[Ash]

Good afternoon guys. Hope you're all enjoying this fine British summer.

Firstly I would like to thank all those who have stuck with us through this quiet period. It was to be expected, every year there's a sudden decrease in activity when it comes to the FM sections as the majority of people have had their game time and are either patiently waiting for FM11 or are bored of the game. It's been the same everywhere I've been, and in fairness the only websites that have no problems with this are those that have been well established for the past year. Granted, our opening time wasn't the best and maybe we should have looked for an earlier opening, or maybe stalled until FM11, but that wasn't a realistic option at the time.

Our career sections are still fairly active which is nice to see, I envy those who are still enjoying their time playing Football Manager 2010.

As a staff team, we have been discussing what we can do to improve FMD for the launch of FM11. Let me just confirm, we will continue to run what projects we do have on the go and will look to launch some more in the near future. But for now, our main priority is ensuring you guys help us establish ourselves for FM11.

So, what would you like to see?

[dave.afc]

More activity!

In all seriousness you're right about the drop in activity around this time of year, happens every year. Mainly what we need is to be prepared for the release of the new version and when we get an influx of new members hopefully we will be able to cater for them. I think the main things people are going to be coming here for when FM11 comes out is help with the game, be it players, staff, tactics etc and we need to be set up ready to help them. So things like player guides will be useful to new members and hopefully if we can provide a welcoming atmosphere any prospective new members will stick around and join the community.

We're also gonna need to rank highly with google/other search engines and we seem to be okay on google, we're 3rd for 'football manager forum' so hopefully new members will be able to find as that way, as they have done previously.

[Gazzaroon]

I agree with what you both say that preparation is the key in the quiet time, making sure you have a plan for the busy times is good. Do remember for some it is now holiday time and they aren't around as much and couple that with apathy time in the game then it's not so bad.

The most important thing is for all of us to be welcoming to new members and include them as quickly as possible in what is already going on and make it easy to adapt to the way things are done here.

[Ash]

dave.afc said:

More activity!

In all seriousness you're right about the drop in activity around this time of year, happens every year. Mainly what we need is to be prepared for the release of the new version and when we get an influx of new members hopefully we will be able to cater for them. I think the main things people are going to be coming here for when FM11 comes out is help with the game, be it players, staff, tactics etc and we need to be set up ready to help them. So things like player guides will be useful to new members and hopefully if we can provide a welcoming atmosphere any prospective new members will stick around and join the community.

We're also gonna need to rank highly with google/other search engines and we seem to be okay on google, we're 3rd for 'football manager forum' so hopefully new members will be able to find as that way, as they have done previously.

Two replies of our two consistently top posters.

Dave, what you mentioned will be our top priority for FM11. In the mean time, we'll do what we do best; discuss Football Manager.

[Y.amo]

I would just put my two penny worth on what Dave said. I don't think player reviews are THAT useful anymore, i know many people are trying to find new ways of writing them for FM11. I think other things such as tactics, databases, and team reviews are far more useful and what people will be after. The principle is right i think that is key thing that is needed, you need couple ideas and stick to them, that is the basis to most successful sites.

[Manno]

Sorry for the late reply guys

Basically , not being mean to anybody but a complete review of the staff and chuck out the deadwood so that we are more profesional site ,

Also for the introduction of FM11 I say the site should be completly renovated with new skin , layout changes and new ideas which gets the members interested and new members on the site and I think now during the summer and to the lead up to the release is the best time in the year to do it , as the members wont be so active so it wont disrupt as much activity.

Also I think that in the career section we should have a bit of renovation making the layout a bit clearer and also making sure on the homepage and different areas of the site that peoples efforts are noticed.

Thanks

[Y.amo]

Manno most of that i all agree with, but do you not feel some new innovate ideas is key rather than a skin? I am not disagreeing at all, far from it, but in the competitive world of FM sites you need something different to all sites.

[Manno]

Yeah I completly agree where you are coming from and a skin is not the major thing but everyone wants it changed and its getting changed soon so that was just added but its hard now to find something we could say is our own but yehh we need something different

[Gazzaroon]

Manno said:

Sorry for the late reply guys

Basically , not being mean to anybody but a complete review of the staff and chuck out the deadwood so that we are more profesional site ,

Also for the introduction of FM11 I say the site should be completly renovated with new skin , layout changes and new ideas which gets the members interested and new members on the site and I think now during the summer and to the lead up to the release is the best time in the year to do it , as the members wont be so active so it wont disrupt as much activity.

Also I think that in the career section we should have a bit of renovation making the layout a bit clearer and also making sure on the homepage and different areas of the site that peoples efforts are noticed.

Thanks

You make some good points

[Ash]

Some insightful thoughts here.

Most notably a few mentions about the possibilities of revamping the staff team. In defence to both myself and Mike when we assembled the team we did, we forgot that the hunger of those wanting to contribute via resources had well and truly passed. We were at the stage where not many people could be bothered with FM10, least of all FMD. That explains all the tossing and turning, and will yet again be the factor when we decide to make changes in the future.

I'm probably the biggest critic of this current skin. No disrespect to Riv, as he worked on this for a long time on and off, but it depresses me and I constantly find excuses not to visit FMD. I can confirm there will be a new skin with huge changes to benefit the forum in the near futures.

In regards to ideas, they are still being discussed. The content you guys are asking for will pick up in the near future, and will be shared between the staff and members, but or now we need to concentrate on maintaining the current activity whilst we work on these said changes.

[Michael7]

I think there should be a bit of a change in the tactics thread........to be fair the long winded journal type insites into tactics that are pinned are ok, but don't you think smaller more manageable items would be better......i think most people know how they want to play and can create a tactic, but to make it effective may just have to alter one slider or click one buttton....therefore my idea would be to have a thread for say "tempo" and how that affects your tactic where people can post different ideas, then another for "time wasting" etc.... i also think posting tactics is ridiculous how can my tactic for say chester who have poor passing and rubbish wingers etc work for ac milan who have no wingers, play a more defensive type of possession football and have far better players........you can explain to people what formation etc you play and why you play that way but just uploading tactics is a nonsense

[mase]

Michael7 said:

I think there should be a bit of a change in the tactics thread........to be fair the long winded journal type insites into tactics that are pinned are ok, but don't you think smaller more manageable items would be better......i think most people know how they want to play and can create a tactic, but to make it effective may just have to alter one slider or click one buttton....therefore my idea would be to have a thread for say "tempo" and how that affects your tactic where people can post different ideas, then another for "time wasting" etc.... i also think posting tactics is ridiculous how can my tactic for say chester who have poor passing and rubbish wingers etc work for ac milan who have no wingers, play a more defensive type of possession football and have far better players........you can explain to people what formation etc you play and why you play that way but just uploading tactics is a nonsense

some interesting points, but surely the easiest way to sort that last problem would be to say at the start of the post 'This type of tactic is best used when struggling in League 2 and you need to fight for every point... etc.' ? It is a good point raised, but it's also easily rectified

As for the points about 'tempo' and 'passing style' etc., i quite like that idea, and i think we should look to implement it.

On a side note, you could always try and initiate some of these threads yourselves. As staff, we're always looking towards members to show some initiative when it comes to creating threads etc. and would love to see some of you guys bringing this stuff forward off your own backs <3

[Michael7]

I also think we neglect training a bit.......I've been looking at it over the last few days and everyone seems to use tugs training but I don't think it's the best training regime.......I've noticed if you click on a players training you get the graph which shows how a player's individual attributes have changed over time, but you can also get on the same graph all the attributes trained for say " strength", "tactics","Set-pieces" etc.....This then tells you how you can alter either a whole group of players (all full backs) or an individual to ghet the best out of them....
I'll give you a couple of examples

Lets say you want to train full backs together.....look at the main attributes for full backs from the tactics screen then see which categories these match and train more for those than the other categories.

Individual training....lets say you have an awesome prospect of a centre forward but his composure is a bit low, look at the category which trains composure ( i think its either set-pieces or shooting from memory) and train him high on thiss for a while so it increases it to a suitable level then put him back in training with your other forwards.....

This now leads me to think all options for positions from the tactics screen i.e trequartista, deep-lying forward, poacher etc should have a different training regime to maximise a players potential in that position.

So after all that what I'm suggesting is having a specific training forum....in it should be a thread for each position from Fm10 (or FM11 if the trainings the same) so people can post their ideas or screenshots of training for that position, other members can then use this training and report their feedback so between us we can develop the best training regime for all positions on the game which should be universal for all levels of the game from the champions league clubs to the unibond league because they are position specific.

[Ash]

The problem with this is our lack of assertive knowledge. When people come for help, all they'll be getting is ideas. Maybe to some this is what they want, but for the people who require a certain answer won't be helped because no-one here knows how the training system is supposed to work. Your example above gives a very brief overview but that's all, you've even quoted yourself that you're not sure what training areas affect certain attributes. From a discussion aspect though, I do like your ideas- it's just a massive task to ask from someone who only has a humble idea of the tactic/training system SI have created.

[mase]

I would love to see us get more involved in this sort of thing but i really don't think that enough people here are interested/knowledgeable.


That doesn't mean to say you can't create a thread and we can see if we can try and get some discussion going now though? =]

[MarkC]

I think people should be staff in a certain area. Example, Someone who has very good knowledge in FM should be an FM mod, same goes for GFX and OT. It makes it look like people have a job to do.

[Ash]

MarkC said:

I think people should be staff in a certain area. Example, Someone who has very good knowledge in FM should be an FM mod, same goes for GFX and OT. It makes it look like people have a job to do.

This is something I've always wanted to try since the start, but it's difficult finding someone who has unlimited tactical knowledge or awesome graphic skills who isn't already staff elsewhere or don't quite have the desire to make that specific forum their own.

[dave.afc]

We've tried that before and it didn't really work. Imo we should just have Global Mods, and the staff as a whole should be prepared to post in all sections. Obviously some people will prefer to post in certain sections but you shouldn't have to label everybody.

[MarkC]

I like GFX and that is the only fm section i would post in unless there is a challenge or story I'm interested in then i would post in that topic but rarely other than that, so for me if i were GFX staff somewhere i wouldn't want the responsibility to post in the FM sections quite a bit.

[dave.afc]

Ok. It's a good job our staff don't mind posting everywhere then isn't it.