I'm starting to get a better handle on all of the functions at my disposal as board moderator beyond locking and deleting, so I wanted to address a few topics today.
1) Threatening to cancel
Eric and I are not above criticism, but threads created solely to complain about our coverage as it relates to your subscription serve no useful purpose to the board. We don't need another five pages of people arguing back and forth about the type of content we are or aren't providing. I saw the word respect thrown around in the last thread. Such a thread is disrespectful to the amount of work we are putting in to make this site better.
No one wants this place to be successful more than the two of us. Our entire livelihood is now tied to the number of subscriptions we can drive to this site. This place will be better next month than it was this month and we hope that continues as we move forward.
We understand change isn’t always easy, even when it might be a change for the better. There are ideas and standards and ways of doing things and types of stories that helped us win national awards and drive subscriptions at the old place. But we are open to change ourselves, and exploring new ways to present content and interact with readers that we haven’t done before. And we’ll be increasingly moving in that direction as we add new staff in the next month.
We will always be open to feedback. You can suggest content and I'm doing my best to address whatever questions I can answer submitted on the message board. Many times those conversations are best addressed privately. You can either message us here or email us: tjames@insidendsports.com | ehansen@insidendsports.com
2) High-volume posting
It's clear that several of you have earned reputations around here for a number of different reasons. And what comes with that is a lot of digging at individual posters for their opinions. If there are people on this message board that you know you always disagree with, I encourage you to use the ignore function. It will make for a better environment in the long run.
As the days go by, it's starting to become clear that some of those reputations I referenced have merit. I will begin to reach out to some of those folks who tend to be at the center of many back-and-forths. There needs to be some sort of compromise or we'll have to start issuing timeouts.
We want to encourage discussion on this message board, but you don't have to have a thought on everything or respond to every dissenting opinion you see. If you agree with a post, sometimes all you need to do is hit the like button.
3) Profanity
I'm not easily offended by profane language and can appreciate the vocabulary that Harry Hiestand likes to use on the practice field or Aaron Taylor used the last time we had him on our old podcast. But Rivals has a standard that needs to be met on its message boards and profanity (the absence of it) is part of that. So please cut down on the swearing. The more time I have to spend editing the message board for your profanity, the less time I have available to chase down the information you want to read.
4) Sticky threads
We are going to continue to use sticky threads to highlight the most important recent updates/stories we've written. So if you're not used to checking the sticky threads, please do so. This is how many message boards I've perused operate and shouldn't be considered a nuisance. Only threads that are relevant long-term will remain in the sticky section beyond a couple days.
We want you to engage with those sticky threads, so that's why I'm calling attention to this. But we also want you to drive a lot of the conversation in the normal threads. We will post our shorter updates in the normal threads section. As time allows, we will facilitate more conversations with you in the normal threads as well.
5) Changing your username
There's a list of people I have access to who requested username changes going back to April 2021. Apparently, I can't actually approve those changes myself, but I have been informed how to make that happen. If you're someone who wants to change their username, email me and we'll try to get that sorted out: tjames@insidendsports.com
6) Non-staff moderating
We are interested in empowering some subscribers to help moderate the message board. We haven't known many of you for long enough to trust you with that power, but if you are interested in fulfilling that role in the future, please reach out to us. We will do our best to make it worth your time.
1) Threatening to cancel
Eric and I are not above criticism, but threads created solely to complain about our coverage as it relates to your subscription serve no useful purpose to the board. We don't need another five pages of people arguing back and forth about the type of content we are or aren't providing. I saw the word respect thrown around in the last thread. Such a thread is disrespectful to the amount of work we are putting in to make this site better.
No one wants this place to be successful more than the two of us. Our entire livelihood is now tied to the number of subscriptions we can drive to this site. This place will be better next month than it was this month and we hope that continues as we move forward.
We understand change isn’t always easy, even when it might be a change for the better. There are ideas and standards and ways of doing things and types of stories that helped us win national awards and drive subscriptions at the old place. But we are open to change ourselves, and exploring new ways to present content and interact with readers that we haven’t done before. And we’ll be increasingly moving in that direction as we add new staff in the next month.
We will always be open to feedback. You can suggest content and I'm doing my best to address whatever questions I can answer submitted on the message board. Many times those conversations are best addressed privately. You can either message us here or email us: tjames@insidendsports.com | ehansen@insidendsports.com
2) High-volume posting
It's clear that several of you have earned reputations around here for a number of different reasons. And what comes with that is a lot of digging at individual posters for their opinions. If there are people on this message board that you know you always disagree with, I encourage you to use the ignore function. It will make for a better environment in the long run.
As the days go by, it's starting to become clear that some of those reputations I referenced have merit. I will begin to reach out to some of those folks who tend to be at the center of many back-and-forths. There needs to be some sort of compromise or we'll have to start issuing timeouts.
We want to encourage discussion on this message board, but you don't have to have a thought on everything or respond to every dissenting opinion you see. If you agree with a post, sometimes all you need to do is hit the like button.
3) Profanity
I'm not easily offended by profane language and can appreciate the vocabulary that Harry Hiestand likes to use on the practice field or Aaron Taylor used the last time we had him on our old podcast. But Rivals has a standard that needs to be met on its message boards and profanity (the absence of it) is part of that. So please cut down on the swearing. The more time I have to spend editing the message board for your profanity, the less time I have available to chase down the information you want to read.
4) Sticky threads
We are going to continue to use sticky threads to highlight the most important recent updates/stories we've written. So if you're not used to checking the sticky threads, please do so. This is how many message boards I've perused operate and shouldn't be considered a nuisance. Only threads that are relevant long-term will remain in the sticky section beyond a couple days.
We want you to engage with those sticky threads, so that's why I'm calling attention to this. But we also want you to drive a lot of the conversation in the normal threads. We will post our shorter updates in the normal threads section. As time allows, we will facilitate more conversations with you in the normal threads as well.
5) Changing your username
There's a list of people I have access to who requested username changes going back to April 2021. Apparently, I can't actually approve those changes myself, but I have been informed how to make that happen. If you're someone who wants to change their username, email me and we'll try to get that sorted out: tjames@insidendsports.com
6) Non-staff moderating
We are interested in empowering some subscribers to help moderate the message board. We haven't known many of you for long enough to trust you with that power, but if you are interested in fulfilling that role in the future, please reach out to us. We will do our best to make it worth your time.
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