HagueyUK 76 Posted November 6, 2015 Hi guys, for those of you that haven't already checked out the portal, give it a look. www.speedwayportal.com Lots has been happening behind the scenes within the team here, and we have some announcements to make in the coming weeks, starting this weekend. From 10am this coming Sunday 8th November, our first announcement. So keep an eye on social media and the forum. Time to take it up a gear. Andy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HagueyUK 76 Posted November 8, 2015 Speedway Portal are incredibly excited to say that our official riders section is very close to launch. And we can now announce that the first rider to officially link up with us if former Poole/Isle Of Wight/Mildenhall rider "BRENDAN JOHNSON". Brendan's channel will go live on 15th November 2015, but until then why not check out his channels promotional video that will give you a taste of what you can expect to see within the channels. Enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjM_YlPsUgc 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HagueyUK 76 Posted November 9, 2015 SPEEDWAY PORTAL are proud to announce an official link up with the UK's leading speedway photographer "JEFF DAVIES". Jeff, who has been taking pictures of speedway since 1983, will be providing SPEEDWAY PORTAL with pictures from his massive 32 years back catalogue, all of which are available to buy from his website http://www.jeffdavies.luxipics.com/. From all of us here at SPEEDWAY PORTAL, welcome to the team Jeff! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HagueyUK 76 Posted November 12, 2015 Hi Gumble, thank you for taking the time to have a look round the Portal and for your feedback. Yes we are setup and run as a business, but we are not driven by money, it doesn't and will not have baring on the direction we are heading towards now or in the future. Partners logos are on the site, these are people and businesses that actively help promote and help us achieve our vision. Monetizing the site and app like many others out there with google ads etc and random ads to create revenue for us will never be done. Each and every person or company that we help promote on the Portal has a very valid reason for being there to do with speedway, not to make us money. So you can be assured that any ads you see are helping the sport in some way, and are not on there to make us money. There is very little that we have made a decision on not to include in the Portal itself. We do not have a crashes section for instance on the Portal, but within team or riders channels it is their choice if they want this included as it is their channel. They make the decisions on what media is presented inside their channels, not us. But we will always try and keep a standard, easy to use and navigate format throughout the entire Portal for the user. I think you'll agree that every business etc has to start somewhere, and I am the first person to say it's not perfect by any means. It is constantly being tweaked and changed on a daily basis to try and upgrade it etc. We are currently in talks to address the website issue with another company who know a lot more about this than we do. The main thing is that you have looked at it and like the concept, all of the other issues can and will be worked on to make it better in time. I would very much appreciate it if you would kindly DM me with more in depth specific thoughts that you don't like as then we can look at these issues. Obviously we are not going to scrap the whole site and start again as others have different views of it than yours, but you may have some very valid specific thoughts that we can correct and look at. We work with the fans not against, we want fans input as this is the reason the Portal was started. We listen and will act if appropriate, If you like it tell everyone, if you don't tell us and we'll make it better together. Many thanks. Andy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SCB 0 Posted November 12, 2015 (edited) I cannot emphasise how much fading stuff in and out and sliding onto the screen is a ballache and people will hate it. People expect a website to load as quick as possible. By including them gimmicks you slow it down, intentionally. It's one thing to use it for stuff that doesn't matter but for important content (like the actual content and the menu!) DONT DO IT! Moving stuff is a PITA and people seem to like to do it to show, "our stuff isn't static, look how clever we are", wrong attitude, it should be how easily and quickly can we allow people to navigate our site and get to what they want. Clearly you or whoever is doing your website has a reasonable technical knowledge but you seem to lack design ideas/concepts, so can I suggest looking into using a framework like twitter bootstrap to help tame the web design phase. I know some web people will go "argh, but thats making all websites look the same" but others (me!) will argue that once you have masters using a framework you can eventually break out and do some of your own design stuff. I love the concept and think you should be commended (or committed!) for the time and effort involved thought in the main though. Good luck! Edited November 12, 2015 by SCB Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HagueyUK 76 Posted November 12, 2015 Thanks SCB, Valid points from another perspective. Food for thought for us to chew on. Andy 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rusky 113 Posted November 12, 2015 I cannot emphasise how much fading stuff in and out and sliding onto the screen is a ballache and people will hate it. People expect a website to load as quick as possible. By including them gimmicks you slow it down, intentionally. It's one thing to use it for stuff that doesn't matter but for important content (like the actual content and the menu!) DONT DO IT! Moving stuff is a PITA and people seem to like to do it to show, "our stuff is static, look how lever we are", wrong attitude, it should be how easily and quickly can we allow people to navigate our site and get to what they want. Completely agree with SCB. The concept of the site is very good, but the performance is appalling, and on many occasions is downright unusable. If you can sort these issues it will be a useful resource. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HagueyUK 76 Posted November 12, 2015 Thanks for the comments guys, will work on it today and see if we can iron out at least some of these issues by this evening. Andy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SGP 49 Posted November 12, 2015 FOR what it's worth, I am aware of one group who are working with a major KODI developer to create a reliable addon of (legal) streamable content also. As I understand it, the group involved have links with a major player in the production of speedway/sport DVDs and will focus on providing licensed content. It would be wrong for me to say anymore, but, I thought I would put it out there (I have permission) to show users that it's good to see interest in the sport amongst the entertainment community. Personally, I would love to see fully licensed GoSpeed recorded meetings available to stream 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HagueyUK 76 Posted November 12, 2015 SGP, sounds like you are promoting us! haha. Hey, whatever comes from whichever source out of this, it's good for speedway, and I'm happy about that. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RobMcCaffery 2,752 Posted November 12, 2015 There are now considerable archives of non-broadcast video material out there. After all, it's well over 30 years now since my old employer, KM Video set the trail for the likes of Rerun to follow. I'm delighted to see that Jan Staechmann's managed to take on the surviving KM Video archive for distribution through his Classic Speedway Videos business. I doubt that there's a huge amount of DVD retail income potential for league matches from 20 or 30 years ago, but distribution via Kodi would seem a sensible move, even if it means some of you having to listen to me now and then. Before someone asks, the Screen Sport archive would seem to have been lost when the station was acquired by Eurosport and when the technical support company that made the programmes for KM and Screen Sport went bust, so it's mainly just the basic single camera non-broadcast KM Video productions that sadly survive from that era. I do look forward to a day when I can can access a comprehensive library of domestic speedway, even if to work out where I was between 1982 and 1986....I ended up with only about a dozen programmes in my own archive :-( 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HagueyUK 76 Posted November 12, 2015 (edited) All interesting stuff, I have tweaked the site now, should load a bit quicker. The site already is pretty big so it will take some time to implement within the portal section itself, however the main site has been modified. Not all of the changes have been implement, just the ones which we feel was important to the speed etc of the site. Other suggestions are still being chewed over. Also with regards to the speed etc. During the initial stages of setting up the Portal, it was decided that we would only provide the best quality links available on the videos, not to provide choices of 240p/360p/480p/720p/1080p etc. So we appreciate that to some that have a slower connection, or are in a bad 3G signal area this could present some buffering problems. But as for the speed of the website or app loading times themselves, we will continue to look into ways of speeding them up without compromising our product etc. Many thanks for your contributions. Andy www.speedwayportal.com Edited November 12, 2015 by Speedway Portal Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RobMcCaffery 2,752 Posted November 12, 2015 The company I worked with last year was in talks with Go Speed regarding making ReRun and Clean Cut's matches available online. After being messed around by Go Speed for over a year the project was abandoned. At the time they were in discussion with Wayne Russell who said they wanted to move forward with the idea but that they had to keep Sky and Bet 365 happy. Sky were not willing to let go of the on demand rights to Speedway and it caused a lot of friction between Go Speed and Sky. Go Speed also wanted to get rid of Re Run and Clean Cut and cover all matches with a different team. Sadly this comes as no surprise. What's the position regarding archive material? I assume if a recording pre-dates the agreements then it would be exempt. I can understand the conflict with Sky over current material being made available if they have exclusive on demand rights. From what I've seen of Clean Cut's work I'd be surprised if Go Sp[eed could come up with a better product at the same budget level. Fundamentally, speedway sold too much to Sky and now Go Speed are realising that if you get into bed with a tiger it bites your head off ;-) It may be of interest to mention a similar problem we had a Screen Sport back in 1984. They were very keen to have speedway. A key player with them was Chris Fear who'd been the chief sports presenter at Westward TV in Plymouth where they used to have a strong relationship with Exeter speedway. We approached the BSPA who ummed and ahhd, dithered then lamely said they didn't want to upset ITV. Bear in mind the ITV deal had only resulted in international events being shown on World of Sport, plus some limited domestic coverage on Anglia and Central plus the Yorkshire TV trophy at Hull. Thoroughly unimpressed I suggested we go to the National League who by then were practically running independently. We quickly got an agreement using the argument that the BSPA had a broadcast deal with ITV. Since Screen Sport was primarily a cable TV service at that point we argued that it was not broad-casting but 'narrowcasting'. March 15th 1984 we were at Hackney and never heard a word from ITV. I suspect had Go Speed been about then I'd have still been doing just stock cars, basketball and ice hockey.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HagueyUK 76 Posted November 15, 2015 SPEEDWAY PORTAL's first rider channel is now live. Brendan Johnson is the first of many riders we are currently working with to bring their media channels to you. We can also announce that SPEEDWAY PORTAL will be a sponsor of Brendan's during the 2016 season and beyond. Great to have you on board Brendan. So take a look around his channel, it's only going to get bigger and better!!! Enjoy. http://www.speedwayportal.com/#!riders-channels/q8wca Many thanks, Andy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,292 Posted November 15, 2015 Watch it using my 'Android box' on the TV.... Its a great site.... Thanks for all the work you put in... Just watched a 'Golden Hammer' from 91.... Nielsen, Jan O, Ermolenko, Hancock, Hamill, Havelock, Screen, etc... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
