- Thread starter
- #1
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2007
- Messages
- 14,335
- Reaction score
- 132
As most of you can already tell, we are making a major change to the structure of Sportz Insomnia. I have been a huge advocate of expanding the forums b/c I believe this is needed in order to expand our community. Throughout my time spent away from the site I've been able to get out and about, see what other places are doing...and what we have now is pretty much the standard.
I don't expect everyone to like this. Matter of fact, I expect many of the SI veterans to gripe. I ask that everyone keep an open mind, be flexible, this isn't the end of the world. The staff has debated this change a couple of times before and we could never come to a consensus. Ultimately, we did/do always agree that whatever it takes to generate more activity and a bigger community, just do it.
Yes, this makes scrolling through the main index a pain in the ass, I realize that. I also realize that some a pair of the oldest & most successful sports talk forums have the same problem...and it doesn't hurt their activity. Take a look at PSD, for example, they have every single team forum listed on their index, it's longer than sh.t but it works for them.
My major points behind this move:
- An expanded index means we're listing way more content, up front, and harder to miss. This means it will take longer to go through the index...hence people are spending more time logged onto the site.
- As I've already said, this style of index is the standard. Of the few major sites I've been to, (none of which I will name specifically), this is what they do...and it works. If we are to ever draw people away from these sites, we need to have what they're used to.
- Our 'Gaming Forum' has always been this expanded and much to my surprise...it's always worked out. Anybody care to argue that the NFL or NBA sections can't pull off what the Gaming section has?
- Better organization. The time it takes to scroll down our main index alleviates the time it used to take, scrolling through a single forum that has a ton of mixed/random threads.
- This WILL generate more threads, more posts, more activity. Our Staff and senior members are now going to make sure that none of these division forums are left untouched for too long. This requires better consistency in posting new threads, bringing over news, and keeping the discussion going.
I think this a great thing for SI and I think this brings us up to date with what is now the standard in hosting a busy sports forum. It will take some getting used to but this isn't the first time we've made major changes that not everyone was happy with. Some will commend, some will complain, but in the end...activity will dictate whether or not this is successful. If this change turns out to be a major fail...then we go back to the way sh.t was, it's that simple.
Just remember..."For the good of the site". I appreciate everyone's patience throughout this transition. -AE
I don't expect everyone to like this. Matter of fact, I expect many of the SI veterans to gripe. I ask that everyone keep an open mind, be flexible, this isn't the end of the world. The staff has debated this change a couple of times before and we could never come to a consensus. Ultimately, we did/do always agree that whatever it takes to generate more activity and a bigger community, just do it.
Yes, this makes scrolling through the main index a pain in the ass, I realize that. I also realize that some a pair of the oldest & most successful sports talk forums have the same problem...and it doesn't hurt their activity. Take a look at PSD, for example, they have every single team forum listed on their index, it's longer than sh.t but it works for them.
My major points behind this move:
- An expanded index means we're listing way more content, up front, and harder to miss. This means it will take longer to go through the index...hence people are spending more time logged onto the site.
- As I've already said, this style of index is the standard. Of the few major sites I've been to, (none of which I will name specifically), this is what they do...and it works. If we are to ever draw people away from these sites, we need to have what they're used to.
- Our 'Gaming Forum' has always been this expanded and much to my surprise...it's always worked out. Anybody care to argue that the NFL or NBA sections can't pull off what the Gaming section has?
- Better organization. The time it takes to scroll down our main index alleviates the time it used to take, scrolling through a single forum that has a ton of mixed/random threads.
- This WILL generate more threads, more posts, more activity. Our Staff and senior members are now going to make sure that none of these division forums are left untouched for too long. This requires better consistency in posting new threads, bringing over news, and keeping the discussion going.
I think this a great thing for SI and I think this brings us up to date with what is now the standard in hosting a busy sports forum. It will take some getting used to but this isn't the first time we've made major changes that not everyone was happy with. Some will commend, some will complain, but in the end...activity will dictate whether or not this is successful. If this change turns out to be a major fail...then we go back to the way sh.t was, it's that simple.
Just remember..."For the good of the site". I appreciate everyone's patience throughout this transition. -AE
