Post by Kasey on Aug 6, 2017 17:46:43 GMT -8
Over the past four years, we've seen tremendous growth with this forum. The past year has seen a noticeable increase in that growth, both in our coverage and in our membership. I aim to summarize those dynamics in this 2017 State of the Forum for SCtoC.
It was within the past year I decided to focus the brunt of our coverage on the Indoor Football League. Growing this site through the IFL, the Spokane Empire, the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles and the Colorado Crush has increased our exposure in that area. I also have had contact with a number of other teams in the league. I feel it was the correct move. In concentrating our efforts this year on this one area, we have emerged as a leading news source regarding the IFL.
When the shake ups which occurred over the last off season with the foldings of the Tri-Cities Fever and the Billings Wolves, we had already decided to expand our coverage to the Screaming Eagles. One it was announced that Project FANchise would purchase the Crush, it was a natural decision to include them, since there would be overlapping management and communications of the Crush, as well as the FANchise-owned Screaming Eagles.
Our game previews and threads are the benchmark of this coverage. Thanks to David and Nevadanut we've given our readers the most comprehensive game previews league-wide. Game previews of the teams covered on these pages begun with our college football coverage back in 2013, continued with Portland Trail Blazers games, and remains a staple of the forum through the IFL. DiamondThief pulled double-duty this year with her Crush previews and recaps of nearly every game played in this season. David's interviews with Empire players and Drew's recaps of Crush games really added to our coverage. We also have featured interviews with the IFL commissioner, the two Screaming Eagles head coaches and one of the owners of the Screaming Eagles and Crush. Those all came courtesy of Bannock who is a former journalist, who is going to continue to work on those during the off-season and next season.
We also provided major news involving the league and its teams. We were fortunate enough to have several players win weekly accolades on which we reported, and had the complete story when Screaming Eagles quarterback Verlon Reed was honored as Offensive Rookie of the Year. Thanks to the cooperation of Empire and Screaming Eagles' staffs, we were able to offer our readers a closer look at individual players on those teams through our Q&A's.
I sometimes wonder if we did enough. However, as I look back, I am amazed at all we did. It was truly inspiring and I am thankful to everyone who made it possible.
The Empire have ceased operations and the Screaming Eagles, for all intents and purposes, have folded. There may be some life left in the Crush, as a source has told SctoC that they may find a new owner. So that puts us in a bit of a dilemma of how we are to continue to cover the IFL. Should the Crush return, they will be the base of our coverage, as the Empire were last season. We will then look to add other teams, including starting with any expansion teams which may be announced.
As for the other areas of our coverage, we will continue to put out updates of the Trail Blazers, the Portland Timbers, the Portland Thorns, Spokane Chiefs and Portland Winterhawks. We'll have all the major news, along with schedules and other items such as what we have featured in the past. Julie, Jessica and Cam did a wonderful job with updates of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. Coming up in just six months are the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang, South Korea and we will have that coverage and updates for those Games as well.
College football season begins later this month. SctoC will head into its fifth season of covering select teams. SurferGirl will have the schedules up for those teams shortly and this season we will feature mini previews for each upcoming week's games in a single thread. That will allow us to engage in conversations about any and all of those games. My feeling is that we will induce more of a conversation by presenting the week's games in that manner. As of now, those teams include Stanford, California, Oregon, Eastern Washington, Portland St., Boise St. and our newest addition, Northern Colorado. As always, if there is another school someone wants added, say the word and we'll be happy to add it.
We've made some new friends along the way. I specifically want thank Drew Galyardt spiderfan and afrats . You all have been welcome additions and repeatedly prompted a more livelier conversation than we had seen in our previous three years. For that, I am extremely grateful. As we continue to grow, we look to welcome even more people who can enhance the conversation. So, once again, I call out to everyone to invite friends, family and others you run across. The more we have here, the better the conversation will turn out to be.
As I have mentioned in previous incarnations of this report, we are a family friendly forum and have at no time have had a single issue with inappropriate content being posted here. I am proud of that. I also know that is a contributing reason for membership of this forum growing at a slower rate than I would like. There simply are people out there who which to start arguments, use profanity and post questionable comments. That is unacceptable here.. The atmosphere which has been created here will continue. That is my promise to every member of this site, as well as those who read our content who've yet to sign up.
As many of you know, this site was started as a blog forum in which anyone could write about anything and everything on their minds in the sports world. We quickly expanded with college football threads, with the Trail Blazers and the Portland Thunder (when that franchise was announced in October 2013). Along the way, of course, we have added other teams and sports. Our expansion and redirection over these four years has come from the tireless efforts of several people. It simply could not have happened without our staff. We are committed to continuing those efforts to make SCtoC even better.
Over the next few weeks, I will be making a few changes to the appearance of this site to make it look sleeker and more inviting. I believe these aesthetic changes will contribute to our site to make it appear more appealing can increase our membership.
As we enter year five, I am optimistic. Our college football section is going to be strong and, while we will need to adapt our coverage to fit the team changes and movements, I have no doubt that we can navigate those to make our coverage of the IFL even better.
So, I say a huge thank you to all of those responsible for this site to grow into what it has become. As we continue, I look forward to what the future holds for this forum will become. You have my commitment that I will not stop trying to make this forum the best that it can be.
Thank you all.
~ Kassandra
To comment on this thread and others on this forum, please login or register.
It was within the past year I decided to focus the brunt of our coverage on the Indoor Football League. Growing this site through the IFL, the Spokane Empire, the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles and the Colorado Crush has increased our exposure in that area. I also have had contact with a number of other teams in the league. I feel it was the correct move. In concentrating our efforts this year on this one area, we have emerged as a leading news source regarding the IFL.
When the shake ups which occurred over the last off season with the foldings of the Tri-Cities Fever and the Billings Wolves, we had already decided to expand our coverage to the Screaming Eagles. One it was announced that Project FANchise would purchase the Crush, it was a natural decision to include them, since there would be overlapping management and communications of the Crush, as well as the FANchise-owned Screaming Eagles.
Our game previews and threads are the benchmark of this coverage. Thanks to David and Nevadanut we've given our readers the most comprehensive game previews league-wide. Game previews of the teams covered on these pages begun with our college football coverage back in 2013, continued with Portland Trail Blazers games, and remains a staple of the forum through the IFL. DiamondThief pulled double-duty this year with her Crush previews and recaps of nearly every game played in this season. David's interviews with Empire players and Drew's recaps of Crush games really added to our coverage. We also have featured interviews with the IFL commissioner, the two Screaming Eagles head coaches and one of the owners of the Screaming Eagles and Crush. Those all came courtesy of Bannock who is a former journalist, who is going to continue to work on those during the off-season and next season.
We also provided major news involving the league and its teams. We were fortunate enough to have several players win weekly accolades on which we reported, and had the complete story when Screaming Eagles quarterback Verlon Reed was honored as Offensive Rookie of the Year. Thanks to the cooperation of Empire and Screaming Eagles' staffs, we were able to offer our readers a closer look at individual players on those teams through our Q&A's.
I sometimes wonder if we did enough. However, as I look back, I am amazed at all we did. It was truly inspiring and I am thankful to everyone who made it possible.
The Empire have ceased operations and the Screaming Eagles, for all intents and purposes, have folded. There may be some life left in the Crush, as a source has told SctoC that they may find a new owner. So that puts us in a bit of a dilemma of how we are to continue to cover the IFL. Should the Crush return, they will be the base of our coverage, as the Empire were last season. We will then look to add other teams, including starting with any expansion teams which may be announced.
As for the other areas of our coverage, we will continue to put out updates of the Trail Blazers, the Portland Timbers, the Portland Thorns, Spokane Chiefs and Portland Winterhawks. We'll have all the major news, along with schedules and other items such as what we have featured in the past. Julie, Jessica and Cam did a wonderful job with updates of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. Coming up in just six months are the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang, South Korea and we will have that coverage and updates for those Games as well.
College football season begins later this month. SctoC will head into its fifth season of covering select teams. SurferGirl will have the schedules up for those teams shortly and this season we will feature mini previews for each upcoming week's games in a single thread. That will allow us to engage in conversations about any and all of those games. My feeling is that we will induce more of a conversation by presenting the week's games in that manner. As of now, those teams include Stanford, California, Oregon, Eastern Washington, Portland St., Boise St. and our newest addition, Northern Colorado. As always, if there is another school someone wants added, say the word and we'll be happy to add it.
We've made some new friends along the way. I specifically want thank Drew Galyardt spiderfan and afrats . You all have been welcome additions and repeatedly prompted a more livelier conversation than we had seen in our previous three years. For that, I am extremely grateful. As we continue to grow, we look to welcome even more people who can enhance the conversation. So, once again, I call out to everyone to invite friends, family and others you run across. The more we have here, the better the conversation will turn out to be.
As I have mentioned in previous incarnations of this report, we are a family friendly forum and have at no time have had a single issue with inappropriate content being posted here. I am proud of that. I also know that is a contributing reason for membership of this forum growing at a slower rate than I would like. There simply are people out there who which to start arguments, use profanity and post questionable comments. That is unacceptable here.. The atmosphere which has been created here will continue. That is my promise to every member of this site, as well as those who read our content who've yet to sign up.
As many of you know, this site was started as a blog forum in which anyone could write about anything and everything on their minds in the sports world. We quickly expanded with college football threads, with the Trail Blazers and the Portland Thunder (when that franchise was announced in October 2013). Along the way, of course, we have added other teams and sports. Our expansion and redirection over these four years has come from the tireless efforts of several people. It simply could not have happened without our staff. We are committed to continuing those efforts to make SCtoC even better.
Over the next few weeks, I will be making a few changes to the appearance of this site to make it look sleeker and more inviting. I believe these aesthetic changes will contribute to our site to make it appear more appealing can increase our membership.
As we enter year five, I am optimistic. Our college football section is going to be strong and, while we will need to adapt our coverage to fit the team changes and movements, I have no doubt that we can navigate those to make our coverage of the IFL even better.
So, I say a huge thank you to all of those responsible for this site to grow into what it has become. As we continue, I look forward to what the future holds for this forum will become. You have my commitment that I will not stop trying to make this forum the best that it can be.
Thank you all.
~ Kassandra
To comment on this thread and others on this forum, please login or register.
