An open letter to the Admins: Is it time to clean up the basketball board? | Syracusefan.com

An open letter to the Admins: Is it time to clean up the basketball board?

cliftonparksufan

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1) I want to preface this by saying this is not a "trolling for tees" post so if you agree with me please don't give me a like but respond below.

2) Syracusefan.com has been a great forum for a very long time. There are a lot of great contributors and followers who are very passionate about all things Syracuse and upstate NY. That said, these forums have always been a great place to find out information regarding just about any topic and not just about Syracuse University sports. If you could define success as longevity, this board has been extremely successful.

3) Has the basketball board gotten "out of control". I'm sure many would agree that it has. I'm sure our Sargent at Arms, Kim Jong Bees, wouldn't mind flexing some muscles if need be. People tend to post things on the basketball side because it is the most popular forum. However at least 10% of the posts don't belong there. I wouldn't be offended if someone moved one of my posts to a different forum or nuked it completely. It's happened before. We are in the middle of the basketball season so you would think there would be more posts about basketball. How come no one is breaking down the Univ of Miami. Is the bottom line that no one cares about the U and we have no real history with them to speak of. Or is it that the Cuse is Number Two in the country and no real controversies to speak of. Even Blue Curtain stopped posting as he had nothing bad to say.

4) We are lucky that we have the admins that we do. People with a real passion for the University and their athletic programs. There is no question this is the number one basketball forum out there. Thank you for all you have done for the last fifteen or so years. Yes, it's a shame that some posters aren't as active as they used to be but we have been spoiled for a long time. I wish Jake posted more. And Tomcat. Those are two dudes that really know their stuff. If you want to "clean up" the board, you have my vote. I'm sure if something is worthwhile on one of the other forums that I can find it. Thank you.

PS: Did anyone see that Lacey Chabert just got married. I really hope she isn't preggo. I would hate to think we jinxed another board hottie.
 
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PS: Did anyone see that Lacey Chabert just got married. I really hope she isn't preggo. I would hate to think we jinxed another board hottie.[/quote]


You know you deserve a lot of "likes" for ending that post with the PS about Lacey Chabert.

But it's a good thing when people who don't have anything to say don't say anything.

On that note...
 
dasher said:
You are looking for a solution to a problem that really doesn't exist. We don't seem to have much traffic now.

But why don't we have that traffic. Because the team is playing so well or because some posters have chosen to stop posting. It's almost like off season. We are playing our very first ACC game and its almost like crickets. Granted Miami isn't North Carolina or Duke but they are still ACC.
 
I think if you watch the evolution in this board what you see now is a combination of a couple of things. Its a pendulum swing back against the negative woo is me, don't get too excited its early in the season and this is how IT IS I KNOW posting that dominated this board and pushed hard against anything else for quite some time and its a function of the team being so good and so successful lately that sometimes its hard as a fan to really worry about say 8-5 Miami. (although I had a dream that we were down late but Ennis kept finding CJ ion the baseline screen and he hit jumpers till we were ahead followed by us salting it away at the FT line) Things are just rolling and this newest latest version of the board is doing well enough that we have a much wider more diverse group of posters participating in it. Sometimes when something is a certain way for so long and it changes that can be hard to except for those that have gotten used to it that way. They may decide not to continue but that doesn't really mean the change is necessarily bad especially when those that go are far outnumbered by those that join and become part. Actually it really doesn't mean that either was better or worse it simply means that there are more taking part in things in general which seems to be the case to me. I have no idea how many of these people did more lurking and less posting in the past or where they come from but it sure does seem like there is a wider variety of people taking part in the bball discussions threads.

One thing I certainly understand is threads getting hijacked and running in a completely new direction with no CONNECTION to the original topic and I think this should try to be avoided by all. Although one thing can lead to another and have a natural progression into something completely different which is not what I'm talking about.

I also think throwing some humor or a jibe at a specific poster that you have a report with is fine, fun and not bother some if done correctly and the thread is not sidetracked. Like so: I'm pretty disappointed that another board hottie is preggers and once again I had nothing to do with it.

In short we can all take the concerns of others a bit more seriously without ruining anyones enjoyment but we also need to realize that things change over time. There is no new without the old and although one may be better for you than the other there are many posters who are different than you.
 
I'll be the first to admit a lot of this is my fault. This board has been part of my life for close to 18 years. The first search I ever did on the internet was Syracuse Basketball and found the old AOL Board. At that time I did not know one poster on this board. Since then I have many life long friends I have met via the boards here. I have gone on Vacation with posters. I have had Trips and game tickets purchased for me by Board fun raisers for me. I am one grateful and Blessed Man.

In the beginning everything was straight Sports talk. Know one really knew anyone but by their screen names. As technology grew so did the boards. We started to have SyracuseFan,com Tailgates at every home and away Football and Basketball games. We had Big East Tournament blarney rock parties. We had a four day drink fests in New Orleans in 2003 and in Atlanta in April. We have Facebook and Twitter were posters communicate together on a daily basis. All these events have created long and lasting friend ships amongst many posters. This is were you get the inside jokes and certain posters ragging on one another. It's all in good and fun expect to the posters who have no clue what the others are talking about. This has become more common place over the last two years.

We used to have a Pay board were it would strictly be Sports and nothing else. We no longer have that. So now you get everyone together on a few forms that range in age from teenagers to folks in their 80's. This is obviously going to create some generational issues. A half naked lady done in good taste may be appealing to me but will always offend someone.

We have an OT Board a Joke board and several other. But lets face it the basketball Board is the hub of SyracuseFan.Com. Its the most popular board year round except for maybe in Aug and Sept. So your going to get some of the more non desirable stuff on the most used board.

How do we change it I don't know? Maybe bring back a pay board for the Hard Corps sports discussions only. I really don't know.
 
The thread about where Dick in MI went pretty much sums up this board much of the time for me. The post simply asked where he went. In response, there were about 15 replies, 12 as jokes, 3 serious or something like that. So someone asked a legit question and got nothing in return. Substitute Dick in MI for Jermani Grant's NBA prospects or Drew Allen vs Terrell Hunt and you get the same thing.

Having the Manley Zoo on the Scout forum helped things out. There wasn't any trash and insiders could spill the beans in a more private forum. I know that was mentioned as something we'd get here. It's not here yet ... hopefully something similar can still be provided.
 
am in the group that doesn't really think there is a problem. Could we be a bit cautious about railroading threads sure but other than that I think its great.

jim makes some great points and some change is inevitable.

This thread has real discussion, funny stuff, inside jabs and yet all are on topic I believe.
 
The thread about where Dick in MI went pretty much sums up this board much of the time for me. The post simply asked where he went. In response, there were about 15 replies, 12 as jokes, 3 serious or something like that. So someone asked a legit question and got nothing in return. Substitute Dick in MI for Jermani Grant's NBA prospects or Drew Allen vs Terrell Hunt and you get the same thing.

Having the Manley Zoo on the Scout forum helped things out. There wasn't any trash and insiders could spill the beans in a more private forum. I know that was mentioned as something we'd get here. It's not here yet ... hopefully something similar can still be provided.

That thread happened because the second poster had knowledge of why Dick isn't posting and that naturally lead to the discussion and topic the thread went to. Not off topic or unconnected IMO
 
I spend enough time on this forum that, if the admins see fit, I would be willing to move threads to clean up the board a bit. I'm not of the mindset that anyone should feel alienated and used to have some good x's and o's posts to go along with my random rants but have admittedly stopped since they get buried. I enjoy both but would be willing to try and seperate them for the sake of all members involved.

Give me a smack talk forum entitled or something or perhaps a strategy board titled x's and o's and I could potentially be of service if wanted. It would also make it easier to banish opposing fan troll posts to a place where they could be dealt with accordingly.
 
It seems pretty simple to me. Pay side ($5-$10/month) would eliminate most of these "complaints".
 
Some observations on the matter:
  1. There have been at least two recent periods where there was a large growth in membership. Growth is good, but sometimes it felt like these were more like invasions. I could see how this made some long time members feel like they were in the minority and didn't feel as connected to the other members as they once did.
  2. Along with the influx of new members there appears to be a growth in the number of "non informative"/"unrelated" (I'm being generous here) posts. Are these first two points related, or is it merely a coincidence? When nearly every thread seems to get hijacked into high jinks, it may be a bit over the top for some members.
  3. A payside could be a haven for theses looking to avoid the previous item. I can understand why the admins don't want to create a payside (and the associated work) here, but hopefully they can understand that there are some members that miss it.
  4. It's hard to control the first two points while trying to keep things friendly and welcoming.
 
PS: Did anyone see that Lacey Chabert just got married. I really hope she isn't preggo. I would hate to think we jinxed another board hottie.
I expect this to force bees to move this to the OT board.
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But why don't we have that traffic. Because the team is playing so well or because some posters have chosen to stop posting. It's almost like off season. We are playing our very first ACC game and its almost like crickets. Granted Miami isn't North Carolina or Duke but they are still ACC.
I can't speak for others, but I don't believe I'm alone--most of the acc is boring and less interesting. And Miami wasn't the most interesting opponent back in the Big East days either. Next weekend will have folks buzzing a lot more IMO.
 
I can't speak for others, but I don't believe I'm alone--most of the acc is boring and less interesting. And Miami wasn't the most interesting opponent back in the Big East days either. Next weekend will have folks buzzing a lot more IMO.
Let's hope our players don't feel that way.
 

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