What happened to the site

[USSoccer]

Well, Tree says eliminate people who are consistently wrong even if they're civil about it. He even encourages people in the right to be aggressive about it.

 

TT says get rid of the aggressive people if they are right or wrong.

 

So if we think of it as 4 quadrents-civil people with unpopular opinions, aggressive people with unpopular opinions, civil people with popular opinions, agressive people with unpopular opinions. Tree wants to get rid of the first 2 groups and wants the 4th group to dominate. TT wants to get rid of group 2 and group 4 and then wants the other groups to have the discussion. So the only group that would survive in both iterations of the board is group 3. How is that even close to the same?

 

I don't know that they are all that far apart in terms of intent, to be honest.

 

To put words in Tree's mouth, I think what he's saying is that there is nothing wrong with allowing people to take their lumps for making stupid statements/arguments. Tree was also addressing a specific complaint, ie "NSBB sucks now because people are mean". He's also saying that if you're going to get rid of the stupid (FDB), go all in and get rid of the stupid and run a board that rewards intelligent (not civil) discourse.

 

TT is agreeing with eliminating thoughtless discourse and adding "consistent aggressiveness" as another area to clean up.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Still think Pena sucks, if you don't agree I don't really care. I didn't read that thread again after I posted that because I knew what was coming after. You don't have to go on and on about your opinion and how much you value it after someone says something you disagree with. Other people posted their opinions I posted mine. There's no need to degrade someone's post because you think it's worthless, I thought most of the opinions in that thread were worthless but I didn't feel the need to go off on how worthless their posts were. It's why I avoid the baseball discussions thread for the most part these days. it's filled with egotistical know it alls. people really need to lighten up.

 

You're talking about other people's worthless opinions and complaining about egotistical know it alls?

Now THIS is why we can't have nice things.

[tfarks]

Ya but where would be without MFer Windermere?

[imb]

Actually, I like imb's post to an extent. Except, I am 99% sure Tim has never made a profit with NSBB. He might have been trying to at one point, but from whatever I remember discussing with certain people at the time, the first goal of NSBB Premium was to help with the server costs he was incurring with the explosion of traffic we were getting.

 

I can't blame Tim for seeing a large population of people congregating at one place and thinking he could expand upon it and maybe make a few bucks for his efforts. I was never really too interested in any of it (except the interviews and chats we were doing with prospects and stuff). The poster awards were kind of cheesy, as was giving a pepperidge farm sausage or whatever it was to Eric Patterson for minor league player of the year but helped build a sense of community within NSBB. I still have no idea how IMB won poster of the decade tho.

 

And dammit the list of returning posters should be:

 

1) FDB

2) YANRSLATR

 

and Yanr is still right behind Bum. I think people forget what a classic poster he was. Yanr was Bum before Bum was Bum.

 

First off I won poster of the decade straight up and that can never be taken away from me.

 

Secondly, I really didn't mean to paint tim as this like, capitalistic jackass figure. It always stuns me how much server costs are, so I'm sure it was a necessary evil. But once that line was crossed, I guess there was no turning back.

[jersey cubs fan]

Still think Pena sucks, if you don't agree I don't really care. I didn't read that thread again after I posted that because I knew what was coming after. You don't have to go on and on about your opinion and how much you value it after someone says something you disagree with. Other people posted their opinions I posted mine. There's no need to degrade someone's post because you think it's worthless, I thought most of the opinions in that thread were worthless but I didn't feel the need to go off on how worthless their posts were. It's why I avoid the baseball discussions thread for the most part these days. it's filled with egotistical know it alls. people really need to lighten up.

 

You're talking about other people's worthless opinions and complaining about egotistical know it alls?

Never claimed to know much of anything honestly, didn't say all of the opinions were worthless and didn't feel the need to single out anyone for further humiliation over their opinions.

 

But you specifically mentioned that a bunch of others had worthless opinions and that you are annoyed with egotistical know it alls.

 

I just don't understand why so many people worry so much about how everybody else posts on this message board. If you want to point out that you think Pena sucks and then walk away without discussing further, then do it. If somebody wants to rebuke your claim, then so be it.

 

People seem to be as much, or more, emotionally invested in how they talk about the fact that the Cubs suck than they are in the fact that the Cubs suck.

[jersey cubs fan]

Secondly, I really didn't mean to paint tim as this like, capitalistic jackass figure. It always stuns me how much server costs are, so I'm sure it was a necessary evil. But once that line was crossed, I guess there was no turning back.

 

I don't get the correlation between attempting to monetize the site and the site's supposed decline. The Cubs were on the verge of something great a decade ago and over the course of this decade people got really excited talking about them, but the life has been sucked out of the franchise and people just aren't excited to talk about them. Oh well. If things turn around and the site is still around things will change again.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Well, Tree says eliminate people who are consistently wrong even if they're civil about it. He even encourages people in the right to be aggressive about it.

 

TT says get rid of the aggressive people if they are right or wrong.

 

So if we think of it as 4 quadrents-civil people with unpopular opinions, aggressive people with unpopular opinions, civil people with popular opinions, agressive people with unpopular opinions. Tree wants to get rid of the first 2 groups and wants the 4th group to dominate. TT wants to get rid of group 2 and group 4 and then wants the other groups to have the discussion. So the only group that would survive in both iterations of the board is group 3. How is that even close to the same?

 

I don't know that they are all that far apart in terms of intent, to be honest.

 

To put words in Tree's mouth, I think what he's saying is that there is nothing wrong with allowing people to take their lumps for making stupid statements/arguments. Tree was also addressing a specific complaint, ie "NSBB sucks now because people are mean". He's also saying that if you're going to get rid of the stupid (FDB), go all in and get rid of the stupid and run a board that rewards intelligent (not civil) discourse.

 

TT is agreeing with eliminating thoughtless discourse and adding "consistent aggressiveness" as another area to clean up.

 

The irony is that the mean or agressive posters are often mean or agressive toward the morons or meatballs that they want to go away. While sometimes it may work, more often than not, they are just getting into a drawn out debate with the poster that they simply want to go away, when in reality, if they wanted them to go away, the best way to go would be to stop responding to them.

[XZero771679666304]

Secondly, I really didn't mean to paint tim as this like, capitalistic jackass figure. It always stuns me how much server costs are, so I'm sure it was a necessary evil. But once that line was crossed, I guess there was no turning back.

 

I don't get the correlation between attempting to monetize the site and the site's supposed decline.

 

 

I don't either. It never impacted my experience here in the least.

[imb]

It's a combo, I think. The site got popular because the team was exciting. The site got monetized, in part because of the need to cover the traffic but also because the opportunity presented itself. When the popularity of the team waned, the focus was placed on poor (in my opinion) attempts to cover the costs. Maybe there was no way to do it, I don't know, but I think a better option would have been to give people a good reason to be here, instead of the parade of front page articles, ducross bros, etc.

 

I know the idea was that this stuff would give people a reason to click on the front page, but honestly, it should have taken one email from the ducross guys to realize that no one was going to give a [expletive] about what they had to say. Did anyone really think that Meph was going to be able to write stuff that would draw traffic? Or that people were going to be breathlessly awaiting the next Roast article?

 

I think that if you had taken all the effort is all these half-assed ideas and instead, fully fleshed out ONE quality idea and stuck with it, it would have been better in the long run.

[XZero771679666304]

 

The irony is that the mean or agressive posters are often mean or agressive toward the morons or meatballs that they want to go away. While sometimes it may work, more often than not, they are just getting into a drawn out debate with the poster that they simply want to go away, when in reality, if they wanted them to go away, the best way to go would be to stop responding to them.

 

Yeah, sometimes the bullying people into going away works, but I am often perplexed by how many people argue ad nauseum with people who only want to argue. If you know getting into it with a particular person will only precipitate an endless and circuitous argument, why bother? Sometimes ignoring the problem is the solution.

[Vinestal]

But you specifically mentioned that a bunch of others had worthless opinions and that you are annoyed with egotistical know it alls.

 

I just don't understand why so many people worry so much about how everybody else posts on this message board. If you want to point out that you think Pena sucks and then walk away without discussing further, then do it. If somebody wants to rebuke your claim, then so be it.

 

People seem to be as much, or more, emotionally invested in how they talk about the fact that the Cubs suck than they are in the fact that the Cubs suck.

 

 

 

I'm pretty confused. How does thinking that some people's opinions are worthless make you a know it all? I did state an opinion and then leave the thread. for some reason someone

felt the need to drag it all here and then persist with a relentless written beat down. This is the very reason people don't post here. People like you who just can't let people present an opinion without trying to prove something to them. I'm not even sure what the heck it is your trying to accomplish.

Edited June 3, 2011 by Vinestal

[jersey cubs fan]

It's a combo, I think. The site got popular because the team was exciting. The site got monetized, in part because of the need to cover the traffic but also because the opportunity presented itself. When the popularity of the team waned, the focus was placed on poor (in my opinion) attempts to cover the costs. Maybe there was no way to do it, I don't know, but I think a better option would have been to give people a good reason to be here, instead of the parade of front page articles, ducross bros, etc.

 

I know the idea was that this stuff would give people a reason to click on the front page, but honestly, it should have taken one email from the ducross guys to realize that no one was going to give a [expletive] about what they had to say. Did anyone really think that Meph was going to be able to write stuff that would draw traffic? Or that people were going to be breathlessly awaiting the next Roast article?

 

I think that if you had taken all the effort is all these half-assed ideas and instead, fully fleshed out ONE quality idea and stuck with it, it would have been better in the long run.

 

I partook in about -1 of all those side things. To me the site has always been just the message board. I don't see how the message board was neglected or what other stuff you'd want done to it.

 

But I do know that at least once every 3-4 months there is a huge discussion about how this place is going downhill and that has been happening every year.

[Little Slide Rooter]

 

The irony is that the mean or agressive posters are often mean or agressive toward the morons or meatballs that they want to go away. While sometimes it may work, more often than not, they are just getting into a drawn out debate with the poster that they simply want to go away, when in reality, if they wanted them to go away, the best way to go would be to stop responding to them.

 

Yeah, sometimes the bullying people into going away works, but I am often perplexed by how many people argue ad nauseum with people who only want to argue. If you know getting into it with a particular person will only precipitate an endless and circuitous argument, why bother? Sometimes ignoring the problem is the solution.

 

Precisely. If there is a poster who really gets on your nerves, whether they're right or wrong, the thing to do is put them on foe or simply ignore them rather than keep baiting them. I learned that in grammar school.

[imb]

It's not that message board was neglected, it's that the effort to draw traffic when the team couldn't do it on its own was misplaced. There's always going to be a flow of people coming and going, but people need a reason to stay. Maybe there's no way to do it if the team isn't exciting, but I do know that sporcle and the ducross brothers are not going to keep interest high. That's the reason we have three page game threads where it's just Fred posting walls of stats. Not because erik's an idiot or people are mean.

[XZero771679666304]

 

I partook in about -1 of all those side things. To me the site has always been just the message board. I don't see how the message board was neglected or what other stuff you'd want done to it.

 

But I do know that at least once every 3-4 months there is a huge discussion about how this place is going downhill and that has been happening every year.

 

Since about 2004 or so, I've had the message board bookmarked, not the front page. I just come straight here every time. I guess I just assumed most people did as well.

[jersey cubs fan]

Maybe there's no way to do it if the team isn't exciting, but I do know that sporcle and the ducross brothers are not going to keep interest high. That's the reason we have three page game threads where it's just Fred posting walls of stats. Not because erik's an idiot or people are mean.

 

Just to clarify, you think game threads are short because of sporcle?

[XZero771679666304]

It's not that message board was neglected, it's that the effort to draw traffic when the team couldn't do it on its own was misplaced. There's always going to be a flow of people coming and going, but people need a reason to stay. Maybe there's no way to do it if the team isn't exciting, but I do know that sporcle and the ducross brothers are not going to keep interest high. That's the reason we have three page game threads where it's just Fred posting walls of stats. Not because erik's an idiot or people are mean.

 

They might have been misplaced efforts, but I don't think they exacerbated the problem. I think they were largely ignored.

 

The bad baseball is the real culprit.

[Fred Hornkohl]

I am sick and tired of Fred pushing his [expletive] dogma on me.

 

I'm truly sorry. I'll try to dial it down a little in the future. :hello:

[imb]

Maybe there's no way to do it if the team isn't exciting, but I do know that sporcle and the ducross brothers are not going to keep interest high. That's the reason we have three page game threads where it's just Fred posting walls of stats. Not because erik's an idiot or people are mean.

 

Just to clarify, you think game threads are short because of sporcle?

 

Uhh, no. Is that what you really took from that (rhetorical question, I know it's not)?

[Vinestal]

I am sick and tired of Fred pushing his [expletive] dogma on me.

 

I'm truly sorry. I'll try to dial it down a little in the future. :hello:

 

I love your dogma Fred.

[javy knows my name]

Maybe there's no way to do it if the team isn't exciting, but I do know that sporcle and the ducross brothers are not going to keep interest high. That's the reason we have three page game threads where it's just Fred posting walls of stats. Not because erik's an idiot or people are mean.

 

Just to clarify, you think game threads are short because of sporcle?

 

Uhh, no. Is that what you really took from that (rhetorical question, I know it's not)?

 

Sporcle is a huge commercial success.

 

Jawdle is the abject failure.

[jersey cubs fan]

Maybe there's no way to do it if the team isn't exciting, but I do know that sporcle and the ducross brothers are not going to keep interest high. That's the reason we have three page game threads where it's just Fred posting walls of stats. Not because erik's an idiot or people are mean.

 

Just to clarify, you think game threads are short because of sporcle?

 

Uhh, no. Is that what you really took from that (rhetorical question, I know it's not)?

 

I really don't get what you are saying.

 

You seem to be refuting the notion that the board has struggled because of the Cubs struggles and placing the blame mostly on the decision to try out a couple failed side projects.

[imb]

Oh yeah.

[Vinestal]

 

The irony is that the mean or agressive posters are often mean or agressive toward the morons or meatballs that they want to go away. While sometimes it may work, more often than not, they are just getting into a drawn out debate with the poster that they simply want to go away, when in reality, if they wanted them to go away, the best way to go would be to stop responding to them.

 

Yeah, sometimes the bullying people into going away works, but I am often perplexed by how many people argue ad nauseum with people who only want to argue. If you know getting into it with a particular person will only precipitate an endless and circuitous argument, why bother? Sometimes ignoring the problem is the solution.

 

Agreed, how do you foe someone anyway. I have a few people I could do without.

[C.C.]

It's a combo, I think. The site got popular because the team was exciting. The site got monetized, in part because of the need to cover the traffic but also because the opportunity presented itself. When the popularity of the team waned, the focus was placed on poor (in my opinion) attempts to cover the costs. Maybe there was no way to do it, I don't know, but I think a better option would have been to give people a good reason to be here, instead of the parade of front page articles, ducross bros, etc.

 

I know the idea was that this stuff would give people a reason to click on the front page, but honestly, it should have taken one email from the ducross guys to realize that no one was going to give a [expletive] about what they had to say. Did anyone really think that Meph was going to be able to write stuff that would draw traffic? Or that people were going to be breathlessly awaiting the next Roast article?

 

I think that if you had taken all the effort is all these half-assed ideas and instead, fully fleshed out ONE quality idea and stuck with it, it would have been better in the long run.

 

I think with the front page Tim was hoping other members would contribute and eventually get some good content up there. and of course you have another page to place ads on. It obviously didn't pan out, but not all ideas do.