The New News Page

Those of you who have checked the website recently may have noticed the new "News" page. The website is divided into two sections. The left side of the screen is the news bar with news articles and accompanying pictures. The right side of the page is a hodgepodge of information. The YMV Twitter feed is at the top with instant updates. Below that are ways you can follow the team (Twitter, Facebook, Developer's Blog, Weekly Newsletter) and then below that are links to our sponsors. This page will be the best way to get all your YMV information. Look for it to constantly be evolving and updating.

Fall Update

As the Fall approaches there will a couple of updates coming to the Yale Men's Volleyball Site. With the rapid growth of internet-ready cell phones and new media outlets like Twitter, it is becoming increasingly easier to follow your favorite friends, athletes, celebrities, etc. Well we want to make it even easier to follow the Yale Men's Volleyball team. Our new website was just the starting point, but this Fall we are going to roll out a number of new features that will make it even easier for alumni, family, and friends to find out what is going on with the Yale Men's Volleyball team. Keep an eye on this blog and the website for announcements when this will happen.

Sponsors

If you have been checking the site recently you may have noticed in the footer of the website advertisements for two different companies.  This is one of our current pushes to help create some stability in our finances.  These companies have agreed to pay us an annual fee for hosting their company's add on our website.  This is a great thing for our team as it creates another source of annual income.  We will continue to explore opportunities such as this in efforts to offset the cost of running this team.

YMV Launches Youtube Page

The Yale Men's Volleyball Team is proud to announce the creation of their own YouTube page. We have decided to use YouTube to host our videos. As of right now, we have two videos on our page: our promotional video from a while back and this years NIRSA Nationals video. You can also expect a video from our particpation in Relay For Life to be up shortly. There will also be a link from our website to our youtube page up shortly.

Enjoy!

Bulldogs Launch 2008-09 Fundraising Campaign

The Yale Men's Volleyball team has launched their 2008-09 Fundraising Campaign. As of Monday, Mar. 16 our 08-09 Newsletter was mailed to all alumni and family. We also launched on our website today our fundraising page. Between these two events, we hope to raise enough money to fund our activities for this season and to help with next year. We appreciate any support you can give us. Thanks in advance.

Website Adds Google Analytics, Newsletter Goes to Press

The Yale Men's Volleyball Website has added Google Analytics to help track how many people view our website, where they are viewing from, how often they visit, etc.  It is a robust set of tools that gives countless amounts of information down to what kind of browser was used to view the website.  There are no changes to the website other than a little snippet of invisible code added that talks with google.

The other exciting news is that the 2008-09 Yale Men's Volleyball newsletter has gone to press.  After getting price quotes from numerous companies, I have decided to use a local shop in my hometown.   They were not only cheap, but good quality, and will have the newsletter printed in 1-2 days.   Hopefully, I can get the labels attached and the newsletter mailed this weekend.  I just saw a proof today, and I am very excited about how it turned out.  Hopefully, everyone will enjoy reading about our team and all the exciting things that are happening with us. 

Next Update

The next update to the Yale Men's Volleyball website will bring with it the online version of our newsletter, the option to donate to our team by credit card, and an exciting news article about our team.  The newsletter will also be going to press this weekend and should be mailed to alumni and family in the next two weeks.  If you do not receive one in the mail that means we do not have your mailing address.  If you would like to receive a hardcopy in the mail, please send an email to yalemensvolleyball@gmail.com with the appropriate information.  Look for the website update to go live in the next day or two.

Progress Update

Well looking at the list of to-do items I posted a few weeks, you can see I have gotten a bit distracted.  Brady finally got added to our roster tonight, though he is still missing a picture.  We just finally got the list of alumni so the newsletter should start moving forward.  We have one video up in our video section (though Ben and I both have Flips now so we should hopefully get more video).  The only things I haven't made progress on are the pictures and Date a YMV Player.  I just haven't decided on a good way to create photo galleries and not have it be time intensive.  I'll continue to muse on that one.  The mobile website is at a stand-still though I have been updating it with news articles.  Not sure what else to add to it, but I'm sure I will come up with something.  

Other than that it is business as usual.  No big additions on the table right now for the website, but I'll keep you posted.

Online Donations

You may have noticed on the donation portion of our website a new option to donate is "Coming Soon."  In our never ending efforts to bring the team into the 21st century, we are working to bring PayPal support to our website.  What this means is that instead of having to write a check, fill out an envelope, and mail it to us, you will now be able to go to our website and use a credit card to make a donation.  We are just waiting for the official go ahead from the club sports office and will make an announcement when the feature goes Live.

Prospective Student Form

After hours and hours of trial and error, plus a little internet research, I have finally figured out how to get the prospective student form working.  Now students can go to the prospective studentpage, fill in a couple of boxes, hit send, and an email will be sent to us with the information they entered.  This is a lot easier than what was there before. 

First YMV Video

We have uploaded our first video to the video section on our website.  Go to the multimedia tab and select videos to view it.  It is a promotional video for this weekend's tournament at home.

Mobile Site Updated

The YMV Mobile site has been updated to version 1.0.20.  This update adds player bios to most players, dates for the tournaments in the schedule section, better navigation with back buttons on all pages, and a headlines section on the home page.

Mobile Website LIVE

Well I worked faster than I thought I could and the mobile website has gone live. It is in its infancy so expect a lot of changes over the next couple of days. Right now you have to physically type in the address to the mobile website (www.yale.edu/vball/mobile.wml), but I am hoping to eventually have www.yale.edu/vball recognize that you are using a mobile browser and automatically redirect.

Mobile Website

I am currently in the process of developing a very simple mobile version of our website. It will basically be a place to get the roster, schedule, and news articles on the go. Look for it in the coming days (Maybe even today).

New Email Address

The Yale Men's Volleyball team now has its own email address. To send email to the team use the following address: yalemensvolleyball@gmail.com

This will now be the go to address for contacting the team. If you have information for our archives, you are a prospective student, you just want to say hi, etc. please use the new email address.

Newsletter

Website Progress: Here is a list of things that still need to get done on the website:

1. Multimedia: both video and pictures.  I am going to try to put together a promotional video for the team that will be posted on the website and our facebook page.

2. Date a YMV Player: This was supposed to be a funny quiz, where visitors would answer questions leading them to their ideal date.  It will be a way for visitors to learn more about our players

3. Newsletter: This is the main reason there have not been more updates to the website lately.  I am hard at work on the newsletter which will be sent out to all alumni, family, and friends of YMV.  The content has all been written and the layouts are for the most part done.  I am waiting on the list of alumni from club sports so I can figure out how many newlsetters I need to get printed and then we will get ready to send them out.  The Newsletter will also be posted to the website in plain text and PDF format.

4. Add Brady Lockhart to our roster.  We have added a great outside hitter to our team (and moved Ian to opposite).  He is a graduate student who has been with us since the Marty.  His stats can be viewed with everyone elses, but he does not have a bio at this point.

Divisional Play

The team won all three of their games today up in Providence (Roger Williams, Providence, and Brown).  These were must win games for us, if we wanted to claim a spot in the league championships.  There will be stats and a full recap of both weekends on the website shortly.  The team will now have two weeks off before hosting the interdivisional tournament at Yale.

Welcome

This blog has been created by the webmaster of the Yale Men's Volleyball Site (www.yale.edu/vball) to track changes that are occuring within the website.  Please check back often to find out what's new to the site and what I am working on to make the site even better.  I will also post smaller day-to-day updates about the team that do not warrant their own news releases on the website.