PSUVikings
Active member
Read the below message, we need a fan! if you love WSU take this position.
Hello Big Sky Fans,
Thanks for your interest in this exciting new project that I have been working on. I know the details of what his is about are pretty scarce at the moment as I wanted to get the word out in a way as to not give away what I was doing but also peak interest in the project from individuals such as yourself.
We all know the excitement that one can get from following, supporting, watching and talking about your favorite sports team. This passion can be seen of thousands of people all on a daily basis on forums such as eGriz.com, bobcatnation.com and anygivensaturday.com (sorry to those who I left out but you get the idea).
This idea has been in my head for many years but never took the time to take action upon it and pursue it. One, I didn’t have the money to be able to start something such as this, Two, didn’t really know what I was doing (not that I really do now but at least I think I know a little more), Three, I was pretty busy. Now I am living just outside of Boulder, Colorado away from all friends and family so my social life has taken a hit, but I now have more time to devote to such a project.
The idea has been done by a couple of people, most notably Ryan from bobcatnation.com. He started a blog last year for the Big Sky located at http://www.bscfootball.blogspot.com/. This was very successful and had a lot of interest but definitely took up a lot of his time. Unique content within a community is the next step for these types of sites. A place for fans to get information that they can’t get anywhere else, A community built by the fans with photos, chat, blogs, articles, message boards and more all from the fan perspective. This is what is missing in the sports world. Fans have never had the chance to really speak out about their passion except for in message boards and the occasional personal blog.
What I am doing is creating a place for all big sky fans, friends of the big sky, opponents of the big sky and anyone else to enjoy and talk about their teams in a larger community. This site will be run by the fans (you guys). Each Big Sky School with have at least one fan representing the school on this site (this is you guys). The site will consist of a Big Sky Blog, containing, News, Events, Articles, and anything else that you would like to write about. It will contain a message board similar to the message boards the exist for each school but on a larger scale, then entire big sky and I-AA community (FCS). It will have a photo gallery with sections for each school containing albums of your choosing. You will control the content of these albums. Members can submit photos, you can upload photos, etc. These are the 3 main features of the site but will/can contain more. I’ve thought about having content such as schedules and such but wanted your input as far as if you would be willing to keep it up to date.
Your duties on this site (kinda repeated from above) would be to post information such as news, events and anything else about your specific team to the blog. You are encouraged to write custom content for your team but is not required. You can also be a moderator on the forum if you choose, once again not required. You will also be in charge of the photo gallery section of your school. You will create albums for public upload, individual games, or whatever organization you choose (I can help), and overall just help manage your section.
The site is just starting to be developed and you are on the ground level. I have already developed the basic site and it is just waiting for all of us to start with the content. If you don't like the appearance of the site, please let me know as it can easily be changed. This was just one idea in my head and may not be the best idea. We can work on this. I hope you are still interested in this project so far. The forum isn’t developed yet as I was trying to wait for the new phpBB3 software to be released (coming very soon). It is a lot more powerful and feature rich that the phpBB2 software seen on the forums today at eGriz.com and most of the others.
Now, onto the details you are probably looking for..
Right now I do not have the ability to compensate you for your time and efforts on this project as it is still in the development stages. So basically you will be doing this out of love for your team and not the money. I’m hoping this will change. I am in the process of getting advertisers, corporate sponsors etc. This will bring in the income, which will be dispersed to you guys for your efforts. I don’t know exactly how we will work out the pay structure but that will be figured out at a later date when it gets closer to reality (I will work on this part). I’m also hoping to have other benefits such as possibly press passes for those of you that make it to the games (all except UM cause they are tight bums. Sorry, some bitterness to the head honcho over at UM). Ok, moving on, I’m also hoping to get access to other items that will allow us to do our jobs, products, clothing etc. These details are far from being a reality but I will put more effort into these once the site is up and running.
Still interested? I hope so.
The website is http://www.bigskyfans.com and is powered by Wordpress, a very popular and powerful blogging software. It is very easy to operate and you will be able to post articles very easily. I will do more training on this if you want to be a part of this project. The gallery is powered by coppermine, the same gallery software that powers eGriz.com’s GrizPics gallery. The forum, as stated above will hopefully be powered by the new phpBB3 software but may have to start out with the phpBB2 software if the release is farther away that expected.
Take a look around, as there is not much there right now, it won’t take long with all our efforts to get the site up and running. The community of fans in the Big Sky is very large. Most schools have a forum; Weber just got one (congrats). NAU seems to be the only school that lacks the online presence of fans; lets change that.
Right now these are the schools that have interest in this project (you guys).
Idaho State: 1
Montana: 1
Montana State: 2 (looks to be a great opportunity for the two of you to work together)
Northern Colorado: 1
Portland State: 1
We are missing fans from NAU, EWU and SAC State. FI you know of anyone else that might be interested in this, please let them know about the project. I'm sure once we get the site up, there will be more interest to be a part of it.
We will have a chance for introductions once you agree to come on board with the project.
I really appreciate your interest in this and hope we can all work together to make something great!
Please take a look at the site if you haven’t already done so and let me know if you are interested in continuing with this project. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email or call me.
Thanks again,
Chris Lynn
[email protected]
