Topic: New USAW site

[Tom Sherwood]

http://weightlifting.teamusa.org/

looks really good.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

I'll give you that the layout is much nicer and perhaps they will get more support for less money through the USOC. But, there is a massive amount of content that is missing. All the results are gone, the American Records, etc, etc. Why make the switch before you are done moving the content? They could have copied the content over to the new site before removing the old one, and should have in my opinion.

[Tom Sherwood]

Hopefully the site will be more appealing to people who know nothing about weightlifting than the old one.
As for as results, records, videos, and info I guess you could say...well thats what WE is for!

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Tom,

Thanks for the kind words. That IS the role WE has sought to fill. It would be nice if the USAW gave us some more support. It appears WE didn't even make their new list of links after going through the official process to get our link added last time. From my viewpoint of what a good website is/does, it provides interesting/valuable content. So, the USAW move to a new site with less content means a less useful site to me! There is almost no information of use on that site left now...I suppose the 2008 qualifying totals. So, although "it" looks much better, who cares? I don't mean to be too negative though. They did indeed need a new framework (CMS) as the old one was very ugly and displayed content very poorly. But, I note already the apparent intention to use PDFs as a crutch and a general disregard for the loss of content! So, unless they get serious about having someone WORK the site, I see little real hope for significant improvement overall. I would encourage people to make some donations here. I have started to get motivated to add more a bunch of more content again, but I need at least some small donations to motivate and justify the work.

Cheers

[Andy Dick]

Chris I thought you were getting ready to sell the site so you can train?  Anyhow, I would throw some money your way but I just cannot right now with my finances as they are now.  I am struggling to even figure out how to pay the bills I have, this is even after taking drastic cut back on expenses I could do without.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Andy, the chances of me selling this site are pretty darn low. I am training and if a buyer came along that wanted to pay enough to fund me to live with my coach until the next sr. nats, how could I say no? But, really, I am not going to sell it for a price someone would actually pay now. I may not work to add massive amounts of content that is sitting here waiting, but I won't sell it for an insignificant fee either. I would prefer not to ever sell it to tell you the truth and just continue to build the library no one else will build.

Your donations, as an active athlete, are not desired and would not be accepted anyway. 

[Andy Dick]

I still like to help, I am at this site more than almost any other site right now, currently it is actually even beating out facebook.  I got my priorities straight 

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Andy, thanks. That is awesome. The best way for you to help is to spread the word about the site dropping our link whenever and wherever it might be interesting to someone, be active as you are on the site, etc. For those with more experience and/or less coaching (I coach Andy via net), they can help the site by posting their questions, insights, training videos, writing articles, etc. There is an excellent article (and that is a massive understatement) just submitted by a member for instance that will be published soon (just waiting on some pics). I won't spoil the surprise by describing the article/author, but it really is a fantastic piece of work. We could use more of that type stuff for our articles section or elsewhere (local results, etc) from those with the knowledge/capability/material.

Since the purpose of the site is to help lifters, coaches and the sport (especially in the USA but worldwide), it would be counterproductive to take donations from aspiring lifters, but anyone else that wants to help could really do so! Not only have I been lacking a lot of motivation for the work since finishing the remodeling of the HOF, I could really use the money especially now that I am training hard again. Since this site could absorb every hour of my time for the rest of my life, there is only so much I can do. Donations definetely make it both possible and pleasurable to do more. And, some of my motivation has returned to work on expanding the Hall of Fame and results database.

On another note, I hope to get some Weightlifting Exchange t-shirts up for sale on the site soon. I will try to make them high quality shirts that look good. Of course, when I get it done it would help if our members buy them!

Cheers