What kind of club are we?

[Locke]

One of the major things I've learned during over 15 years of forum administration and creation is that "general chat" forums don't last long. Even though we as a tightly knit group of friends are using the general chat forum more than other sections, we still need a main topic to keep search engines pumping new users our way in order to survive.

Take me, for example: three years ago I got back into WWE. I, despite being a huge internet nerd and 25 years old, never thought to combine watching pro-wrestling with internet discussion. I Googled to get some info about wrestlers "behind the scenes," probably something like "Are HHH and HBK best friends IRL?" and it lead me to WWE-Club, where eventually I'd become a member that is now partly in-charge of rebuilding the platform on which we congregate and bust each others' balls. Not to toot my own horn, but that makes me one random noob that eventually became part of the soul of the community, all because I looked up something WWE related.

Now that our old forum died in a huge dick-move from an overly bitter admin, we have become our own cohesive group of people who may or may not be defined as a "pro-wrestling group" any longer. The staff have tossed around a few ideas so far, but again this is something we should be discussing as a group and not just a select few.

Bottom line is, whether we like it or not, we will need a general and somewhat specific topic to define our community. We all seem interested in many different things, but actively it still seems pro-wrestling and/or sports in general (though sports "in general" is still a bit too vague for Google to bring us members).

So enough rambling, what kind of club are we now? FYI - site name to come after we decide, we may or may not literally call ourselves "club" this time.

I'll toss up some poll options and let you guys take it from here.

[Kyle]

I think wrestling should still be at the forefront but I know that the problem on WWE-Club was that a lot of people stopped watching and lost interest in wrestling, but stuck around because of the other discussion groups like sports, TV and movies, etc. So I do think wrestling should be the main thing but I do enjoy that there are great chat elsewhere about everything else for those who have fallen out with it.

[Locke]

That's very true but I do think WWE will have another "era" that rekindles interest. It's been a long time, it could begin any day. If we were still WWE related when that happened, we'd get 100's of new users.

[Kyle]

I just used the words "are great chat" in a sentence. And I'm supposed to be a writer.

[Locke]

I read it and absorbed it without question and I'm supposed to be a PHP programmer.

#whogivesashit <3

[GNR]

I would say sports in general, that seems to be where the most interest lies, especially if we consider the last days of WWE-Club, that was the only section that was getting any real consistent activity.

[Locke]

I would say sports in general, that seems to be where the most interest lies, especially if we consider the last days of WWE-Club, that was the only section that was getting any real consistent activity.

We just can't rely on general sports, though. Google would never see us... Page 10 at best. That's why we ned specifics. Vote, ya big bastard.. lol

[Hanley!]

I think it's a bit early to make this decision because we don't know what people are responding to yet. In a way, wrestling still seems like the best bet to me because there are a lot of online wrestling fans and because everyone here is at least familiar with the topic. Broadening it to combat fighting in general would be an option but those communities often don't go together so well. Plus how many people here talk about boxing and MMA? Not that many from what I understand. On the last forum, 90% of the boxing threads were created by someone who hasn't even moved over here. Or by someone else who was deliberately trying to annoy him.

I don't think any of the other sports connect with a large percentage of the community already here. And you're right in saying that sports in general is just too broad and you won't get any hits that way.

So I think waiting it out to see what becomes popular over the next couple of months might be the best option. Though if I had to choose right now, I'd say wrestling. Probably wrestling in general rather than just WWE.

Maybe there's a non-sport related angle we could take it in though. I have a couple of half ideas bouncing around, but I'm really not sure how viable they'd be at this point.

[Twister]

I voted combat sports, although I'm not really a fan of anything other than wrestling when it comes to that sort of thing I think it might be the best route to go what with the rise in popularity of mma and such.

I'm really not sure though, I think a wrestling board would work as well, with focus on the general chat sections too.

[DBSoT]

I picked combat sports, but I agree with Hanley that we should wait it out until we have fully established an identity. Ideally I would like to keep wrestling in some fashion because it was the original catalyst for most of us being here.

[ShaneOfan]

Why not make us a wrestling club but make sure we have a combat sports section

[Locke]

Why not make us a wrestling club but make sure we have a combat sports section

Decline in interest of wrestling mainly. It's a dying art compared to MMA.. though I still prefer to be wrestling oriented, especially the non-WWE stuff (I don't watch it but I find it intriguing). We don't need to be the most popular place on the planet but an admin's first priority is the safety and longevity of the community he's pouring hard work into. The MMA rub couldn't hurt us.

[Viazon]

I always thought it would be nice for the whole club to just be, in general, a discussion forum. Somewhere where people could come and just shoot shit about anything. But I know it's hard to attract members like that. There are literally thousands of places on the internet where you could do that. So I guess having the club based around something, then it would attract more members. I'm just happy this place is here and with you guys here too, so whatever direction this site goes in, I'm down with it.

[Locke]

^The actual theme won't change our habits, so like you I'm just happy as hell we're here (but come the fuck on, NoDQ, people are working too hard to find your ass lol). I had a forum I dedicated 10+ years of my life to called Forum Central that was nothing but general chat and it failed miserably in the end because it attracted very little new blood. I won't be doing that again willingly.

[AkydefGoldberg]

TBH, I was not going to join this new forum because I've lost touch with wrestling and didn't want to be drawn back into something I don't tune into. But Tim said the new forum was going to be more combat sports than wrestling and that drew me in. ATM, WWE isn't in a great place so I think it'd be best to focus on combat sports (boxing was discussed well on WWE Club) and allow people to make their own topics on wrestling without feeling forced to. Issue with WWE Club for me, was going into the WWE forum and seeing endless posts with links to "news stories" and that's it. I hope this forum will have a more freer area where people can post and if they don't, there's no moaning.

[HardcoreLegend]

Why not make us a wrestling club but make sure we have a combat sports section

Decline in interest of wrestling mainly. It's a dying art compared to MMA.. though I still prefer to be wrestling oriented, especially the non-WWE stuff (I don't watch it but I find it intriguing). We don't need to be the most popular place on the planet but an admin's first priority is the safety and longevity of the community he's pouring hard work into. The MMA rub couldn't hurt us.

I thought the whole buzz around MMA was dying down. A couple of years ago it had the whole hype, but nowadays I would say its on a level with wrestling, if not below!

As for the direction of the club, I don't think we need one right now. We are basically an exclusive club of "friends" at the moment and for the time being, I don't see the need of a specific direction. Just let us be a forum who come together and talk about fuck all.

[Locke]

^It's sounds great on paper but I've got too much experience behind it to see a "chat forum" with no aim working. Here's a few reasons:

1. When people join a forum, it's because they're interested in discussing a topic with like minded fans of something. At WWE-Club they joined to diss Cena, praise a wild unexpected match, or particularly juicy backstage drama. Without that topic there, no new blood which leads me to..

2. Usually people don't like breaking into pre-established groups of friends without that topic as an ice breaker. Had I ever stumbled upon WWE-Club as simply Super Great Friends Club, I doubt I'd even have signed up. Forums get cliquey, and as any newbie with an unfamiliar avatar or post-count, getting involved can he tough, daunting, or frankly too difficult.. even if we're all the most amazing community there is. Someone Googling for something will not find a general group chat forum in us interesting if we're not still somehow loosely affiliated by a common interest, which leads me to..

3. Despite things feeling awesome now, we will always need new members to stay afloat and active. Do we need tens of thousands? Heavens no, but we'll need new posters occasionally showing up as old posters get board, take breaks, or lose interest altogether. Besides, without new blood, you'd never have gotten me, and I'm just dead sexy. Okay, maybe ignore the last bit.

4. I can't really begin work on the new forum's design, bells, whistles, games, tools, and awesome features without purchasing a good hosting plan, and good hosting plans require you settle on a .com, .net, .org, or other decent domain extension. I don't know how much activity "www.ex-wrestling-fan-club.com" would net us, though.

All in all deciding our topic doesn't enforce us to play only by those topic's rules. We'd sill be every bit as free to chat about whatever we pleased just how we do now. It'd simply give us a fresh coat of paint and a selling point for all those cool cats out there who still enjoy foruming, posting, avatars, signatures, and spammy post-counts that haven't been able to find us yet.

[Daz]

As of right now, it remains unclear what type of club we are. I definitely agree, a forum without a focus is gonna have trouble attracting new members, and I've been on forums with a tight knit community where everyone gets along and are all friendly ... they don't often work, because new members find it difficult to penetrate their way into the inner circle.

That being said, we're still new. We have no real identity other than still being in that post WWE-Club fuckery glow. We need time for that to go away and establish our own deal. Give it a month or two, and we can make a more informed decision based on what the mass of our members have been posting/discussing.

[PorkChop]

Why not make us a wrestling club but make sure we have a combat sports section

Decline in interest of wrestling mainly. It's a dying art compared to MMA.. though I still prefer to be wrestling oriented, especially the non-WWE stuff (I don't watch it but I find it intriguing). We don't need to be the most popular place on the planet but an admin's first priority is the safety and longevity of the community he's pouring hard work into. The MMA rub couldn't hurt us.

I thought the whole buzz around MMA was dying down. A couple of years ago it had the whole hype, but nowadays I would say its on a level with wrestling, if not below!

As for the direction of the club, I don't think we need one right now. We are basically an exclusive club of "friends" at the moment and for the time being, I don't see the need of a specific direction. Just let us be a forum who come together and talk about fuck all.

I couldn't disagree more about MMA dying down - it's still on the rise and has just overtaken MLB in global popularity according to Repucom. Many of the UFC's champions are being sponsored by Nike now, appearing on BBC News, and UFC have just announced a deal with BT Sport to increase exposure here in the UK.

The reason you might not hear so much about it is because they no longer have the 'Lesnar effect', but it's continuing to grow, trust me.

[Str8Shooter]

I don't think MMA (the UFC anyway) is as popular as it was a few years ago. I don't see nearly as much mainstream coverage of it and I think the ridiculous number of cards has turned some people off of it. UFC has plateaued, still popular, but I don't see it growing much bigger than it is right now.

Even the current members of this site, how many would consider themselves UFC or MMA fans? Myself I'm at best a casual watcher. And the MMA threads on the old Club didn't exactly get huge responses. If we were to make this site focused on something, I would say it should be on something that the people already here could contribute a lot too. If we're a Combat Sports forum and there's next to no threads or discussion about Combat Sports, why would anyone see it and join?