What happened to the site

[davearm2]

there's a real limit to how interesting a board can be if our only goal is to civilly disagree with morons. if rational minds aren't going to differ, then who cares if the board dies? we smart people already know everything we need to know and should just enjoy baseball alone.

 

i disagree with the premise that we non-morons all think basically the same, though. i think there's a lot to be learned from fellow smart people. the goal, then, should be to encourage smart people to join in an effort to further the discussion. i can think of two ways to do this that have nothing to do with how good the cubs are (which is important, as tim has unfortunately little control over that aspect):

 

ONE let people make fun of morons. show them they are wrong and embarrass them. either get them to leave or hammer them in humorous ways such that smart non-members see the fun and want to join.

 

TWO ban morons. show smart people that they'll need to be cool to stay, but run a good enough board that they'll have incentive to do so.

 

 

we got rid of cubbiebum, so i guess we've chosen option two. if that's the case, fine by me. finish the job.

 

This sums up my feelings entirely.

And to no surprise, this sums up my feelings entirely about what's wrong with the culture around here.

 

Too many folks are so focused on dividing people into smart/cool and moron categories, and gaining the acceptance of the smart/cool crowd by hammering on the moron crowd. It's like a cliquey band of meanspirited teenage girls around here.

 

Sorry, but it's flat out pathetic if someone feels a need or desire to join a "make fun of morons" club.

[J.R.]

There are tangible reasons why Cubs discussion has waned here, and many have nothing to do with the poor on-field performance.

 

Once upon a time, NSBB had people in Mesa for ST. NSBB was there with Yellon and the rest annoying Cubs management at the convention. There were lots of season ticket holders among the ranks here, along with a bunch of SABR guys and people who used to be involved with MLB.

 

As NSBB has become less visible, its influence within Cubs fandom has waned. The efforts last year with the revamped front door and the radio show were commendable, but both were abandoned shortly after the ASG. Management here may now be content to let the site roll along as-is, but efforts to grow the site have to be sustained for the long haul and you have to get this place promoted amongst the fans.

 

People like Al Yellon, Julie DiCaro and Andy Dolan thrive on notoriety, and their respective sites reflect that (to varying degrees of success.) Tim Stuart, with all due respect, is something of a wallflower in this "business" and it is not shocking to see the site becoming somewhat invisible.

[C.C.]

Is Tim the sole owner of this site? I'm just asking because running a site by yourself is massively time consuming. I'd suggest he maybe partner with someone or if he has someone he can trust to give them admin rights. As a site owner I can't fathom running and maintaining it by yourself. I have a equal partner and we share the roles. I'd go insane if I had to do everything myself.

 

Just a suggestion...

 

BTW - I think this thread should really be in the suggestion forum.

[Guest]

Too many folks are so focused on dividing people into smart/cool and moron categories, and gaining the acceptance of the smart/cool crowd by hammering on the moron crowd. It's like a cliquey band of meanspirited teenage girls around here.

 

Sorry, but it's flat out pathetic if someone feels a need or desire to join a "make fun of morons" club.

 

For being so unsatisfied with your NSBB experience at every turn, you certainly spend a lot of time baiting people into endless semantical arguments and playing devil's advocate.

 

 

For me the point of emphasis is people who are consistently aggressive in their opinions, whether they're ignorant or not. It's fine to be passionate about what you think, and certain tactics of debating have their value at times. But if you're consistently berating those you disagree with, it shows you're not interested in discussion and aren't worth consideration whether I agree with you or not. "Morons" is a subjective term, and I'm less interested in filtering out those that we think are wrong than filtering out those who are thoughtless and/or persistently aggressive with their opinions, whether it's SABR-focused or not.

 

As for NSBB's state, you're seeing the first real state of apathy in Cubs fans since it's inception. To put a word to each season:

 

2003: Excitement

2004: Excitement

2005: Disappointment

2006: Anger (manager fired)

2007: Excitement

2008: Excitement

2009: Disappointment

2010: Anger (manager replaced)

2011: Apathy

 

That malaise combined with the fact that it's been structurally impossible for new registrations to post in over a year, and you see a dip in output. If you want to wax poetic on it being the demise of the site as JR has in this thread, that's your prerogative. But NSBB still has plenty of bright posters, an analytical bent, is a fantastic resource for prospect mavens, and a strong enough community to drive as many posts to Other Sports/Social/Rants as it does. I think it'll be fine.

[CubmanPi]

gotcha. that would kind if make the head spin.

I'd actually prefer if there were more topics.

Same here.

Likewise.

[C.C.]

And the ranking is still holding steady.

[UMFan83]

What exactly are dumb posts? A lot of it is opinions. Example: there are a lot of fans that like having a guy like Ryan Theriot on their team. While I am not one of them, I can see how they like the gritty, energetic type. Does saying that you like that type of player make one a moron? No. Maybe if they said that that's the type of player they'd like to build a team around, I guess that would make them a moron, at least in regards to baseball. Really, what it comes down to isn't people getting into these debates, which sometimes can get a bit personal, it's when neither party is willing to just let go, and it just keeps going and going.

 

Geez I don't know. I guess I can respect someone having their opinion that they like Ryan Theriot. But can they honestly argue that having Ryan Theriot on the team making whatever he was making here last year makes the Cubs a better baseball team?

 

If they can't argue that, and they still want him on the Cubs, then their enjoyment of the Cubs is not based on their desire to succeed as a team. I think that has to be a fundamental philosophy needed to post here. They can't like the Cubs because Wrigley Field is totally retro, and it gets really sunny in the bleachers in the summer so its good for getting a tan, and they like meeting people from foreign lands such as Iowa. I mean I guess that can be part of it, but I am not interested in participating in a forum where posters are not interested in the Cubs being the best team they can be.

[imb]

the site started out small, then blew up when the cubs got on a little run and people realized that cubs.com sucked. so tim and co. tried to monetize and overly legislate the place, it got stale and when the cubs fell apart, interest just sort of faded away. When interest is high, people are more willing to shell out cash and check out a new site, but the cubs suck and this place is totally sterile, so what would be the point of coming here unless you already have an established reason to do so? If you want to talk about the cubs, there are dozens of places better suited for it than a website with an absentee creator starting and abandoning 4 or 5 new ideas a year and a 500-1 social to cubs post ratio.

[UMFan83]

And come on JR, I've nodded my head to a couple of your points in this thread, but you are going to call out Tim of all people for this forum's "issues"?

 

Tim has probably spent more time ensuring this forum exists than you've probably spent making posts here. He has committed literally thousands of his own dollars creating, maintaining, upgrading and contributing to this forum and despite all this seems to barely have time to be a consistently active member. I personally think Tim should be given the upmost amount of unconditional respect for giving us this place.

 

There may (or may not) be many issues on this forum, but Tim "being a wallflower" is not one of them.

[imb]

He's saying that there was a time when nsbb worked hard at being a presence, which is obviously hard to do consistently. For a time a lot of work went into going to the conventions, Q&As, ST updates, things like that. But the energy level dropped and all of a sudden we started getting half-assed front page articles, the [expletive] ducross brothers and that sporcle [expletive] instead.

[Notorious]

If you have a different thread for every movie somebody wants to discuss, or every new band you want to bring up, topics would fall off the front page after a day, and it fosters less discussion.

 

If you go into the movie thread to talk about Bridesmaids, and you see a discussion on what a waste of time Eyes Wide Shut is, you can chime in and dicuss a topic you wouldn't normally have thought to post about. If you go into the music thread to say you heard a song by some hipster band you liked, you can have somebody come along and agree, you see recs by them and you discover a new band.

 

I see both points, but is it really that big of a deal if something fell to page 2? To me one master thread topic leads to a linear conversation where it's hard to go back and see where the conversation about the current topic actually starts.

 

I'm coming at this from a perspective as a "new" member to the social forum, and not one who has been a part of it for the last XX number of years actively participating in the one long ongoing discussion.

 

I'm not complaining or griping, just expressing my opinion.

[Notorious]

I think you also end up in a situation where there are several threads discussing the same topic. It's easier to have a general politics thread instead of six different threads about political topics in which everyone ends up talking about the same thing once the topic divulges. At least, that's the way I feel.

 

That's when a MOD would enforce no duplicate topics and merge or lock them.

[jersey cubs fan]

I'm coming at this from a perspective as a "new" member to the social forum, and not one who has been a part of it for the last XX number of years actively participating in the one long ongoing discussion.

 

I'm not complaining or griping, just expressing my opinion.

 

This happens to me on the TV and Movie thread, and I find it's actually quite easy to just go back 2 pages, skim a little and then start reading. It takes about 30 seconds to catch up.

[flyseye]

I dont feel it is a case of too much hostility really, I think this place now just lacks interesting posters.

 

Back in the heyday of Cubs.com there was always something interesting going on it seems. An "I put everyone on ignore" thread (that was me),a fake death,poster of the week,dynastic vs nowacrat etc. I probably spent a solid week of my life just arguing with Lowblow.

 

Now you have a group of 3-4 smarmy posters with no sense of humor,who lack any sort of interesting posting skills,dragging down every thread.There are still a couple of interesting people here, but even when a thread they post in starts to be somewhat interesting,the omnipresent group drags the discussion into the gutter. It gets stale in a hurry.

 

This site needs new blood.

 

My last 2 cents,I promise.

[J.R.]

And come on JR, I've nodded my head to a couple of your points in this thread, but you are going to call out Tim of all people for this forum's "issues"?

 

Tim has probably spent more time ensuring this forum exists than you've probably spent making posts here. He has committed literally thousands of his own dollars creating, maintaining, upgrading and contributing to this forum and despite all this seems to barely have time to be a consistently active member. I personally think Tim should be given the upmost amount of unconditional respect for giving us this place.

 

There may (or may not) be many issues on this forum, but Tim "being a wallflower" is not one of them.

 

I was not "calling Tim out" - I was just stating the facts. Most successful forums of this nature are headed by big personalities who have all kinds of time to blow chasing their teams across the country both literally and figuratively. Tim does not have this luxury, and it's a credit to his character that he is not obsessed with the kind of "celebrity" status one can garner through these endeavors.

 

I only suggest that NSBB's prospects for growth hinge on someone like that emerging, or at least on the site's presence returning to Mesa, the convention and the ballparks. The site succeeded when the latter strategies were employed.

[Soul]

Well, I haven't been posting for awhile but here goes anyway:

 

 

NSBB is a good site. I don't see much difference between what goes on here and what goes on elsewhere. I suppose you could make the argument that NSBB is a little less differentiated from other message boards than it used to be.

 

 

I'm posting less here now because I'm moving on to other interests right now. It's all about the fact that, for the time being, the Cubs are less interesting to me. Hopefully we'll come out of it in a year or two. Right now though, it's just not a very interesting baseball team.

[tfarks]

Also, return of the Hottest Chick Contest

[SouthSideRyan]

I like the fake death idea. Any volunteers?

[Tracer Bullet]

I dont feel it is a case of too much hostility really, I think this place now just lacks interesting posters.

 

Back in the heyday of Cubs.com there was always something interesting going on it seems. An "I put everyone on ignore" thread (that was me),a fake death,poster of the week,dynastic vs nowacrat etc. I probably spent a solid week of my life just arguing with Lowblow.

 

Now you have a group of 3-4 smarmy posters with no sense of humor,who lack any sort of interesting posting skills,dragging down every thread.There are still a couple of interesting people here, but even when a thread they post in starts to be somewhat interesting,the omnipresent group drags the discussion into the gutter. It gets stale in a hurry.

 

This site needs new blood.

 

My last 2 cents,I promise.

 

We don't have new blood bc registrations were broken for a long time.

 

But nsbb started largely bc cubs.com sucked. If you want this place to resemble cubs.com in its 'heyday' you may be alone on the wrong side of the discussion.

[jersey cubs fan]

needs more trade proposals

[Ding Dong Johnson]

more boobs, imo

[jersey cubs fan]

blake lively

[OleMissCub]

ty cobb

[davearm2]

For me the point of emphasis is people who are consistently aggressive in their opinions, whether they're ignorant or not. It's fine to be passionate about what you think, and certain tactics of debating have their value at times. But if you're consistently berating those you disagree with, it shows you're not interested in discussion and aren't worth consideration whether I agree with you or not. "Morons" is a subjective term, and I'm less interested in filtering out those that we think are wrong than filtering out those who are thoughtless and/or persistently aggressive with their opinions, whether it's SABR-focused or not.

Show me a list of the top, oh, 10 or 20 highest post counts on NSBB, and then try finding names on that list that ARE NOT persistently aggressive with their opinions.

 

Throw out the persistently aggressive crowd and then there'd REALLY be nobody left.

[SouthSideRyan]

For me the point of emphasis is people who are consistently aggressive in their opinions, whether they're ignorant or not. It's fine to be passionate about what you think, and certain tactics of debating have their value at times. But if you're consistently berating those you disagree with, it shows you're not interested in discussion and aren't worth consideration whether I agree with you or not. "Morons" is a subjective term, and I'm less interested in filtering out those that we think are wrong than filtering out those who are thoughtless and/or persistently aggressive with their opinions, whether it's SABR-focused or not.

Show me a list of the top, oh, 10 or 20 highest post counts on NSBB, and then try finding names on that list that ARE NOT persistently aggressive with their opinions.

 

Throw out the persistently aggressive crowd and then there'd REALLY be nobody left.

 

Here you go dave. memberlist.php?mode=&sk=d&sd=d

 

Name names.