got a new post with a link to a video, I will wait until you share it on YouTube before I watch it - because again, I hate having to be redirected off and start a player embedded in a different website, to then have to come back to Facebook and resume my experience there. I'll wait until it's on YouTube because I've made the decision to load the YouTube site. Switching back and forth between apps and sites is just a clunky experience on a mobile device, I guess is what I'm getting at.

Also, the video player on your website is part of the problem here - it seems to stop and buffer, or drop audio and video quality at its own desire mid play - meanwhile I can watch Facebook videos, YouTube , Netflix, etc... all at 1080p/60 without any issues on my internet connections.

Please explore the idea of sharing videos directly to Facebook, just like the AFL does on their page. Thank you.

Thank you for your thorough feedback! We would like to respond to a few components to clarify some things below:

The website is hosted by Telstra and all AFL clubs use the same template/format meaning that we all use the same video player which is not in our control. There have been recent updates to the video player to improve speed of the player as well as efficient pre-loading of the next video in the 'Discovery' section.

All of our emails are subscribed to by the users themselves and is sometimes the best use of communication for some demographics. We are the first to publish our team announcement each Thursday evening and it is on our Facebook page immediately - this links to an article which has the team list listed in text as well (you don't need to watch the video to view the team if you prefer not to). It is preferable that users view the team on our site as you can be confident that it will be accurate.

The AFL production guidelines are built on an agreement with Telstra, meaning that all content needs to be hosted on our website and every social post needs to link back to the website - you will notice this across the league. We also prefer to have everything direct back to the website because it's essentially the main point for all official club information, as well as increasing our monthly stats, when the AFL run Digital Metrics to compare all clubs. Increase in unique browsers and page visits is also attractive to potential sponsors/partners when we look to signing new partnerships - which in effect, brings revenue to the club. This is also why YouTube isn't our main video channel.

We would love to share more videos direct to Facebook however, as mentioned above, we have restrictions on how many we can share per week as well as how long they can be in length.

We definitely understand some of your points and would love to do a lot more however we are always working to do the best for all parties - members & fans, sponsors, AFL and broadcasters. Thanks again for the feedback and let us know if you have anything further.

 

[Lions_Insider]

Further to the above, is there any reason why all videos uploaded to the Lions website aren't also uploaded to the Lions YouTube channel?

As Back2Back2Back mentions above, the quality of the videos on the website are nowhere near as fluid on the Lions YouTube channel.

They should all be uploaded (except for match day videos). Can you please let us know which ones haven't and we'll get them up!

We are restricted to what video player we use which is implemented league-wide.

 

[Back2Back2Back]

Thank you for your thorough feedback! We would like to respond to a few components to clarify some things below:

The website is hosted by Telstra and all AFL clubs use the same template/format meaning that we all use the same video player which is not in our control. There have been recent updates to the video player to improve speed of the player as well as efficient pre-loading of the next video in the 'Discovery' section.

All of our emails are subscribed to by the users themselves and is sometimes the best use of communication for some demographics. We are the first to publish our team announcement each Thursday evening and it is on our Facebook page immediately - this links to an article which has the team list listed in text as well (you don't need to watch the video to view the team if you prefer not to). It is preferable that users view the team on our site as you can be confident that it will be accurate.

The AFL production guidelines are built on an agreement with Telstra, meaning that all content needs to be hosted on our website and every social post needs to link back to the website - you will notice this across the league. We also prefer to have everything direct back to the website because it's essentially the main point for all official club information, as well as increasing our monthly stats, when the AFL run Digital Metrics to compare all clubs. Increase in unique browsers and page visits is also attractive to potential sponsors/partners when we look to signing new partnerships - which in effect, brings revenue to the club. This is also why YouTube isn't our main video channel.

We would love to share more videos direct to Facebook however, as mentioned above, we have restrictions on how many we can share per week as well as how long they can be in length.

We definitely understand some of your points and would love to do a lot more however we are always working to do the best for all parties - members & fans, sponsors, AFL and broadcasters. Thanks again for the feedback and let us know if you have anything further.

Thank you very much for your response, I appreciate the time and effort. Please also note that I'm not intending to attack with that post, it honestly started out as a bit of feedback from that Members Forum thread and got legs towards the end and turned into a rant. So sorry 'bout that.

Regarding the emails - no issues with the point of subscription, but given most email is predominantly text based I'm surprised there's such a drive to encourage click-throughs to videos within the club ones.

I appreciate the corporate agreement with Telstra, though I do have to point out the hypocrisy of the AFL to enforce such limitations on the clubs in their production guidelines, but for their own social media team to then just post video content directly to Facebook and use its embedded player. Why force you guys to do one thing, and them do another? Wouldn't they also be wanting to drive traffic to the main AFL website for the same reasons?

I'll also openly admit at this point I didn't consider your statistics and metrics gathering. I'll keep that in mind in the future.

Again, thanks for your time, and for hearing me out.

 

[Skoob]

Gotta say, I was disappointed after sitting through 6 hours of footy, the boys didn't come around the boundary to shake hands/high five as is the norm. They handed out their little treasure chests and shot through back to their mates (with the exception of a few). It's always nice to have that interaction after a win, to say thanks, & well done. I sit fairly close to the race, so not far for them to go. Cedric and Jake were the only 2 on our side of the race, while the majority of the team milled around near the point post.

 

[Mr Ripper]

Pls ask Gabba management to turn the PA volume down to 'Concorde taking off'.

 

[nigelicious]

In the spirit of the helpful "50M penalty" and "Holding the ball" rule explanations now shown on the replay screen, could we get something to explain to our frustrated friends in the stands that the players are going sideways or backwards to create a switch? "Fagan approved tactic" may work just fine.

 

[Elixuh]

In the spirit of the helpful "50M penalty" and "Holding the ball" rule explanations now shown on the replay screen, could we get something to explain to our frustrated friends in the stands that the players are going sideways or backwards to create a switch? "Fagan approved tactic" may work just fine.

At the game there was one switch where even I could see the players were set up perfectly for it. The crowd groaned with the first kick and I began clapping and old mate across from me gave me a funny look.

I think part of the reason they groan is because in the past the players have switch to nothing and either bomb long or turn it over. Essentially trying to switch without purpose or structure. It's the opposite now.

 

[Nunez]

In the spirit of the helpful "50M penalty" and "Holding the ball" rule explanations now shown on the replay screen, could we get something to explain to our frustrated friends in the stands that the players are going sideways or backwards to create a switch? "Fagan approved tactic" may work just fine.

Even if you get Mike Whiting to write an article about the art of switches just so people understand it works when done right.

 

[jackess]

Lions_Insider insider Who at the club decides whether or not to challenge ridiculous suspensions?

 

[Skoob]

At the game there was one switch where even I could see the players were set up perfectly for it. The crowd groaned with the first kick and I began clapping and old mate across from me gave me a funny look.

I think part of the reason they groan is because in the past the players have switch to nothing and either bomb long or turn it over. Essentially trying to switch without purpose or structure. It's the opposite now.

The other thing that plays on one's mind is how poorly they have been executed. Past poor skills have ended in our fair share of turnovers, if not scores against, thanks to a failed or misdirected pass across the face of the goal we're defending.
I like that we take the game on and display the patience of switching, but even I suck in a nervous breath when a kick or worse, a handball is shot across that zone with opponent forwards pushing back up.
We are doing it mush better as skills and confidence improves, but yes, there will always be that big element of the crowd who don't get it.

 

[M Malice]

Kudos to the club for the speed they are getting MSM interviews up on lions.com, a noticeable difference since the fan forum. Saves searching through multiple web sites looking for Lions related information.

 

[Fatcat08]

Just a reminder to all of the purpose of this is for genuine realistic questions you can't get an answer to elsewhere. If it starts filling with ridiculous questions or rhetoricals it will be shut down very quickly

 

[Lions_Insider]

Thank you very much for your response, I appreciate the time and effort. Please also note that I'm not intending to attack with that post, it honestly started out as a bit of feedback from that Members Forum thread and got legs towards the end and turned into a rant. So sorry 'bout that.

Regarding the emails - no issues with the point of subscription, but given most email is predominantly text based I'm surprised there's such a drive to encourage click-throughs to videos within the club ones.

I appreciate the corporate agreement with Telstra, though I do have to point out the hypocrisy of the AFL to enforce such limitations on the clubs in their production guidelines, but for their own social media team to then just post video content directly to Facebook and use its embedded player. Why force you guys to do one thing, and them do another? Wouldn't they also be wanting to drive traffic to the main AFL website for the same reasons?

I'll also openly admit at this point I didn't consider your statistics and metrics gathering. I'll keep that in mind in the future.

Again, thanks for your time, and for hearing me out.

No worries, and we appreciate your thoughts and that you raised the with us, that's what this is all about after all. We can learn more about what you want and you can learn more about how we operate. We are looking to update our EDM's next season to be less text heavy and to the point however this will take time as our Graphic Design team will need to work on this in the off season (amongst all the other campaigns they are inundated with!).

 

[Lions_Insider]

Gotta say, I was disappointed after sitting through 6 hours of footy, the boys didn't come around the boundary to shake hands/high five as is the norm. They handed out their little treasure chests and shot through back to their mates (with the exception of a few). It's always nice to have that interaction after a win, to say thanks, & well done. I sit fairly close to the race, so not far for them to go. Cedric and Jake were the only 2 on our side of the race, while the majority of the team milled around near the point post.

Which side of the race were you sitting on? We try to encourage them to spread out as much they can!

 

[Lions_Insider]

Pls ask Gabba management to turn the PA volume down to 'Concorde taking off'.

We feel you! However the PA system is the same volume all season and we think larger crowd attendance could contribute to a raise in overall noise levels.

 

[Lions_Insider]

In the spirit of the helpful "50M penalty" and "Holding the ball" rule explanations now shown on the replay screen, could we get something to explain to our frustrated friends in the stands that the players are going sideways or backwards to create a switch? "Fagan approved tactic" may work just fine.

They will learn in time that this is a good thing!

 

[Lions_Insider]

At the game there was one switch where even I could see the players were set up perfectly for it. The crowd groaned with the first kick and I began clapping and old mate across from me gave me a funny look.

I think part of the reason they groan is because in the past the players have switch to nothing and either bomb long or turn it over. Essentially trying to switch without purpose or structure. It's the opposite now.

Yep, keep clapping old mate will be clapping one day too