EaglePost Blog

I am pleased to announce that the new EaglePost, which is scheduled to go live on March 1st has secured our first Hattiesburg-based, long-term sponsor - Dohtery’s Furniture and Bedding (http://www.dohertysfurniture.com/).

I thought I’d take a moment to explain why this is so important to the future of EaglePost:

To users, EaglePost has always been and will always be free. That is not to say that the service is. The cost to run and operate EaglePost has always been covered by the Board Owner and other generous individuals who’ve made donations.

EaglePost has never had the resources to promote itself to any great extent (the Board Owners have in the past spent some money on promotion, but very little). You are most likely here because you heard about the site through word-of-mouth. I would like to change that. I would like to apply additional resources to ensure that every USM fan is aware this service exists.

To fund this additional promotion (beyond what I’m capable of donating), I have made a few changes to EaglePost. You’ll notice some Google ads on some services and the Sponsor Board. I currently have a few national services as sponsors and a “donation” button on these Sponsor Boards. The addition of Doherty’s Furniture and Bedding is a major step in the direction I hope the Sponsor Board goes for a number of reasons. Most importantly is to help build a relationship between the Hattiesburg-based businesses and the USM fan base. There has been a lot of discussion about this relationship and the basic conclusion we always seem to get to is that a good relationship is mutually beneficial.

So, with that in mind, when you or any friends or family are in the market for furniture and/or bedding I hope you’ll stop by and tell Bill I said, “Hi”. I cannot thank him enough for his support of EaglePost.

Go Eagles!

Okay, with three weeks to go, I feel really good about the new site.  It seems to be stable and I’ve worked out a lot of the kinks.  Still have some work to do, but most of that won’t take too long.

Messageboard

On the messageboard, I created a new ranking system.  All transition members will be ranked as VIP members.  I wanted to try to update post counts and start date, but unfortunately the new system won’t let me do that easily.  I’m going to keep looking into it though…

Chatroom

The Chatroom has been up and stable for almost a month now.  We’ve had some decent traffic during a basketball game, and it seems to be working well.  Remember to login to the messageboard first as they share the same user database.

Pictures

I’ve had some baseball pictures come in and I hope to get them posted next week.  I have limited Internet access this week, so I haven’t had enough time to get them done.  We’re always looking for more, so please do contribute to our library!

Auction

The Eagle Club has donated some items for the auction.  It will be run similar to the previous one, with just a little tweak on closing to make it fair for all bidders (since this is email based, we need to have appropriate time for feedback on the winning bids at the end).  The auction will formally start on March 1st with the kickoff of the new board.  I’ll have the items up prior to the actual start of the auction, so stay tuned!

Signed Pro-Line Helmet Of Brett’s Alma Mater. Comes with Favre C.O.A, Photo Of Brett Signing, and all matching holograms.

Authentic Autographed Brett Favre All American Bowl Jersey with COA and picture of Brett Signing the Jersey.

The crowd of just over 3,000 watched and many of us listened (thank God for Yahoo! Sports), as Southern Miss pushed ahead in the second half to beat UTEP at home last night.  It is always good to defeat a conference foe, but this win was even sweeter given the way USM lost in El Paso the last time the two teams met.

The Eagles are playing very well as they approach the final stretch of the season, which is ideal going into the C-USA Tourney.  Hopes are high that the team will make a good showing and get a shot at the NCAA Tourney.  But short of winning the C-USA title, that might not happen.  In any case, excitement is building as Eustuchy has put together an exciting, young group that will only improve next year!

Go Golden Eagles!

Okay, I’ve fixed the problems with Firefox (at least it seems to work with version 2.0.0.1).  Time to upgrade if you haven’t already!

I’ve also gotten a lot done on the cosmetic issues here and there, so my to do list is getting shorter and shorter.  March 1st here we come!

We had a very good run on the chatroom last night.  Lots of people dropped in from time to time during the USM basketball game.  Seems to be working well.  Not a heavy load test, but enough to show it functions.

I’d still like folks out there when they get time to get a good cross-section of users feedback.  So, enjoy!

I took some time this morning to evaluate the number of pageviews that EaglePost has seen over the past few years.  Proboards gives me the ability to see pageviews per month provided we had paid for the ad free service.  This service costs a fixed amount for 50,000 pageviews, and unused pageviews are not rolled over.  So, the statistics are not necessarily 100% complete, but there is enough data for us to do some general comparisons.

Note how we did in December:

December 2003 - 29,226

December 2004 - 61,733 (Liberty Bowl)

December 2005 - 45,515 (NO Bowl)

December 2006 - 90,699 (GMAC Bowl)

And if you thought that was a fluke, check out January:

January 2004 - 26,301

January 2005 - 64,133

January 2006 - 40,530

January 2007 - 124,000 (estimated actually it is 123,716 with all afternoon to go)

In each case, we’ve doubled or tripled the volume of last year.  And are far exceeding any of the highest totals.  And the past four months have all had over 90,000 pageviews averaging over 100,000 pageviews.

Why is this important?  Webmasters measure themselves by metrics like this.  It tells us that users value our service and come back over and over again.  The content is exciting and elicits good discussion.  And for those who would argue about the quality of the posts not being the same, I’d argue that nobody would come back again and again if the quality wasn’t there.

So, in closing, I’d like to say thank you to each and every one of you!  It is our members who make EaglePost what it is.  You provide the content and you’re doing an outstanding job!

Each day I’m checking off a few more to do items on development!  Sorry, but I have to share my excitement.

As of the time of this writing, we have 55 users registered with the messageboard.  That is great!  There have been a few minor annoyances, but nothing I couldn’t clear up quickly (I know, when you’re on the other side of technical assistance it seems like a lifetime).  So, we have most of the users, and particularly the most active users re-registered.

I put the Initial Legend on the Calendar.  I had to list sports by initials so they would fit on the monthly calendar.  Now you have an easy to find guide to what sports are what.  I’m going to enhance that legend even further by having links to the actual PDF schedules on www.southernmiss.com. 

I put a few counters on certain pages to give us an idea of the number of visitors.  This should be good information for our Sponsors to know how many views their advertisments are getting.

I’ve found a gentleman in Austrailia who has dealt with the Foxpro issue on the same template in the past.  He was nice enough to respond with a solution that solved part of the problem (header).  I followed up with him and he has given me a few more changes that hopefully will work.  You’ll hear me hooting from here when I get it working!  Stay tuned…

Besides setting up the Auction site for the items donated, the cutover itself is the only major thing left.  Most of the rest now is cosmetic.  So, if you’re out and about and something isn’t working right, please report it on the Help Forum.  I want the transition to be as seamless as possible.

Cheers!

I have gotten in touch with Dick Vogel and the Auction is on!  We’re going to receive some items for this auction and would like any of you who are willing to make donations for the auction.  As before, all proceeds will go to support the Eagle Club.  I’m sure you have something tucked away you’d like to see find a good home!

Look for the Auction when we go live, and more than likely, we’re looking to expand the quality and reach of the auction even more.  Details to come…

I know its a pain in the butt, but yes, you’ll have to register for the blogs separately.  They are on separate databases.  I wanted to integrate the user data for each, but being stand alone programs, it was far too difficult and time consuming for me to get done now.  I will try to merge them over time, but then I lose the benefit of upgrades from the vendors.  I’m thinking this through.

So, in the mean time…  After you register for the EaglePost Messageboard at www.eaglepost.info/board/ (you’re automatically registered for EaglePost Chat), then you’ll also want to register your ID at the following services:

- EaglePost Blog - this blog (www.eaglepost.info/blog/).

- RuffledFeathers - a blog by GoldenEagle33 (not sure if he’ll also keep doing his blog on blogspot or not or just do this one, but we’re glad to have him!)  (www.eaglepost.info/ruffledfeathers).

Registering on each of these services will allow you to make comments.  You may not want to make comments, but by securing your ID you ensure noone else is using it.  Just a thought to consider…