WTF is with the new AFL.COM.AU???

[Scorpio]

Apparantly its a beta version and they want feedback so let them know what you think about it here... http://afl.com.au/Season2007/SiteFeedback/tabid/9123/Default.aspx

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

No doubt it's better than Hawthorns official page, supporters and members have been trying to get it ran properly for eons.

 

[Angry Dragon]

Wrong.

Rule 1: Always blame Telstra. Even if it's not their fault, they deserve it. Miserable bunch of .............

Speaking of miserable, that describes one of the frames in your avatar.

 

[Sandola]

Annoying how every other important code (even NRL has a decent website) has a good site yet we get this pile of craptacularness.

And where's the team logos? I seriously hope this is in development, otherwise I'm ringing AFL and telling them that they're a bunch of tools. Which they already were, but how many times do they have to screw us over?

The team colours are there, and they still link to the club sites. Reeeeally small, so they can squeeze in more advertising. I've never seen such a pile of rubble. I'm sure we'll learn to ignore the noise, but it's sad that the AFL would want to advertise its game to the world via this.

 

[chickens_law]

i am starting to hate the afl.

 

[Ted Ed Fred]

I advise everyone to use the feedback to complain about all the telstra advertising

 

[CONS_SS]

At least you get to see it. Every time I go to the afl site my browser closes after a few seconds ********ing typical Anyone else have this problem

 

[CONS_SS]

i am starting to hate the afl.

Take a number and get in line

I advise everyone to use the feedback to complain about all the telstra advertising

I didnt get to see the whole thing because my browser keeps on crashing, but I did see at the top a HUGE bigpond banner and only a little AFL logo, obviously an afterthought

P.S. Whats it like below this, I cant see but its probably garbage

 

[CaptainPorks]

FWIW from a pure design perspective I reckon that the old site was laughable and well past its use-by date. Very last century.

While its in beta mode they're probably ironing out a few bugs so you'd hope that it will still improve; but i quite like it. Regardless, its design and style isn't dissimilar to most other large sports' sites. They all seem to be leading with large flash/video components as well as using small boxes/modules to house things like news, fixtures, ladders, results etc.

Take a look:

http://www.nfl.com

http://www.uefa.com/

http://www.nhl.com/

http://espn.go.com/

http://www.nba.com/

IMO - not a bad effort, might take some getting used to but definitely better than it was.

 

[QL 21]

They've tried to cram too much onto the home page. They should have used the whole browser to layout a select few features in a nice and simple way which is easy to read and easy to use.

I can count at least 5-6 things which don't need to be on the home page. It just looks messy, there doesn't seem to be any flow to how they've laid it out.

And I agree with what other have said, get rid of that Bigpond crap at the top.

 

[GoBackToVFL]

I work in Computing, if the Site is like that then the AFL agreed to it and requested it , dont blame Telstra

I have been an it consultant for a few years and I can tell you that in this case the norm of client sign off would be different for two reasons, because telstra bought the rights and can do what they want, and the AFL do not see the website as a major source of revenue or advertising. I very much doubt that the AFL has signed off on any functional requirements.

look at this page:
http://afl.com.au/Season2007/FixturesResults/2007NABCup/tabid/8542/Default.aspx
where's the times? the venues? the tv schedule? tickets?
anything about the matches at all?

usablility is not something they have heard of it seems

edit: i see it has appeared now, it was still loading (took about 30 seconds on broadband)

 

[Dandy_GO]

Excellent choice of players to promote dreamteam though

 

[Conan Troutman]

I advise everyone to use the feedback to complain about all the telstra advertising

I did just that.
The users should be a higher priority over advertising. Without users all the advertising in the world is useless.
Man, i got a 21 inch monitor, and with the extra 'linkme' banner on secondary pages, it fills a little over a third of my browser window. That is ridiculous.

Have to give them credit for allowing us to give feedback though - I only hope they actually listen to it.

Forgetting about the advertising for a second, I think it is an improvement overall compared the old version. It seems to run better for me. Hopefully they'll include the ladder in the fixture column too, which you could see on the GFC site yesterday when they had the new design up prematurely.

 

[Fred]

He said could, not would.

 

[Underdog]

I have been an it consultant for a few years and I can tell you that in this case the norm of client sign off would be different for two reasons, because telstra bought the rights and can do what they want, and the AFL do not see the website as a major source of revenue or advertising. I very much doubt that the AFL has signed off on any functional requirements.

look at this page:
http://afl.com.au/Season2007/FixturesResults/2007NABCup/tabid/8542/Default.aspx
where's the times? the venues? the tv schedule? tickets?
anything about the matches at all?

usablility is not something they have heard of it seems

edit: i see it has appeared now, it was still loading (took about 30 seconds on broadband)

Even if that was the case why is everyone attacking Telstra when its clearly the AFL's fault?

It like an adult (AFL) giving a 12 year old kid (Telstra) a beer in full knowledge something dodgy may happen yet the kid gets yelled at, not the adult.

How does that make sense?

The AFL should be held accountable for offloading their brand to companies with outside interests. Its simply ridiculous.

 

[Hamburger]

As someone with a very slow and unreliable internet connection here, my biggest problem with the old site was the length of time it took to download over a megabyte of mostly crap before you got any AFL information at all.
I concluded that the main aim of that from Telstras point of view was to gently encourage people onto broadband connections.

I now have a satellite link and have toyed with the idea of taking up a bigpond international subscription, as I have the download speeds, but every time I try to download and run the demo video, nothing happens. Several emails to bigpond sales have never been answered. Clearly they are doing well enough to not worry about my potential subscription.

For me, the site has been the most important link to live game scores and information these last few years and a constant source of frustration.
I have looked at the new site, and personally, from a layout perspective it seems as haphazard as before, and even more clogged with annoying advertising.

I am guessing it will take until about week 4 of the regular season for most people to find where on the new site you can get the live scores.

 

[gandaal]

Do you people have to whing about everything?

 

[ManWithNoName]

Today's afl.com.au poll - "where will collingwood finish this season?" -

Here's the outcome:
Where will Collingwood finish this year?

1 - 4 (396) 363.30%
5 - 8 (819) 751.38%
9 - 12 (1461) 1,340.37%
13 - 16 (981) 900.00%

And the AFL wonders why Essendon refuse to sell the rights to our website. We're capable of holding mildly competent polls.

 

[blues4flag]

QUESTION: Where does it (if anywhere) say the TV / radio schedule for the games? Can't seem to find it...

 

[Conan Troutman]

Do you people have to whing about everything?

Better than sitting back and saying nothing.

I wouldn't be whinging if they (AFL & Tesltra) thought a little more about the people who use the site, rather than how much money both of them can milk it for.
You never know, if they thought about the customers more, they might actually get more customers, instead of pissing them off.

take a look at this page:
http://www.afl.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsId=38319
- banner1 at the top for linkme.com.au
- banner2 at the top for bigpond
- large sensis/bigpond one next to the article
- a smaller music tv banner (bigpond again).
- bigpond text links below the article "Can I get Broadband?" etc
- further section of text links below that with "Sponsored Links" (incl. bigpond again "BigPond Caller Tones Here")
- another small banner for bigpond tv above the nab cup one
- and another one for "bigpond unmetered" above that
- and then another text link to BigPond.com in the footer bar.
- you can even right-click anywhere in the page and in your menu will appear an option to "search google for bigpond.com" (just in case you can't find a link to their site ).

Don't you think that's a bit overboard? I think we get the point that Bigpond have something to do with the site. That's a fair bit of non-AFL related crap there. Yeah, it doesn't affect me personally, I just ignore the ads, but along with yet another advertising method - the restriction on videos to bigpond members only, without even a subscription option for non-bigpond users (which does affect me), the whole advertising thing has gone way too far imo.

I reckon it's a valid reason for a whinge.
(or a second whinge in my case )

 

[ManWithNoName]

Do you use Firefox? If so get Adblock Plus and simply block all those banners. Simple.

 

[melbournemartin]

pretty darn ugly but have come to expect nothing less.

 

[zero]

i think its incredibly clever to in the same week as they send me a message asking me to resubscribe, they introduce changes that make it impossible for me to access the video.

nice work, ****************s

 

[peternorth]

Do you use Firefox? If so get Adblock Plus and simply block all those banners. Simple.

thanks

whenever i load up afl.com.au or baggygreen.com.au my browser seems to freeze momentarily. very frustrating. afl.com.au is a terrible website.

 

[Cuzz09]

Excellent choice of players to promote dreamteam though

Ha Ha Ha thats Rowan Jones standing in the background