Hi everybody, my name's Brock and I'll be part of the team taking over the site

[Brock Beauchamp]

A quick history of me:

 

I founded a Twins message board in the mid-2000s, a lot like this one. In 2012, I met a bunch of Twins bloggers are we founded Twins Daily. That site has become the preeminent Twins site on the internet, reaching 2,000,000 visitors in 2022. We're going to cruise well past that mark in 2023. The foundation of what we built there is community engagement. We actively promote from within our own ranks and we believe discourse should be respectful and hot takes discouraged (unless they're really funny, naturally).

 

Last year we bought BrewerFan.net and turned it into Brewer Fanatic (I'm from Wisconsin, don't hate me for it). In the past year, we've worked really hard to take what was a dwindling community experience and build it into a robust, modern community experience. So far we've seen about 100% growth year over year and we haven't quite hit our first birthday yet.

 

Why the Cubs? Because one of our good friends is Matthew Trueblood, who is a Cubs fan and one of the best baseball writers I've ever met. While I personally will be managing the technical aspects of the site, this is going to be Trueblood's baby and if you haven't read his analysis, you're in for a real treat.

 

I'm an old internet guy. I cut my teeth on forums through the late 90s and early 2000s. Seeing great legacy communities like this one fade into obscurity as we become more beholden to the likes of Facebook and Reddit chaps my ass, to put it bluntly. Each community needs its own flavor, personality, and perspective. My entire goal with this project is to preserve and grow the legacy that Tim and all of you built over the past 20 years.

 

If you have ANY questions about literally anything, my door is always open and we're not some corporate behemoth. We're a bunch of baseball nerds who believe in community and no one knows this community better than all of you. I don't expect this site to fit into the same mold in which we built Twins Daily and later, Brewer Fanatic. We'll offer a lot of the same features but the core of this site is all of you who have contributed over the years and we value your input on pretty much everything.

 

I'm looking forward to working with all of you in the coming days, months, and years!

[Tim]

Welcome, Brock!

[Tim]

Also, I was soooo tempted to reply with "I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords"

[imb]

Because one of our good friends is Matthew Trueblood, who is a Cubs fan and one of the best baseball writers I've ever met.

 

TIL there are apparently two cubs fans named mattew trueblood, who knew!??!

[Outshined_One]

 

Seriously though, welcome!

[Brock Beauchamp]

Because one of our good friends is Matthew Trueblood, who is a Cubs fan and one of the best baseball writers I've ever met.

 

TIL there are apparently two cubs fans named mattew trueblood, who knew!??!

Your name is Matt Trueblood? Are you messing with me?

[jersey cubs fan]

Hi Brock.

 

I’m happy for you.

Or sorry that happened.

[wekse]

My mom almost named me Brock. I'm so glad she didn't.

[Old Style]

Also, I was soooo tempted to reply with "I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords"

Exactly where my mind went when I started reading the OP. And my IRL name is Tim as well. Are we the same person? What are your thoughts on beans in chili?

[UMFan83]

My mom almost named me Brock. I'm so glad she didn't.

 

It's better than being named Borck. Every time I look for personalized trinkets with my name on them they are always sold out or on back order.

[UMFan83]

I'm looking forward to working with all of you in the coming days, months, and years!

 

I welcome you here as long as you promise to settle any disputes by siding with the person with more overall posts.

[Rob]

Welcome to the site!

 

I hope this question will be received in the good faith it is meant. How do you intend to monetize the site?

 

I think all of us had just sort of assumed that internet message boards in the modern era were largely a money-losing labor of love (thanks again, Tim!). I could have seen Tim handing NSBB off to a fellow poster when he ran out of time, money, and patience for us. But I'm legitimately shocked to see it purchased.

 

That said, I think pretty much everybody here will be happy to see this site modernized and thriving. And we will continue to do our part by being the lovely posters we have always been. But I'd like to understand what kind of changes to expect.

 

Thanks for your consideration.

[Outshined_One]

How do you intend to monetize the site?

 

I'll echo this consideration. This is an insular forum, to the point where most of our regular posters have been here for 15-20 years. On the one hand, that's great for loyalty/commitment/content, but, on the other hand, you need eyes on the product. You're not jumping into a situation with thousands of active unique users, and that means you are going to need to attract new people to the forum. You will need to make hard decisions in order to do that, and I can guarantee that at least some of those decisions will anger your existing user base.

 

It's awesome that you did this with another website, but I think sharing your plan/vision for the site beyond general statements will go a long way here.

[The SABR Gamer]

I can be an horsefeathers, so maybe ignore me, but this seems like the official death of whatever NSBB has been for the last 20 years. I honestly don’t think anyone who regularly visits here wants this site to grow, or cares about making it the largest Cubs related anything. A large part (most?) of the value is in the smaller and tighter community, which will be diluted by this change. I’m not trying to be a gatekeeper either, I just appreciate that a large portion of the posts on the site at this point are high value, which makes it a superior option to alternatives.

 

Oh well, hopefully you can prove me wrong and I will be rooting for you to, but if not, it’s been great to be part of this site for so long, and it really helped expand and grow my knowledge and love of baseball. Thanks to all the real ones.

 

Also, this post will be a good test of how much freedom people will have under new management to express their reasonable opinions.

[The SABR Gamer]

I’m also flying back to cold ass Chicago right now, so maybe I’m just in a bad mood lol.

[imb]

some of you guys are really underrating how much fun this place was in its hey day or even early post-hey day. If they bring more people here it will be awesome

[The SABR Gamer]

some of you guys are really underrating how much fun this place was in its hey day or even early post-hey day. If they bring more people here it will be awesome

 

I would be happy if this is true. I’m just skeptical of someone coming in here and the main selling point is how much traffic they can generate to the site.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Welcome to the site!

 

I hope this question will be received in the good faith it is meant. How do you intend to monetize the site?

 

I think all of us had just sort of assumed that internet message boards in the modern era were largely a money-losing labor of love (thanks again, Tim!). I could have seen Tim handing NSBB off to a fellow poster when he ran out of time, money, and patience for us. But I'm legitimately shocked to see it purchased.

 

That said, I think pretty much everybody here will be happy to see this site modernized and thriving. And we will continue to do our part by being the lovely posters we have always been. But I'd like to understand what kind of changes to expect.

 

Thanks for your consideration.

Mostly monetization happens through volume, both in our overall company traffic and individual site traffic. Our goal is mostly eyeballs, really, and we do that through aggressive social media usage, search engine optimization, email lists, and other assorted things.

 

Because we have such a high volume of traffic from other projects (Twins Daily), we have access to premium advertising options that pay *much* better than most small sites have at their disposal.

 

We want more forum traffic to sustain the community but what we REALLY want is for our news stories, videos, prospect tracker, etc. to dominate social and search channels. And a thriving community only stays that way if the community is on board with tone, opinions, and whatnot. We have some rules forced on us by advertisers but it's pretty extreme stuff that I haven't encountered here at all (racism, bigotry, the really bad stuff) so I don't foresee many issues in that regard.

 

So mostly when it comes to the forums, don't expect us to be heavy-handed. You all like things the way they are in the forum and that's why you're here; if we change too much of that, we're just shooting ourselves in the foot. The way I've thought about this in the past is as "we wrap a shell around your community to protect its integrity and continued existence". We do that with news, user blogs, videos, guides and resources, etc. and a by-product of that is that new users join the community but we don't actually change much about the community itself, nor do we want to.

 

Down the road I might have suggestions how to make things a little more welcoming to new users but it won't be major and it won't happen immediately (and they'll be suggestions).

[The SABR Gamer]

Welcome to the site!

 

I hope this question will be received in the good faith it is meant. How do you intend to monetize the site?

 

I think all of us had just sort of assumed that internet message boards in the modern era were largely a money-losing labor of love (thanks again, Tim!). I could have seen Tim handing NSBB off to a fellow poster when he ran out of time, money, and patience for us. But I'm legitimately shocked to see it purchased.

 

That said, I think pretty much everybody here will be happy to see this site modernized and thriving. And we will continue to do our part by being the lovely posters we have always been. But I'd like to understand what kind of changes to expect.

 

Thanks for your consideration.

Mostly monetization happens through volume, both in our overall company traffic and individual site traffic. Our goal is mostly eyeballs, really, and we do that through aggressive social media usage, search engine optimization, email lists, and other assorted things.

 

Because we have such a high volume of traffic from other projects (Twins Daily), we have access to premium advertising options that pay *much* better than most small sites have at their disposal.

 

We want more forum traffic to sustain the community but what we REALLY want is for our news stories, videos, prospect tracker, etc. to dominate social and search channels. And a thriving community only stays that way if the community is on board with tone, opinions, and whatnot. We have some rules forced on us by advertisers but it's pretty extreme stuff that I haven't encountered here at all (racism, bigotry, the really bad stuff) so I don't foresee many issues in that regard.

 

So mostly when it comes to the forums, don't expect us to be heavy-handed. You all like things the way they are in the forum and that's why you're here; if we change too much of that, we're just shooting ourselves in the foot. The way I've thought about this in the past is as "we wrap a shell around your community to protect its integrity and continued existence". We do that with news, user blogs, videos, guides and resources, etc. and a by-product of that is that new users join the community but we don't actually change much about the community itself, nor do we want to.

 

Down the road I might have suggestions how to make things a little more welcoming to new users but it won't be major and it won't happen immediately (and they'll be suggestions).

 

This sounds reasonable. I’m an overly-reactive grump!

Edited February 27, 2023 by The SABR Gamer

[Brock Beauchamp]

I can be an horsefeathers, so maybe ignore me, but this seems like the official death of whatever NSBB has been for the last 20 years. I honestly don’t think anyone who regularly visits here wants this site to grow, or cares about making it the largest Cubs related anything. A large part (most?) of the value is in the smaller and tighter community, which will be diluted by this change. I’m not trying to be a gatekeeper either, I just appreciate that a large portion of the posts on the site at this point are high value, which makes it a superior option to alternatives.

 

Oh well, hopefully you can prove me wrong and I will be rooting for you to, but if not, it’s been great to be part of this site for so long, and it really helped expand and grow my knowledge and love of baseball. Thanks to all the real ones.

 

Also, this post will be a good test of how much freedom people will have under new management to express their reasonable opinions.

 

As a counterpoint, I'll bring up that this site's traffic has been consistently declining for a few years. Long-term posters inevitably leave and if they're not being replaced (which they haven't been for a few years now), a forum can become a ghost town.

 

People WANT high quality commentary. It has been our calling card for years on Twins Daily and was the case for 20 years on Brewer Fan. The same has carried over to Brewer Fanatic, we're just giving good smart posters an option they may not have known about before. If you're irritated by the likes of Twitter and Facebook commentary, other people are, too... we try to be a place that attracts those people and bring them into the fold.

 

We also don't hesitate to give Twitter bros the boot because we don't want to hear their thoughts any more than you do.

[The SABR Gamer]

I can be an horsefeathers, so maybe ignore me, but this seems like the official death of whatever NSBB has been for the last 20 years. I honestly don’t think anyone who regularly visits here wants this site to grow, or cares about making it the largest Cubs related anything. A large part (most?) of the value is in the smaller and tighter community, which will be diluted by this change. I’m not trying to be a gatekeeper either, I just appreciate that a large portion of the posts on the site at this point are high value, which makes it a superior option to alternatives.

 

Oh well, hopefully you can prove me wrong and I will be rooting for you to, but if not, it’s been great to be part of this site for so long, and it really helped expand and grow my knowledge and love of baseball. Thanks to all the real ones.

 

Also, this post will be a good test of how much freedom people will have under new management to express their reasonable opinions.

 

As a counterpoint, I'll bring up that this site's traffic has been consistently declining for a few years. Long-term posters inevitably leave and if they're not being replaced (which they haven't been for a few years now), a forum can become a ghost town.

 

People WANT high quality commentary. It has been our calling card for years on Twins Daily and was the case for 20 years on Brewer Fan. The same has carried over to Brewer Fanatic, we're just giving good smart posters an option they may not have known about before. If you're irritated by the likes of Twitter and Facebook commentary, other people are, too... we try to be a place that attracts those people and bring them into the fold.

 

We also don't hesitate to give Twitter bros the boot because we don't want to hear their thoughts any more than you do.

 

As long as this is the direction you’re taking, I’ll be behind you 100%.

[WrigleyField 22]

Welcome and good luck. Hope this place is standing in another 20 years still.

 

Browsing at Brewer Fanatic and Twins Daily. Do you envision upgrading the board architecture to that layout? And can we get a dark mode if so?

 

If you give me a dark mode, I'm ready to call it instant success.

[imb]

Let me do a newsletter

[Brock Beauchamp]

Welcome and good luck. Hope this place is standing in another 20 years still.

 

Browsing at Brewer Fanatic and Twins Daily. Do you envision upgrading the board architecture to that layout? And can we get a dark mode if so?

 

If you give me a dark mode, I'm ready to call it instant success.

Yes and yes! We will launch with dark mode, which both TD and BF have. If you look in the red/blue bar at the top of the page, the half circle icon toggles dark mode.

[Derwood]

some of you guys are really underrating how much fun this place was in its hey day or even early post-hey day. If they bring more people here it will be awesome

 

Counterpoint: the reasons it was awesome had nothing to do with the Cubs or baseball and everything to do with the Social forum