Placement of Sports Forums Within SETXsports

[WOSgrad]

At the outset, I admit that this may be a bit more of a deal than it appears to me but I will lay numbers out and see what y'all think.  

This was touched somewhat in a topic in the admin/mod section when the girls basketball section was moved, as some of us thought, prematurely down the forum.  I had aligned the forums in keeping with having forums for sports that were active up toward the top of the forum...a move which had the soccer forum just above the football forum, which raised some eyebrows.  And today, I saw that the girls forum, not much more than 24 hours after the last girls game was played, was again dropped.

Now, I know that it is the policy of the board that once a sports season has been completed that the sports forum should be dropped down the list to make way for the active sports.  And let me state right here that I believe in that policy and thus the move of the girls forum was appropriate.  But given the thread in the moderator section, it seemed like a push was made to get the football forum up to the top with perhaps a bit too much haste.  Now, given that the football forum is my favorite, it figures that I would be wholly in support of such a push and I do admit that I am not so patiently waiting until the time that the football forum is back at the top.  But the move that I made, which to some extent I saw undone, are supported by numbers.

For that end I submit the page views for the months of January and February in the years 2009, 2010 and 2011.  I chose those months given that they are, for the most part months devoid of active football.  First, January.  In January 2009, the the message board had 1,608,922 page views.  In January 2010, the number of page views was 1,416,888, a 12 percent decrease from January 2009.  In January 2011, the page view count was 2,369,907, a 67 percent increase over January 2010.

Next, February.  In February 2009, the page view count was 1,471,609.  In February 2010, the count rose to 1,680,438, a 14 percent increase over February 2009.  This past month, February 2011, that page view count rose to 2,418,865, a 44 percent increase over February 2010.

Now what could account for the rises reflected in January and February of this year?  Well, one thing we can be relieved about is that the departure of Chad Cooper from the boy's basketball forum DID NOT HURT SETXsports.  Personally, I believe a large part of the increase is due to Mike's broadcasts of Silsbee Tiger basketball, along with Rob's broadcast of Hardin-Jefferson Hawk basketball, which has us broadcasting two of the more followed basketball programs in the area.  But I also believe that some part of it was due to the fact that rather than just putting up a single thread asking generically for folks to post results, we were a little more active not only in the boy's forum, but the girls as well by posting a weekly schedules and individual game threads on game day.  I can tell you that it did result in a more complete reporting for scores in the girls basketball forum which enabled us to be a more a source that others relied on rather than us having to rely on them.  In short, I think the increase was due to the fact that we at least gave the appearance that we gave a darned about more than football here.

Which is why I think that when a sport is active, it should be up amongst the top forums.  Even if it looks unusual, such as having soccer above football for a month or so.  And it should have the same features, such as the weekly posting of schedules and individual game threads.  Please don't believe that I have gotten some sort of World Cup fever and have become a born again soccer fan. Because unless there is a drastic change in my life, soccer will be right up there with paint drying observation as a sport for me.  But that doesn't change the fact that it is a UIL sanctioned team sport which is played by schools in the SETX area and shouldn't be buried simply because we don't care for the sport.  If it is active, it should remain above the inactive sports, regardless of what that inactive sport is.

Let's remember that this is SETXsports.com, not SETXfootball.com and the way to sustain the growth we have seen in January and February is to cultivate all sports, not just one big one.

Nothing personal toward anyone, just business!

[AggiesAreWe]

AMEN BROTHER, AMEN!!!

I actually think the forums should be kept at the top a few days after the sport is over, to give a little more look at all district and all state teams plus some season summary talk.

I thought it was lame of Kerry to move the girls basketball forum the minute (probably the second ::)) that it's sport had completed. Could have stayed a couple of days for some state tourney talk, wouldn't have hurt anything.

Just keep in mind that the boys basketball forum should not be moved down when the clock strikes midnight on March 12th. ;)

[WOSgrad]

I agree.  I mean, don't get me wrong, football is king (as I think it should be).  But that being the case, I think the football forum would survive even in a 5th or 6th spot on the forum list even when football is out of season.  And believe it or not, the appearance that the staff cares about the, for lack of a better word, "lesser" sports does seem to increase interest.  One way is to not just merely put a generic "post scores here" but to have a thread for each individual game. Another way is to have it at or near the top when that sport is in season, rather than buried just before the non high school forums.

Like I said above, I just want the numbers to keep growing and I think this is the way it can.

[Lazeek]

Just my two cents................basketball season is not over until all games are complete and until all all-district teams have been released.  And I would give another week for comments and talk to continue and then we can move it down.  I can assure you that the day that the last FOOTBALL team was out of the playoffs that Volleyball and Basketball were not moved to the top!!!!

[KFDM COOP]

Baseball and softball is well underway now, i feel trhey should be above Girls BB, just my opinion. Maybe Jordan feels different but in the past he hasn't.

[Lazeek]

Girls basketball just ended yesterday..........and I would bet that a few of our local districts have not made public their all-district teams.  Give them their do and leave it up for a week. 

I bet FOOTBALL does not go down the day after the last team gets knocked out!!!!

[WOSgrad]

Well, let me clarify here.  I didn't intend this to be a pro-football or anti-football thread.  I mean I am ready for football to begin!  I have the preview questionnaire form prepared. I am working on the letter to the coaches and as soon as Kirbyville names their new head coach, those questionnaires are being mailed out to the coaches! And the numbers do bear out that football is our big forum here so certainly our attention to football should not in any way be curtailed and as long as I am in some way responsible for the football forum, it won't be.

What prompted me to open this topic is that at some point in the future...it may not be next year...it may not even be in the next 10 years...but it will happen...that we will see a slowing of growth of the site due to football.  Common sense just tells us that we can't sustain the type of growth that has occurred during the football season forever.  At that point continuing growth of the site will depend on these other sports and the growth in January and February shows that we have the potential, if we just pay some attention to these other sports and employ some of the other tools that we have employed in the football forum, to achieve that growth.  

And I think dropping a forum, less than 24 hours after the local teams runs counter to that appearance and threatens that growth.

Like I said above, this is not personal, it is strictly business.

[AggiesAreWe]

[quote name="WOSgrad" post="978663" timestamp="1299431382"]
Well, let me clarify here.  I didn't intend this to be a pro-football or anti-football thread.  I mean I am ready for football to begin!  I have the preview questionnaire form prepared. I am working on the letter to the coaches and as soon as Kirbyville names their new head coach, those questionnaires are being mailed out to the coaches! And the numbers do bear out that football is our big forum here so certainly our attention to football should not in any way be curtailed and as long as I am in some way responsible for the football forum, it won't be.

What prompted me to open this topic is that at some point in the future...it may not be next year...it may not even be in the next 10 years...but it will happen...that we will see a slowing of growth of the site due to football.  Common sense just tells us that we can't sustain the type of growth that has occurred during the football season forever.  At that point continuing growth of the site will depend on these other sports and the growth in January and February shows that we have the potential, if we just pay some attention to these other sports and employ some of the other tools that we have employed in the football forum, to achieve that growth.  

And I think dropping a forum, less than 24 hours after the local teams runs counter to that appearance and threatens that growth.

Like I said above, this is not personal, it is strictly business.

[/quote]




I agree totally. (well except for that last statement about it being not personal ;D ;D)

[jdawg03]

I have no problem with leaving a forum up for a couple days after the seasons are through, or even having a gradual move down...for instance if all our football teams are out by the end of November, moving boys basketball ahead of it, but keeping football #2 until the season is over with...

The way I see it, there should be a rotation between football, baseball, basketball (girls and boys) and softball...Everything else should be permanently below these...unless we have a huge rise in the popularity of soccer in SETX, it should be kept below these 5 forums

[WOSgrad]

Sounds good to me.