So I've Been Thinking

[Smitty]

Never said you couldn't speak your mind fish. Relax.

[fish7718]

Never said you couldn't speak your mind fish.

I just did and u scolded me mean smitty

 

Listen I'm not saying we should ban anyone but, something should change...thats my opinion on the matter

Edited October 9, 2012 by fish7718

[Cobb]

I just did and u scolded me mean smitty

 

Listen I'm not saying we should ban anyone but, something should change...thats my opinion on the matter

And that's exactly how I feel as it seems like we're just cruising along not wanting to discuss/think about the problems concerning the site, mainly the interest that potential new members would have.

[Smitty]

That's perfectly fine Fish. And I don't even necessarily disagree with you(I've discussed some of those things with Shaliq himself)

 

 

Just don't necessarily think that should be what keeps good posters such as yourself from being active.

 

Well maybe if him and anybody else can come to sort of solution on that, it could help.

[Sħãlïq™]

That's perfectly fine Fish. And I don't even necessarily disagree with you(I've discussed some of those things with Shaliq himself)

 

Just don't necessarily think that should be what keeps good posters such as yourself from being active.

What's keeping fish from being active? He's one of my favorite posters here...

[Check my Stats]

I come here to talk basketball with people who know what they are talking about, even if there are only 10 of them (or whatever that number may be). If I wanted to talk to someone who didn't know anything about ball, I would just talk to my friends about it, or Shaliq (I'm kidding I'm kidding).

 

Thanks for taking my warn shit away too eh. Seriously, ridiculous. I thought it was pretty clear I was kidding in that thread.

Edited October 9, 2012 by Check my Stats

[Teletopez]

Could we recruit through the YouTube channel? It has over 900 subscribers now (even though nothing has been uploaded in a couple years). Not sure if it's possible to send a mass message to all of them, but it could score some traffic. Something along the lines of, "Thank you for your support on this channel, which has been around for more than four years. Although the video library additions went inactive a couple years ago, we have had a basketball message board up and running since 2005, and we invite you to join our community as we approach the 2012-13 season."

[Real Deal]

Could we recruit through the YouTube channel? It has over 900 subscribers now (even though nothing has been uploaded in a couple years). Not sure if it's possible to send a mass message to all of them, but it could score some traffic. Something along the lines of, "Thank you for your support on this channel, which has been around for more than four years. Although the video library additions went inactive a couple years ago, we have had a basketball message board up and running since 2005, and we invite you to join our community as we approach the 2012-13 season."

That's an idea, too...maybe we can give that recruiting video another shot.

 

Speaking of that channel, I think it's about to get shut down. I've been getting notifications like CRAZY about every single video clip on there, finally had to turn off email notifications. I think the NBA is flagging everything.

[Teletopez]

That's an idea, too...maybe we can give that recruiting video another shot.

 

Speaking of that channel, I think it's about to get shut down. I've been getting notifications like CRAZY about every single video clip on there, finally had to turn off email notifications. I think the NBA is flagging everything.

Those are usually just notifications that the videos contain copyrighted material and will have ads next to them. I get them all the time for my personal account.

Dear TheBronxBrooklyn,

 

Your video "Joe Johnson Media Day Interview", may have content that is owned or licensed by NBA, but it’s still available on YouTube! In some cases, it may be blocked, or ads may appear next to it.

 

This claim is not penalizing your account status. Visit your Copyright Notice page for more details on the policy applied to your video.

 

Sincerely,

- The YouTube Team

 

Hope the OTR channel doesn't get shut down. Makes for a neat video library.

[Smitty]

I come here to talk basketball with people who know what they are talking about, even if there are only 10 of them (or whatever that number may be). If I wanted to talk to someone who didn't know anything about ball, I would just talk to my friends about it, or Shaliq (I'm kidding I'm kidding).

 

Thanks for taking my warn shit away too eh. Seriously, ridiculous. I thought it was pretty clear I was kidding in that thread.

 

I was going to take it away either way, lol. But you're welcome

[Sħãlïq™]

How do we go about bringing in more members, which would hopefully lead to more activity? We have the Twitter and Facebook pages, but those don't seem to do anything. The site seems to be getting more and more inactive by the day and I don't even know if we get 100+ posts on a daily basis anymore. Even on Sunday's when NFL football is on, there hasn't been nearly as much discussion as there was last season. Kind of feel like one day I'll sign in and there won't be any new posts.

It's about time we made more mixes promoting our site. I suck at making mixes but I still got some positive feedback for my first two ones:

 

• "Enter The Garden"
  
• "The Nets' House"

^ Now imagine a sick NBA mix promoting our site... We could use that!!

 

P.S.I posted these two on some other sites. Feel free to repost them wherever you want to, especially if you think that might bring more members.

Edited October 10, 2012 by Sħãlïq̵'

[Lkr]

i somewhat feel like we can't openly criticize or critique certain members. for example, if I call out fish for making what I see as an awful post, nothing bad happens, but if I call someone else out, it feels like it leads to warnings and suspensions. i feel that the community can't grow if we can't criticize each other.

 

as for threads like random thoughts or the us soccer thread, i'm fine with those since it is news and random shit being posted in there and not having a million threads that it seems not many people care about. there are quite a few guys that have posted in soccer threads in the past though when active.

 

activity for the sake of activity is never good. i don't have the bft-level knowledge of the game, so I tend not to respond to his posts a lot, mainly because i feel like i'll look like an idiot. however when posting an article, it is probably good to leave your thoughts in there too if you have any, rather than just posting random stories for the hell of it. if it is big news, like say lebron out for season with injury, then yeah, you really don't need to add much to it because everyone knows what that would mean. if it is something like backup PG out for a month, then post what you feel will happen to the team in that span. if you are making a thread to poll a community on a topic, don't do something very obscure without providing much insight, unless you are asking a general question, and then why include a poll or ask a very vague question in the first place?

 

furthermore, i don't see the point in responding to a post saying agreed, +1, etc. if you have nothing to add, why post? the rep button is there, hit that. this especially becomes frustrating when someone like bft will post a 5 page essay on a topic, someone will quote it, and say "yep, i agree with that, took the words from my mouth". ok, first of all, you were never going to write, and are probably not capable of writing prose like BFT. second, what does that add? if you agree with him and have nothing else to add, rep him, or quote him and expand or question some of his ideas. but if he says something that is common knowledge or backups up his reasoning, don't ask a dumb question, because then that becomes frustrating for the person that posted it in the first place.

 

finally, everyone needs to stop the goddamn bickering. just be open to criticism. we all can obviously get along, and have been doing so for years. i see no reason to constantly bring up stupid shit ecn has said in the past in every thread. there is a time and place for some of it, but keep it out of every damn thread.

 

random notes:

we don't need two fantasy basketball leagues when we can't fill up one as it is

the fantasy football debacle was stupid, and both sides need to quit being assholes

why join a pickem league or fantasy league for a sport you know nothing about, it just ruins it for the rest of the competitors

don't go into a board/thread about a sport you don't understand and start making posts, unless you seriously want to understand. i see no reason for brandon to go into the maple leafs general thread and start talking about how player xy is going to make a huge impact when he doesn't know what icing is.

 

there are also certain members i'd like to publicly call out for having the balls to put up with shit:

flash

srv

any other heat fan

 

you guys put up with more shit posting than any other fanbase at the moment, and you don't hold grudges.

Edited October 10, 2012 by Lkr

[SRV]

I think the board is fairly active once the season gets going and when its ending, but the middle of the season and off season is just dead. The main reason is I think all our members represent maybe like 7 NBA teams, and there are no active members for other teams. Lakers and Heat game threads easily make it to 2 pages, cause they are the most controversial teams and are well represented on the site.

 

I just don't think its possible to bring in like one new member per month, it needs to be a lot of people at once. Sort of like incoming freshman to a school, alone they feel extremely left out, but together they can get to know each other and actually stick around. I don't remember the last member to reach 500 posts, but that person probably registered a few years ago. Certainly there are people out there like us 5-6 years ago, looking around these sites. Like 90% of this site is 18-25 right now.

Edited October 10, 2012 by SRV

[Real Deal]

The criticism has been overlooked for a couple of years now. You guys have been able to do that and get away with it. Hell, I even turned my head at the criticism Shaliq was getting when he was posting black females in the Hot Girls Thread (the racist remarks made by Slaven), thinking that it was all a joke anyway. Then, I get this message from one of our better members (who actually posted eight times since this PM):

 

Dude i don't feel like being here with yugo getting away with what he says in the off topic board, he baits and baits and gets a pass because he's been here longer than about everyone

Of course, that's not the full PM, because he quotes 5-6 different posts, then mentions two other members (who are still active here), but you get the idea.

 

My question is...what gives me any indication that activity will go up if I were to get rid of whatever member(s) you guys seem to want out the door? I don't see any reason to believe it will.

 

Also, how a topic is created isn't THAT important, especially when you don't necessarily value what that member thinks to begin with. But, regardless, here's why I think it's irrelevant...

 

http://www.discusshoops.com/forums/topic/31616-dime-magazine-5-players-wholl-struggle-with-their-new-team

 

Created by BFT, who is one of our best posters...and yet, it has two replies. What did Sean do? He actually added his opinion in the initial post.

 

http://www.discusshoops.com/forums/topic/31612-deepest-team-in-the-league

 

Here's another. He's actually asking a question, not posting an article. Again, it's BFT. Four replies.

 

We have all of this basketball knowledge packed inside of a small community of posters...but because of that, those topics should be active because, quite frankly, not all of us agree on the same thing. I'm sure many will think that Nash will struggle with Kobe, and vice-versa. I'm sure many think that the Clippers are deeper than the Spurs, or the Nuggets are the deepest team.

 

We've gone from getting +1's for making excellent posts, to getting them for criticizing members. Slaven's reputation points are one of the highest on the site, and yet, he was less and less involved in basketball talk over the years, and racking up rep points for his "funny posts" that were, for the most part, inappropriate. Why? Because he would say things others didn't want to say...doesn't make it right, though.

 

That's where things went wrong. Quality AND quantity were ignored, and instead, it was about who could post the funniest comment. Ah, someone called ECN out for his undefeated prediction a year later, out of nowhere? Give him 10 rep points, reply with a few "lol" posts, and move along. Shaliq posted a black girl, and someone asks him (for the 1,000th time) why he thinks he's black? Time to post funny pictures, and crack a few jokes.

 

It went overboard, to the point where I didn't want to be here. My own site. Now guys, tell me why any new member would want to stay, in that case, if things like that are forcing me to close my browser window on my own website?

[Lkr]

I agree that a lot of it got out of hand. IMO there is a difference between being racist like slaven and criticizing posting styles. It's one thing to ask why one member posts happy birthday to people with no posts and another to flat out insult someone. I got fed up with slaven's racist shit a while ago. Did he occasionally post something funny? Sure. But he wasn't worth keeping around for that occasionally funny post because in the last few years he had brought nothing else to the table except racist attacks and baiting

[DunkinDerozan]

I don't remember the last member to reach 500 posts, but that person probably registered a few years ago.

 

I think I'm the most recent active poster to join the site, and that was about 10 months ago.

 

 

 

The whole Shaliq thing though is hard to deal with imo. When I first joined the site, he was by far the most welcoming member. He 'friended' me right away, and wrote on my profile welcoming me to the site. If it wasn't for him, I most likely would not have stuck around. In the way of being welcoming and friendly to new members, Shaliq is the best.

 

I know this has already been said multiple times in this thread, but I'm just going to say it to show that I agree. The problem with Shaliq is that, although he has a great knowledge of the Clippers and for the most part the NBA, he tries to hard to up his post count by posting in threads that he doesn't really have business being in, and starting arguments for the sake of arguing (i.e. NFL topics, saying Holliday is better than CP3, etc). Maybe he doesn't do it to up his post count, maybe he just does it to try to fit in more with the other members since he's the only Clippers fan, I don't know. But when he does this stuff, it irritates other members, which turns into people ripping on him. And like what someone in here already mentioned, whenever someone says something bad to Shaliq, it becomes this big thing and the thread ends up being closed 99% of the time. If its someone else, they can usually take the criticism and not make it into a big deal about being attacked. I'm sorry if I offend you Shaliq. I'm not trying to be hurtful, I'm just being honest.

 

I do understand that some of the time other members do make fun of Shaliq when its really not necessary. But sometimes it seems like hes asking for it when he makes really stupid (can't think of a better word) posts. If you, Shaliq, could refrain yourself from posting things like random pictures in the NFL gameday discussion threads just for the sake of making a post, and would stick to just posting about the things you have a knowledge in, then a lot of the criticism towards you would probably be reduced. Again, try not to take this as me trying to be mean, because I'm not. Just trying to help keep the site alive and produce more activity.

[NomarFachix]

-The level and maturity of debate needs to improve in a major way. This, to me, is public enemy #1. We are supposed to be the most knowledgeable group around, but can't get through a politics debate without calling one another "welfare check collecting sheep" or throwing around "you're a dumb noob lololol" in a football discussion. It's been that way for a while now, most of the time I've been here actually. If someone disagrees with a user on a topic, they take offense and the insults start rolling through. I think everyone (myself included) is guilty of this, but it's holding everyone back. Hell, look at the Packers/Seahawks game. I posted that I felt it was a reasonable call in real-time, posted my reasoning and gave a detailed explanation why I felt that way, and told everyone else involved that I respected their opinion if they disagreed -- they had a point to disagree. But I was met with "you're a [expletive]ing idiot". Same with the Sean Taylor debate -- I gave a detailed explanation of my opinion, and was told that I was a [expletive]ing idiot. It's immature and unproductive conversation.

 

-I agree with lkr, majority of NBA topics I'll stay away from, because if I give an opinion on a player or a team someone with much more NBA knowledge like BFT, RD, CMS, Nitro, etc will pop in with stats I have no idea how to access and I don't understand and I feel like a dummy. I appreciate the knowledge being dropped, and I read almost every post made by the aforementioned posters.. but there is a very exclusive group of extra knowledgeable NBA posters here, and they definitely run the NBA topics. I can run the eye test, but that doesn't stack up against the advance metrics that other posters use. I'll give my thoughts during every Knicks game, and that's a guarantee.

 

-I don't agree with the "do you think you're black" comments to Shaliq in the hot girls thread, and that stuff shouldn't come up. He has every right to be upset about the racist posts, regardless of his content in other areas and on other sites. But I also feel like there needs to be more awareness on the end of the posters. After your first few posts, if it's abundantly obvious that other users don't enjoy the same crowd of women that you do, why keep posting pictures of them and absorbing the punishment? I understand the negativity of the criticism, but it's going to be natural in a thread like that one if you're throwing out multitudes of women that people have established that they don't enjoy looking at.

 

-ECN gets called out because 99% of his posts are intentionally abrasive and carry an extremely negative agenda. This can tie in with #1.

 

-I love Shaliq. I hope he stays around forever. Do I think he ever should have been banned? Absolutely not. Do I think that he can alter his posting style a little bit to better suit the rest of the community on the forum? Absolutely I do. I'm not saying that MUST happen, but I think a compromise takes both sides giving some.

 

Love the site, love the community, sorry for any and all part(s) I've had with any issues going on. I'll do what needs to be done to improve the place. Those are just some of my thoughts, and some thoughts of others who I've spoken with about the matter (and probably won't voice them here).

[Sħãlïq™]

Didn't feel like posting here, but Lkr says 'this all needs to be out in the open'. Maybe he's right, so:

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

A) - Saying 'Happy birthday!' to some folks was an attempt to make inactive members start posting and thus increase activity. It worked with some guys (e.g. Oliver P may not be exactly a '0-post member' but he did come back here after my 'Hbd' greeting post in his native French).

Like DDD has noticed, I try to make people feel like we, at OTR, care about them.. at least I do. OTR IS MY FAMILY. I LIKE YOU GUYS (NO HOMO!). OTR IS UNIQUE, CAN'T IMAGINE MY LIFE WITHOUT THIS PLACE.

 

B) - Lkr, I didn't make the 'Most Overrated Serbian plr' thread to, quote: 'poll the community on a topic'. I asked a general question, and I still find it an interesting topic. If you think it's a vague one -- Ok, I respect your opinion, but mine is different. Maybe I made a mistake adding polls. They were just an extra incentive to participate - like in the "Fave ___ Movie?" threads. Frankly, I stopped making polls 'cause you were ruining my threads with: "LOL @ 'x' being a poll option!" and where's movie 'y'?. I ain't no robot, man. And I ain't seen all movies on Earth! Some of those polls are based on web articles. Again: The polls were just an extra incentive to participate. Which leads to my next point:

 

C) - Like RD said -- How a topic is created isn't THAT important, especially when you don't value what that member thinks. I do take the time to elaborate topics really well in order to make them perfect. It's just that some won't even read it simply because it was Shaliq who posted it... <_< Yet - I do all I can to make my threads interesting.

 

D) - On the hot girls thread: I see most here like white chicks - Ok, cool. To iMan's question: I simply shared pics of chicks I really find attractive. And Art enjoyed many of my posts, even repped me. But then some would say that a chick I posted has a big forehead. I swear: HADN'T NOTICED HER FOREHEAD AT ALL. So then I post an ebony girl with a normal forehead... you guys invent some other 'flaws'. At a point I was like: "Is there at least one chocolate chick on Earth that you'd find hot??" Anyway, I'm done talking about this.

 

E) - I like iMan, Simba, Nashty, Jenneral, trutrojan8 and almost everyone else around here! I hope 99.98% of you guys stay around for good. And if you think I gotta change my posting a lil bit to better suit the forum -- I'ma give it my best shot!

 

Last but not least:

I agree that a lot of it got out of hand. IMO there is a difference between being racist like slaven and criticizing posting styles. It's one thing to ask why one member posts happy birthday to people with no posts and another to flat out insult someone. I got fed up with slaven's racist shit a while ago. Did he occasionally post something funny? Sure. But he wasn't worth keeping around for that occasionally funny post because in the last few years he had brought nothing else to the table except racist attacks and baiting

^ I agree (in fact, couldn't agree more!). But then comes the question -- with all due respect, why did you encourage/defend him and his baiting in the Random thread, man? (No pun, and no offense intended. I just wanna know.) He was straight baiting and trolling - calling me a phaggot for no reason, and you would stand right by his side, and spit at me posts like: 'only a bigoted loser would do this and that', and '> being a bigoted loser who (insert random text here)'.

 

P.S.

"Dude, I don't feel like being here with yugo getting away with what he says in the off topic board, he baits and baits and gets a pass because he's been here longer than about everyone."

^ Whoever said that, I thank him.

Edited October 10, 2012 by Sħãlïq̵'

[Make It Naaaashty]

You should be the last one talking about maturity iMan.....

[NomarFachix]

You should be the last one talking about maturity iMan.....

This post is exactly what I'm talking about.

Edited October 10, 2012 by iMan

[Smitty]

Don't start Ajay.

[Jenneral]

I think at some point we almost have to sacrifice being "the best/most knowledgable basketball forum" and try to get new members.

 

1) Us being the "best" or "most knowledgable" is a self-given title. We may or may not be... who knows.

2) While new members might not be as knowledgable at first, we can easily help them out and teach them a thing or two with time.

 

We can't just expect new members to come in here with great basketball knowledge all the time. Sometimes they'll need to be shown the ropes a bit.

 

So, in my opinion, we need to start recruiting members. I'd like to be able to come on here and have 50 actual posters online talking basketball. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening anytime soon (if ever).

[Real Deal]

I'm not going to name anyone in particular, but a couple of our current members (who came here years ago) didn't have the basketball knowledge they do now, and people on OTR actually pointed that out back then. They were able to stick around, post with everyone else, and learn the game.

 

HornyWetPenguin is one of our old veterans who racked up around 8,000 posts or so, and he wasn't known for his basketball knowledge when he first jumped into the mix. I can't say that he turned out like one of our elites, because he was more into his favorite team and players than any of the other 29 teams...but he found a way to fit in.

 

Now, would HWP make it as a new member today? I honestly don't think so. Back then, people were trying to find out more about him...such as his real name. They were calling him Oscar in topics and on AIM (this was when we all used AIM, lol). It wasn't THAT bad, and it didn't interrupt posting as much as other things have today...but assuming he was here with us right now, and fairly new to the community, I don't think he would have stayed.

 

As far as sacrificing what we have (in knowledge) for new blood...that's perfectly fine, but again, it's not really about bringing them in, it's keeping them here.

 

It doesn't help when a guy gets banned for being a mega troll (won't say who, but I've got one in mind, and it's not Slaven), then he goes off and runs his mouth about OTR on a very active message board. Then, two major spammers (who will bring 10+ members to your site every day, by spamming) end up doing the same thing.

 

There are still people out there that think this place is too strict, and they are [expletive]ing nuts if they believe that. I'm not sure what else they would want. I guess they are lucky they weren't around during our big boom, when we were super-strict, had a word filter, and had activity out the ass for years.

[Jenneral]

Since there seems to be such a big gap between the "veteran" posters here and the new members that come and go here's an idea:

 

hide user post counts in threads

 

Everyone will then appear to be on a level playing field. In reality, post count means absolutely nothing. If you want, you could still have them appear on member profiles, but on the actual posts it's not really necessary. I think that it might help new members feel more at home and not so far behind and out of the loop.

[Real Deal]

Since there seems to be such a big gap between the "veteran" posters here and the new members that come and go here's an idea:

 

hide user post counts in threads

 

Everyone will then appear to be on a level playing field. In reality, post count means absolutely nothing. If you want, you could still have them appear on member profiles, but on the actual posts it's not really necessary. I think that it might help new members feel more at home and not so far behind and out of the loop.

We did that once, a long, long time ago...and most of the community didn't really care for it.

 

Feels like we just can't balance the two together. We need new members to realize that veteran members post here (and have logged a ton of posts), so we don't lose that respect...but, at the same time, we have to make sure they aren't being looked down on by those members.

 

I'd really like to know what exactly runs them off. I can't say that they are intimidated. I just feel like it's more about them not being familiar with how comfortable this community presents itself to be, where you can tell someone off as a joke, and it's funny to nearly everyone (for example).

 

I mean, DemarDerozanDunk didn't have a problem fitting in because of the post counts...and I think it was more about the discussions he took part in (because he's a Raptors fan, and we have a few on board right now) and that people welcomed him in with open arms, for some reason. May have been because he came in to talk basketball.

 

The toughest thing to do on a message board is recruit for teams that have no one representing them. I have had one Jazz fan come in and do his best to fit in, and honestly, it was only because he was running a website that we were affiliated with at the time. Then there's you. How many active Bucks fans have we had over the years? I know it's hard to discuss Bucks basketball here, because I can tell just by looking at the topics and replies.

 

I think we have to find a way to effectively recruit for these "unwanted" teams, but at the same time, try and welcome Lakers fans (or Heat, Raptors, and Knicks fans) who want to join as well.

 

I'm going to code an affiliations page, also, so we can start those back up. Maybe we can gain members from that, and in the process, we may lose some guys that feel like there's a better site out there...but that probably works in our favor as much as it does any other place, essentially swapping disgruntled members.