thread on HP

HuskerBoard has free registration....it's much too attractive and easy for trolls to get in, which really ends up stifling good conversations. I recommend a brief free registration period to attract long time lurkers, followed by perhaps a lower price...but still enough to discourage trolls.
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My observations:

He's got a point about the trolls. Trolls are the main reason I wanted to be a Mod here. I am not privy to the discussions the Mods/Admins had last season regarding the trollery we had to deal with, but it seemed to an outsider like me that the board was very lenient towards people who were obviously here just to cause trouble. I PMed Frank in the first 1/4 to first 1/2 of the season saying that I would help as a Mod if it would help cut down on the trolls. It got so bad that I considered leaving the site, and I love this place.

We have a serious troll problem during the season that needs to be addressed. Believe me, I have ideas about trolls that I'll be glad to share when the time comes. :)

I have a very, very hard time believing they have 18K actual members. That's a HUGE number for a pay site. I've been a member of the Fantasy Football Cafe, one of the leading fantasy sports forums on the web, for about five years now. In just over seven years they have 52K members, and that's the #1 free fantasy sports forum on the web. For HuskerPedia to have 1/3 of the Cafe's members while charging for membership beggars belief.

On top of that, they have a total of 25,000 posts. In contrast, our 6,300 members have 580K posts. I'll take 23x the number of posts, for free, over their pay site. Even if 2/3 of the posts here are BS (for the sake of argument), it's still more half again as many quality reads as they have total, and again, I'm getting this for free.

Count me as a huge skeptic of their numbers.

I find the whole debate over there about ISI and the two former owners fascinating and somewhat sad.

 
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I think Seal completely missed the mark with his statements.

He makes it sound like free registration is a weird thing - no, it's paid BBS that's the strange one. One wonders if he still pays for Netscape Navigator Gold to browse the web.

The whole point of a forum is to be free, IMO. Especially a public sports fans forum. Sure, that means you get a grab bag of users, but it's a hangout place for any and every fan (don't even need to be fans of the site). What Huskerboard isn't is a content distributor - like your ESPN or Rivals or Sports Illustrated. So IMO, he needs to see the distinction between "message board quality" and "content quality."

Maybe HuskerPedia provides good content, I don't know. But the concept of shutting doors to limit participation makes its quality as a fan message board just about zilch. If they want to be a country club of paying posters with proper spelling and grammar - that's their call. I'm pretty glad HB isn't the same. Besides, it seems besides their financial screening, HP has run into a bit of trouble themselves...who knew, paying members can cause even worse drama :)

 
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What I found interesting is that all the proposed changes under consideration seem to be moving HP to the same model we use here on HuskerBoard.

And I love the free publicity.

 
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zoogies said:
I think Seal completely missed the mark with his statements.

He makes it sound like free registration is a weird thing - no, it's paid BBS that's the strange one. One wonders if he still pays for Netscape Navigator Gold to browse the web.

The whole point of a forum is to be free, IMO. Especially a public sports fans forum. Sure, that means you get a grab bag of users, but it's a hangout place for any and every fan (don't even need to be fans of the site). What Huskerboard isn't is a content distributor - like your ESPN or Rivals or Sports Illustrated. So IMO, he needs to see the distinction between "message board quality" and "content quality."

Maybe HuskerPedia provides good content, I don't know. But the concept of shutting doors to limit participation makes its quality as a fan message board just about zilch. If they want to be a country club of paying posters with proper spelling and grammar - that's their call. I'm pretty glad HB isn't the same. Besides, it seems besides their financial screening, HP has run into a bit of trouble themselves...who knew, paying members can cause even worse drama :)
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Good Point zoog's.....I've always liked how we get members from other schools on here. They don't have to pay so they come here.

 
zoogies said:
I think Seal completely missed the mark with his statements.

He makes it sound like free registration is a weird thing - no, it's paid BBS that's the strange one. One wonders if he still pays for Netscape Navigator Gold to browse the web.
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Win

 
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