Click here for Part 1Click here for Part 2Of the 726 participating in the survey,
85% were members of the site, which still leaves a sizeable number who visit the site frequently and feel part of it enough without the need for registering.
75% visit the site every day, 23% several times a week, and only 10 people replied visiting less frequently than that.
Interestingly, 30% heard about the site through a fellow supporter, 27% through a search engine and 12% through mentions on an other website and just 1% through Twitter or Facebook. 27% couldn’t remember, which is no surprise given the popularity of the Getting Drunk thread!
In terms of
how easy the site is to use, the results surprised me given the amount of computer luddites there appear to be! 54% describe the site as very easy to use, while a further 38% described as easy. Just 1% felt it was difficult / very difficult to use, which was encouraging (Since then, further changes have been rolled out, which still have a couple of niggles that need addressing, and a bit more in the way of tutorial given).
Most of the issues people seemed to highlight concentrated on how poorly the
Search aspect works in comparison to the previous version, which we are well aware of is currently not up to scratch. We will use the more detailed feedback on what aspects would most benefit from tutorials separately to help try and provide assistance, but the most common themes seemed to concentrate around quoting, uploading pictures and private messaging. Despite posting a tutorial on private messaging last month to try and help people avoid making the mistake of using the Activity section, it seems as if a lot of people simply don’t get this aspect, so we may need to think of a separate way to get the message across. According to survey results, the ‘correct’ Inbox facility is only currently used by 29% of those surveyed.
In terms of the
primary reasons users visit the website, the results were encouragingly more ‘Charlton focused’ than would have been expected, given the percentage split of topics on the forum. The split breaks down as follows:
91% Charlton related news,
75% Charlton-related views of other fans,
44% general football chat,
25% non-football chat,
24% local news /general advice,
46% humour / banter,
5% chat to friends,
3% other (which appeared to be a split between relieving boredom and Rachel Riley!)
The breakdown to
‘which of the following do you regularly read/participate in/enjoy the most' was as follows:
65% Match Previews,
72% Match Threads,
49% player marks,
15% Predictions League,
51% New Article features,
4% Poker related threads,
12% Betting related threads,
62% Opposing fan’s thoughts,
47% ticket news and travel advice,
16% music threads,
20% film / TV / theatre threads,
48% ‘other football’ threads,
24% ‘other sports’ threads,
30% general advice threads,
35% ‘would ya’ threads,
and most of the Other category was mainly spilt between history, rumours and Rachel Riley again!
In terms of
moderation of the site:
88% believed it is roughly pitched about right,
6% believe it is too harsh
6% believe it to be too soft.
It does prove to show that there is no way of pleasing all the people all of the time, but is reassuring to know the majority feel we get it broadly right.
In terms of
site development, 21% said they were only really interested in using the Forum, while 79% said that to some degree a wider site offering variety would enhance the site/their enjoyment.
In terms of people’s
‘most favourite thing about the forum’, it really was quite heart warming to read some of the messages posted here, and emphasised how people view/use it differently. Several reasons were repeated in some form or another, with the key ones being:
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Gaining CAFC general information/rumours-
Interaction with fellow CAFC fans/reading other peoples CAFC opinions “
I really like the enthusiasm/passion of contributors, even those I disagree with, and the level of integrity that is shown. Generally, comments are restrained and there is rarely slagging off of other people. I enjoy the mature nature of debate on the forum and the humour - some of the comments are absolutely hilarious. Generally it's like a safe clubhouse for Charlton fans, where we can speak freely as we're amongst friends.”-
Feeling a part of the club and ‘home’ having moved away from the area. A couple of examples:
“It feels like a family, with everyone different but with a common bond” and
“The connection that it gives me, from abroad, with the club. I like to feel connected to the club and the community, and because of the site, I feel as though I know supporters of the club both in SE7 and elsewhere to an extent that wouldn't be possible without it”.
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Banter and humour-
Its diversity in terms of people and topics, and the generally more intelligent debate and stronger community than witnessed on other large internet forums
“Its a community more than a forum”.
The pleasing aspects from that are the two key things that featured throughout. Correctly, it is firstly recognised for our key principle (that it is primarily Charlton related) and that throwing it open to all other subjects on a ‘one-board’ approach generally added to the enjoyment, rather than taking it away from its key principle. The second is the large percentage of replies that clearly shows that their most favourite thing is in one way or another centred around the other users. For a large forum to work, that level of respect and enjoyment has to be there in the main (you will ALWAYS get outliners). Thankfully, it appears that in the main, that is being recognised.
Comments
“Too PC”/“Too much veiled racism/homophobia”,
“too left wing/too right wing” etc etc.
All of those things sadly focus on non-Charlton related issues, which is the downside of having an open topic forum, and why we try where possible to avoid the subjects that prompt those views. Once you don’t like a poster for their political view, it is then rare that you fully appreciate their Charlton view, even if it is something you would agree with if posted by someone else. Straight away, there is a difference that provides an unwanted backdrop.
Away from that, some of the other key repeated things people liked the least were “Abuse and Swearing”, “Aggressive/sarcastic posters who have to be right, or always have to have the last word” and “Attention whores and those who only post to wind others up”.
All of those were as expected, and nothing I can disagree with. They are the same things that disappoint me. We do moderate where possible to alleviate these aspects. We hate excluding CAFC people from the site, and have not done so for a very long time, but as the regular public and private warnings, pleads and coaxings seem to consistently fall on deaf ears, reluctantly we now accept we probably need to experiment to taking a stronger approach on this.
The final two things that featured more than others were “Banter”, probably the same amount as registering it as their favourite thing, and the good ol “CL Clique”. With Banter, i think there just needs to be an appreciation on two main points. 1 is it appropriate? Yes the forum by nature can occasional be a bit laddish, but if you’ve doubts whether something might be crossing the line, keep it to somewhere else (emails, Facebook, texts etc) with those you KNOW will find it funny or non-offensive. 2. Is it understandable to most others? There is nothing more annoying than if there is an ‘in joke’ that you are not part of/don’t understand. If it is between two mates, and only them and their couple of other pals are going to understand, either make the joke elsewhere, or word your post so that you don’t have to be either of you two to get it, ie. If one of my mates jokes about me being short, or Curb It getting someone in a head lock, then you know that the majority of the forum are going to understand and follow. If it’s just a cryptic comment about what someone did last night, that’s more difficult for others to follow. Just remember it is a public forum, and whilst it is essential that the humour isn’t lost, it’s equally important that most people feel part of the humour, even if they don’t know the individuals.
As for the "Clique", I think the main part of that is centred on the above. If it is in terms of alliances formed on here, then I personally feel this is over-exaggerated. In my mind, there is no one Clique. There are a number of different smaller groups made up of actual friendships or cyber friendships, but i don’t feel it is too dominating in terms of debate, and since the introduction of Facebook, Twitter, the ability to send group PMs in the Inbox, and group phone apps such as Whatsapp, i think we are seeing much less.
In terms of additional features/changes, there is little I can highlight in way of repeated themes, but there were some really good individual ones which we will certainly do some investigating into whether they are possible, and we have already provisionally looked at integrating a couple of them. A few people mentioned they prefer the old style whispers to the inbox, and while i’m inclined to agree, I’m afraid this is just no longer available on this platform. We’ll raise the Search facility as a priority, though the work for this is not with us, but with the platform provider.
Never met anyone from here, so i'm officially not in the clique.
72% Match Threads - The highest number, so while I understand that when we are away how much this can be used as way of following the match, but when we are at home? Unless members revisit the thread when they get home from the game!! Also this is high praise indeed for RedMidland et al who update the thread!
Regarding the CL Clique, I've only met Henry and CharltonDan the rest are made up by AFKA - FACT!
again I also know that these can turn nasty, in some ways that can be quite entertaining, in others just dismissive and rude posts leading to personal abuse.
fine line... could keep it all Charlton but there’s only so much slagging off one can do
Well done!!!!
So I now resolve to pack in this childish behaviour. You're all alright really and we all like the same football team too!
Maybe it's me who's the dick after all!
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That didn't take long!
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Down :-(
Lol, your comments made me smile though, you are hunting me down arn't you?
However, being in a clique is not necessarily a bad thing and a forum which gets a lot of regular users will be unable to avoid them occuring and it could be argued that they shouldn't be encouraged to as people have to feel 'involved' and have a reason to continue returning.
It's only a problem when it comes with aggression or if poepe are unwilling to share the background information.