Thetownend.com

Curious  :)

???

It's been talked about so often I just wondered what it'd look like in numbers!  Especially as it seems to have helped sour people's opinion on Power.

A mix of one and three. I think it's needless, spiteful and reflects a bit of an unhealthy paranoia, but at the same time it would be a long way down the list of things I'm bothered about at the club. The adver is a bit shit too, but that's not a reason to treat them badly.

Just to sit on the fence a bit more, I'm Sam Morshead and so's my wife.

Oh, it's a poll, they don't show in my app!

It's pathetic, though the Advert haven't helped themselves at times. I guess they figure they can't make things worse.

You'll get there sooner or later Dad  :D

My opinion is split amongst them all I think.

I have a fervent hatred of gossipy, tabloid media and that's obviously true of the Adver. They won't 'sell' (or get clicks) if they just report that everything's rosy. They've got no interest in Swindon Town anymore than a bloke you meet in the street. Except the bloke you meet in the street might be able to spell better. I think this "link with the community" stuff is pretty dead.

But there's also the fact that I think people have already had this opinion that Power is a control freak and this has cemented it - confirmation bias. How can you run a football club WITHOUT being a control freak? It seems kind of normal to me, you have to be arrogant. You HAVE to think your way is the right way.

Also, I am not Sam Morshead. The podgy little clown. I do miss him though.

He's been busy getting engaged

How long does that take?!

In other news Sony have released the Walkman

And writing stories for MailSport, no doubt our transfer woes are due to immigrant's and will all be solved following Brexit :-)

I like to have news, but I like it being spelt correctly.

So I'm torn.

It was blindly obvious that the Advertiser had no interest in reporting the club way before they fell out, spinning it as a 'ban' has allowed them to achieve their objective whilst also grabbing the moral high ground and ensuring that those who do not like Power latch onto the Adver as some sort of proper media outlet.

They should be thanking Power for all they have gained from it,w whilst simultaneously cutting the cost of sending someone down from Oxford to report it.

It's obviously a toss-up between the first and third option.

I've never fully relied on the Adver as an out-of-towner but the rumour mill helped the lazy summer days.

The Adver ceased to exist a few years ago, it's now just an online blog that gets put into print.  The only stories of any merit rely on the Courts (you'll notice they fill a few pages when the Courts give out their summaries of recent cases).  Pretty much every story ends with "xxx was asked for comments but had not responded at the time of going to print" or something like that.  Essentially, someone saw something on FB or Twitter, made a story from it and couldn't be bothered to go digging for any real input.  Their sport coverage is exactly the same - no effort to create any sort of unique content and that wouldn't be any different with or without any bans.

Bottom line is that STFC needs bums (paying) on seats and the club appears to be failing (very) badly in it's exploitation of the local print media.

Don't think printed media encourages more fans. Success and/or good football will.

The adver gets shitter by the day. Laughingly awful at times. That said, I think Power has been overly petty with them.

 :bye:

So that's 5 liars on the TEF then.

They aren't banned from reporting on the club, they choose not too. The staff and players are banned from talking to them FOR FREE. That's it.

The adver is wank. I'm not just referring to their STFC cover either.

Having said that though, seeing how well Reading's local news cover them does make me a little envious.

Option 4. Up to 7 now. Shocking.

And 93% seem to think that the ban actually exists......

Yes, but meanwhile, option 4.

Oh, forget it.

Oops! Sorry

But to put that into context, 7 people erroneously think they are Sam Morshead. And that's assuming the 8th really was he.

We all used to be Luther Blissett, now it seems we're all Sam Morshead.

the Luther Blissett movement, sure was an odd name to pick for it. I bet Luther himself was the most surprised...

Makes more sense than Morshead  :)

Just 5?

I'd rather be Spartacus than Morshead

That was my point. My only point. But repeatedly.  :headhurts:

That's nothing compared to the legion of cretins.  ;)

I can't count. nor see the poll when replying..

 I'm Sam Morshead and so is my wife.

I put "ban" in inverted commas for a reason for fucks sake.

With the burger habit has Sam grown and mysteriously broken into 8 separate people, like Sheldon in TBBT?

Does this count as a cult?

Yes, you are a massive cult.

:)

:clap:

So close :D

I'm putting this here as it vaguely includes stuff about club communication....but I got an e-mail from the football league, asking to undertake a survey.....it starts by asking who you support and says they'll pass on the results to the club.  When I put down lots of very poors, for this and that like club communication, community links etc, it asks for some writing to explain.  Anyone else had this?

No its just you, the football league have been watching you for some time!

I stopped reading when Matthew Edwards tried to defend printing Alex Pritchard as Bradley Pritchard.

I see Andrew Steele-Davis is the new press officer, clever move by the club in my opinion as comes with some credibility having been a reporter on Town for other media outlets so would suggest Power isn't quite as bad with the press as some have out.

Yeah, appointing ASD (good luck to him) makes him/the club less fucking abysmal at PR.

Oh wait, nothing has happened yet.

Why is the club bad at PR though? Yeah, the whole fanzai thing was a bit nauseating (dare I say ominous) but it was shit and didn't work so it's been abandoned.. What's wrong with that? In general I don't feel anything is being held back. What is it everyone is dying to know that Power's keeping from us just because he's told the Adver to do one ?

total lack of promotion of the club in most forms would be my answer. particularly over the summer until literally the day before the new season.

the adver thing is only a small part of that

So that's advertising and pr. Not press/media.

Yes, that's why I mentioned PR in my post. Right reply, but not the right thread

Don't think it's a case of being bad at PR, I think it's just that they are not good at communicating with the fans except for the odd piece from BBC Wilts or a fans phone in once every couple of months.  Power is not hiding anything, I think that's clear, but a little more transparency on progress off the field wouldn't be a bad thing, even if it to say that there are no further developments, the players are back in training, here are some pre-season photos, do you recognize any trialists?  Just something to keep interest moving with a little bit of engagement.

We went from reports at the end of last season that we were going to get our work done early and that 2 were as good as done, we then sign Goddard but hear nothing else until we start to sign some players in the weeks leading up to the first game.  Yes we all knew we were going to sign some players but a little bit more in between wouldn't do any harm.

Those that think that the fans engagement from the club is no different now to when they used to talk to other media outlets outside of BBC Wilts have got a different memory to me.  The off season used to be boring to me back in the day but at least there was something, now I have zero interest in checking up on Swindon town in the off season apart from organising the Player Sponsorship.  That can't be good for our prospects of keeping a future fan base interested in STFC and not losing them to the plastic prem teams, or seeking additional income during those quiet months.

It's down to the Internet generation wanting to know the inside and outside of everything. I used to get by with the odd transfer snippet in the sunday papers, telextext, or if feeling flush 50p on a call to teamtalk. In other words you'd hear fuck all for the summer months from the club until it happened, or was very near to via the aforementioned outlets.

that was then,  this is now. the internet is a tool to use to help market yourself.

something changed after our defeat at Wembley to Preston (IMO)

Out of interest what is it you want to hear Batch

on the grander scale some sort of indication of 'the long term plan' for the club.

on a more immediate side some sort of greater engagement between the club and the fans. in short anything to create more of a buzz around the place.

better transparency. things like the new training ground should be a good thing. not something of suspicion.

what we get is a half arsed phone in where power gets tetchy over any difficult questions.
 just like to feel the club is making an effort to go somewhere, and involve the fans on the journey.

guess we are stuck with it being what it is. getting used to it now.


it's all about perception of course. we've had this before and still ended up no better off. just think the (perceived) openness of the fitton period was vastly more enjoyable than the closed shop we have now.
--
anyway, the original point was that appointing ASD doesn't somehow make Power done sort of PR genius as claimed.

I agree with the Batch. For example there would be a great buzz about the place at the moment if Power and his directors used the Advertiser and the other rags to promote good news stories such as the good start we've had. Follow up stories all week after the wet weather abadnonment on saturday would be easy)) Manager comments. Groundsman on how hard he works to keep the surface so well but unable to do anything about the volume of rain etc.

You dont have to be a public relations genius to know how it all works. Power doesnt strike me as an idiot but hes kicking himself in the nuts by not engaging with the local media, specially the Advertizer. Its definately cost him money in lost season ticket holders and casual pay on the day fans.

Ultimately history will show his record as whatever he achieves, but in addittion to on field stuff most supporters will remember him for as a touchy so and so who always seemed to have something to conceal, whether thats correct untrue unfounded or not.

 

Nice to see Advertiser journo's engaging on here now, would a pitch forking exclusive really make things so much better.

I note all the comments that Power is some manner of PR recluse but to remind me how many chairman have we had who hold regular phone ins where fans can directly ask questions, how common is this across other clubs?

Not saying our PR is great, but not convinced that a stream of purile stories just filling column space would achieve all its cracked up to do with the apathy of much of our fan base we could be 10 points clear at the top and I am not convinced there would be a buzz, equally nothing stopping the Advertiser finding their own stories to print.

Ultimately suits them down to the ground as they can use the excuse of the club not drip feeding them stories to not spend time and money paying journalists to cover us when they don't want to (remember before all this started their commitment went as far as being unable to identify our own players in match reports).

As for touchy with something to hide I assume this discounts the Diamandis era and the fact that compared to any number of other league chairman he is a friendly open book?

And we think we've got it bad

http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2016/news/football-club-bans-daily-after-front-page-plea-for-owners-to-sell-up/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

I know it's not the point but I can't help thinking one relegation in 9 disastrous years is actually pretty decent.

Yep, we've also had only 1 in the last 9 years. But we've beaten Cov already this season so they must be proper shite.