Considering some shakeup to our sports section: feedback wanted

[Everlong]

Hey guys,

So we continue to get more traffic into our site, which is great news. One of my goals when we started this place was to be getting around 300 unique visitors per day after 6 months, and we're already averaging more than 400 now over the last couple weeks (just past 6 months). The next goal: keep increasing those views, and also do what we can to convert those views to sign ups.

One of the biggest ways that we get views (and therefore, new signups) on this site is by creating new topics. This is why I like to reward people who create lots of topics with rep or Member of the Month -- they're doing a lot to increase our exposure on search engines. Our success lately in drawing views with a wide variety of topics has caused me to re-think the way that we're going about our sports forum arrangement.

Right now, our general sports board is the 3rd most active forum on the site. However, it also has one of the highest "post to topic" ratios on the site. This means that topics in general are getting significantly more discussion than other topics on the site, largely in part to the big season-long threads people are using for those sports.

Here's the thing: while it's great to get a lot of discussion contained in one thread, the benefit to doing that is actually a lot less than creating multiple threads. Multiple threads mean more entries in a search engine, which means more chances for unique visitors and new registrants.

So here are some of the changes I'm thinking of making:

• End "season long" discussion threads and replace them with weekly discussion threads
• Put all big "breaking news" for sports into their own separate threads, as people will be searching for information about this news and it could send them our way
• POSSIBLY split the sports forum into World Football, NFL and General Sports Discussion

Before I make any moves on doing this I wanted to get opinions, as I know this particularly affects people who take place in the big soccer discussion threads. But I hope I was clear in terms of the potential benefits that this would provide to the board and why I'm leaning toward going this route.

So, let me know what you think!

[SlightlyJames]

It could be a bit of a faff having to re-subscribe to each of the football threads as they come along if it were weekly. I could maybe get behind a more frequent thread turnaround though, maybe monthly?

[The Legend]

I agree with all of the things you are saying. I'm not even sure if a weekly thread would be needed. I say if there's something you need to say you can just create a topic for it so we can discuss it. I know for me, I pretty much never go into the season long thread type things. There's just too much in there.

[Everlong]

I agree with all of the things you are saying. I'm not even sure if a weekly thread would be needed. I say if there's something you need to say you can just create a topic for it so we can discuss it. I know for me, I pretty much never go into the season long thread type things. There's just too much in there.

Yeah I feel the same, although for sports like soccer or baseball it's a little more difficult because there are games happening almost every day, so it's a lot harder to contain in one thread than general discussion for football, where there's a pretty fixed schedule each week for games. This is why I suggest the weekly thread idea for those kinds of sports.

But in terms of big breaking news, I'd definitely like to see those made into separate topics. Not only does it make it easier for people to jump in and discuss, but it also has a lot of benefits for us as a site being found in search engines.

[ShaneOfan]

I like the idea of separate threads instead of one big one per season. Also I would do separate boards for NFL, Soccer, Combat sports(MMA, Boxing), and then one for "other"(which would include NHL, NBA, MLB, etc until we get enough people talking about one sport to warrant it's own board)

[Everlong]

Also I would do separate boards for NFL, Soccer, Combat sports(MMA, Boxing), and then one for "other"(which would include NHL, NBA, MLB, etc until we get enough people talking about one sport to warrant it's own board)

I think I'd still hold off on combat sports because I haven't seen enough discussion on those in the main sports forum yet to merit their own section. Right now by far the most sports discussion is centered around football and soccer, which is why those two would be the first ones to get their own forums.

[ShaneOfan]

Also I would do separate boards for NFL, Soccer, Combat sports(MMA, Boxing), and then one for "other"(which would include NHL, NBA, MLB, etc until we get enough people talking about one sport to warrant it's own board)

I think I'd still hold off on combat sports because I haven't seen enough discussion on those in the main sports forum yet to merit their own section. Right now by far the most sports discussion is centered around football and soccer, which is why those two would be the first ones to get their own forums.

That works for me. I am excited for a NFL board. I plan to post a LOT.

[SlightlyJames]

[email]http://img.pandawhale.com/post-19890-Cartman-pacing-come-on-come-on-9VTm.gif[/email]

[ShaneOfan]

[email]http://img.pandawhale.com/post-19890-Cartman-pacing-come-on-come-on-9VTm.gif[/email]

[PorkChop]

End "season long" discussion threads and replace them with weekly discussion threads

I think this would be a good idea. It would allow us to be more relevant in terms of search results than the current method, at least - which would likely bring more members to the forum.

Put all big "breaking news" for sports into their own separate threads, as people will be searching for information about this news and it could send them our way

I'm also a fan of this change. What might be worth considering as well is when somebody posts a thread, put an obvious signpost of what the thread relates to, i.e:

[NFL] Seattle Seahawks win the SuperBowl
[BOXING] Floyd Mayweather beats Marcos Maidana
[TENNIS] Wimbledon 2014 discussion thread

etc etc.

I feel this would help organise things majorly, despite being a minor change. Someone could easily and quickly go through the section and open in tabs topics pertaining to the sport they're interested in, as opposed to being faced with a wall of topics which all kinda look the same.

I think now that we're starting to get more views, we should basically perform an audit on each section - review it and make changes to ensure our forum is in optimum shape to attract new members.

[Everlong]

^Thanks @Porkchop! Out of curiosity, how do you feel about the splitting of the forums?

[PorkChop]

^Thanks @PorkChop! Out of curiosity, how do you feel about the splitting of the forums?

I'm all for it. Part of the reason WWE-Club failed as because of a reluctance to try new things. Let's take that as a lesson

[Everlong]

Ha, indeed. Alright, I may consider splitting the forums within the next week or two as well. May as well do it while we're about to see a big ramp up in terms of NFL discussion with training camp approaching, and with the World Cup going on in the soccer world.

[SKS]

End "season long" discussion threads and replace them with weekly discussion threads

I think this would be a good idea. It would allow us to be more relevant in terms of search results than the current method, at least - which would likely bring more members to the forum.

Put all big "breaking news" for sports into their own separate threads, as people will be searching for information about this news and it could send them our way

I'm also a fan of this change. What might be worth considering as well is when somebody posts a thread, put an obvious signpost of what the thread relates to, i.e:

[NFL] Seattle Seahawks win the SuperBowl
[BOXING] Floyd Mayweather beats Marcos Maidana
[TENNIS] Wimbledon 2014 discussion thread

etc etc.

I feel this would help organise things majorly, despite being a minor change. Someone could easily and quickly go through the section and open in tabs topics pertaining to the sport they're interested in, as opposed to being faced with a wall of topics which all kinda look the same.

I think now that we're starting to get more views, we should basically perform an audit on each section - review it and make changes to ensure our forum is in optimum shape to attract new members.

I agree with this. I know I usually make a new Futbol discussion thread every 1,000 posts, but I wouldn't mind doing one every week/2 weeks.

And if you split the forums and need another sports mod, I'd volunteer as well

[AkydefGoldberg]

Yeah I'd agree with the changes. It' be good to go into the sports forum and know which posts are football, boxing etc. I don't particularly mind the single thread for soccer, keeps all discussion in there but can understand keeping seperate newer threads might help with generating new members and hits. As long as the weekly, monthly threads are stickied, then great stuff.

[Everlong]

You'll notice that I did the forum split tonight. Feel free to give me feedback and let me know if there's anything else we should tweak.

[Twister]

I was slightly confused when I saw the TNA forum has gone but in fairness it's not very active so I understand why it's gone. Liking the new sports forums though, should make that area of the site easier to navigate

[AkydefGoldberg]

Are the predictions games going to go the in soccer area or is there going to be a another sub-section created? Out of interest, think might see if the Superbru website could host the PL picks game next season or might carry on as normal this upcoming season.

[GameDesigner14]

I'm all for it and I would like to make a suggestion. We're about to start the fantasy football game and the weekly picks and other threads related to the football season. We should have a separate section just for the fantasy games and the weekly picks so that it is organized and easy to access.