What is the first thing you would normally do after you switch on your computer? The answer would either be Outlook or Internet Explorer. For modern people, checking e-mail and surfing internet are the 2 most-do things.
"DUFC is a modern football team. It is totally unacceptable that we don't have our own web site and e-mail address. Ridiculous!" The Chairman screamed.
The next second, Jason started working. For building a web site, Jason got the know-how. He knew a friend who runs a hosting company which provides services for registration of domain name and hosting of web site.
Domain Name
Before you can build a web site, you need a domain name. Before you can get a domain name, you need to have the agreement of the Team. DUFC love to have Dogs' involvement on making big decision. And the final 2 domain names selected for voting were dogsunited.net and dufc.net. You, of course, knew the result.
From 08 November 2005, our first even domain name was registered and owned by the hosting company for a period of 1 year.
The Web Site
Once the domain name was ready, the rest is rather straight forward. Jason had his own web site (kamenrider.net) long before the scream of the Chairman. All he needed to do is to "copy and paste" the main structure of his own web site and add-in contents of DUFC. That also means dogsunited.net shared similar design and layout of a 幪面超人 web site.
To start with, we did not have many contents. It was not only because we don't have much time to work on it but also because we decided to left ourselves rooms for improvement.
News -- the first thing you would like to see from any web site. It is very important for both the players and the fans to know what's going on in the Club. Also, news about new matches was also posted on the site.
Team -- can you imagine if you cannot find any details about the players from the web site of a football club? Surely can't. These introduced the 23 Dogs of the Season 2005/06. And I remembered it took almost 3 months before we finally collected photos from all 23 Dogs ...
Gallery -- this is the place for Dogs to show their talents. I always say Dogs got talents and you never believe in me. Now you see the first drawing from Sing since he left the Shatin Shelter. He also contributed the first Designer's Arts of the Gallery right after the launch of the web site. From there on, more and more Art Works were submitted from different Dogs.
Attendance -- for the purpose of encouraging Dogs to come more often and for making appreciation to those who keeps good attendance. It is much more difficult than you can see because we need to maintain the record and we need to update the page every month.
History -- for those who joined in day one, you can enjoy once again the happiness of the old days. For those who joined thereafter, you can read about what had happened before your days. It certainly included all important events and people of DUFC since the 1990's. A must read!
Though the design was simple and we didn't yet have enough contents, it is indeed a very good web site. As a starting point, it was a job well done.
Dogs Forum
Back to the old days, matches were arranged by telephone. When internet came, matches were arranged by e-mail. By all means, both were not a very good way of communication, especially when it involved more than 20 people.
It would be more effective by using a forum. Thus, Jason found us one right after the launch of the web site.
As few of you might know, Dogs Forum version 1.0 was a bit disappointed and not up to expectation. The extremely cheap hosting package provided by Jason's friend did not include a database server (which is essential for hosting a forum). So Jason had to find an alternative and the one he got was free of charge. No doubt, you would expect some draw back:-
-- it was under other domain name but dogsunited.net;
-- you needed to key-in certain randomly generated words or numbers (kind of passwords)
every time before your posts can be made;
-- it took a year to load for both posts making and topics reading;
-- you could not change the layout or design;
-- there were a lot of annoying advertisements;
"DUFC is a famous football team. It is totally unacceptable that we provide such a forum to our players and fans. Ridiculous!" The Chairman screamed again.
This time, it was Fly being the rescue. As the same as Jason, Fly got his own web site (flyluk.com). He also knew a friend who runs a hosting company. Fly helped to set-up the Dogs Forum version 2.0 which totally solved all the above problems but the first one. I will explain more about it in another episode later.
The Dogs Forum version 2.0 has better design and layout. It contents DUFC logo which link back to the main page of dogsunited.net. It is now having green color tone which is the Club's main color tone. In fact, it really looks great!
Before long, Dogs started to register their accounts and they also started to make their posts there. Actually, there are three sub-forums:
Matches -- contents information of new matches. Dogs can line-up if they wanted to play. Post match reports and photos will also be posted here for comments and records.
Dogs Forum -- contents all kind of posts. Dogs can share anything here.
Committee Forum -- restricted area for only The Committee. They would discuss issues concerning the Team. They would also make decisions on issues like who to collect the long outstanding debts and whether we will make a new team shirt.
The official web site and the forum provide an ideal place for Dogs to hang around and share info. More importantly, the Team now has a stronger feeling of belonging to something. It is an achievement.
In return, what you need to do is to (1) visit the site every morning to see if there is any update or news; (2) log-in the forum, register for the new matches and tell us a joke; and (3) forward the domain to all your colleagues, friends & family and let them know what a wonderful web site dogsunited.net is.
Cheers!
" What for if you don't share your joy and fun with others? " Master Plato