The day they stopped that was the day new members fell off a cliff.

Thats how I first found this place..... 

Shot me mate a note to ask if there was an update and got this result.


Not yet, my apologies.

We very much appreciate your offer but we're currently working through our wider plans for ftbl and the forums.

I should be able to share more in the next week or two.

Best, Dan

Dan if you're reading this we need this place man 

Please don’t kill the forum, Dan 🙏 

Open for debate ... suggestion.... to help bring back users...

A lot of the remaining forum users are quite knowledge pertaining to a range of areas in Football..... further many have key want issues....

What about we start to post threads of some size i.e. 400 to 650 words.... and IMPORTANTLY if we disagree with what's written lets discuss it rather than attack...

I think Football is lacking aside from the Roar, any real online forum with detailed analysis.... we do have article on this site... but I was more thinking of forum driven articles...

Might be worth refreshing the sticky threads btw.

- A-League General Chat
- NSD General Chat
- State League General Chat
- Socceroos and Mens National Teams General Chat
- Matildas and Womens National Teams General Chat

Also an announcement/rules sticky thread, maybe with a list of current mods so people know who to reach out to. 

That's what I was thinking. With all the spam I think the key threads need to be stickied to the top.  They'll be bumped anyway utnits annoying having to load a page or 2 (I know there's a search function).

I think the forum is mature enough (it may or may not have been before) that people know all the good stuff it at the top. 

Add AA of course. 

I instintively skip stickied threads. I feel like that's where good threads go to die. 

yeah that was a problem last time popular threads were stickied

It is true as the newest post bumps it up giving that alertness to it. We're not in massive danger with spam as yet because it can still be cleaned up.

Yep that’s exactly what’s happened in the past. 

Is there a tab you can hit that brings up all new posts since your last visit ? 

The way I do it is sort the topics by "Last Post", then at the end of the topic title is a right angle bracket, click that to "Jump to first unread post".

Don't we all do that already ;)

In the old days we had a few bloggers on here - notably posters like Cold Toast Gaz - who posted regular articles on anything they thought worth airing. Seems such a long time ago.

The time it takes to create considered and detailed posts and threads is probably something we all appreciate without really thinking about. You have to have a lot of time on your hands to do that and many people just don't have the time and/or word craft to do it.

We can get posters like decentric who spend a lot of time putting together detailed analysis based on his knowledge and own experience, and due to his writing style and delivery can alienate people enough that they find it hard to let go of that. If we want the content, then as Midfielder is suggesting, disagree without the attacks, slurs and ongoing mockery and make the forum a place to pose thoughts, disagree constructively either in detail or with a few words, but at the same time respect the effort of any poster for their own experience, judgement and knowledge.

I find that at this stage there is low enough activity to see everything posted over the last couple of days on the front page. If any revival or new forum design and plan results in higher traffic, or worse combining many areas into one volume list, then current posts will be pushed back to a second page or beyond again.

Honestly - as annoying as it is to find current threads across a number of pages I think I would welcome that inconvenience with the increased traffic.

Finally - I think some of you actually fail to appreciate the true beauty of Thai betting spam. It makes the front page look so pretty and lets us know that our forum is recognised and appreciated in the global online environment.

Semi off-topic but how do add a pic to my avatar? I can only see a bunch of random images to choose from.

I asked for this very same thing 10 years ago I reckon.  Would be such a cool toggle. 'New activity' or whatever.

Thanks Guus, I'll give it a go.....

All and well fellas recent posts, RIMB I don't think there is that much disrespect overall.
Obviously he said she said stuff that I'll put my hand up being guilty of but out and out abuse ?
Sure one or 2 do but most not really.
I think its pretty healthy amongst majority of us - we all know where we stand regards to the game and that obviously enhances debate what we're after in the first place.

The Thai betting spam just makes me hungry :)

yep agreed, there is one other forum I frequent being a car one and you log in, go to new posts tab bingo every single one comes up since you logged off so you can easily review and post one by one your interested in.
Be great having it here.

Here's the latest between Dan and myself.

Me:

Thanks Dan, 

It'd be a shame to see that forum get wound up though. If that looks like it may be the case going forward could we be contacted with a view to keeping it running in some other form? 

Thanks again.


Daniel Findlay
Aug 19, 2024, 3:48 PM (18 hours ago)
to me

I can share a little more on that - at this stage we're definitely keeping the forums operating - we just haven't had any advertising and commercial support for the main ftbl site for a while so we're at a bit a crossroads.

I think one option would be to try and find a publisher for the site who had the time and resources to invest in growing it again so that may be the path we head down but I will certainly keep you informed with any developments on that front.

All the best,

Dan

Me:

I can shed a little light on why there's little engagement and growth. The original website used to have the main articles on the page with a 'join the discussion/comment' section below the article which drove new users onto the site. There were literally hundreds of active posters every day. As more and more of the publishing was pushed onto facebook etc that section was taken away from the online articles which is, in large part, why it's become a bit of a backwater.

Any sort of 'join the discussion' tagline on the facebook articles would help no end getting new users onto the forum but then it's a matter of where you're going to get the most bang for your buck ad revenue wise I'd imagine.. 

If worst comes to worst it would be ideal if the site could be archived for export to a new forum in some form or another. Like I said there's a dedicated and engaged bunch of users currently engaged on the site.

The discussion continues here if you're interested. https://forum.insidesport.com.au/3129051/FTBL-Forum-Future-Discussion?PageIndex=3

Thanks again for all your help and keeping us informed.

I have just checked and it looks to me like the 'add image' function has been changed to just the ones now displayed. I am sure we used to be able to choose to search for an image on our computers and nothing lets me do that now.

Might be a size saving direction for the forum hosts so they don't have to maintain a set of individual thumbnails/images - once chosen, we could delete the image on our computers so they are stored at the forum end.

Yeah I checked myself. I'm almost sure that in the past if you hit that 'add image' it gave you an option to upload an image.

Also can the bloke using Mono's avatar change it to something else please. Harambolus(?) or something.

No stress mate. I'll stick with the one I just chose, reminds me of the Socceroos 90s kit haha

I can mention to the ten other people in the Melbourne city forum that they can join here 😆

Hahahaah I dont mind mate.... I did try and use the below but cant seem to find a way to change it on my profile :)

Cheers for keeping this thing going mate....  And props to Bowden for moderating btw.

I know I can fly off the handle sometimes but I love having this "space" to get shit off my chest. 

I reckon they'll do a desktop review and go 'what's this costing us?' and 'what are we making from it?' and decide to pull the pin. They'd have to be making next to nothing from it you'd think. Then again it seems most of the content is scraped from the net and and posted holus bolus and AI generated so maybe it doesn't cost a lot to run?

I just hope we get enough warning to get some replacement thing up and running.

Yeah maybe..... Whatever is the Version 2 of this place, let me know... Ill jump on if thats the case.  If this place all disappears "in the middle of the night", post something on Reddit ill find it eventually :)

here they come :) .... lol