Webmaster Posted July 18, 2017 Author Share Posted July 18, 2017 @Danger regarding updated content and information on the main site - There is a plan to update that after the forum transition is over. regarding relaxing the language rules - yes I know everywhere else on the web four letter words are the norm, but that isn't the case here and isn't going to change. Our slogan since day one has always been less trash, more talk. That is why members are here. It's like telling a Chinese restaurant, I really like spaghetti, you guys might have more customers if you put spaghetti on your menu. If you want to swear, post racy images, trash talk, insult your rivals, talk politics, religion, and anything else not allowed here, you'll find a ton of places on the web to do just that. If you want good football talk without all the garbage, you won't find a better place than right here. With that said we do need to have better and more consistent moderating. Some mods are too strict. Some don't do much of anything. We are working on improving the moderator staff. There are tools that will help with that too. Right now I have some of the reporting and warning features turned off and plan to keep them off until the transition is over and everyone is settled into the forum. I also need time to work with my mods on best practices for these features. My worry on having them turned on during the transition is that everyone will over-moderate by using new features they aren't really sure how to use. Anyway, lets move on from forum rules and moderation as that shouldn't be the focus of this topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanLegend Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 16 minutes ago, Danger said: One additional thing I might consider bringing to the table of suggestions. One of the rules being the use of "colorful language" I'll call it. To what degree is that being enforced? I feel like as long as it isn't being directed at another member then should be ok to use. Now a question that does come to mind (and I'm not expecting you to answer it): How do the advertisers feel about said language? If the foul language rule is meant to make the forum a more family friendly place and safe for everyone, then I think it might be leading away some of your target audience. (Mostly people who have already heard such language in middle school to adulthood). I understand the need to not put up with toxicity, but foul language doesn't necessarily equate to bad blood between people. Sometimes while watching the game many people just want to type "That was [effing] stupid." But refrain from doing so because it's against the rules. Over time may feel that footballsfuture is too.... 'strict' I suppose is the word I am looking for. Sorry if this came off in a convoluted fashion. I think it's something to think about. From my experience, the moderating team won't say much about a curse word unless it's like you said(directed at another poster) or if your post is just littered with them(or of course if it's something extremely derogatory). And that's probably the right way of going about it. I'm apart of several forums where there's pretty much no language restrictions, and that's caused those forums to pretty much die in terms of bringing in new members, because new people will come in, see the ridiculous amount of absurd language, and while the members who have been there a while understand it's not something to take personal/take offense to, the new people don't understand the culture and are turned off by it. At one forum I post at we've lost several quality posters because of it. I think the language restrictions and the restriction on political/religion discussion is something that's kept this forum going for as long as it has. It creates a far more accepting/welcoming community to newer members than the opposite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Blackjack and Malik Hooker imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanLegend Posted July 18, 2017 Share Posted July 18, 2017 One thing that's helped the Titans forum the past couple off-seasons in terms of maintaining activity is running a top 10 players on the team list and an adopt a titan draft. We've let the draft and FA get us through February, March and April, and I start the top 10 list at the beginning of May, which usually takes us in to late May/early June, and start the Adopt a Titan draft in early June. We've gotten 20-25 sign ups for Adopt A Titan each off-season I've been there from my recollection, and both of those help keep some activity during the dead months. Late June through early/mid July is still a bit rough, but no where as bad as it would be without those two activities. I know Adopt a Player is relatively common on FF, but the other forums taking up a top 10 player ranking list(haven't seen many of those) could help some during the off-seasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titans0021 Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 Once the full transition happens, we'll probably run an AMA (within the rules obviously ) in the Titans forum. We used to have something similar, but at this point there's been enough turnover among the posters and we've had enough time that the answers should change. Allow posters to sign up and let each one run a week. Basically an expanded version of the classic introduce yourself thread. May not bring about top-quality posting, but a solid way of drawing fans to an individual team forum and getting to know the posters around you without much setup time or effort. It's also something that can be linked to in the WAYTA threads (barring webby approval) and help generate traffic into specific team forums. And as TL said, we've definitely found that the top 10 lists and adopt-a-player drafts are good ways to at least keep around and watching the forum during the slowest times of the offseason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrenaline_Flux Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 re: debates Definitely think we should bring back the debate tournament. However, I'd like to toss out the idea of also having another entity that is more recurring. I have long wanted to do Around the Horn, but it has never really been logistical in just the Jaguars forum. If we could have it every few weeks though with different panelists in the General forum, it could be really interesting. Could also work even better now that we have a likes system. Whoever the host is can award or take away points, but likes would also be factored in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacReady Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 Bring back the Hot Shot crew. Bring back an assortment of badges. Back in the day when I was 16, 17, 18, the best part about this site was the drive to be respected and make good posts. It made me want to learn the finer elements of football as well as I could, and it made me want to be active. After a long break, I haven't really seen that anymore. I don't see the will from some people to learn the game of football and to post insightful opinions based on that. A lot of that has to do with the ridiculous waste of breath talking points on ESPN and other places where people get their news and stories, but a lot of it also has to do with there being no rewards here. Likes are a great step, and so is the leader board thing. But not everybody can be a veteran, not everybody can be a moderator, and not everybody can learn know as much about football as a lot of the people on this site. I think that leads to a lot of "lurkers" who feel they don't have enough input and are afraid of the hot takes and wild opinions/standpoints. I know when I first came back I was treated like a newb because of a few of my more out there ideas (receivers being worthless, safeties being one of the most underrated positions, everybody in the playoffs having a chance...). If each subforum with enough posters brought back their own end of season awards, including a Best New Poster award, that would get the lurkers and turn them into posters. So if you provide greater incentives for people to learn and to communicate with other fanbases and post more about their own teams, I think discussion will take off. There are moderators, and there are global moderators. They have badges, and they moderate, and they were selected based on their adherence to the rules of the site and not really getting angry or trolling or pushing the boundaries of the site etc. Make similar incentives for people who aren't moderator quality. Don't base it on post count, but for people who go into the Colts forum and try to talk about the future of the Colts even though they're a Niners fan, reward them. Don't take applications for a Hot Shot crew, reward posters who do that on their own with a Hot Shot badge. Give an award to people who take the time to explain the Xs and Os of football. I know people like @AlexGreen30 on the Packers subforum have posted insanely intricate and detailed explanations of the finer points of the NFL, posting gifs and the all-22 angles and all that to relay his point. Reward that knowledge of football and willingness to share that knowledge. Give that man a badge. Bring back the FootballsFuture MVP awards. That will get the veterans out of the What are you Thinking about thread and into their own forum's page. Each year, X amount of posters on a subforum are nominated for an MVP, then their own subforum votes on one of them to represent the whole site, and from the list of 32 teams, one or two or whatever are FF MVPs. Give a badge to the posters like @AlexGreen30 and @Palmy who have forgotten more about football than I've ever known. Embrace the non-football side of Footballs Future, and if you do that, you'll see people posting more in the off-season because they'll have that sense of community and they'll have other things to talk about besides football. As far as hosting games and such in subforums, the only way that works is if you get the new Young Guns (There's a name for a new badge by the way) trying to get involved, and the only way to get those guys wanting to get involved is to give them incentive to get involved. That's my two cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacReady Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 By embracing the non-football side of footballs future, I mean point out the games that are hosted in the offseason and during the regular season in This Ain't Sports Talk. A lot of times I got PMs about my RJ MacReady avatar because a lot of people realize how great The Thing (1982) is, and I talk with them a little bit and I tell them that I hosted a Mafia game inspired by The Thing and they say they wish they would have known about that and that they would have played. Okay, that happened three times. Fine, it happened twice, but the fact remains, they had no idea that was going on, and I think a lot of people who come here would enjoy the games that go on on this site. I've tried bringing attention to it in the Packers subforum, but the only response was that they never go to TAST or anywhere else on this site, and I think TAST provides the best incentive for people to stick around in the off-season. But in order to get people to stick around in the off-season, it would probably be better if there were games geared more towards the smaller communities where they know more posters, and yet I don't think there's a single subforum that would get enough players to play in a game because they don't understand how it works because they've never done it before. So since they've never done it before and don't understand it, and since they've never gone to TAST, maybe there should be a GAMES subforum where this type of thing happens. In that subforum, there could be a thread where people from other subforums link to games they've started in their own team's subforum. If players hopped from subforum to subforum to play games and communicate with posters who are fans of different teams, they might be more inclined to read up on what a Packer fan is saying about the Packers this year even if they're a Cardinals fan and so on. So if you want to use the hosts of games and games themselves, I think you have to call attention to that sort of thing. Because even in TAST, it's a chore right now to get 16 players to sign up for a mafia game or Big Brother or Survivor or Battle Bots. Also, I feel like there's a certain stigma to it that people just don't want to touch. Like it's sort of a dumb thing to do, but it's really not. It's a great way to kill time for people like me who love this site, but sometimes get bored with the lack of activity during the offseason. I've been very vocal about trying to find ways to get the games more active and that they need a change since so many people are losing interest, but there are 78,000 registered users on FF. I know for a fact that at least a hundred would be interested in playing those types of games, but they never go into that forum. Supply and demand. You get them hooked on games, they'll want more, if there's desire, subforum games will fill up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 3 hours ago, Adrenaline_Flux said: re: debates Definitely think we should bring back the debate tournament. However, I'd like to toss out the idea of also having another entity that is more recurring. I have long wanted to do Around the Horn, but it has never really been logistical in just the Jaguars forum. If we could have it every few weeks though with different panelists in the General forum, it could be really interesting. Could also work even better now that we have a likes system. Whoever the host is can award or take away points, but likes would also be factored in. I agree on the debate tournament. I'm a master debater Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacReady Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 2 hours ago, Adrenaline_Flux said: I have long wanted to do Around the Horn, but it has never really been logistical in just the Jaguars forum. Another reason for a Games subforum. In Around the Horn, the host could use topics brought up in subforums. He could say, "In the Jaguars subforum...," then link to the topic, and then ask the debaters their opinions. "In the Colt's forum..." link to topic. There are a LOT of ways that games can help boost activity and vice versa. If it was just mafia, there wouldn't be, but there are a LOT of ways that games can be geared towards boosting activity while also providing a reason for people to stick around during the offseason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webmaster Posted July 19, 2017 Author Share Posted July 19, 2017 @HorizontoZenith, all good ideas. I was already planning on having some more options for badges and I think it will be good to run some more games. I don't know about the need for a games forum, but it's something I will think about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacReady Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 I don't think there HAS to be a games forum, I just think it would be beneficial if the games were promoted somehow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockey5djh Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 22 hours ago, Webmaster said: Like the debate idea. On that note we could have some of our TAST game hosts create something for some of the team forums. For example a Dolphins themed game in the Dolphins forum. Also, each week we could pick a slow team forum to boost activity. Make it an event. We could host a game, have a debate, start a great gameday topic, etc. Combine that with some kind of invite for old members to return. Every forum has 10-20 very active members who just disappeared years ago for one reason or another. I could send them an email with an update on the forum changes and fun activities happening in their team forum that week. Another thing you could try and set up is weekly emails for the top few topics in each team thread that week. I know the sunday weekly catch-up email makes me visit the Chive every time. Might take some tinkering depending on if there is enough content available in the thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwny Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 Just now, Hockey5djh said: Another thing you could try and set up is weekly emails for the top few topics in each team thread that week. I know the sunday weekly catch-up email makes me visit the Chive every time. Might take some tinkering depending on if there is enough content available in the thread. They're already there. If you follow a forum, it gives you the option of how you want to be notified, including a weekly email. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webmaster Posted July 19, 2017 Author Share Posted July 19, 2017 7 minutes ago, Hockey5djh said: Another thing you could try and set up is weekly emails for the top few topics in each team thread that week. I know the sunday weekly catch-up email makes me visit the Chive every time. Might take some tinkering depending on if there is enough content available in the thread. That is already an option. But it's a good idea and we will to promote that option to members. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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