I thought 442 forum was at its zenith just before the site was taken over by new owners about 17 months ago. There seemed to be a constant supply of new members, providing ever increasing breadth to discussion.

When anyone could post directly to articles on the home page, without being a member, ensured constant exposure to prospective new 442 members.

I still find it hard to believe that it is not possible for IT technicians/programmers to enable this to occur again.



On another note I've seen people write that they've had difficulty at times registering as a new member for 442 recently.

Edited by Decentric: 13/5/2015 09:07:41 AM

I don't think the article-forum link will go anywhere fast tbh, as disappointing as it may be.

I believe registrations have been closed since we had that tsunami of spambots overtake us.

#modscotty21

Shame.


Also, Spambots are a worry too.

That last wave of spambots was the worst I've ever seen. I think it's fair to say there were AT LEAST 50 whole pages of spam threads, if not a lot more. And there's no easy way to delete threads, so the mods needed to go in one-by-one to delete. Not exactly the ideal Saturday night for any of us :lol:

Wasn't so much new owners, just moving things back to head office overseas.

-PB

What a waste of time deleting spam. Others ought to appreciate some thankless work that mods do.

I never post here on Saturday or Friday mights. There is always social activity on.



Edited by Decentric: 13/5/2015 10:11:52 AM

I can create some multis to spice things up if yall like?

Yeah the forums are a shadow of their former selfs.

Poor 'forum atmosphere' adds to this as well.

The article disconnect really hit the forums hard.

-PB

Very much agree with this comment.

In nearly every thread in Australian section, I came across at least one or more posters I'd never heard of before. It added diversity of opinion, thought and ideas. This stimulated more responses, hence more participation by more posters on 442.

442 Forums seemed to be growing quite quickly all the time. Also, some guys who seem annoyed by each other's company probably came across each other a lot less frequently, creating greater harmony and less friction.





Edited by Decentric: 14/5/2015 01:36:21 PM

The new owners/head office wanted to close the forum entirely.

How was it kept going then?

Because nobody can truly delete/ban JoFFA.

-PB

Will admit the reason I made it onto these forums in the first place was from the article-forum link.

ditto

ditto

Same here.

Yep

The osaussies coverage by voice of reason was a big loss
moofa doing a fine job taking his place

I can't remember how I found this forum, but I'll assume it was through the article link thingy as well.

I believe there was something of a campaign from several people in the staff and/or moderation group to keep it alive.

Because ad revenue from those god awful stetch ads lol.

-PB

Do we need another good Benjamin vs Ton.of.Bricks or a.league.addict or paulc fight to pep things up?

Those were the days :lol:

I had fun with my fellow bitter brothers.

-PB

Forums were on the chopping block because they don't make $$ for the site.

The PTB thought it was a good idea to amalgamate the servers with the UK 442, hence the huge overhaul of the 442OZ website. But by doing this, the forum link was severed.

People should :-$ :-$ :-$ and not draw attention too much about the forums. Because the PTB will end up doing another cost/benefit analysis one day and realise that the forums cost money but make none.

Don't forget, they tried getting everyone to create a new account for the website side of things so comments can be made on the articles. But they don't link with the forums like the old days.

To be fair, the forums would bring extra UVPMs to the site, which in turn allows FFT to charge more for online advertising.

The extra numbers may not be huge, but I myself visit this website purely for the forums.

You can't kill something which has no life.

-PB

Agreed.
I wouldn't have anything to do with the fourfourtwo brand without the forums. The only cool things they do outside the forums are the lists, like 'top 10 players outside the A-League' and stuff like that.