According to NUFC.com .cock will start to charge 4.99 a month to access the site. How many expats will cough up only to get the webcast??

Cheers

ken Ottawa Canada

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

Answers

Apalling Place. How will ex-pats pay their (foreign) money?

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

swift's wages ;-)

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

They should raise about £9.98 per annum - assuming Doug and Fred are pc literate, which somehow seems doubtful. ;0{]

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

This has got to be some kind of bad joke.

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

Premium TV are considering this for all their footy club sites - I believe they've already imposed it on one.
Apparently, it's their way of trying to bail out NTL. I'm afraid it won't succeed.

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

As someone who relies on the webcast...

They can f**k right off. I'd rather pay for a 90 minute phone call home with the receiver put next to me man's radio than give a penny to those incompetent cockney *******s.

This has got to be some kind of sick joke? I will just listen to the webcasts on the sites of the opposing teams. Mind you, I have to do that most weeks anyway coz the .cock one NEVER WORKS.

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

aye you tell em Steve

;O))

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

Steve has there been some problem with the webcasts ?

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

Yes, Macbeth. Still inconsistent. Some matches, it's on up to 45min prior to ko, other times it's not on until well after ko. One game in the last month didn't come on until after half time. Can't remember which one it was offhand, but there's likely comment on the matchday threads.

They're are completely out of their minds if they seriously intend to charge for access. Paid subs to the webcast only was tried a couple of years ago and failed miserably. I admit I did subscribe only because the webcast is usually the only access I have to match coverage, but quality and connection was inconsistent then, and hasn't changed a bit now. If anything it's worse because you never know when the webcast will actually be on. At least before it was on, it was only the usual 'net problems of buffering and dropped connections to contend with.

Asking people to pay to view the site at all is insanity of the highest order when they aren't providing a product worth it's current price(i.e. nothing). I'd sooner pay nufc.com, at least their info is more reliable and a better read, and they *care* about what appears on their site. I wonder if we can get Niall and Biffa to set up a webcast? ;-)

Basically .cock needs to get their act together and put out a product worth paying for before asking people for money to look at it. Considering the main thing people are interested in (news and webcast) is available for free elsewhere, I still can't see them having success in this other succeeding in angering people further. :- |

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

I'd rather read the match day thread on the bbs than pay to access dot cock.

-- Anonymous, December 26, 2001

Ciara I was being flippant, I too tried to listen to a coupleof games recently and it was rubbish.

The club a fairly aware of what the world thinks of their website, and hate nufc.com because they make nufc.co.uk look even worse by comparison. You may have picked up a dig at the club this week, the club are relentlessly trying to stop Biff and Niall doing their hobby.

In June I was told late summer, in September I was told later in the year, AND with Vignette !! Ho hum

-- Anonymous, December 26, 2001

I did warn you Macbeth about such 'promises'. I was told "4-6 months at the most" by David Stonehouse in October 2000.

Just another demonstration of professional incompetence.

-- Anonymous, December 26, 2001

Mac do these 'promises' gat minuted officially at the FLC meetings? If so surely it will soon be time to communicate them back up the chain, with the ultimate sanction being tabling them as an embarassing question at the next AGM ?

Always assuming there is another AGM ...

-- Anonymous, December 26, 2001

What amazes me is that hundreds of thousands of people go to the website for information about the club. Im sure thats more hits than any TV channel is likely to get. So why oh why are the club not addressing the public image of the club ? Surely even they must realise that the internet is the biggest marketing tool in the world. Or am I just being presumptious? This whole issue gets right on my t1ts. But Im sure its all been said before. Swifty I hope to god you get something going and then the people on here can contribute and make the interenet a better place for Toon fans all ower the world.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 2001

Sting,
Isn't it entirely obvious - simply from the need to have this thread - that they see the "co.uk" purely as a "cost" rather than an almost unique marketing opportunity? I'm way past despairing!

LT,
There is never any shortage of embarrassing questions at the AGM. However, they are just water off the hogs backs (literally!) - Doug doesn't have the class to even turn up, and Fred doesn't appear give a rat's @rse what the plc shareholders or it's fans/customers think.

Even though the last one was by far the best so far, it is invariably a depressing experience, when given the massive amount of latent goodwill that exists towards the Club, it could be an enlightening and uplifting one.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

The PR within the club has a very attuned siege mentality. They absolutely believe everyone is out to get them and that the best PR is no PR.

When there was the furore about the Charlton tickets being returned the club actually had a reasonable (ish) story to explain it away. They decided not to comment because it would have meant talking to the press.

The club have never forgiven the nufc.com boys for buying the domain name, and i'd guess that they would say the only reason they get the number of hits they do is that the world thinks it is the official club site.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

...... they must have a bloody awful PR firm 'cos they're getting really bum advice.

Any PR Consultant worth his salt will tell you that the only way to change negative perceptions is to get off your @rse and do something (actually lots of things) positive to change them - and that this needs to become a central plank of your operating strategy.

When things are going well you need to work even harder to put 'credits in the bank' for when you really need them.

'Keeping a low profile', 'keeping your head below the parapet' and hiding behind the facade of plc confidentiality, will do nothing to change a negative public image - winning the Premiership might do, mind you!!

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

Amen to that, Clarky! The constant battles with .com do them no good either. I did see those digs,Macbeth, particularly the child's drawing of Robert's goal as they'd been told they couldn't even post personal photos. IMO, that's really being small and petty and the club should be embarrassed to carry on that way. I just have no clue on earth what it takes to change their minds or if we're stuck with the siege mentality until there are new folks running the club. :-(

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

the reporting chain is Shepherd..... Cushing ..... Hazel Greener, it's difficult to spot the real culprit

Shepherd really can't be bothered with day to day stuff and rightlydelegates it to those running the operational side of the business .... CEO Russell Cushing.

Cushing has 30 years experience of being at the club, and nothing else to recommend him. I can't believe anyone can sruvive taht long under Westwood, Mckeag, Hall, Shepherd without being a yes man and being the last man standing.

Hazel Greener is the PR manager and seems to have no qualifications for the role, apart from 'friends' in high places. In my way I gave her the benefit of the doubt until a surreal conversation about nufc.com one day. She said they systematically undermined the club, for example by announcing Robert Lee wouldn't play against Spurs and therfore tipping off the opposition. With this level of patanoia it is impossible to reason with her.

I know it wasn't a success for various reasons but she was also against the attempted flag day, for some unspecified reason, we had to get to the marketing director before we managed to get someone to see that it was a positive thing to do.

It's important to remember that the smell that emanates from the top goes a long way down

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001

......nail on the head, Macbeth.

-- Anonymous, December 28, 2001