Postings and posters are really dropping off these days. Seems like we are down to a half dozen regular posters. Last night felt maybe it was the canary in the mine: A very important, possibly season-defining game right? Yet for very long stretches I was often the only one commenting. That can not be good for anyone. Are our days numbered? Everyone switching to reddit and twitter? Is the 280 character rapid fire hot takes culture about to make longer form commenting/analysis extinct? And where, oh where is Berks when we need her?
I'll post more if anyone wants me to. I can't always watch matches live (although I did yesterday) so that's why I'm usually a post match or pre match commentator. I definitely prefer the give and take of bigsoccer to the one sided trollish nature of twitter and reddit so I hope this doesn't go away.
To be honest, I tend to stay away after poor performances because I don't want to read all the negativity.
I’ve definitely been posting less. Part of that is me recognizing and trying to detach a bit more from my phone/internet – it’s not just LA, it’s Spurs and online stuff in general. Part of it is having given up season tickets there’s less of a connection. Part of it is the Galaxy front-office hasn’t been putting in the effort, I could abide by the lackluster off-the-pitch efforts when the on-filed stuff was going so well. Watching as the team just quietly accepted they were okay being an second tier MLS side is hard. Part of it is a massive project at work I’m responsible for is coming due. And part of it, the largest part really, is having a 3 year-old; aside from just taking up a ton of time, I’d honestly rather hang out with him than watch a Galaxy game*. It won’t be long before he decides I’m the least cool person on the planet so I’ll take every second I can. The Galaxy will be there when that day comes. * I can’t wait until he asks to go to a Galaxy game, it’s coming, but probably not until 2020 – with any luck the front office will get their thumb out by then and it’ll be a good time to go. If I had to guess I’d say @Berks is deep in the new kid trenches too.
Once upon a time, BS was really all you had. But I think nowadays Twitter and Reddit and Facebook (slightly) have taken away a lot of people. Plus I think a lot of the internet-savvy young kids who joined BS from '00-'04, when this message board really took off, have got married, had kids, moved away, etc. I know my brother, who was a regular here, stopped posting after he got married, moved to another state and had kids. But don't worry, he's been punished. Severely. He now lives in Orlando and is an Orlando City FC fan....
I purposefully took some time off after the early season because I was so frustrated by the Galaxy. We were just unwatchable. Then I started watching again because... well because I just can't help myself, I guess. But I've for sure backed off posting and that's just continued on even after I started watching again.
I've been watching less, and therefore posting less. Busy with life - yesterday I was out walking my neighborhood for the election, and I only got back in time to see the last 20 minutes. We are a community that has been stagnant but beloved by me for many years! I wish I had an answer. I am on Twitter if anyone (else-we do have some of us there) wants to friend me - @LauraCampCA but it's about 90% politics on my feed, maybe 5% soccer. There is nothing like our team discussions anywhere else that I've seen.
Small world. My parents moved to San Juan when I was 7, I was there through college (and then some). They still live there and we’re just up the road.
Despite the shrinkage, I still find some meaningful discussions here. BS is a place that I can find rumors, news, etc. For me, I don't have time and money to engage with the Galaxy like I use to. Different priorities have taken place and sports have moved down on my list.
Reddit is not too bad, at least in the galaxy and MLS sections. But there's not a huge number of folks posting in the galaxy subreddit, and I've yet to see the kind of in depth intelligent postings that we seem to get here (or used to) pretty regularly. So I'm not sure where everyone has gone. I don't really do twitter, so maybe that's where everyone is.
No one's fault. I'm just bummed enough after bad games and don't need to pour salt in the wounds. Some people come here to vent; I'd rather avoid BS and move on to the next game, season, etc.
FWIW, I don't like posting during games as I want to focus on the play. Like some others, I sometimes skip posting after the big blowout losses like TFC.
I used to post during games (if I'm not AT the game or its away) but the child makes it tough. It's one of the most fun ways to engage on gameday.
Have never really had too much analytical posts and mainly just off the cuff comments etc...but it's been a combination of having just been steadily losing interest in the team due to the FO issues and being busy with other things.
Wife is expecting our first next month. Suddenly the life or death thing I felt for the team is gone. Still love my G's to death! But impending fatherhood has kept me busy. I use to be able to watch games live but with work, birthing classes, family stuff I just DVR every game and watch when I get a chance. I hate talking G's anywhere else but here. Best discussions are here. Worse is twitter! Glad I can come here and talk to you guys.
I've found myself DVRing more games this year than in year's past. In fact, although Sunday's game will be a huge one, I'll be DVRing it as well since I've elected to go rock climbing instead.
I've found myself pretty disenfranchised by MLS in general lately. I'm sure you all have rolled your eyes at me yapping about it at various times here and there (and I realize I'm in the extreme minority), but the lack of American minutes being given around the league, and the trends that will continue to get worse and I know MLS won't change, takes me out of it. If I were a Portland Timbers fan, for instance, I would have stopped supporting them already based on their lack of American minutes. It's basically a foreign team moved their team to Portland and if I want to watch a bunch of foreign players play, these are hundreds of leagues around the world for that (particularly as I'm not able to get to the stadium much anymore). I'm not an ideologue about much, but I feel very strongly about this. I don't care about non-American soccer. Zlatan specifically doesn't get me excited. He's here for one more year at most and I loathe his public persona in general as well as the pass he gets for his often lazy play. Guys like Villa or Almiron don't excite me either. They are just the next in a long line of expensive/famous players who will always start over the talented American prospect. They are reminders that MLS is quickly becoming a league with which I cannot connect. A league without the Joe-Max Moores and Cobi Jones' that I grew up with and ones that will never create have a significant stake in developing American attacking players again. A league I believe will ultimately harm the USMNT and soccer in this country in general as these trends continue. I generally am shouted down when I try to make my case, from MLS fans who say "MLS is thriving, should model themselves after the NFL, and has no obligation to develop players for the USMNT", the Eurosnobs who effuse that all young players should get to Europe™ as soon as they can anyway and that MLS sucks. I often feel without a side, so to speak, and I've just sort of naturally pulled away instead of tilting at windmills. The Galaxy specifically I've seen falling into the pitfalls of bringing in super mediocre foreign players, overpriced terrible foreign players like the rest of the league. This is particularly frustrating when there were huge warning signs up front and we would have been way better off playing the American defenders right under our nose. I find myself hoping the Galaxy don't make the playoffs because I don't want to see this horrible mismanagement of the season rewarded. I don't know what that makes me as a fan (or some who would argue I'm not a fan) but the way I see it is that making the playoffs this season prolongs the reign of this FO.
I'm not sure what's been happening, but my posts have been as awesome as ever. I blame the rest of you guys. Discuss.
@skydog - I'm here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I come and read the posts, and it's one of the ways I consume adult conversation. Please don't let this go away because it'll take away one of my escape pods. @Lazy Assed Assassin is right, I've been sucked into the new kid vortex. I'm a single mother (by choice), and thus 99% of my time of late has been kid related. I still fanatically DVR the games (or watch on ESPN+ which I've paid for), and I still come on here to read posts. I just don't have the time to post the analyses I used to because you guys beat me to it, and I'm not watching live (sadly). I have watched some minutes with new daughter on my lap showing her the future of being a Galaxy fan. I'm watching the games literally while feeding at 2am, so it's an outlet for sure. I just finished watching the Minnesota game this morning. I refuse to fast forward and I watch the games in entirety! So.... here's to the penultimate game next week. I'm excited, and I want some playoff soccer, if at the least to see what Kamara, Zlatan and Romain can do! P.S. Glad Kinnear has stuck with the guys that have got us to this point. The defense hasn't been good, but it hasn't been a dumpster fire, so there's that. I'm no longer yelling at Romney to stay on one side... and hell, even Rolf has had some good plays (usually offensive and not defensive). Also still think JDS has been playing well.
Would've been my wife's birthday today so spent the weekend with family. Work also gave a few of us Ducks tickets as a team building thing. Then at a convention today. Didn't see the game on DVR til late last night and didn't check BS until literally now. I refuse to tempt fate by displaying any form of enthusiasm until such time as a post season berth is assured.