To get in touch, please write to contact@greensonscreen.co.uk

Greens on Screen’s first page was published in January 1999. Its early purpose was to bring Plymouth Argyle a little closer to those unable to see their team, and whilst it has changed a great deal over the years, its core themes - sites and sounds for Westcountry exiles - still stand. The site was very lucky to take on the content of Trevor Scallan’s Semper Viridis in the summer of 2007, and in 2009 launched GoS-DB, a wealth of facts and figures from PAFC’s history. A year later we embarked on a complete history of Argyle, with much-valued contributions from chapter authors.

Greens on Screen is an amateur website and proud of it. It is run by one person as a hobby, although Trev's help and support has been considerable and, since 2010, Andy Chapman's hard work and enthusiasm, especially his help with GoS-DB's pen-pictures, has given us a real boost. Then there's the match-day content, which would be much the poorer without the terrific contribution of a small band of photo-taking volunteers.

Greens on Screen is self-taught and as a result, a little bit quirky. Amongst a few stubborn principles, advertisements will never appear (and don’t get me started on the plague of betting promotions on other sites). It began its life before many others, including the club’s official site, when there was a large gap to be filled, and although there is now a wide variety to choose from, GoS’s sole aim, to be a service to fellow supporters, still seems to have a place.

Steve Dean

If you have any comments, criticism, bright ideas, spot any mistakes; even compliments, it's all very much appreciated.

Please write to us at feedback@greensonscreen.co.uk

Thanks!

Thursday 8 January

Seeking Help

As you probably know, PAFC chalked up its 1000th first-team player last August, and after of a lot of hard work over the last few years, every one of them has a pen picture (profile) on GoS-DB. Now you might think that's it - job done - but in fact that's far from the case.

For a start, each new player means a new profile. Much more significant, updates are needed for every player leaving us, and not just one update - each time that player moves on in their footballing career, another update is required, and that period of football activity could be 10 years or more. All that adds up. For instance, 164 players have left us in the last 10 years, and some of them will have moved on several times.

So plenty of updates to be done for recent players, but that's not the end of it. The unfortunate fact is that some of our profiles could be better - especially for those players who racked up hundreds of games but have only a few lines written about them. Finally, we sometimes come across new information that results in adjustments to a profile.

All this means that our player profiles are in need of constant maintenance, and without it, the quality of the whole thing suffers. I wish I could say that we are on top of this, but with just Andy to help me, it's proving very hard to keep up. So I'm looking for volunteers - people who could help from time to time, as it suits. I'm also building an improved method of doing it, and that would fit very nicely with a small team of helpers. It would be a totally online process - so volunteers can be from anywhere in the world - and I suppose it would make sense if people could commit to a certain amount over a year. Even if it was as little as one every couple of months, that would be something, but ideally a couple a month (or even more) would be so helpful.

I obviously need to explain a lot more. But for now, if you enjoy digging around for information and aren't too bad at stringing words together, please send me an email (steve@greensonscreen.co.uk).

And it's all for absolutely no reward! Apart from the honour of helping GoS of course. ;-)

Thanks for reading,

Steve

Update:

I've been staggered by your generosity! In the first 24 hours my immediate target has been reached, so thank you so much. However, I'm going to keep the donations button available for people who would still like to make a gesture to GoS - if you see what I mean! That will also allow me to build up a fund that means I won't need to come back to you for a couple of years, and if there is then any excess, I promise that will go to the club, in one form or another.

Original message:

Ever since it's first appearance in 1999, Greens on Screen has been free to access, and I am determined to keep it that way. You probably realise that I've avoided any form of advertising, partly because I don't want any commercial association with the material, but mainly because adverts on web pages detract from the content - and they're so annoying!

But GoS is not free to produce or maintain, and without income from adverts, I've asked for donations in years gone by. There have been so many calls on your generosity in recent times, so I haven't asked for help for quite a while, but unfortunately the time has come when I need to rattle the GoS tin again.

So if this is a bad time for you, please ignore me. If you feel you can help, however small that might be, thank you so much.

And just a couple of things I should add:

If you make a donation, please understand that it is a voluntary gesture to help cover on-going costs. It implies no benefit on your part, or obligation on mine. For instance, if I decide to scale down (or even end) Greens on Screen at any time in the future, that's simply the way it is.

You should also be aware that 3.4% + 20p of your donation is paid to PayPal for the cost of the service.

Many thanks again!

Steve