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Online Edition of NZ Orienteering

Show Profile  MAMBO339 Posted: 13 April 2002, 11:47 AM  
Well ill just start my 1st post nice and short....

There should be an Online Edition of "NZ Orienteering"

Mambo

Show Profile  stu barr Posted: 13 April 2002, 4:35 PM  
Why?

Show Profile  MAMBO339 Posted: 14 April 2002, 8:35 AM  
Yes, it would also work rather well as many people in the orienteering fraternity have internet/email these days.

Another bonus would be the improved look of "NZ Orienteering" if it was online as photographs would no longer be limited to the fuzzy black and white that we are used to.

The online edition of the magazine could also be a promotion for the magazine, rather than the money that the NZOF forks out for the new free issue of the December edition.

And to those who think that the NZOF would lose out on money from the reduced sales of the magazine with it being avaliable online, IT WONT. Im sure the NZOF actually lose money from making the money, so another yet another advantage of having an online edition of NZ Orienteering.

If your still not convinced stu, then maybe you should be a bit more open mined into ways we can promote orienteering, rather than just asking "why".

Well thats all for now,
Mambo

Show Profile  stu barr Posted: 14 April 2002, 9:25 AM  
Mambo,

Don't get me wrong! I wasn't asking "why?" in a negative way, infact I totally agree with your idea. It just seems your first point had no substance, no conviction and no reasoning. You were just stating a fact that had been raised many times previously, including on this forum!

I asked "why?" to hear your reasoning and now I have!

How about the fact that the articles will be much more current and relevant? An event could have a quality article displayed on the web within days/hours of its completion. With the current magazine format, events can be four months dated by the time we read about them.

If you think I am not open minded in ways to promote orienteering you are mistaken. Here are some of my views:
*the NZOF should stop focusing solely on coaching. It seems this is their main concern and I guess it is somewhat understandable as this is where most funding is gained, but it does not add to the promotion or growth of our sport.
*NZ should focus more on park orienteering. We are continually trying to attract the volumes of participants we have at our town park events out to the "real maps", with very little success. I believe it is a completely different market and should be nurtured. We need to cater for this group as its own entity.
*New Zealand clubs should be trying to establish themselves as "clubs" not just affiliators, with such things as clubhouses, club trips, interclub/regional competitions, club training and club captains. There seems to be very little spirit within New Zealand clubs. I believe the way to keep juniors in our sport is through their social interactions and relationships with other orienteers and this is promoted through the squads and camps. This same principle should work for all ages and yet there are very few attempts to promote social activities for clubs at various levels.

I won't go on all day. But, "Go NZ O' online!". Perhaps we could call it Maptalk??

Show Profile  DaveGlover Posted: 15 April 2002, 6:08 AM  
Why does everyone assume that just because people have access to the internet, that they want to receive all their information, news and entertainment from it? I am not knoocking the idea, an online version would be good, but if you got rid of the paper version you would lose one way of 'pushing' information into homes, and would possibly alienate some 'readers'. Swings and roundabouts, but don't make the decision just because you think the internet is the best thing since sliced bread, ask others how they feel (and not just on an internet based forum!)

Show Profile  MAMBO339 Posted: 15 April 2002, 8:53 AM  
Stu,
You seem to have justified your comment. My apologies.

Your comments about how the NZOF could increase participation are also relevant, but that opens up into another debate.

And Dave,
I never suggested the idea of taking away the magazine completely.

About the name of the online magazine, if it ever does happen.
I would think that something more original could be used, such as NZOF Monthly (or fortnightly, or even weekly, if someone has that kind of time to do it).
Any Suggestions?

Mambo

Show Profile  fraser Posted: 15 April 2002, 10:33 AM  
Why stop (or start) with the national magazine? What about all the orienteering goings on that are written about only in the local club newsletters that never get seen by the majority of orienteers in NZ. I think that a central "one-stop" website with all the club news from around NZ would be the best start. Then people would realise how much orienteering actually happens around NZ and have a greater sense of the orienteering community.

I guess that is pretty much the idea behind this website and this forum. Maybe people need a bit more encouragement to use the site and post articles either directly on the forum or to me so I can put them up as news articles. Maybe I should be more obvious in my intentions too (I guess this posting is a good start) but a number of people have already got the idea and sent me articles aswell.

What I am trying to say is that this website should be NZ orienteering online, maybe it needs a few tweaks (and I am open to suggestions) but in general everything else is setup and in place, all it needs is more contributors. I am willing to put up content from the magazine but I do need the OK given from the editor and/or NZOF before this can happen. Plus the address of the website couldn't possibly be forgotten by any New Zealand orienteer...

www.orienteering.co.nz

Show Profile  AndrewT Posted: 15 April 2002, 10:50 AM  
There are numerous other spin offs due to having the magazine online.

- Already mentioned is the ability to update data instantly, but not only that it can be done from anywhere in the world and by any number of chosen individuals. On top of that different individuals can have different admin rights to alter/add certain bits of information only. I would take a blind guess and say over half of the stuff given to the mag editor is emailed in, so why not have the contributors directly enter it to the online mag. (this can later be used for copy for the paper mag still). If consistency is a worry, then you can select to moderate people whos submissions might be dodgy.

- Since the data is held in a standard way within a database, you can also have a few standard templates to print out the data for when you are ready to put out a magazine copy. Im sure there are currently templates being used for a lot of pages in the magazine, I know I had them for the Wellington O Mag. On top of that you can still do all the editing you want in Freehand, word, whatever.

- Online, you can have more of a sense of community. This has kind of been shown here on maptalk, but I think would be extended past the usual larikens if it were the national mag. There can be reviews of events, comments on any news article, polls, etc. This also can be moderated. (The sign up process being moderated is usually the easiest and most effective way of doing this than moderating each thread as it grows)

- It gives the chance for all those geeks in this sport to do something more useful on their computers than playing The Sims or Quake (version whatever).

- It would hopefully replace the piece of cack NZorienteering.com site.

Show Profile  MAMBO339 Posted: 15 April 2002, 11:23 AM  
Yes, i hope it would definately replace the nzorienteering.com site. The updates are very slow, and the links to sites, for example the Nationals Results, are not directly linked to the exact page; you have to sift through the PAPO site (no offense to PAPO).

The nzorienteering.com also really needs a visual facelift. Maybe the webmaster could spend his little salary he earns from this, and buy some software.

Finally, while not *really* important. If the new website was going to happen, wouldn't a .org be more appripriate? After all, the NZOF is an organisation not a commercial entity.

That all for now, im starving.

Mambo

Show Profile  HeadHoncho Posted: 15 April 2002, 4:08 PM  
I see there are some budding NZOF webmasters here who are prepared to volunteer their time when the position comes up for grabs.

Show Profile  MAMBO339 Posted: 27 August 2002, 1:21 PM  
From the latest NZOF council minutes

quote:
8.6. New Zealand Orienteering
Deficit after 2 issues is $2,121 (cf last year $768). Since budgeted deficit for the full year is
$2,350, the editors have been requested to limit the size of the remaining two issues for
2002.
.

Surely if the mag was to go online there would not be such a large defecit. Think about it.



Show Profile  AndrewT Posted: 29 August 2002, 8:53 AM  
Well, thats not really the case, because one of the major problems leading to the deficit is the lack of advertising.

Putting the mag online would just lessen the readership of the mag and therefore no one would want to advertise, so the cost per mag goes up....

Show Profile  AndrewT Posted: 29 August 2002, 8:59 AM  
Though having said that, an online version of the mag could be very useful in getting other revenue streams that could help subsidise the deficit of the paper mag.

If there was an e-commerce section that sold T-Shirts, numberplate covers, O stuff, whatever the NZOF and its little elves decide to make that year (even could sell subscriptions or back issues of the paper mag) then that could make a bit of cash. And it takes hardly any effort at all to set up.

Lots of people have a simple 'PayPal' account and ask people to donate cash to their site, quite blatantly, and that alone usually draws a bit of cash. I mean its better than nothing.

Also there are lots of people willing to advertise online as its so easy to reach a target audience, as well as people that wouldnt usually pick up the mag.

Ahhh the internet....

Show Profile  Michael Posted: 29 August 2002, 9:31 AM  
Some of the contributors have failed to recognise that different types of information suit different media, and different audiences.

The hot news goes quite well on the internet, such as results and headline comment on last weekend's event, and where next weekend's event is.

The semi-static resource information such as the competition rules, calendar, club contact details goes quite well on the internet too.

The intermediate commenty stuff I think suits the printed word quite well, and this is largely what makes up "NZ Orienteering". I think the printed publication suits high quality artwork better as well. It's the sort of thing you mull over in a comfortable chair, rather than take in from your computer.

There are examples in the wider community which are worth studying. Newspapers have survived in spite of TV. They publish certain stuff in web form but still sell paper. Glossy magazines still exist and advertisers pay for space in them. The one-time promise that on-line advertising would support "free" internet services may be in doubt. Etc.

Michael Wood

Show Profile  addison Posted: 29 August 2002, 11:26 AM  
I would seriously think about posting the online edition of the magazine on my site. May take a bit of negociation with my mates about bandwith but im sure it will be ok.

Only prob is my site is a webportal for scripting and higher technology things than orienteering. But we are hoping to add a car drawing section, and who knows... an orienteering section. Site is http://www.teknet.vze.com . I will think about it

Show Profile  AndrewT Posted: 29 August 2002, 6:50 PM  
I don't think the matter of webspace is the problem. Webspace is close to free, and thats if your not looking very hard. In fact the online edition could be run for costs so minimal its almost stupid.

However, The issue here is, who the hell is gonna do this. Whos going to give up their spare time to build, maintain and fill the site with copy.

I make webpages for a living and I can tell you the hardest ones are the ones that you have to build yourself and regulary update yourself. The general rule is, the more regulary you (the webmaster of the site) go to your site, the more people will look at your site.

Take maptalk for example, I dont come here for the news, thats because I know that probably only twice a month the news is updated. I come here for the forum, cause its what changes its whats new....

Anyway I digress, I do think the online edition of NZOrienteer is a good idea. However, I don't see if happening in the near future, because no one will put in the time.

Though, I must say, orienteering.co.nz is a great candidate for online versions of NZorienteer articles. Why doesn't the editor just send fraser a headline and an article to post up?


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