State of the Forum - Aug. 7, 2014
Aug 7, 2014 21:15:17 GMT -8
DiamondThief, Cam, and 2 more like this
Post by Kasey on Aug 7, 2014 21:15:17 GMT -8
Greetings everyone,
As some of you may be aware, the Sports Coast to Coast forum passed its one-year mark on August 6. Ironically, you may not quite be aware as to how this forum was begun nor the reasons behind its origin.
About the middle of summer 2013, it became clear that the Portland Trail Blazers organization, in its infinite wisdom (or lack there of) was going to all but do away with its social site, message board and blogger network. Team president Chris McGowan had promised to link the five different sections of the Blazers website. Instead, he stifled them and centered simply on the main site and TBTV. Additionally, the team outsourced its message board to a forum which ... well, let's just say is neither family friendly nor accepting of new members.
McGowan and the Blazers failed epically with these decisions. The blogger network still exists, though primarily in archive form. However, seldom does someone check out the previous staff and fan blogs, post there, or create new entries of their own. I honestly was perturbed. For the better part of three years I posted over 105 blogs on that site. Quite frankly, when it comes to fan contributions, I feel I was key to putting that blogger network on the map.
It was then I set out to set up a site to host blogs about the Blazers and other things which might be of interest. What I had at my disposal was a list of web hosting sites, a twitter account with about 530 followers and an extremely modest facebook page (the latter two for promotional purposes). I decided on a message forum type of format with an extremely easy registration process which would allow posters to post blogs or their own.
That is how this forum came about.
The first step was recruiting some help. Julianne (SurferGirl ) and I were about to begin our final year at Stanford together so it was sort of a no-brainer. Angi (DiamondThief ) is the athlete of the girls in my family, so it was pretty easy to ask her to help out.
Julie put together schedules for the Pac-12 North football teams, and Angi was setting up game threads We added some Timbers, Thorns and Blazers news. Next came the Winterhawks and other news. Then, we started talking about some Australian sports with our friends from down under. Suddenly this little blog site had turned into a sports forum.
One day when Julie and I we were kicking around some ideas for what we might do with game threads during the Blazers season; specifically how we might divide them up to keep our schedules as light as possible. This was prior to pre-season, in early October. I received a text from Angi.
"They mentioned it a while back but it is official. Portland is getting an arena football team. Call me when you can. I have an idea. 911"
Of course, the last note was to call her immediately. There's something you should know about Angi: When she gets excited about something, she really gets excited about it.
Over the next couple of days, we decided we were going to make the team a focal point of SC2C. We still planned on continuing our college football game day threads and delve into the Blazers regular season once it arrived, which was to be in just a few weeks at that point. Portland's AFL team announced they had hired its head coach, Matthew Sauk, and had announced that they would hold a naming contest. The team also had begun to add players. It was a few days after Sauk was named head coach when I was browsing my facebook account and I went to the team's website. I saw that the coach was mentioned, so I sent him a friend request, along with a note congratulating him on his new position. Within five minutes, I received the friend approval notice. I opened a chat box to renew my congratulations to the coach and welcome him to Portland. It was then that I requested an interview. He said he would be happy to do it once it was cleared through the team. Two days later, Coach Sauk had answered my questions. That is my personal highlight from this year on this forum.
When we went forward as a forum rather than just a blog site, we decided that Angi and I would take care of the brunt of the new posts (in addition to all of you), and Julie would check in during the day as our cop (of sorts). Julie's job was to ensure there were no trolls coming from the outside to disrupt our community. Making this forum family friendly is of paramount importance and I understand that very thing may have kept away some potential new member. Of course, Julie is a force when it comes to posting as well.
In November we added two moderators, Cam and Brian , who have aided us in various areas of the forum.
It became quickly apparent that in our game threads that Angi had a knack for not only setting up the previews, but hosting the threads as well. She's always had an interest in writing and journalism She may even make it her college major. She told me the first preview she set up took about five minutes. Conversely, because the previews have expanded, last week's Portland Thunder playoff game preview took her nearly three hours. She also says she was watching a little TV at the time.
Over the past year we have lamented about our teams' wins and consoled each other when our team loses. We exclaimed when Damain Lillard hit the series winning three over Houston and we agonized when the Spurs stopped the Blazers playoff run. Our board sections, while not always lively, have always been interesting. We've been fortunate that of the five major sports teams in Portland, all five have made the playoffs in their most recent seasons. Perhaps the pinnacle of this is when the Portland Thorns won the inaugural National Women's Soccer League title with a 2-0 win at the Western New York Flash. Thank goodness we had a game thread for that game!
I personally have enjoyed the Winter Olympics and World Cup sections. Were they in-depth? No, not by any means. What they were was a strong reference point to those happenings. The off-topic section was a nice place to put the goofball stuff. Yeseeka posted some original music and there was other fun pictures, memes and comments. We've had some blogs but to my ironic surprise, not nearly as many as I had anticipated. Life evolves, and I suppose the intent of the forum has as well. It's something I would like to get back to, and plan on doing so in the future.
It's difficult to predict the future. We know the NWSL and MLS playoffs are coming up and then right around the corner is college football season. Of course, training camp for the Blazers.
Quite truthfully, we've kind of been doing a fly-by-night thing when it comes to planning. We've gotten a little better at that as the year has gone on, but we plan on doing even more preparation. Over the next week, I will be headed to law school and Julie to medical school. Angi will be entering her senior year of high school in September. To some extent, we will be somewhat on hiatus. We'll be around and Angi will head things up as far as college football season is concerned (along with Cam ), while Brian will spearhead the Thorns and Timbers as they look toward the playoffs.
We will roll out some things over the next few weeks as far as what we have planned. If you have any ideas, please let one of us know and we'll be happy to incorporate them. This forum is really for you, my friends. I hope it never seems like that is not the case.
Now the hard part.
We have 37 members total (though two accounts have been disabled). We need more. I would love to get this site to 50 by the time NBA training camps get up and running. I am asking for your help to accomplish this. I will be working on some things, but if you can pass on the message and get some sign ups, I would greatly appreciate it.
The second message is to those who have signed up, but don't come by so often. We've got some great stuff going on here and we'd love to have you come join us.
Finally, I would like to thank those of you who have been with us since the start and who have been active. This is a lot of fun and it's been truly enjoyable. I would like to specifically single out newellbrian who has been in several game threads, as well as started a number of threads. This has been great and I would love to see more of that from everyone.
So we go into a new year with some experience. We're a little smarter and we have more of a direction. I'm telling you right now: I am looking forward to the next year.
I hope you are too.
~ Kassandra
As some of you may be aware, the Sports Coast to Coast forum passed its one-year mark on August 6. Ironically, you may not quite be aware as to how this forum was begun nor the reasons behind its origin.
About the middle of summer 2013, it became clear that the Portland Trail Blazers organization, in its infinite wisdom (or lack there of) was going to all but do away with its social site, message board and blogger network. Team president Chris McGowan had promised to link the five different sections of the Blazers website. Instead, he stifled them and centered simply on the main site and TBTV. Additionally, the team outsourced its message board to a forum which ... well, let's just say is neither family friendly nor accepting of new members.
McGowan and the Blazers failed epically with these decisions. The blogger network still exists, though primarily in archive form. However, seldom does someone check out the previous staff and fan blogs, post there, or create new entries of their own. I honestly was perturbed. For the better part of three years I posted over 105 blogs on that site. Quite frankly, when it comes to fan contributions, I feel I was key to putting that blogger network on the map.
It was then I set out to set up a site to host blogs about the Blazers and other things which might be of interest. What I had at my disposal was a list of web hosting sites, a twitter account with about 530 followers and an extremely modest facebook page (the latter two for promotional purposes). I decided on a message forum type of format with an extremely easy registration process which would allow posters to post blogs or their own.
That is how this forum came about.
The first step was recruiting some help. Julianne (SurferGirl ) and I were about to begin our final year at Stanford together so it was sort of a no-brainer. Angi (DiamondThief ) is the athlete of the girls in my family, so it was pretty easy to ask her to help out.
Julie put together schedules for the Pac-12 North football teams, and Angi was setting up game threads We added some Timbers, Thorns and Blazers news. Next came the Winterhawks and other news. Then, we started talking about some Australian sports with our friends from down under. Suddenly this little blog site had turned into a sports forum.
One day when Julie and I we were kicking around some ideas for what we might do with game threads during the Blazers season; specifically how we might divide them up to keep our schedules as light as possible. This was prior to pre-season, in early October. I received a text from Angi.
"They mentioned it a while back but it is official. Portland is getting an arena football team. Call me when you can. I have an idea. 911"
Of course, the last note was to call her immediately. There's something you should know about Angi: When she gets excited about something, she really gets excited about it.
Over the next couple of days, we decided we were going to make the team a focal point of SC2C. We still planned on continuing our college football game day threads and delve into the Blazers regular season once it arrived, which was to be in just a few weeks at that point. Portland's AFL team announced they had hired its head coach, Matthew Sauk, and had announced that they would hold a naming contest. The team also had begun to add players. It was a few days after Sauk was named head coach when I was browsing my facebook account and I went to the team's website. I saw that the coach was mentioned, so I sent him a friend request, along with a note congratulating him on his new position. Within five minutes, I received the friend approval notice. I opened a chat box to renew my congratulations to the coach and welcome him to Portland. It was then that I requested an interview. He said he would be happy to do it once it was cleared through the team. Two days later, Coach Sauk had answered my questions. That is my personal highlight from this year on this forum.
When we went forward as a forum rather than just a blog site, we decided that Angi and I would take care of the brunt of the new posts (in addition to all of you), and Julie would check in during the day as our cop (of sorts). Julie's job was to ensure there were no trolls coming from the outside to disrupt our community. Making this forum family friendly is of paramount importance and I understand that very thing may have kept away some potential new member. Of course, Julie is a force when it comes to posting as well.
In November we added two moderators, Cam and Brian , who have aided us in various areas of the forum.
It became quickly apparent that in our game threads that Angi had a knack for not only setting up the previews, but hosting the threads as well. She's always had an interest in writing and journalism She may even make it her college major. She told me the first preview she set up took about five minutes. Conversely, because the previews have expanded, last week's Portland Thunder playoff game preview took her nearly three hours. She also says she was watching a little TV at the time.
Over the past year we have lamented about our teams' wins and consoled each other when our team loses. We exclaimed when Damain Lillard hit the series winning three over Houston and we agonized when the Spurs stopped the Blazers playoff run. Our board sections, while not always lively, have always been interesting. We've been fortunate that of the five major sports teams in Portland, all five have made the playoffs in their most recent seasons. Perhaps the pinnacle of this is when the Portland Thorns won the inaugural National Women's Soccer League title with a 2-0 win at the Western New York Flash. Thank goodness we had a game thread for that game!
I personally have enjoyed the Winter Olympics and World Cup sections. Were they in-depth? No, not by any means. What they were was a strong reference point to those happenings. The off-topic section was a nice place to put the goofball stuff. Yeseeka posted some original music and there was other fun pictures, memes and comments. We've had some blogs but to my ironic surprise, not nearly as many as I had anticipated. Life evolves, and I suppose the intent of the forum has as well. It's something I would like to get back to, and plan on doing so in the future.
It's difficult to predict the future. We know the NWSL and MLS playoffs are coming up and then right around the corner is college football season. Of course, training camp for the Blazers.
Quite truthfully, we've kind of been doing a fly-by-night thing when it comes to planning. We've gotten a little better at that as the year has gone on, but we plan on doing even more preparation. Over the next week, I will be headed to law school and Julie to medical school. Angi will be entering her senior year of high school in September. To some extent, we will be somewhat on hiatus. We'll be around and Angi will head things up as far as college football season is concerned (along with Cam ), while Brian will spearhead the Thorns and Timbers as they look toward the playoffs.
We will roll out some things over the next few weeks as far as what we have planned. If you have any ideas, please let one of us know and we'll be happy to incorporate them. This forum is really for you, my friends. I hope it never seems like that is not the case.
Now the hard part.
We have 37 members total (though two accounts have been disabled). We need more. I would love to get this site to 50 by the time NBA training camps get up and running. I am asking for your help to accomplish this. I will be working on some things, but if you can pass on the message and get some sign ups, I would greatly appreciate it.
The second message is to those who have signed up, but don't come by so often. We've got some great stuff going on here and we'd love to have you come join us.
Finally, I would like to thank those of you who have been with us since the start and who have been active. This is a lot of fun and it's been truly enjoyable. I would like to specifically single out newellbrian who has been in several game threads, as well as started a number of threads. This has been great and I would love to see more of that from everyone.
So we go into a new year with some experience. We're a little smarter and we have more of a direction. I'm telling you right now: I am looking forward to the next year.
I hope you are too.
~ Kassandra
Graphic courtesy of David.