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grazorblade
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 19K,
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Devils advocate question - do we need the forum to be much bigger. If it gives us joy having quality over quantity whats wrong with what we have?
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Roar in me Blood
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 4.8K,
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+xDevils advocate question - do we need the forum to be much bigger. If it gives us joy having quality over quantity whats wrong with what we have? I get the feeling that we need to make it worth more for the owners so they continue it.
When I wear their colours, I am the club.
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grazorblade
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 19K,
Visits: 0
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+x+xDevils advocate question - do we need the forum to be much bigger. If it gives us joy having quality over quantity whats wrong with what we have? I get the feeling that we need to make it worth more for the owners so they continue it. fair enough probably easy to recruit if we all aim to bring 1-2 people
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Quicky
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 1.5K,
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+x+x+xWhat made 442 forums so successful was the fans. It was a proper place for engagement. We even created a fan led football show out of it. We had a commentary team. Granted most of us who led those things have gone on to other careers and have not really found the time to be on here all the time. When I look at the forums, I'm thrown off by the constant threads posted by the IS bot. If I post in a thread and then come back later to see the responses, but the thread has been pushed to the bottom of the page by the IS bot articles, I don't really want to bother. Forums are successful when there is genuine engagement and that engagement leads to something substantial. With outlets like Reddit and Discord, people probably get there fix on those platforms. This forum needs to come back to it's core. The way it does that is through a fan led process. We need to make this forum a valuable resource for fan engagement on Australian Football. It needs a proper mod team to start so they can monitor and overlook the boards. Then you need to develop a clear vision for what the boards will be and what they will drive. Once you have that, then you can start to think about all the other little minutae. What do you wants mods to do that they're not doing already? The only thing I can see that's a problem is the bot articles. Do you want the mods (Bowden) to delete those? Do you think that would drive traffic back? Not having a crack. Just a genuine question. I'm not having a dig at Bowden. Him and I go way back. I have nothing but the utmost respect and time for Bowden. I was simply just giving my own view about the forums. I thought that was what was happening here, a roundtable about what makes the forums a great place. The Australian Football section should I think stick to Aus Football. An article about Neuer's international retirement is not relevant to the Aus Football thread. Create a hub where Australian fans can come and talk about the game - here and abroad - but keep the themes relevant. I also see RIMB's point too. Perhaps a redesign to seperate the articles from the genuine threads. The biggest challenge is going to be how we drive numbers to the forums and get them to engage I agree with this fwiw. I'm happy enough with the Australian related football articles, although they still clutter the page and don't drive much discussion, but the non-Australia articles don't add to the content at all. It does drive better/on-topic content off the front page, which I think is a problem. I guess it depends what you want from the forum. I think it's really important to drive engagement and discussion. That tends to happen best with threads posters have posted themselves, because they're more interesting and the posters engaging in them have ownership of it. That change (removing FTBL articles) would help address that, but it does unfairly put a bigger burden on Bowden. Appreciating he's a volunteer and already does so much. It would be good for there to be some support for him. I hope Muz's mate he's emailing can help there maybe. The next bit is having a respectful and self-moderating culture. I think this place has that most of the time. It's actually really hard to build that and a big tick for the forum imo.
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Muz
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 15K,
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+xZimbos I don’t think Muz saw it you having a go at Bowden. We all know here be it long timers and newbies - I suspect everyone sees his great contribution value and manners here. Muz I take it was just asking what to bring to the table due to the forums current circumstances. Im no leader that can add much help in the workings of this place but a happy fellow forumer who’s open to anything you more in the know can come up with and put in my 2bobs worth if I can. Keep it going fellers for the point is how can we improve the site and grow it again. Thanks LFC. Correct, I wasn't having a go at all. Just wanted Zimbos to expand on his point.
Member since 2008.
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Decentric 2
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 3.1K,
Visits: 0
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One factor forum members need to consider is that the forum is generating little advertising compared to the past. The income generated would likely be minimal, and possibly lower than the cost to operate it.
The google ad asking for advertisers is often unfilled. The only 5 advertisers have been - a sports clothes ad, Health and Fitness for Women, Gut Health, Adobe and some Pre-Paid ad. Probably nowhere near enough?
There are costs associated with running the forum. Hence, there is a strong likelihood it may not be economically viable for people running a business to keep the forum operating.
My advice is to prepare for Inside Sport Forums to be closed down. If you want to continue to associate with specific members, you need to message them and arrange to stay in subsequent contact via FB Messenger, phone text or email.
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Decentric 2
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 3.1K,
Visits: 0
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+xNo text-based media site makes any money anymore. Banner advertising is completely dead and 'sponsored' articles are dying too. The only real pathway to make money (or just to break even) is to put everything behind a paid subscription. It's unfortunate, but that's the reality we live in. Everything as a service. Forums are relatively low cost as the data/bandwidth required is negligible when compared to audio/image/video. The maintenance related costs would be unavoidable. Setting up a forum is pretty basic these days. I reckon I could setup this forum in NodeBB over a weekend. Migrating data across is where it gets interesting. But starting from scratch would be a breeze. Interestingly, apparently forums in general have been seeing upticks in usage and new users. People have become so sick of the cesspit that is social media. They just want to have an honest discussion about a topic. Can't do that on social media platforms. Not sure why, but this forum is surprisingly well behaved. All forums have their fair share of trolls and assholes, but even they are kinda tame on here. I've seen way worse behaviour on other (non-football) forums. Very, very interesting post!
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Decentric 2
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 3.1K,
Visits: 0
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+x+x+x+xWhat's the point of ftbl? They stopped the magazine so if the forum goes would anyone click on the website? God I miss the magazine used to get it all the time when I was about to go on a flight at the airport 442 seem to have the best analysis in england. Shame they aren't interested in taking things back My first flight to Europe was with a 442. Oh wait, I left it in the car and my best mate read it on the way back. Got it a year later. Still in box at parents home. Loved 442 in England in 2007. Had them on the train and national express all the time. Still remember the interview with Scott Sinclair on loan at Plymouth while at Chelsea. How times change. yeah the collapse in football media has really sucked in Australia, I loved reading 442 every flight i caught. We still have podcasts now We have lost a great deal of football media in Aus. There is so little to read. We are going to bid farewell to our local Murdoch tabloid. The best thing about it was the extended network to other Murdoch agencies regarding football. The Age and SMH barely have any Aus football content anymore. SBS barely covers Aus football. Ditto the ABC.
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Decentric 2
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 3.1K,
Visits: 0
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Mistake!
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Decentric 2
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 3.1K,
Visits: 0
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+xI'm possibly a minority here again - I scan all the bot articles every time I come here and that shows me some of the things that are happening in the football world. I like seeing them there and the variety of content suits me as the one place I start.
Agree. These are genuine football articles posted on here. I don't have any problem with the ostensibly named 'bot articles' being posted from the Inside Sport football site.
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grazorblade
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 19K,
Visits: 0
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I made a subreddit just in case https://www.reddit.com/r/442Australia/can everyone join? Just say hi in the "say hi thread" and we can continue discussion here and only move there as a backup if 442 dies
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Roar in me Blood
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 4.8K,
Visits: 0
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+xI made a subreddit just in case https://www.reddit.com/r/442Australia/can everyone join? Just say hi in the "say hi thread" and we can continue discussion here and only move there as a backup if 442 dies I really don't like joining online groups and personally prefer to keep my online presence/exposure minimal. I have bookmarked the link in case this forum does disappear but I won't be joining unless this forum does disappear. Good idea though. It gives everyone interested a chance to find a common place in future if they dig up our pitch and turn it into an office block.
When I wear their colours, I am the club.
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zimbos_05
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 15K,
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+xI made a subreddit just in case https://www.reddit.com/r/442Australia/can everyone join? Just say hi in the "say hi thread" and we can continue discussion here and only move there as a backup if 442 dies I did consider how it would look if we took it off here. Would it be Reddit, discord, etc. How would it work and how would we moderate it. I feel like accessibility could really drive the engagement and if we are able to access it via our phones, perhaps people would be more engaged. In terms of revenue that others speak about, generally ads are driven by engagement so whilst we don't want this to become a cesspool of arguing and frustrations, we do need quantity along with quality. Perhaps there is a scope here to have a stable platform where people can engage and offer different fan led ideas to increase that. When the Matildas played in the Olympics, I didn't really find a place that I could go to and engage with others in the way I can on Reddit when there is a Rugby match or a Cricket event, or a European football match. Zimbos I don’t think Muz saw it you having a go at Bowden. We all know here be it long timers and newbies - I suspect everyone sees his great contribution value and manners here. Muz I take it was just asking what to bring to the table due to the forums current circumstances. Im no leader that can add much help in the workings of this place but a happy fellow forumer who’s open to anything you more in the know can come up with and put in my 2bobs worth if I can. Keep it going fellers for the point is how can we improve the site and grow it again.
That's fair. I didn't take any umbrage to it.
I think there are a lot of ideas out there and some of them are really valid and some are probably a little harder to reach. What I think we first need to decide is what we want from the forum or a place like this. How do we want to engage with it. If we want something similar with different areas for different topics like Aus Football, World Football, Extra time, then how do we get the people who own this forum to develop the space we want? What assurances can we give them? If they can't do we consider extraditing it to another platform or our run forum? Once we have a stable base, then we can start working on other ideas.
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Decentric 2
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 3.1K,
Visits: 0
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+xOne factor forum members need to consider is that the forum is generating little advertising compared to the past. The income generated would likely be minimal, and possibly lower than the cost to operate it.
The google ad asking for advertisers is often unfilled. The only 5 advertisers have been - a sports clothes ad, Health and Fitness for Women, Gut Health, Adobe and some Pre-Paid ad. Probably nowhere near enough?
There are costs associated with running the forum. Hence, there is a strong likelihood it may not be economically viable for people running a business to keep the forum operating.
There is a Telstra ad too. There is also an ad for Singapore as a tourist destination. 6-7 companies just may not be economically viable though.
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Decentric 2
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 3.1K,
Visits: 0
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+xI made a subreddit just in case https://www.reddit.com/r/442Australia/can everyone join? Just say hi in the "say hi thread" and we can continue discussion here and only move there as a backup if 442 dies Thanks, Grazor. I'll join Reddit and Roar if this closes down. 17 years of operation is a decent stint of time. I've been here off and on, since the beginning. The immediacy of the posts has been a highlight - as opposed to a Mod having to approve a post before it appears some time later - as exists on Roar.
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Decentric 2
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 3.1K,
Visits: 0
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+x+xI made a subreddit just in case https://www.reddit.com/r/442Australia/can everyone join? Just say hi in the "say hi thread" and we can continue discussion here and only move there as a backup if 442 dies I did consider how it would look if we took it off here. Would it be Reddit, discord, etc. How would it work and how would we moderate it. I feel like accessibility could really drive the engagement and if we are able to access it via our phones, perhaps people would be more engaged. In terms of revenue that others speak about, generally ads are driven by engagement so whilst we don't want this to become a cesspool of arguing and frustrations, we do need quantity along with quality. Perhaps there is a scope here to have a stable platform where people can engage and offer different fan led ideas to increase that. When the Matildas played in the Olympics, I didn't really find a place that I could go to and engage with others in the way I can on Reddit when there is a Rugby match or a Cricket event, or a European football match. Interesting points, Zimbo. My online presence for football is only that few mates offline are interested. However, that has changed a bit lately, with former teammates in youth teams, having a renewed interest galvanised by the Matildas. I've had more off line discussion about football in recent times. I've been able to get pepper shakers out to demonstrate changed tactics in person, to former teammates of many decades ago. Two other topics of interest, where I head to two forums for discussion, there is far less strident opinions proffered, or very respectful engagement. Also, with people who have quite a degree of insight offering advice to those who don't. It has been appreciated by those keen to acquire new info and knowledge. I've also noted on cricket forums, like football, more acrimonious discussion can occur when opinions differ.
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numklpkgulftumch
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 1.9K,
Visits: 0
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+x+x+xI made a subreddit just in case https://www.reddit.com/r/442Australia/can everyone join? Just say hi in the "say hi thread" and we can continue discussion here and only move there as a backup if 442 dies I did consider how it would look if we took it off here. Would it be Reddit, discord, etc. How would it work and how would we moderate it. I feel like accessibility could really drive the engagement and if we are able to access it via our phones, perhaps people would be more engaged. In terms of revenue that others speak about, generally ads are driven by engagement so whilst we don't want this to become a cesspool of arguing and frustrations, we do need quantity along with quality. Perhaps there is a scope here to have a stable platform where people can engage and offer different fan led ideas to increase that. When the Matildas played in the Olympics, I didn't really find a place that I could go to and engage with others in the way I can on Reddit when there is a Rugby match or a Cricket event, or a European football match. Interesting points, Zimbo. My online presence for football is only that few mates offline are interested. However, that has changed a bit lately, with former teammates in youth teams, having a renewed interest galvanised by the Matildas. I've had more off line discussion about football in recent times. I've been able to get pepper shakers out to demonstrate changed tactics in person, to former teammates of many decades ago. Two other topics of interest, where I head to two forums for discussion, there is far less strident opinions proffered, or very respectful engagement. Also, with people who have quite a degree of insight offering advice to those who don't. It has been appreciated by those keen to acquire new info and knowledge. I've also noted on cricket forums, like football, more acrimonious discussion can occur when opinions differ. Yeah, Warner is a cheating C*nt who should never have been picked again
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Decentric 2
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 3.1K,
Visits: 0
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+x+x+x+xWhat made 442 forums so successful was the fans. It was a proper place for engagement. We even created a fan led football show out of it. We had a commentary team. Granted most of us who led those things have gone on to other careers and have not really found the time to be on here all the time. When I look at the forums, I'm thrown off by the constant threads posted by the IS bot. If I post in a thread and then come back later to see the responses, but the thread has been pushed to the bottom of the page by the IS bot articles, I don't really want to bother. Forums are successful when there is genuine engagement and that engagement leads to something substantial. With outlets like Reddit and Discord, people probably get there fix on those platforms. This forum needs to come back to it's core. The way it does that is through a fan led process. We need to make this forum a valuable resource for fan engagement on Australian Football. It needs a proper mod team to start so they can monitor and overlook the boards. Then you need to develop a clear vision for what the boards will be and what they will drive. Once you have that, then you can start to think about all the other little minutae. What do you wants mods to do that they're not doing already? The only thing I can see that's a problem is the bot articles. Do you want the mods (Bowden) to delete those? Do you think that would drive traffic back? Not having a crack. Just a genuine question. I'm not having a dig at Bowden. Him and I go way back. I have nothing but the utmost respect and time for Bowden. I was simply just giving my own view about the forums. I thought that was what was happening here, a roundtable about what makes the forums a great place. The Australian Football section should I think stick to Aus Football. An article about Neuer's international retirement is not relevant to the Aus Football thread. Create a hub where Australian fans can come and talk about the game - here and abroad - but keep the themes relevant. I also see RIMB's point too. Perhaps a redesign to seperate the articles from the genuine threads. The biggest challenge is going to be how we drive numbers to the forums and get them to engage The next bit is having a respectful and self-moderating culture. I think this place has that most of the time. It's actually really hard to build that and a big tick for the forum imo. It should be recognised that being a Mod can be quite boring at times. Deleting heaps of spam, is nobody's idea of fun, when they've joined a forum to to discuss specific issues about a sport/hobby - football in this case. I've been on a lot of moderating panels in the last few years. The bigger the Mod team, more hands make light work. Bowden has an onerous workload. Given the strong likelihood of this forum being closed down, I won't go into what other Mod panels have done to sustain Mod numbers elsewhere. At this stage I'd like to thank Bowden for the community service he has provided for this forum in his moderating capacity. Particularly lately, with so little support. Ditto - thanks to all the other Mods who have moderated on this forum.
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Decentric 2
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 3.1K,
Visits: 0
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+x+x+x+xI made a subreddit just in case https://www.reddit.com/r/442Australia/can everyone join? Just say hi in the "say hi thread" and we can continue discussion here and only move there as a backup if 442 dies I did consider how it would look if we took it off here. Would it be Reddit, discord, etc. How would it work and how would we moderate it. I feel like accessibility could really drive the engagement and if we are able to access it via our phones, perhaps people would be more engaged. In terms of revenue that others speak about, generally ads are driven by engagement so whilst we don't want this to become a cesspool of arguing and frustrations, we do need quantity along with quality. Perhaps there is a scope here to have a stable platform where people can engage and offer different fan led ideas to increase that. When the Matildas played in the Olympics, I didn't really find a place that I could go to and engage with others in the way I can on Reddit when there is a Rugby match or a Cricket event, or a European football match. Interesting points, Zimbo. My online presence for football is only that few mates offline are interested. However, that has changed a bit lately, with former teammates in youth teams, having a renewed interest galvanised by the Matildas. I've had more off line discussion about football in recent times. I've been able to get pepper shakers out to demonstrate changed tactics in person, to former teammates of many decades ago. Two other topics of interest, where I head to two forums for discussion, there is far less strident opinions proffered, or very respectful engagement. Also, with people who have quite a degree of insight offering advice to those who don't. It has been appreciated by those keen to acquire new info and knowledge. I've also noted on cricket forums, like football, more acrimonious discussion can occur when opinions differ. Yeah, Warner is a cheating C*nt who should never have been picked again I've never understood the vilification of some sportspersons. At a members' cricket venue, one mother of a visiting player, who was friends with Mitch Marsh a few years back, and who had stayed at her place a lot when he was younger, said MM walked around acknowledging he was the most hated cricketer in Australia by fans on forums and social media. Dave Warner replaced MM. All MM did was do his best! He might have been given some favourable selection too - the public not being able to objectively appraise his value as team member in a team. In football scapegoats have been David Zdrillic, Brett Holman, Jade North and Danny Allsopp, at various times. Poor guys!
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zimbos_05
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 15K,
Visits: 0
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+x+x+xI made a subreddit just in case https://www.reddit.com/r/442Australia/can everyone join? Just say hi in the "say hi thread" and we can continue discussion here and only move there as a backup if 442 dies I did consider how it would look if we took it off here. Would it be Reddit, discord, etc. How would it work and how would we moderate it. I feel like accessibility could really drive the engagement and if we are able to access it via our phones, perhaps people would be more engaged. In terms of revenue that others speak about, generally ads are driven by engagement so whilst we don't want this to become a cesspool of arguing and frustrations, we do need quantity along with quality. Perhaps there is a scope here to have a stable platform where people can engage and offer different fan led ideas to increase that. When the Matildas played in the Olympics, I didn't really find a place that I could go to and engage with others in the way I can on Reddit when there is a Rugby match or a Cricket event, or a European football match. Interesting points, Zimbo. My online presence for football is only that few mates offline are interested. However, that has changed a bit lately, with former teammates in youth teams, having a renewed interest galvanised by the Matildas. I've had more off line discussion about football in recent times. I've been able to get pepper shakers out to demonstrate changed tactics in person, to former teammates of many decades ago. Two other topics of interest, where I head to two forums for discussion, there is far less strident opinions proffered, or very respectful engagement. Also, with people who have quite a degree of insight offering advice to those who don't. It has been appreciated by those keen to acquire new info and knowledge. I've also noted on cricket forums, like football, more acrimonious discussion can occur when opinions differ. I think part of the problem is the FA. They have often stifled fan led programs or initiatives. There are still those who are strong NPL only and want nothing to do with the A-league. There was also a time where many were attacked for preferring European leagues over the A-league (I was one of them) and I can see why that would put people off. In saying that, there hasn't been anything given to the fans to engage in it. Everything that has been offered has generally been very controlled and moderated. Unless you know people, you don't get in. Unless you tow a line, you don't get a change. There are some podcasts and social media people who do things, but it doesn't really engage the wider audience. The forums are a bit more raw and honest which is great, and it means that we can also engage in not just football, but with each other in other interests.
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Quicky
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 1.5K,
Visits: 0
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+xI made a subreddit just in case https://www.reddit.com/r/442Australia/can everyone join? Just say hi in the "say hi thread" and we can continue discussion here and only move there as a backup if 442 dies I'll favourite this but like RIMB can't see myself using it unless this forum disappears. It feels a bit traitorous doing this, but if this place disappears a ready made alternative is BigSoccer: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forums/australia.1067/It's pretty dead now but used to be good. If you like the message board format you could easily pick this place up and carry on there.
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Monoethnic Social Club
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 11K,
Visits: 0
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+xDevils advocate question - do we need the forum to be much bigger. If it gives us joy having quality over quantity whats wrong with what we have? Interesting parallel to football in Australia that one :P
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Quicky
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 1.5K,
Visits: 0
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+x+x+x+x+xWhat made 442 forums so successful was the fans. It was a proper place for engagement. We even created a fan led football show out of it. We had a commentary team. Granted most of us who led those things have gone on to other careers and have not really found the time to be on here all the time. When I look at the forums, I'm thrown off by the constant threads posted by the IS bot. If I post in a thread and then come back later to see the responses, but the thread has been pushed to the bottom of the page by the IS bot articles, I don't really want to bother. Forums are successful when there is genuine engagement and that engagement leads to something substantial. With outlets like Reddit and Discord, people probably get there fix on those platforms. This forum needs to come back to it's core. The way it does that is through a fan led process. We need to make this forum a valuable resource for fan engagement on Australian Football. It needs a proper mod team to start so they can monitor and overlook the boards. Then you need to develop a clear vision for what the boards will be and what they will drive. Once you have that, then you can start to think about all the other little minutae. What do you wants mods to do that they're not doing already? The only thing I can see that's a problem is the bot articles. Do you want the mods (Bowden) to delete those? Do you think that would drive traffic back? Not having a crack. Just a genuine question. I'm not having a dig at Bowden. Him and I go way back. I have nothing but the utmost respect and time for Bowden. I was simply just giving my own view about the forums. I thought that was what was happening here, a roundtable about what makes the forums a great place. The Australian Football section should I think stick to Aus Football. An article about Neuer's international retirement is not relevant to the Aus Football thread. Create a hub where Australian fans can come and talk about the game - here and abroad - but keep the themes relevant. I also see RIMB's point too. Perhaps a redesign to seperate the articles from the genuine threads. The biggest challenge is going to be how we drive numbers to the forums and get them to engage The next bit is having a respectful and self-moderating culture. I think this place has that most of the time. It's actually really hard to build that and a big tick for the forum imo. It should be recognised that being a Mod can be quite boring at times. Deleting heaps of spam, is nobody's idea of fun, when they've joined a forum to to discuss specific issues about a sport/hobby - football in this case. I've been on a lot of moderating panels in the last few years. The bigger the Mod team, more hands make light work. Bowden has an onerous workload. Given the strong likelihood of this forum being closed down, I won't go into what other Mod panels have done to sustain Mod numbers elsewhere. At this stage I'd like to thank Bowden for the community service he has provided for this forum in his moderating capacity. Particularly lately, with so little support. Ditto - thanks to all the other Mods who have moderated on this forum. I've moderated other sports forums so get it. It'd be good to get Bowden some support just for the spam. It's more that the there is no active admin to add moderators that leaves the place vulnerable. I don't think there's an immediate risk the forum will go, but it'd be good to have a plan if it does.
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LFC.
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 13K,
Visits: 0
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+x+xI made a subreddit just in case https://www.reddit.com/r/442Australia/can everyone join? Just say hi in the "say hi thread" and we can continue discussion here and only move there as a backup if 442 dies I'll favourite this but like RIMB can't see myself using it unless this forum disappears. It feels a bit traitorous doing this, but if this place disappears a ready made alternative is BigSoccer: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forums/australia.1067/It's pretty dead now but used to be good. If you like the message board format you could easily pick this place up and carry on there. Thanks grazor and Quicky, Like RIMB I'm no SM junkie compared to many, I also like to keep a low online profile and the less is more approach. I really don't know how some of you keep up with so many SM chat groups etcetc I struggle. I've Bookmarked both links just to case where I can at least find MIA members from here IF the place suddenly disappears on us that will be sad.
Love Football
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Muz
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 15K,
Visits: 0
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+x+xDevils advocate question - do we need the forum to be much bigger. If it gives us joy having quality over quantity whats wrong with what we have? I get the feeling that we need to make it worth more for the owners so they continue it. Yeah it needs to be commercially viable.
Member since 2008.
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zimbos_05
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 15K,
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Personally I prefer Discord than Reddit if it moves away from here. Can easily dissect the channels and threads and allows for more instant discussion.
Reddit is good too, but I don't think it will offer the same level of ease of use for people interested. I wonder if it could work in tandem like some places do.
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Bowden
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Group: Moderators
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Some very kind words, thanks for the love, all ❤️
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Muz
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Group: Forum Members
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+x+x+x+xI made a subreddit just in case https://www.reddit.com/r/442Australia/can everyone join? Just say hi in the "say hi thread" and we can continue discussion here and only move there as a backup if 442 dies I did consider how it would look if we took it off here. Would it be Reddit, discord, etc. How would it work and how would we moderate it. I feel like accessibility could really drive the engagement and if we are able to access it via our phones, perhaps people would be more engaged. In terms of revenue that others speak about, generally ads are driven by engagement so whilst we don't want this to become a cesspool of arguing and frustrations, we do need quantity along with quality. Perhaps there is a scope here to have a stable platform where people can engage and offer different fan led ideas to increase that. When the Matildas played in the Olympics, I didn't really find a place that I could go to and engage with others in the way I can on Reddit when there is a Rugby match or a Cricket event, or a European football match. Interesting points, Zimbo. My online presence for football is only that few mates offline are interested. However, that has changed a bit lately, with former teammates in youth teams, having a renewed interest galvanised by the Matildas. I've had more off line discussion about football in recent times. I've been able to get pepper shakers out to demonstrate changed tactics in person, to former teammates of many decades ago. Two other topics of interest, where I head to two forums for discussion, there is far less strident opinions proffered, or very respectful engagement. Also, with people who have quite a degree of insight offering advice to those who don't. It has been appreciated by those keen to acquire new info and knowledge. I've also noted on cricket forums, like football, more acrimonious discussion can occur when opinions differ. Yeah, Warner is a cheating C*nt who should never have been picked again 100%. He is a giant wanker. (And his clown wife, they make a great pair.)
Member since 2008.
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Midfielder
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Group: Forum Members
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+x+x+x+xWhat made 442 forums so successful was the fans. It was a proper place for engagement. We even created a fan led football show out of it. We had a commentary team. Granted most of us who led those things have gone on to other careers and have not really found the time to be on here all the time. When I look at the forums, I'm thrown off by the constant threads posted by the IS bot. If I post in a thread and then come back later to see the responses, but the thread has been pushed to the bottom of the page by the IS bot articles, I don't really want to bother. Forums are successful when there is genuine engagement and that engagement leads to something substantial. With outlets like Reddit and Discord, people probably get there fix on those platforms. This forum needs to come back to it's core. The way it does that is through a fan led process. We need to make this forum a valuable resource for fan engagement on Australian Football. It needs a proper mod team to start so they can monitor and overlook the boards. Then you need to develop a clear vision for what the boards will be and what they will drive. Once you have that, then you can start to think about all the other little minutae. What do you wants mods to do that they're not doing already? The only thing I can see that's a problem is the bot articles. Do you want the mods (Bowden) to delete those? Do you think that would drive traffic back? Not having a crack. Just a genuine question. I'm not having a dig at Bowden. Him and I go way back. I have nothing but the utmost respect and time for Bowden. I was simply just giving my own view about the forums. I thought that was what was happening here, a roundtable about what makes the forums a great place. The Australian Football section should I think stick to Aus Football. An article about Neuer's international retirement is not relevant to the Aus Football thread. Create a hub where Australian fans can come and talk about the game - here and abroad - but keep the themes relevant. I also see RIMB's point too. Perhaps a redesign to seperate the articles from the genuine threads. The biggest challenge is going to be how we drive numbers to the forums and get them to engage I agree with this fwiw. I'm happy enough with the Australian related football articles, although they still clutter the page and don't drive much discussion, but the non-Australia articles don't add to the content at all. It does drive better/on-topic content off the front page, which I think is a problem. I guess it depends what you want from the forum. I think it's really important to drive engagement and discussion. That tends to happen best with threads posters have posted themselves, because they're more interesting and the posters engaging in them have ownership of it. That change (removing FTBL articles) would help address that, but it does unfairly put a bigger burden on Bowden. Appreciating he's a volunteer and already does so much. It would be good for there to be some support for him. I hope Muz's mate he's emailing can help there maybe. The next bit is having a respectful and self-moderating culture. I think this place has that most of the time. It's actually really hard to build that and a big tick for the forum imo. +++++999
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Roar in me Blood
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 4.8K,
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+xPersonally I prefer Discord than Reddit if it moves away from here. Can easily dissect the channels and threads and allows for more instant discussion. Reddit is good too, but I don't think it will offer the same level of ease of use for people interested. I wonder if it could work in tandem like some places do. I think Grazor's idea is just to have a place that we can be to decide what to do next if it comes to it - not necessarily that Reddit will be the forum location.
When I wear their colours, I am the club.
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