Announcement

[sedziobs]

This site has been very quiet over the last few months, so I've decided to move over to bearcatnews. As much as I enjoy reading insight from the few of you who still post here, especially Queens_NYC, I miss having more lively discussions. I hope some of you will come join me.

[Queens_NYC]

Originally Posted by sedziobs

This site has been very quiet over the last few months, so I've decided to move over to bearcatnews. As much as I enjoy reading insight from the few of you who still post here, especially Queens_NYC, I miss having more lively discussions. I hope some of you will come join me.

Fair enough, sedziobs. You've been a tremendous asset to this board and have nearly single-handily kept it afloat with your high level analysis during more recent times.

I always admired you above anyone else during some of the more spirited debates on here.

Thanks for allowing me to make the majority of the game threads over the past several years.

Bearcatnews was the first UC board I joined 15 years ago (when I still lived near UC and could attend games in-person), and while I don't remember all of the semantics behind why I started posting more over here, I'm glad to see BN has resurged as a fairly ego-free and civil discussion board.

Needless to say, thanks to sedz, and to anyone else who made this place a worthwhile platform for so many years.

I can attest that for as recently as the Evansville game, fans from opponents' boards were quoting our posts as pre-game scouting material in their own spaces. So our discussion did occasionally still have impact beyond the realm of this site.

[sedziobs]

Thanks Queens_NYC. Your thorough previews kept me here longer than I otherwise would have stayed.

I used to lurk at BearcatNews, but it had more of a traditionalist "red sweater" vibe 10 years ago. A lot of members there seemed to have never moved on from Huggins. It's better now I think. I much prefer it to BearcatJournal's subscription model, which defeats the entire purpose of a public forum. I guess if you want scoops a little earlier than everyone else and can sift through a bunch of personal arguments, then Chad's site is the place to be. I just want to have open discussions about basketball.

[pwadm]

Do you think upgrading the forum software would attract more members? I was thinking about upgrading to XenForo, but the license is not free and I wasn't sure if it would help attract more members or not.

Why do you think the forum is less active than before? Is it the overall trend with social media taking over?

[sedziobs]

I think it's mostly social media. Long form discussions on niche forums reached their popularity peak over a decade ago. There's not enough demand for three separate Bearcats boards IMO. I doubt improving the aesthetics or operations of the site would help.

BearcatNews is populated with a lot of older fans and I expect it will die off too eventually.

[TheShoeFits]

BearcatBanter stays pretty active as well.

https://csnbbs.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=404

[sedziobs]

Originally Posted by TheShoeFits

BearcatBanter stays pretty active as well.

https://csnbbs.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=404

Forgot about that place. They are seemingly allergic to analytics, so it never interested me. But still a good option for most fans.

[BoomBoomRoom]

Even to an old decrepit Boomer like myself this forum appears visually dated.

[waterhead]

Originally Posted by pwadm

Do you think upgrading the forum software would attract more members? I was thinking about upgrading to XenForo, but the license is not free and I wasn't sure if it would help attract more members or not.

Why do you think the forum is less active than before? Is it the overall trend with social media taking over?

My honest opinion is that software is not an issue at all. As much as I love the expertise and opinions of the few remaining people you need to have more interaction for discussion. A lot of fans like to share their opinions every day and more. I drafted up the original "rules for the board" and we did get rid of some trolls and overall discussion dropped because of less controversial topics...then it just kept dropping. We had a lot of interaction at the time so losing trolls wasn't a big deal.

The most popular or most used forums are a little more lenient with trolls. they generate activity and interaction. The other memebers would have to sift through the threads...but it would absolutely get more views.

I am more of an analytics guy like Sedziobs and NYC and I don't like the idea of sifting through off topic threads (which I do now)...but it sure beats the idea of having no site at all from a financial point of view. It can be resurrected. We have the technology

[waterhead]

Originally Posted by waterhead

My honest opinion is that software is not an issue at all. As much as I love the expertise and opinions of the few remaining people you need to have more interaction for discussion. A lot of fans like to share their opinions every day and more. I drafted up the original "rules for the board" and we did get rid of some trolls and overall discussion dropped because of less controversial topics...then it just kept dropping. We had a lot of interaction at the time so losing trolls wasn't a big deal.

The most popular or most used forums are a little more lenient with trolls. they generate activity and interaction. The other memebers would have to sift through the threads...but it would absolutely get more views.

I am more of an analytics guy like Sedziobs and NYC and I don't like the idea of sifting through off topic threads (which I do now)...but it sure beats the idea of having no site at all from a financial point of view. It can be resurrected. We have the technology

Obviously you can't cater to trolls but there is a line between a troll or a radical optimist or pessimist. Easy to take out the trolls IMO just a few bad apples. But you have to let the other radicals talk for clicks. You will get 9 responses for every controversial point (that is not scientific by any means)...but it's a common idea. No publicity is bad publicity is the old saying.

Get activity going first...decide later how to handle it.