We’ve been so busy putting our basketball preview magazine to board that we haven’t spent as much time on the board as we’d like that couple of weeks, but that is past us and this is a good time, I think, to have a discussion of how we want our community to be.
Admittedly, we focused a ton over the summer on how to improve our content package and not nearly enough time on moderation of our boards, which has probably been a weakness of ours.
(The good news is we have seen nice results with our content. Not to get too far into the weeds, but Rivals.com told us that any story that has a one-minute engagement time is really good, and our top three stories yesterday all averaged at least 1:44 in engagement time.)
But, part of the experience of a subscription to our site is the message boards, and we fully and completely understand that. So I wanted to start this thread to gauge some ideas to help make it better.
Let me start by saying it’s never going to be a perfect utopia, and as someone who has access to all the sites in Rivals.com I can tell you that unless you are a Clemson or Alabama where you have first-world problems in football or you are a dead site, there is going to be a good amount of conflict especially during the height of the seasons (football, basketball and maybe even baseball). We certainly don’t want to be a dead site, and obviously NC State football and basketball over the years (maybe decades) haven’t reached a point where everyone is happy.
Our goal is to minimize that conflict however. This is an open thread to have a discussion about ways to improve your experience. We’ve had a fair amount of new signups this year and this is as good as time as any to approach this topic, especially in light of some of the views brought up recently in threads.
I’ll start with a few. I think one issue that might annoy many posters is repeated threads of negativism. I am generally not in favor of censuring someone just because they happen to be frustrated. Some folks can be glass half-empty by nature, others are just so passionate about the Pack that they can’t stand when things are not going ideally.
Perhaps a way to alleviate this is to start what maybe we could call “griping threads.” For instance, immediately after the game we could post a “Post-Syracuse game gripe thread” which will allow all those who have their frustrations to vent it out, and everyone else will know that unless they want to read it or join in then don’t click on it. That thread can be for all those who want to bring up that Devin Leary should be playing more or that Doeren’s record is X and X against Y or the co-offensive coordinators is not working.
Meanwhile strict enforcement will allow us to free the rest of the board for more constructive comments. Those who want to frustrate have their thread, the rest are for the non-griping comments, i.e. don’t respond if you have a negative response to what is being talked about.
If we wanted to take it further, during the week we lock that thread and have a “Syracuse-week gripe thread.” We could also have a “Recruiting gripe thread” if we wanted to go that far. I understand that there is always going to be contrarian opinions on some threads, and that’s fine. If someone for instance has an issue with something Dave Doeren says in his radio show and wants to point it out in that thread, I think that’s fair game.
Maybe this is the dumbest idea of all time, and you can point out the stupidity in it and make me see the light of day. That won’t hurt my feelings because this is an open conversation for what our posters want to see to make this community better.
I think another issue is thread hijacking between a few posters, and I would love ideas of how to cut that down.
The overall goal is to make the culture of this board as strong as possible, especially mindful of how emotions will really start rising up in the next year as we head towards an election. We want this place to be a good reprieve.
So I ask for your help and ideas. (And please let’s keep this thread positive.)
Admittedly, we focused a ton over the summer on how to improve our content package and not nearly enough time on moderation of our boards, which has probably been a weakness of ours.
(The good news is we have seen nice results with our content. Not to get too far into the weeds, but Rivals.com told us that any story that has a one-minute engagement time is really good, and our top three stories yesterday all averaged at least 1:44 in engagement time.)
But, part of the experience of a subscription to our site is the message boards, and we fully and completely understand that. So I wanted to start this thread to gauge some ideas to help make it better.
Let me start by saying it’s never going to be a perfect utopia, and as someone who has access to all the sites in Rivals.com I can tell you that unless you are a Clemson or Alabama where you have first-world problems in football or you are a dead site, there is going to be a good amount of conflict especially during the height of the seasons (football, basketball and maybe even baseball). We certainly don’t want to be a dead site, and obviously NC State football and basketball over the years (maybe decades) haven’t reached a point where everyone is happy.
Our goal is to minimize that conflict however. This is an open thread to have a discussion about ways to improve your experience. We’ve had a fair amount of new signups this year and this is as good as time as any to approach this topic, especially in light of some of the views brought up recently in threads.
I’ll start with a few. I think one issue that might annoy many posters is repeated threads of negativism. I am generally not in favor of censuring someone just because they happen to be frustrated. Some folks can be glass half-empty by nature, others are just so passionate about the Pack that they can’t stand when things are not going ideally.
Perhaps a way to alleviate this is to start what maybe we could call “griping threads.” For instance, immediately after the game we could post a “Post-Syracuse game gripe thread” which will allow all those who have their frustrations to vent it out, and everyone else will know that unless they want to read it or join in then don’t click on it. That thread can be for all those who want to bring up that Devin Leary should be playing more or that Doeren’s record is X and X against Y or the co-offensive coordinators is not working.
Meanwhile strict enforcement will allow us to free the rest of the board for more constructive comments. Those who want to frustrate have their thread, the rest are for the non-griping comments, i.e. don’t respond if you have a negative response to what is being talked about.
If we wanted to take it further, during the week we lock that thread and have a “Syracuse-week gripe thread.” We could also have a “Recruiting gripe thread” if we wanted to go that far. I understand that there is always going to be contrarian opinions on some threads, and that’s fine. If someone for instance has an issue with something Dave Doeren says in his radio show and wants to point it out in that thread, I think that’s fair game.
Maybe this is the dumbest idea of all time, and you can point out the stupidity in it and make me see the light of day. That won’t hurt my feelings because this is an open conversation for what our posters want to see to make this community better.
I think another issue is thread hijacking between a few posters, and I would love ideas of how to cut that down.
The overall goal is to make the culture of this board as strong as possible, especially mindful of how emotions will really start rising up in the next year as we head towards an election. We want this place to be a good reprieve.
So I ask for your help and ideas. (And please let’s keep this thread positive.)
