News: ComeOnYouSaints.com - A Million Thanks!
By Phil
April 1 2008
ComeOnYouSaints.com, “The Supporters’ Voice”, is an un-official website dedicated to all that is good (and bad) in the life and times of Northampton Saints RFC. From humble beginnings back in 1996 to the present day it has given supporters their chance to share their Saintly opinions completely independent of the club. And how we’ve grown!
ComeOnYouSaints.com
A MILLION THANKS!
The editors of ComeOnYouSaints.com are dead chuffed to
announce that in the month of March 2008 the number of “hits” or “page impressions”
for the website exceeded one million for the first time – 1,083,340 to be exact! Over a million clicks! In one month! Blimey! To mark this
occasion here’s a short history of COYSDC…
HUMBLE
BEGINNINGS
Back in 1996 a chap named Chris Gleadell came up with the idea of constructing a website dedicated to Northampton Saints for the supporters. Hosted on Geocities, the website started small but word spread and the number of contributors slowly grew. There are still a few of the original “club” still around today.
RIVALS
In the early part of 2000 the Rivals network approached Chris to see if he wanted them to host his site. And they would pay as well! Chris migrated coysdc to Rivals and the site continued to come on apace. It was around this time that Chris invited Richard Lindsley to join him as part of an editorial team even though they had never met. Such is the nature of internet forums it is quite ironic that when they finally did meet up twelve months later the boys found they stood barely 10 yards apart on the Gordon Terrace!
It was not all good news with Rivals though. Barely two years later, in the midst of the dotcom crash, the company announced it was ditching all of its sports sites with the exception of football. Only a month’s notice was given and it looked like ComeOnYouSaints.com would be homeless. Cue John Wards…
SPORTNETWORK
(SN)
Just a few months previous to Rivals pulling out of non-football sites John Wards approached Chris and Rich and invited them to take a look at his “sport network”. At the time of the initial contact there was no reason to move but with the Rivals bombshell something had to be done. The Rivals site was archived for posterity by Simon Robinson and Rob Leach and in May 2002 we waved goodbye and moved to our new home.
In the first month on SN coysdc achieved almost 90,000 hits. Site traffic had doubled by August and hit over 300,000 less than 12 months later but it was in the autumn of 2002 that the seeds of possibly ComeOnYouSaints.com’s most important work were sown...Saints With Heart.
SAINTS WITH
HEART
Saints had travelled to Biarritz in October 2002 in the Heineken Cup and the ever-growing readership of the website had taken great delight in discussing every tiny detail of the trip. Unfortunately, regular contributor Mark Coleman was taken ill whilst in France becoming the third member in a few short months to suffer a heart attack. This prompted Richard to organise the first “Saints with Heart” sponsored walk raising money for the British Heart Foundation. The first walk raised £4000 for this important charity and fund-raising in subsequent years (there have now been six walks) means that ComeOnYouSaints.com has raised in excess of £70,000. Sadly, Mark passed away in September 2007 but we remember just how proud he was of everybody’s efforts.
SPORTNETWORK
STATISTICS
Over the years the traffic through coysdc has continued to grow steadily, culminating in this months figure. A few landmarks follow –
11/2004 – 534140 hits (the first month over 500k and the month that Alan Solomons left the club)
4/2005 – 627654 hits (Saints survive the threat of relegation – this time)
4/2007 – 794646 hits (Saints, Heineken Cup semi-finalists, are relegated to NL1)
1/2008 – 865717 hits
2/2008 – 876522 hits
3/2008 – 1083340 hits (Saints secure promotion back to the Guinness Premiership)
COMEONYOUSAINTS.COM
TODAY
Of course it goes without saying that without regular contributors to the site none of the above would be possible. The Editors would like to thank everyone who has written articles for the site over the years, the photographers who provide such fantastic pictures of Saints games and all who take the time to read the web-site. It is very much appreciated.
Now, with promotion secured, there’s bound to be even more to talk about. Bring it on!
Well done to those who make this site work. And many thanks for all the time you put into it.
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon
Once a scrum half .... always a scrum half
I dread to think how much of our time we spend here.
Congratulations to all involved.
(Did we beat Bath to the million, by the way?)
Thanks to those who tolerate me and my ramblings.
And thanks to all other contributors for the mind food.
Not forgetting my hair stylist, manicurist, my butcher and greengrocer, my therapist, Coochie Coo, Uncle Keith and Mr PS, Geech, TinMan, Waynes, BudgenLarry,Jim and Doreen,Bert Haddon, Monty Masters, Tracey Wotsit, and Mustapha Baq'an Sarni.
"Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it."
-- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161-180 A.D.
Top of the League 2014-2015 Season
I can still remember using the software to rip the Rivals site when I was working in London...happy days.
Photo Gallery
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
Seriously though, thanks for all the hard work - I know this site has made my working life a lot more bearable!
Player sponsorship
Becoming a limited company
Pickernicks
Quiz Nights
Maggie's patronage of SWH
the list goes on...
Apologies if I've missed anything/anyone out. Perhaps I'll write it up properly over the summer...
"It's not the despair, Saints, I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand."
No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon
"Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it."
-- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161-180 A.D.
Not that I don't trust you Phil.
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
Everyone that has worked and contributed to this site should be hugely proud of their achievments, especially when you look at the Charitable events and money raised that has come from the goodwill of the people accross the whole Sportsnetwork site.
Still can't quite believe that Mark is no longer with us. Still brings a tear to the eye and a smile to the face thinking of WMS.
It's about time I got off my lazy ass and participated in the next SWH.
To the editors and contributors past and present, I thank you all for the time and effort you put in and hope you realise with this fantastic hit total, how well received all your hard work is.
I have little milestone to report too - last month my site achieved 100,000 hits.
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to St Marlowe and the team and of course to Barfly for that precious press pass.
ClaireJ
RedHatPhoto.com review of 2015 photos here...
Buy photos from RedHatPhoto
The old, old sites still hidden out in the ether somewhere, well some of it, i'll try and track it down.
Anyone remember 'Saints in a parallel universe'?
And Claire...
I would never have believed it in the early days. Well done Chris.
You have to read it from the bottom up.
How times have changed.
COYSDC, a decade ago.
Around the time we moved onto 'better' things with Rivals.
Not much left of it now.
Interesting to see the same people were complaining when the season ticket went up to 5 guineas, and a pint of Ind Coope was nearly half a crown!
May 2000 to April 2002, use the dropdowns to select stories for that month, sometimes over several pages.
(Though looks like someones dicked around with the graphics, it was G,B & G)
Where was I when I was browsing those?
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
at various times this season we've had...
PREVIEWS FROM...
Howlin
Mav
Casual saint
Bleach
Flinstone Saint
RedSaint
Miss NS
Monty Masters
Little Jim
Neal Roff
St Marlowe
Norfolk saint
Ian Spokes
Hoddros
and MATCH REPORTS FROM...
Ben D
Stockers
Emma B
Rob Richmond
Howlin
Casual Saint
Smurf
St Andy
St Marlowe
St NickFlinstone Saint
St Dom
Shendy
Ballagher
Alf Bowers
plus there's OSB's "Tales from the Bar" and Chris's "Chron" pieces to include.
There you have it - 25 different people contributing articles to the site, plus OSB and Chris. I'd like to see another site beat that!
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
And let's not forget Rich's Tryfest, Smurf's Swindle et al.