New Football365 Layout

jungleman

Anyone else absolutely baffled by the new Football365 layout?

It used to be a mixture of mainly blue and white colours, with a yellow trim. Now it's just a two-tone blue and white, with GIGANTIC panels as links to stories. They've completely ruined it, it looks like a really bad Windows 8 desktop or something.

And has anyone else noticed the serious drop in writing standards too? Serious increase in click-baitey articles. And I don't know if they're posting freelance stuff as well now, but the articles are trying way too hard to be funny. As in, the first half of a story is just some journo trying their hardest to be humorous, with the actual story just stuck in on the last paragraph.

It used to be my favourite football website, now it's just painful to read.

Kirby

The old website didnt work well on mobile so they needed to change it.

But I do agree, they didnt need to change it to this. It's awful looking.

jungleman

The Guardian did the same thing last year - changed the website format to make it mobile friendly. But they didn't make half as bad a job of it as F365 have. It's unreadable.

They've also gotten rid of the section where you can read the news for individual Championship clubs too, from what I can see. Which is a pity, because the interviews from Championship managers are always more honest than PL manager interviews.

GLaDOS

A lot of websites are changing to suit mobiles/tablets. Its a fúcking pain.

QikBax

It's a shocker.

They're no longer under Sky's umbrella so maybe they had to do a redesign.

jungleman

QikBax wrote: »

It's a shocker.

They're no longer under Sky's umbrella so maybe they had to do a redesign.

True, actually. The Sky Sports app was basically the exact same as F365. Now that Sky have left, that might also explain the deterioration in writing too.

ricero

Not just the layout that needs a change but some of the writers have gone to the dogs. Rag standard drivel been spouted a lot in the last year or so

kksaints

Yep its definitlely more annoying to use. Also agree with people saying that the standard has dropped.
One thing I've noticed recently is that a lot of the writers seem to dislike Liverpool for some reason.

jungleman

Yeah the Liverpool hate has been coming on very strong over the last year.

The comments section also require Facebook login now too, I think. Which takes away the relative anonymity which commenters used to have. Now if you leave a comment, it links back to your FB profile!

Lovely Bloke

jungleman wrote: »

The comments section also require Facebook login now too, I think. Which takes away the relative anonymity which commenters used to have. Now if you leave a comment, it links back to your FB profile!

this is not unreasonable - those anonymous comments sections are the bane of the internet

keeponhurling

Liverpool and BRod - the gift that keeps on giving

kksaints

jungleman wrote: »

Yeah the Liverpool hate has been coming on very strong over the last year.

The comments section also require Facebook login now too, I think. Which takes away the relative anonymity which commenters used to have. Now if you leave a comment, it links back to your FB profile!

In fairness the comments on F365 were of a extremely low quality.

jungleman

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

this is not unreasonable - those anonymous comments sections are the bane of the internet

All of the comments on F365 were approved before they were published though. Any unsavoury comments just weren't published. The FB thing just makes me a bit uncomfortable, knowing anyone could be creeping on my page (even though it's private).

The old usernames were a bit more fun.

BullBlackNova

It looks really bad, have to say I'm not one bit impressed.

What is more concerning, though, is the dreadful writing as has been said by a few more in this thread. The clickbait ****e, the god awful stuff Daniel Storey puts out - honestly, the man is nowhere near the standards of the former line-up of writers it used to have and he comes across as really smug and as if he thinks he's hilarious, the anti-Liverpool/United stuff (it is clearly just done to drive traffic and comments, but it's pretty annoying to be reading an article unrelated to either and to have a jibe thrown in for seemingly no reason) and the really, really lazy stats articles.

There was one today that showed the top five passers, dribblers, etc in Europe this season that was literally just names and bullet points. If you're not going to bother analysis or even commenting, then at least make it look good. It was basically a Microsoft Word document!!

PhlegmyMoses

It hasn't been great since Pete Gill went off to write about F1. He was comfortably their best writer and engaged with their forum a lot.

The new layout is abysmal.

RVD420

It's a right pain in the ****. Even trying to find fixtures for the weekend is an ordeal, if you click the PL Fixtures link on the right it just says "No PL fixtures today". Finding the gossip section is another adventure, whereas before it was just a handy link over to the right to get the latest works of fiction from various journalists/rags.

keano_afc

Glad I'm not the only one. Its a nightmare, trying to find the usual sections is a lot harder than it should be.

jungleman

Anyone else notice that the "Live" section hasn't been working all season either?

Exclamation Marc

I don't like how there seems to be no "News" section anymore. You click in to the option and you have to select by club as opposed to being able to read non-club specific news unless you scroll down and wade through the crap first.

Mailbox seems to be the most promoted tile as well (today its mediawatch but it's usually mail).

I honestly wouldn't be surprised anymore to log on and see a headline along the lines of "YOU WONT BELIEVE WHAT THIS PREMIERSHIP FOOTBALLER DID LAST NIGHT".

Totally gone to the dogs.

Hank Scorpio

Teamtalk changed too, to a horrible layout requiring facebook

BullBlackNova

Are there any decent alternatives? I always relied on BBC, etc for my news anyway but I enjoyed 365's comment set-up. The mailboxes, the daily articles and that were all a bit of a break from the mainstream media and newspapers - does anyone else do this well?

Skylinehead

Manufactured Miracle wrote: »

I don't like how there seems to be no "News" section anymore. You click in to the option and you have to select by club as opposed to being able to read non-club specific news unless you scroll down and wade through the crap first.

Click the dropdown itself instead of one of the club options, seems to be a general section.

jungleman

BullBlackNova wrote: »

Are there any decent alternatives? I always relied on BBC, etc for my news anyway but I enjoyed 365's comment set-up. The mailboxes, the daily articles and that were all a bit of a break from the mainstream media and newspapers - does anyone else do this well?

The Guardian football section seems to be the best, to be honest. The layout isn't as garish as F365, and the stories are pretty well written. The have a good goals of the week and gifs of the week section too.

The old F365 website was the best around. I could read all the general news, then read the news of my club (Liverpool - god help me), and have a look at general Championship news and individual club news for the Championship.

The new website is balls. Really annoyed that they got rid of the Championship section. Guardian for me from now on.

jungleman

jungleman wrote: »

Anyone else notice that the "Live" section hasn't been working all season either?

I think F365 were piggybacking on Sky Sport's live section, which has also disappeared. Sporting Life website is a great alternative.

Anyway, I also agree that the new format sucks. No more news on championship teams, and the writing standard seems to have dropped by about 20%. Annoying. F365 and Boards are my two 'down-time' websites

death1234567

The standard of F365 went downhill a lot when they last redesigned their site, I think it was around the time Sky bought them out. The previous website design was horrendous and awful to read, with far too much colour. The new one is clearer and easier to read IMO.

I hate it, its clunky looking and navigation is a pain.
The thing I loved most about 365 was that 1 - 2 clicks and your done, now it's chore.

ThunbergsAreGo

Its become a parody of itself to be honest. Media watch now is so vendetta driven, when in fact they are as bad themselves.

The quote from Moreno on the Shaw injury being one recently, no context, just sensationalism

Actually emailed them a while ago to point out an inaccuracy, but the response I got back was laughable. then they just changed it.

Its a rag

jungleman

http://www.football365.com/news/liverpool-hero-aspas-only-learned-one-word-of-english

This is just one example of the horrific drop in writing standards.

They manage to rehash a Daily Mail story (who they usually always lampoon in Mediawatch) and make it even worse. It's a total non-story. That's the kind of stuff F365 would have included in Mediawatch a couple of years ago and laughed at. Now they're happy enough to print that kind of drivel.

Francie Barrett

Does anyone actually use that site anymore?

I just use BBC football for general football news these days, nice simple layout with informative (if bland) reporting.

PhlegmyMoses

Francie Barrett wrote: »

Does anyone actually use that site anymore?

I just use BBC football for general football news these days, nice simple layout with informative (if bland) reporting.

I used to really like it. The 16 conlusions fot big games used to be interesting and Winners and Losers a must read after a big weekend of football. Now it's all squawka statistics and other clickbait nonsense in their news section.

TheDoc

The site had to change due to it coming out from under Sky. It used a lot of Sky branding and logos, links to the sky site and also their colour scheme. So it just needed to change.

The site operates a lot better on mobile now. there is always a little change required when something familiar changes, but from looking at the F365 design, its a lot more modern and I've found it to be an improvement usability wise, and finding and reading stuff quicker.

The previous iteration was pretty old in fairness

In terms of the writing, I think they have a collection of some of the strongest football writers operating in the UK. And they are strong because they arn't directly tied with sending staff to clubs and the likes. Their opinion pieces will obviously divide opinion, but the fact they arn't and rarely were conforming in terms of journalism in english football, is why I love them so much.

If ever you are in doubt about their standards or quality, you read mediawatch, and realise your infinitly better off sticking with F365.

The humour thing is subjective, I don't find everything funny, but plenty of times I week I have a good laugh from something.

Forums are pretty toxic though, always have been and that is probably going to continue

TheDoc

kksaints wrote: »

Yep its definitlely more annoying to use. Also agree with people saying that the standard has dropped.
One thing I've noticed recently is that a lot of the writers seem to dislike Liverpool for some reason.

Their Liverpool trend is not a dislike for the club or manager, but their clear annoyance at how the general UK writers have licked the hole of Rodgers for no apparent reason.

F365 wirters(who now actively partake in podcasts so you can hear them articulate these points verbally) have a problem with how the general media portray Rodgers as this heralded second coming of coaches, when in fact he has achieved very little in the game to support this theory.

But then F365 dont have to feel any wrath from a liverpool communications chief, or any club, as they dont attend press conferences or interview players or staff. So they can pretty much call it like it is.

They were pretty scathing during Moyes reign, and were calling a spade a spade when the general Uk media were preaching patience and blaming others.

Mourinho and Wenger are very much in their sights and the moment, and rightly so. As is Rodgers. This is why I like them.

They ask the questions that the normal journalists and pundits won't, and I love them for it.

alchemist33

There also seems to be this big blue bar across each page that stops me reading part of each article. Tbh, it works well on mobile, but why they can't have separate mobile and main sites (like Boards), I do not know.

TheDoc

Of course it's all subject to your own opinion. I find I always seem to agree with the opinion pieces of F365 in one essence or another, or appreciate the point they are making even though I don't, hence why I've always gravitated towards that site for years.

TheDoc

alchemist33 wrote: »

There also seems to be this big blue bar across each page that stops me reading part of each article. Tbh, it works well on mobile, but why they can't have separate mobile and main sites (like Boards), I do not know.

In fairness a decision like that is going to be made based on usage statistics, that are scarily accurate in recent years with google analyitics. Our company did a site design recently, and the pure driver and usability case was tablet and mobile.

While I personally always prefer a desktop PC and reading on an actual monitor(although coming around to tablets) I appreciate that the VAST majority of user traffic is now mobile. So your obviously going to tailor that to any investment you make.

Boards is going through an upcoming change as far as I have heard. After the relative success of the last one, rumoured to be changing again. Won't be shocked if it becomes a lot more "mobile" in terms of its design.

Even the last design, has a shocking waste of whitespaces and poor use of real estate, but only when you look at boards via a PC. On mobile devices its pretty slick (bar the monotonous ads mid threads, every like 5 posts)

gimmick

Since when are they no longer under the Sky umbrella?

For whatever reason, the site has now gone to fúck (with both the layout and the content) and I'm done with F365. BBC or Reddit.com/r/soccer will have to suffice.

BullBlackNova

gimmick wrote: »

Since when are they no longer under the Sky umbrella?

Few weeks, maybe two months?

Sky shed a lot of their external sites including Football365 and Teamtalk, as well as a host of their less successful writers.

Tbh, Sky could do with updating their own site too - or, tbh, downgrading back to its previous incarnation. It was much better then I thought. I don't use it now - BBC or Guardian for my actual news now. Layout on Sky isn't great.

~Rebel~

Quick rage-bump here.

Those auto-playing random videos they're now throwing in the middle of every article...christ!

I open todays "Winners and Losers" column to be met by a video about the Styling at the MTV VMA's. I couldn't give a **** about the MTV VMA's, much less the style's on show thereat.

Even when the videos are football related, they're never related to the actual article they're presented within. I know they need revenue however they can get it, but why must it autoplay? All that serves to do is annoy everyone.

I've hung in there until now, if only for some of the decent staples they've had through the years like Winners and Losers, but I think, at last, I'm done with them.

BullBlackNova

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Quick rage-bump here.

Those auto-playing random videos they're now throwing in the middle of every article...christ!

I open todays "Winners and Losers" column to be met by a video about the Styling at the MTV VMA's. I couldn't give a **** about the MTV VMA's, much less the style's on show thereat.

Even when the videos are football related, they're never related to the actual article they're presented within. I know they need revenue however they can get it, but why must it autoplay? All that serves to do is annoy everyone.

I've hung in there until now, if only for some of the decent staples they've had through the years like Winners and Losers, but I think, at last, I'm done with them.

Yep - those autoplay videos are the scourge of many a site that I use at the minute. Won't turn me off F365 as I also get them on plenty of other sites. I presume they work the same way as Goodle Adwords (maybe it is Google adwords?) but they arent half annoying!

My main gripe with them lately is the sub-standard writing. Matt Stead, one of the newer writers, has these half-baked, god awful articles half the time. And, on almost every single one, if you scroll to the comments, someone is correcting facts, spelling and grammar. It's pretty poor to say the least!

Even this weekend, it was clear he was the only one working Saturday as they had 4 articles up by him. Fair enough, but it seemed as though they were written before the matches they were about and not adapted at all.

For e.g., the Iwobi article on the Arsenal game... Knee-jerk stuff that Mediawatch crucifies other sites for.

jungleman

Ha, saw the new comments here so I had to go visit F365 to see how bad it had gotten!

The layout is still truly awful. Way too much going on, the home page is a mess. I see they still never restored the club pages for the Championship either, which is really annoying.

The writing is atrocious. It's just full of articles that are half written, with no real point to them. It's like they know they have to write something, but have no idea what they want to say.

Mediawatch isn't even funny anymore.

It's sad, but the whole website is just like a badly written tabloid.:(

Oat23

Use adblock to block the source player used to play the ads. Job done.

Harry Palmr

Never used F365, I always assumed it was just a bloatware version of **** like eatsleepfootball and squawka

I open todays "Winners and Losers" column to be met by a video about the Styling at the MTV VMA's. I couldn't give a **** about the MTV VMA's, much less the style's on show thereat.

Nothing on my browser page, I just checked the page contents (just in case anything was already blocked by Opera) but nope that video doesn't feature at all. Odd.

Just had a look around - it appears that it doesn't know there is a football league in England.