The Essential New Blood

Right. Lets get serious for a second.

Alot of people seem to be leaving.

Ross, Rupert, Colin (Now returned), Henrik and I'm sure others have left in the last few weeks. I was thinking before that we needed some new managers, and this just makes the need greater.

As Paul is seemingly not bothered about attracting new blood, as there's a distinct lack of advertising...what do we think we can do to attract new players.

Every time I'm sat talking football to someone, Im looking at them in a "could you do CF a job" kinda way.

Is there any merit to a CF facebook page or group?, do we think that would help?.

Does anyone know of anywhere we could advertise?.

Lets get a little think tank going, becuase the longer we leave this, the stronger our sides will get and the weaker those sides left will be for managers coming in.

I was pitching a Liverpool fan the other day..and I was able to say the following words to him.."You'd have Dirk Kuyt"

At which point he lost interest. I seriously think we should revisit the limit on players in a squad to 30, and age limit on youth teams to 20. But thats a seperate subject.

So...what can we do to attract new players. Ideas please.

There is a facebook group but no one uses it, Maybe we could pop into other groups and post link to the forum which would direct them to a thread all about the game and how to play



.K.T.B.F.F.H.

In addition..

Stu, can we have a web page at the front end ie not requiring sign-in, that could give new players an idea about the game before they request a team.

Currently, you cant hope to judge anythnig from the 'Portal' Screen if you're unfamiliar with the game.

I'm happy to write some blurb as an introduction, could we update the home page to reflect this, and perhaps mate the login area a seperate button.

We look very much like a closed community at the moment.

I think thats the way forward Gaz. I use Notts County mad an awful lot. Dan (Sunderland) is always on some other football forum.
If we can get something looking slick for newbies, I think we'll be ok.

Build it...and they will come.

Plus, it would stop Paul having to hike prices.

Paul really does need to be able to send turns via email though. There must be something out there that would enable him to do this. I realise we all like the feel of paper in our hand...but we can always hit bloody print!

This was one of the things i spoke to Paul about on Tuesday.

Apparently Paul does still advertise a couple of times a year, although like a wally i didnt ask where as id love to check it out.

He said that generally people come into the game via word of mouth and recomendations, although ironically Henrik who was there from day one was one that responded to one of his adverts.

Iv been selling the game to both my brothers over the last few months.

Like me they were brought up on an mentally unhealthy childhood diet of Champ manager and Derby County and so when i told them about this game they were very interested to say the least.

Now while like myself they love a challenge,and when i told them that Derby were availalble their interest grew further still.

However it all came crashing down a little bit when asked what players they had.
Hulse maybe,Kris commons, maybe even Paul green and Steven Davies.....

erm no, more like Horacio Carbonari, Lucianio Zavanio and bob 'jailbird' Malcom.

they were a little surpirsed,but what killed it a bit was when they asked what i had, then what Tom had, what dan had.....less so what Rich had ,but you see my point.

My older brother wont be doing it cos hes got no nuts and his mrs put the old foot down but theres hope for the younger one.

But my point is and its something ive mentioned before as has ricardo, the depth within the game at the other clubs,

I think in order to get more managers in we need to make it marginally more attractive to them.

http://www.thefootballforum.net/ would be a good place to start.
I know Dan is a member there.
Might be possible to stick a post on each League forum or the off topic section advertising the game and it's available teams.
I expect it shouldnt be too hard to get managers for Spurs, City, Villa, West Ham, Blackburn, Liverpool, Portsmouth and Birmingham

definitiley need some new blood to the game dont we.

i'll have a look into changing the home screen to a proper home page at some point this weekend (maybe tomorrow afternoon). i know there is a way of doing it seeing as u can create html pages.

You're certainly welcome to write some blurb rich that would be great.

Will@Fulham wrote:

they were a little surpirsed,but what killed it a bit was when they asked what i had, then what Tom had, what dan had.....less so what Rich had ,but you see my point.

My older brother wont be doing it cos hes got no nuts and his mrs put the old foot down but theres hope for the younger one.

ok, two things chumpfuck..

1) I assume you are talking about Dan at Plymouth?. Cant be Sunderland surely..who'd be jelous of that?. What did you say to him?...Dan's got Darren Bent and 40,000 people telling him to spend his money??

2) You don't have an older brother. You are the eldest of 5.

If you need help with anything else, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Rich, your point about Sunderland is a bit cheeky especially as I'm still in charge, but I'm giving you one of those + rep things for the use of the word 'chumpfuck'. If I could give you more I would.

Matthew,

the word cheeky can be used when speaking in negative jest with reference to ones elders or betters... you and Daniel are neither of these..ergo it doesnt apply. Unless you want to start pulling the "I was born on March 4th so Im older than you" argument...

Will on the other hand is nearly 34, and so I suppose addressing him like that would qualify as 'cheeky'..old git.

thanks for the props on chumpfuck...you can use it.

ok so i just had literally a quick look at changing the home page just to test it out and yes any html page can be selected as a home screen, so its more like a web site than a closed community forum. just did a quick test and it seems to work. this is really basic, but if you now visit

http://hemsoft.forumotion.com/

its no longer a log in screen but an information screen.

clicking home from their takes you to the forum log in screen (when not already logged in). though that will probably need to be changed so that the home button is the home screen really. i'll look further into it tomorrow

rich....if you dont mind doing a bit of a blurb that would be fab mate. it may be good actually writing it as if you are paul, like in the text on thats currently on the link up their ^^^^ (i stole this text from his old web site), looks good i think if it sounds like its a direct welcome message from the horses mouth. some of the text their could be useful to copy over for it, though id leave out the different game variants, the other three games scarcely exist an dim pretty certain paul filters new managers into game one when (or maybe "if") he gets new managers.

as a side note....who is in favour of guest viewing? i can enable it which will mean newcomers can see what we write and what its about, though id probably not allow guest posting, but at the same time allow new memberships at admin approval (registrations are currently disabled).

sorry rich,the older of my younger brothers then

good work stu, some pictures maybe?

what sort of pictures do you want? footballers? naked girls?

ideally naked girls but perhaps in the interests of attracting new managers perhaps a baffled rafa a jubilant Mr Mourinio and a scouling Fergy tapping his invisible watch.

then perhaps a seperate section up within the forum for top tities

Will@Fulham wrote:

ideally naked girls but perhaps in the interests of attracting new managers perhaps a baffled rafa a jubilant Mr Mourinio and a scouling Fergy tapping his invisible watch.

then perhaps a seperate section up within the forum for top tities

basically the home screen (button next to forum index) will be the advert for the game. this is now found directly at the sites main address ( http://hemsoft.forumotion.com/ )

whoever wants to contribute towards the page in any way then please feel free. without going all david cameron on you, its is your page and your chance to help create the big(ger) society.

so, if you find some good pictures or have an idea for something you'd like to see on the main screen then source it or write it and send me it and i'll get it on there. i can even add additional pages to the home page if there's something else you'd like to see.

the forum will be (partly) viewable in guest mode for anyone to see when they visit by clicking the forum index from the main page.

oh and at the moment i cannot get rid of the button next to where you click to log out which says "home" on the second line of the navigation bar at the top ^. this button actually just redirects you to the forum index whereas the "real" home (button next to forum index) will be our front page. the one on the second line i cannot neither edit it, hide it or remove it as it is compulsory that all sites have it for some stupid reason which is why i shoved it at the end. best ignored to save confusion as you'll notice there are two buttons named home.

I might see to actually having a seperate address for the web site section and link the forum from that. i'll have a look around for some decent free web servers this weekend as and when i get the time, which would allow us to have a better domain name.

Rich@Leicester wrote:

I realise we all like the feel of paper in our hand...

I love that feeling, especialy first thing in the morning when I am getting off the throne.

http://www.thefootballforum.net/index.php?/topic/185573-a-great-play-by-mail-management-game/page__pid__4078122__st__0&#entry4078122

Does anyoe want to add anything to this or correct it?

i think its a good idea that paul is emailed to let him know of advertising to source new managers, just out of courtesy just in case the flood gates open and he gets 100 start-up requests!

theres some way too politically correct people on that forum btw...."did you ask permission to advertise" lol.

I'll let you email Paul then mate

oh ok...cheers!

what was the portal now is the web site. it seemed silly and confusing to have a home screen and then a web site. so there is now just a web site and if you visit http://www.hemsoft.forumotion.com/ you will now be greeted with the welcome message, results etc. from here users can switch to view (parts of) the forum without being logged in. i've managed to include some forum topics on the home page aswell as suggested by will, done like an RSS feed, if people are too lazy to hit the forum index button. hopefully this makes us a lot less like a closed community.

what else can we add ?

gaz had a great idea about getting some sample sheets up to show people what they get for their money. so we should definitely have a "why should i join and what do i get" kinda section on their. if someone else wants to write this (rich...please?) then that would be awesome. describing perhaps how many pages and what you get with each turn? i guess a good thing to show what can be achieved in the game is if dan (plymouth) could scan his team sheet so i can put it in with that. then at the end maybe some kind of 'epitaphs' from everyone...what you enjoy most about the game, what has drawn you to play it for so long etc.

like the add on the football forum website Matt, good idea.

and well done to stu, the new style forum looks superb.

I'll write the content chaps, no probs. Pehaps an FAQ document too?

Can we get a concencus of what headings we need?

1. Why should I join Championship Football?
2. What do I get for my money?
3. How much time is required?
4. How much football knowledge do I need?
5. What division do I start in?
6. What if my favourite club are taken?
7. How relevant is real life to events in the game?
8. How much is this going to cost me?
9. Ok, the forum, what's that all about?
10. Who is on hand to help me with questions?
11. Can I sign anyone?
12. Can I have my own cheerleaders?


that would be the basis of my FAQ document, which I suggest should follow a little bit of a script about it being the greatest game on earth.

thoughts please?