Forum Administration

[Jeff Buchanan]

I have no problem with the diminished posts.

What's getting posted is pertinent to the topics at hand instead of a trail of 10 asinine posts about who is and who is not gay or reparte' duels involving any comers with talent and talent has not been hammered in any of the ones I hated to read through by anyone here no matter how witty they might have thought they were.

So, I'm fine with all this. It's a slow time for the revenue college sports worth talking about. That's the main reason. Secondarily, most of us here read mgoblog which, despite some of its drawbacks, is a good place to fetch M sports news if you know where to look, who to read and who to ignore. No need to repeat it here unless you want to comment on it in some useful way that will be interesting to the posters in general.

I'm running Windows 8.1 on my desk top and my phone. A feature available via that software is MSN Sports (or news, finance, etc.) which sucks in a bunch of sources by major topics. I can hit one tile, select my favorite team (in this case Michigan) and click on links to just about every major sports source saying something about Michigan.

Despite the hellacious press Microsoft has gotten for the new user interface that presents when you use 8.1, it has a lot of utility ..... once you get used to the dang thing. Anyway, we'll be fine with the "censorship." It will crank up starting with fall camp in early August or you can be sure our rivals who post here will post any juicy tidbits about players in trouble this summer. I'm sure there will be some.

[WM Wolverine]

I give news when I have some. I have updated the 2016 recruiting board recently, check it out for realistic targets of M, which have links to their 247 sports profile. I also see this class getting larger than most. 21 to 23, depending upon attrition...

Most recent news is offers to some 2017 kids, but I don't get that far ahead unless they seem likely to commit. Feel free to ask questions about those on the recruiting board, I used to get a decent bit of private messages from members and more so lurkers. Also feel free to bring up questions about recruits not on my recruiting board, lots of recruits are only not on the recruiting board because they haven't visited or planned a visit.

[lineygoblue]

This is always a slow time of year for this forum. Most of us aren't into the Michigan springtime sports, and football won't be active again until voluntary summer workouts, then fall camp.

If some have their nose out of joint over the new policy, then gee whiz .. I'm sorry. My purpose was and is to keep at least some of the threads on topic.

Those who choose to do so can still do the "you're gay, // no, you are" stuff to their heart's content in other threads. Ohio fans can still boast about the Columbus NFL team, and its superman coach, in the appropriate thread, and everyone can still bash the crap out of me in the "anything goes" thread. I don't consider that to be censorship.

If conversation is still this light during the season, I'll be concerned. Until then, I'm not.

[Prime2]

Nothing to apologize for Liney, what I suspect was initially intentioned as a Mary Kay makeover morphed into Beer Hall Putsch, 1923 Munich-style! A military coup that has Buchanan's fingerprints all over it.

But don't worry Liney, over time these things have a way of sorting themselves out, just ask Dave Brandon about the turd sandwich he repeatedly rammed down Michigan football fans that was resoundingly rejected eventually.

Liberty is the soul's right to breathe, and when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight. Without liberty man is in a syncope.
-HWB

[Mackenzie]

Mmmmm. Fair amount of posts about no posts.

[hack]

Did you do whatever you planned to do? I never heard any announcement of any Brandon-esque plan to break what isn't broken, but certainly you made it clear you planned to.

[Jeff Buchanan]

......Liberty is the soul's right to breathe, and when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight. Without liberty man is in a syncope.
-HWB

Face palm.

You can post whatever you like and pretty much wherever you like (with the exception of the few threads that all of us have been asked not to) on this forum.

BTW, have admiration for your depth of hockey knowledge. Those posts are great as are your posts on M football.

Don't get all butt hurt. I had little to do with this but I support Linesman's efforts to kill the off topic posts in certain threads.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Did you do whatever you planned to do? I never heard any announcement of any Brandon-esque plan to break what isn't broken, but certainly you made it clear you planned to.

Face Palm 2

I've learned more about college basketball from your posts and the interchanges you had with fellow posters here regarding that sport than I did in the past 20 years trying to figure out BBALL. Much appreciated .... as are your comments on M football.

See comments in the last paragraph above. They apply.

[iam416]

IMO, the recruiting threads are the only ones that should remain "on-topic." I find it a bit odd to place limitations on frequent posters so that those who occasionally peruse threads don't have to deal with clutter. Seems an olive branch to the wrong constituency. But, I'm more than happy to comply with requested directives. And that fact alone suffices to clear up threads because god knows that my posts, innocuous or pointed or somewhere in between, attract posts by the dozens. When I don't post the tumbleweed blows through and threads are prim and proper.

[Da Geezer]

I agree 100% with Talent, particularly his last sentence.

[Hannibal]

On a related note, it would be nice if we could get some new members. Our numbers have dwindled pretty significantly since the height of the World Crossing days. I think that it this site we have picked up maybe one or two guys? But in the meantime we have lost more than a few.

[iam416]

That's the other thing that tends to support an less restrictive approach. This forum is now down to a core group of maybe 10 people who post with any sort of frequency. That core group has a collective experience posting with one another for, amazingly and sadly, well over a decade. Things police themselves, by and large. In the offseason, the nonsense ramps up. As the season approaches, the topics invariably trend back on target. It's as circadian as f'n shit....set your watch by it. I really don't understand the problem.

Further, the "ignore" feature is fantastic. I know that in the height of the off-season, OP will be on my ignore list periodically as he dials it up to 10. Occasionally, I'll ignore others for a short spell. It cleans up the forum really well, I have to say. I'm not sure why others can't take the same approach with posters they just don't want to read.

I'd also submit that you need simply look at who is commenting on this policy to understand who actually posts here. I understand Paul surely complained to Liney about wading through nonsense and such, but whatever.

Anywho, as I said, I'm more than happy to follow the new policy and have been doing so without exception since implementation. I think it could be a bit more focused (recruiting threads), but, eh, it's not my call.

[Hannibal]

Yeah in terms of frequent posters, you're at about 10-15. IMHO one of the reasons why threads tend to fill up with inane bullshit is because you don't have enough regular posters to offer stuff that is interesting and insightful. I think that we could use about another 10 regular posters, in addition to our old time regulars and also our old timers who only post a couple of times per week or so. I don't think that the forum is unattractive to new posters as much as there's no way for somebody to discover this place. We're not attached to a major site so it's going to be tough.

This is still by far my favorite sports forum. I love it. Very diverse opinions despite the small crowd and the drama/butthurt is generally kept to a minimum. It's one of the few forums out there where minority opinions thrive because people don't default to being offended.

Maybe we could do a membership drive? I have no idea how we would do this though.

[iam416]

Yeah, when I read the MGO comment section my head hurts. And that's just the format!

This forum is really easy to navigate and follow. Something about old-school sequential posting appeals to me.

Obviously, that blog and perhaps Scout/Rivals/247 M boards are sources for potentially new members. It definitely has the allure of non-groupthink (and I'm talking amongst the M fans here) as well as a few "rival" posters + Entropy and his merry band of Team Husker butt pirates. So, it offers a quasi-general CFB forum feel where everything isn't a circle jerk, but is still very M-centric. A nice alternative to wading into the awfulness of ESPN/CBS/TSN comments sections.

yes, I still miss CNNSI/Worldcrossing

[Ghengis Jon]

Things really haven't changed much at all. Most of us mods stand aside when it comes to posting, but I hear that Liney has received a few complaints. I've been a member of The Borg since the Free Press days, a mod since WC and I think I've actually come down on someone exactly twice.

I think what brought the recent announcement about is the off topic stuff within the threads. If someone wants to hammer our 'beloved' osu fans, there's an osu thread - keep it out of the Recruiting thread. Some visitors come here just for recruiting news and don't want to wade through the tripe. Yeah there's probably 10-15 regular posters but a lot more just lurk. There seems to be a correlation in that the more mature the postings, the more people post. I enjoy reading the banter, but lets be more judicious where its posted.

I know I speak for the other mods when I say when we want to keep this forum above the usual internet fray...we certainly don't want to be the Michigan version of O-Zone where infantile behavior is required. We are glad that opponents' fans visit and post. It provides opposing POVs and keeps this place from being an echo chamber. Its all good.

Bottom line is to generally stay on topic within the thread's title. If you can't, hey, start another thread.