Board Participation Help

[wes33]

Your board participation is outstanding. I do most of the posting on the Duke Scout
board as petejones lots of hits but few logs. Any suggestion other than winning a
couple of national championships.

 

[Sonny44]

Your board participation is outstanding. I do most of the posting on the Duke Scout
board as petejones lots of hits but few logs. Any suggestion other than winning a
couple of national championships.

Sure, become a UCONN fan.

 

[HardHatGuy#2]

Post a few controversial comments, then find some SuperFans at the next home game and point them to the blog. They'll take a glance, and respond in a nice, friendly, informative manner, clarifying the subject matter with solid facts.

NOW...create a couple of anonymous accounts and use them to respond to their comments in an extremist manner. Make sure you use good pseudonyms, like "SilverSpoonDukie", "GuesstenCoors" or "GenoUndercover". At the next game, talk about how you read about people getting FLAMED on this site by UConn fans.

That should just about cover it.

 

[HuskyNan]

This board started about 25 years ago as a fan forum on the Hartford Courant. I forget why the fans left, it was before my time, but temery and Fishy set up a new board and the forum members followed them. There was also a UConn fan mail list (you younger folks may not even know what those are) run by the estimable Brett, who was also a member of the Boneyard. She shared info on the Boneyard to the mail list members and most also became members of the board.

At that time, the Boneyard was exclusively about the men's team and when the women's team started making noise and attracting more fans, the board split into two separate forums, one for each team, maybe about 1999 or 2000. That's when the number of people on the board started increasing, after the second championship.

A few things to mull over:

• You also need to give people a reason to visit the board - original articles, news links, game threads, and a sense of community work. Even during the off season, we like to hang out with each other and talk about, basically, whatever pops into our heads. If your forum members enjoy the board and each other, they'll invite people to it
• Know who's on the board. I take a census infrequently, the results for the most recent one are here. It helps to understand who you're talking to.
• Be sure a Google search of Duke fan forum points to you guys. I don't know how to fix it if it doesn't but you must know someone who does.
• Go to other boards and invite people to become members. Really. Feel free to invite Boneyarders to visit, post a link, and be friendly. Don't be afraid to have fans of other teams on your board, it actually helps. Some boards run off opposing team fans but then the board gets a reputation for being nasty, etc - not a good place to hang out.

Good luck to you. Please PM me if you want to chat.

 

[CMC'72]

What's interesting is I often go to our competition's boards or comment on articles local to them around and after game day. I do it to thank the other team when they give UCONN a good game. Also to encourage their players how well the did over many other players.

The interesting point is most of the comments on THEIR boards there are from UCONN fans who have come to give the same encouragement to those that lost to us!

For me, those who give us a good game are to be supported and congratulated because watching a close game is much better than watching a blowout.

But I always end my encouragement with: "as long as you don't beat us!"

 

[JS]

Just a couple of "political" caveats to add to Nan's very comprehensive response.

1. Your board has well-established competition. It seems to be in the same position as the lingering Scout UConn board was after the Boneyard left Scout and went independent. That board struggled on for awhile, with most of the posts coming from a resident guy, maybe with a media background, who tried to get it jump started without success. I think that board folded after a couple of years of ghost town atmosphere.

2. Just confirmed my point 1 impression by going to your competitor board, a well-known "brand," and found that my old Scout login is no longer good there. We're friendly here with CamrnCrz1974, BTW. And while Nan has graciously offered to help you, because of the history surrounding the BY departure from Scout it's possible not everyone in BY admin would be inclined to do indirect favors for that organization.

Would be interested to know what crossover you might get from the very rabid Duke men's team fan base. We have quite a number of "dual" fans here.

 

[UcMiami]

A few thoughts:
1. I visit three boards fairly consistently, Baylor, TN, and this my 'home' here on the boneyard. I have tried from time to time with ND, and SC, and a few others but I find the format on those board very difficult to use. The three I do visit and post to, have similar formats that are conducive to lengthier posts and an easier process of reading through a string of posts on a subject. Format really does matter.

2. All three of these boards also seem to be well regulated - not sure if it is all done by monitors or if the board members themselves actively self censor, but there are very few threads that devolve into name calling, flame wars, or senseless back and forth which just gets boring and kills a board pretty quickly for people who actually want to discuss topics.

3. Having a separate forum for WCBB rather than for all women's sports or for all basketball also helps - TN is actually all women's sports but is dominated by WCBB at least in season. The all basketball sites end up swamped by men's basketball and it is hard to find the women's threads. It is a different fan base even with a fair amount of overlap, and there is less testosterone induced ranting on most women's threads.

 

[HuskyNan]

Just a couple of "political" caveats to add to Nan's very comprehensive response.

1. Your board has well-established competition. It seems to be in the same position as the lingering Scout UConn board was after the Boneyard left Scout and went independent. That board struggled on for awhile, with most of the posts coming from a resident guy, maybe with a media background, who tried to get it jump started without success. I think that board folded after a couple of years of ghost town atmosphere.

2. Just confirmed my point 1 impression by going to your competitor board, a well-known "brand," and found that my old Scout login is no longer good there. We're friendly here with CamrnCrz1974, BTW. And while Nan has graciously offered to help you, because of the history surrounding the BY departure from Scout it's possible not everyone in BY admin would be inclined to do indirect favors for that organization.

Would be interested to know what crossover you might get from the very rabid Duke men's team fan base. We have quite a number of "dual" fans here.

Ah, didn't realize it was a Scout board. Some Boneyarders may not even be able to register over there. When we moved to this board, Scout banned a whole bunch of us.

 

[HopJim]

This board started about 25 years ago as a fan forum on the Hartford Courant. I forget why the fans left, it was before my time, but temery and Fishy set up a new board and the forum members followed them. There was also a UConn fan mail list (you younger folks may not even know what those are) run by the estimable Brett, who was also a member of the Boneyard. She shared info on the Boneyard to the mail list members and most also became members of the board.

At that time, the Boneyard was exclusively about the men's team and when the women's team started making noise and attracting more fans, the board split into two separate forums, one for each team, maybe about 1999 or 2000. That's when the number of people on the board started increasing, after the second championship.

A few things to mull over:

• You also need to give people a reason to visit the board - original articles, news links, game threads, and a sense of community work. Even during the off season, we like to hang out with each other and talk about, basically, whatever pops into our heads. If your forum members enjoy the board, they'll invite people to it
• Know who's on the board. I take a census infrequently, the results for the most recent one are here. It helps to understand who you're talking to.
• Be sure a Google search of Duke fan forum points to you guys. I don't know how to fix it if it doesn't but you must know someone who does.
• Go to other boards and invite people to become members. Really. Feel free to invite Boneyarders to visit, post a link, and be friendly. Don't be afraid to have fans of other teams on your board, it actually helps. Some boards run off opposing team fans but then the board gets a reputation for being nasty, etc - not a good place to hang out.

Good luck to you. Please PM me if you want to chat.

Nan, interesting post. I log in frequently but had never seen the census info.
One other simple but very beneficial value add of Boneyard-it looks good and is easy to read. Some of the other schools, such as ND's, are a jumble of comments.

 

[ochoopsfan]

I believe Duke has a Medical School. Go to them and have them clone Husky Nan.
Report back in about a year when things are going GREAT!!

 

[wes33]

All three of these boards also seem to be well regulated - not sure if it is all done by monitors or if the board members themselves actively self censor, but there are very few threads that devolve into name calling, flame wars, or senseless back and forth which just gets boring and kills a board pretty quickly for people who actually want to discuss topics

Our board was guilty of the above for many years with the different view points
on Coach P. Will move quickly to clone Husky Nan, great idea.

 

[HuskyNan]

All three of these boards also seem to be well regulated - not sure if it is all done by monitors or if the board members themselves actively self censor, but there are very few threads that devolve into name calling, flame wars, or senseless back and forth which just gets boring and kills a board pretty quickly for people who actually want to discuss topics

All Boneyard boards are moderated but since it's been around a long time, there are lots of long time fans that know the drill and keep the peace. The women's board is less lenient when it comes to name calling and hard core trash talk because that's what about 90% of the people here want. The vast majority are fine with chatting with ND fans, Duke fans, Tennessee fans, and so on as long as the conversation is civil. I don't know how much I drive that, honestly, but it suits me personally.

No cloning, please, unless she wants to do all the housework, laundry, and my biggest dislike, the grocery shopping. I never get the grocery shop right. No matter how much I nag people to put what they want on the list, I'm always asked if I got something that wasn't on the list. When I say no, then I get grimaces and groans and rolling eyes. Blech. And now I'm headed off to Stop 'n' Shop.

 

[LesMis89]

I'm a moderator of the Scout St. Louis Cardinals board. Scout has been sold at least twice in the last decade or so. Pretty sure management changed with it. FWIW.

 

[VA Huskie]

All Boneyard boards are moderated but since it's been around a long time, there are lots of long time fans that know the drill and keep the peace. The women's board is less lenient when it comes to name calling and hard core trash talk because that's what about 90% of the people here want. The vast majority are fine with chatting with ND fans, Duke fans, Tennessee fans, and so on as long as the conversation is civil. I don't know how much I drive that, honestly, but it suits me personally.

No cloning, please, unless she wants to do all the housework, laundry, and my biggest dislike, the grocery shopping. I never get the grocery shop right. No matter how much I nag people to put what they want on the list, I'm always asked if I got something that wasn't on the list. When I say no, then I get grimaces and groans and rolling eyes. Blech. And now I'm headed off to Stop 'n' Shop.

Nan - you may not know how much you drive the civility on the Boneyard, but I'm here to say the answer is "a lot". Yes there are many long time BYers that self monitor, but you help greatly to keep the site honest. I, for one, appreciate that and thank you for what you do. You remind me (with your actions) of how UCONN fans always applaud the opposing team when it's introduced before the game. We appreciate and value the competition. I live in VA now and go to UVA women's games. I've seen women's BB in other locales. No other fans do that. Yes it's easy to be a fan when your team wins all the time (can I hear a 90 coming up?). But I feel that the respect for the game is very special...and you do your part to keep that value in front of us. Thanks!

 

[DaddyChoc]

at the games invite the fans to the the site... could be 3-8K at a game. friends, family, co-workers... your social media friends paste links. get the word out.

I googled "uconn women's basketball chat" in the summer of 2004... I said there has to be a place where people are talking about UConn Women's Basketball and Taurasi winning 3 in a row. That's how I found the Boneyard (on Scout, or was it Rival)