IranSportsPress.com FrontPage is Back!

[Behrang(ISP)]

As you all know the past few months the FrontPage of the website has been down and we have been running with just a forum. We had serious discussions as to whether or not we should keep things going after being hacked several times with the last one rendering our CMS system useless.

The good news is we decided to start from scratch and recover what we could with the idea of making the site less static. We have introduced some RSS feeds to automate the addition of news (you’ll find this with the international section which will be expanded along with world cup news; check the link in the menu that say RSS). We will also continue adding news from other sources since time is limited.

To help keep the site stable we have moved away from our previous hosting company to a new one that provides full security services and updates. The site is being backed up nightly and we believe with the changes that we have made from the hosting side we should be safe moving forward.

Before I let you guys go, I’m asking those of you who think you have the time to add news or translate news or think you can help out in anyway to contact us. You can reply to this post here but if you are serious please send an email to admin@iransportspress.com. Give us a bit of background info on how you think you can help and how much time you think you have.

I’m also asking you guys for input on the new page. We had to completely move away from our previous CMS system to a new one and would like any suggestions on what we can do to improve the site. I’m open to news things but please understand changes won’t come quickly as time is limited.

What’s New?

- We have a new IranSportsPress.com with RSS feeds to make the site more dynamic and keep you guys here. If you have suggestions for other sites we should pull in let us know.

- We now have a Twitter account. Please Follow Us and if you are not Following Us on Facebook please do so to help us get a jump-start with the new site and grow.

- Automated postings to Twitter - Any article posted on the site will automatically be tweeted so you will get the latest news as we add it. We will also tweet out other items that we run across that seem interesting.

- Latest Videos. At one time we were one of the first sites to upload Iranian Sports related videos and then provide live streaming but times have changed. We have added a Latest Video’s section which will point to other Iran related / International Sports related videos from other sites. The goal is to bring as much information you guys want to one location so you don’t have to go everywhere. If you are a video junkie and think you can find the latest Iranian sports related videos let us know and we can set you up with an account to help out.

What we don’t have but could with your help:

- We currently do not have a schedule / calendar for upcoming events. We can add one but need your help to keep it updated. Is anyone willing to help us out with this?

- More original news… Not just that copy / paste stuff. Does anyone have the itch to write? Let us know

- Translate more news. We need volunteers who can translate more in-depth articles from Farsi to English. It’s a time consuming and tedious job, we know, at one point we did it but I think it would be nice to bring back.

- Member Blogs… Do you want to blog about random sports related topics? They don’t have to be about Iran all the time but it would be nice if some of them were. You would have the ability to write about any sporting events or teams that you would like.

- Something you think of. Let us know what else we can do to make the site better.

Finally I want to thank all of the members who have been supporters of our site from when we first started back in 1996/1997 through today and tomorrow. We have gone through a number of changes through the year not only as a site but also personally and it’s great to see a lot of the “old timers” around. Not only do we need you guys to stay active but we also need an injection of youth to bring our spirits up. Thank you all from the ISP Family.

 

[Iran#1]

mobarak

 

[Bi-honar]

Behrang jaan, there are plenty of suggestions out there if you want to implement them. As far as I'm concerned, the most popular part of the site is the forum and without promoting and nurturing a more positive attitude here toward one another, toward TM, Iranian sports, and Iran in general, all the good and hard work you guys are doing on the admin front is going to be undermined.

I'll be very straight up here because you're asking the question and brought up the issue of injecting youth to keep the spirits up, so I hope no one will take this the wrong way. Most positive comments about TM, Iran or Iranian sports in most threads are being ridiculed and shut down by people that are involved with ISP and it looks to me as if this type of too zogh zadan or party pooping is being encouraged and nurtured here - perhaps subconsciously and not intentionally. It's really tough to keep the spirits up when there's the impression of a concerted effort to keep spirits down. I will give you some examples:

Members are excited about buying tickets and going to Brazil, but the focus turns to to how expensive or dangerous it is! Members are excited about Iran's chance of qualification to the 2nd round, but the focus turns to how strong Bosnia and Nigeria are and that we have no chance! Someone's excited about our WC song, the focus turns to how pathetic and tokhmi it is! Someone says we shouldn't IR take TM away from us, but the focus turns to let them do it! Someone says let's be united before the WC and stop the infighting, the focus turns to let's remain split and continue fighting! People get excited about the Belarus game, the focus turns to how shit it is! And the list goes on and on and on.

The worst part is that this type of negative feedback is not just being encouraged by members of ISP, it is actually being initiated by them - again most likely not intentionally but rather subconsciously. Either way, it sets a negative tone for the site that not only makes it hard to attract youthful energetic members to keep the spirits up, it keeps it hard to even keep up the spirits existing members. It creates a negative psyche for the site IMHO that discourages people from logging on more often and being involved and when they do get involved they too get caught up in all this negativity.

That's my 2 cents and with less than a month to go to our 1st game, I hope to see a concerted effort to turn things around. And I don't think I'm the only one with no shortage of threads and suggestion on needing an overhaul or new format, etc. etc. If I can be of any assistance on a more positive and constructive direction, I'd be happy to help in any way that I can as much as possible.

 

[Babr]

Thank you guys .looks great

 

[TeamMeli]

Mobarak and I think you are going to get a lot of readers if you translate the Farsi/Persian articles into English. Many people, who were not born in Iran, can speak Persian and read to a certain degree but maybe not at the level of reading an article so you can tap into that audience. I also think going social media is smart you will tap into the young tech savvy members and it looks great. I was tripping out at first when I saw the home page but it's good a lot of websites are set up that way. You have the front page and your articles/calender for important dates and then you can go in the forums. Now you don't need to go to other sites to get your news regarding TM and IPL football.

 

[Ali N.]

Good Job guys! Looks very nice and everything is up to date...

 

[Behrang(ISP)]

mobarak

Thank you.

 

[Behrang(ISP)]

Behrang jaan, there are plenty of suggestions out there if you want to implement them. As far as I'm concerned, the most popular part of the site is the forum and without promoting and nurturing a more positive attitude here toward one another, toward TM, Iranian sports, and Iran in general, all the good and hard work you guys are doing on the admin front is going to be undermined.

I'll be very straight up here because you're asking the question and brought up the issue of injecting youth to keep the spirits up, so I hope no one will take this the wrong way. Most positive comments about TM, Iran or Iranian sports in most threads are being ridiculed and shut down by people that are involved with ISP and it looks to me as if this type of too zogh zadan or party pooping is being encouraged and nurtured here - perhaps subconsciously and not intentionally. It's really tough to keep the spirits up when there's the impression of a concerted effort to keep spirits down. I will give you some examples:

Members are excited about buying tickets and going to Brazil, but the focus turns to to how expensive or dangerous it is! Members are excited about Iran's chance of qualification to the 2nd round, but the focus turns to how strong Bosnia and Nigeria are and that we have no chance! Someone's excited about our WC song, the focus turns to how pathetic and tokhmi it is! Someone says we shouldn't IR take TM away from us, but the focus turns to let them do it! Someone says let's be united before the WC and stop the infighting, the focus turns to let's remain split and continue fighting! People get excited about the Belarus game, the focus turns to how shit it is! And the list goes on and on and on.

The worst part is that this type of negative feedback is not just being encouraged by members of ISP, it is actually being initiated by them - again most likely not intentionally but rather subconsciously. Either way, it sets a negative tone for the site that not only makes it hard to attract youthful energetic members to keep the spirits up, it keeps it hard to even keep up the spirits existing members. It creates a negative psyche for the site IMHO that discourages people from logging on more often and being involved and when they do get involved they too get caught up in all this negativity.

That's my 2 cents and with less than a month to go to our 1st game, I hope to see a concerted effort to turn things around. And I don't think I'm the only one with no shortage of threads and suggestion on needing an overhaul or new format, etc. etc. If I can be of any assistance on a more positive and constructive direction, I'd be happy to help in any way that I can as much as possible.

I agree with mostly everything you said and it's part of the debate we have had as a team. There was a time when we (admin team and staff) were very involved with the site as were our members. The number of visits were high and there was a lot of positive atmosphere on the forum. The one thing I personally have realized over the years is that I can be positive and HOPE that impacts the people around me but there will always be others who disagree or what to be negative. There is no problem with that as everyone has the right to feel the way they want. I hope that with the time and effort we have all put in it also helps lift the spirits of all the members and they become more active. The fact is that to keep this site updated and running it takes a family not just a few people. Hopefully the positive atmosphere will attract new members, get us "old timers" more active and produce a few volunteers who can help out with the site by updating news, etc.

 

[Behrang(ISP)]

Mobarak and I think you are going to get a lot of readers if you translate the Farsi/Persian articles into English. Many people, who were not born in Iran, can speak Persian and read to a certain degree but maybe not at the level of reading an article so you can tap into that audience. I also think going social media is smart you will tap into the young tech savvy members and it looks great. I was tripping out at first when I saw the home page but it's good a lot of websites are set up that way. You have the front page and your articles/calender for important dates and then you can go in the forums. Now you don't need to go to other sites to get your news regarding TM and IPL football.

Great points. When I started down this road in 1996 I was still in high school and for one of my classes I had an option to do a few things and I decided to make a site about Iran in english mainly for young Iranians like myself who wanted to learn more. It just so happened that we were in the middle of WCQ and one thing led to another (sites merging, people helping people) and we are here today. A lot of you guys go back to those days when there were basic forums / bulletin boards and live text updates at 3am listening to the radio. I always viewed the site as one that could present content in english to help get a younger generation more excited at minimum about Iranian Sports. I've felt that it's one of the things we could do to help out. There are so many younger kids out there that really don't know much that might be disconnected and here is an opportunity to change that even at a very small scale. You find the site to find some info about the World Cup and the Iranian National team and that peaks your interested a bit more to do some more searching and find out other information.

Now, in regards to translating news from Farsi to English we have always had an issue. The main issue is time, patience and people. There is currently one person who is active and can help translate farsi / english news and that's not me. I know he does not have the time to do it daily which is one of the pitfalls we have. This is the type of help we need. People who can do this type of translation and post the news. The process to post the news is as simple as making a post on the forum. I hope as we update the site more, the interest for the world cup we will find a volunteer or two who can translate a few articles a week that are interesting.

 

[Behrang(ISP)]

Good Job guys! Looks very nice and everything is up to date...

Thank you.

 

[ParanoidBenchwarmer]

Man, it looks awesome! I love it. Great job!

 

[family_zirak]

Besalamati mobarak basheh. Behrang jan please do not forget the calender.. and if there is a help that I can do with this, with pleasure. I have not been here much lately, so come on guys reply to this thread to see where are everybody? the only news I have is, Iranpaak still thinks Agha Javat streetie is the best and should do all the world cup commentaries in Farsi and Spanish. ;-)

Cyrus

 

[perspolis ny]

beautiful , great work

 

[meyti]

Good Job! I wasnt here for a while and did not know about the front page but mashalla ISP is not just another website but a Force! You guys been around since before 1998 (I know you were here before that and with another name but I joined in 98) and that is more you can say about so many other sites which came and went...
So keep it up...I think ISP should continue forever...