New Forum

Discussion in 'MLS: General' started by Huss, Aug 12, 2002.

  1. Huss

    Huss Member

    Aug 1, 1995
    New York, NY
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    In an effort to improve the general signal:noise ratio, we have created a new forum called MLS: Fans. This is for more lighthearted discussion including why Landon is the dreamiest. I'm sure Knave and some others will post additional thoughts into this thread for your edification.
     
  2. AndyMead

    AndyMead Homo Sapien

    Nov 2, 1999
    Seat 12A
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    I'm all for clarification, but I'm kinda confused at the difference between Major League Soccer and MLS Fans.

    News & Analysis should contain just about anything of substance.

    I don't understand how anything else could be seperated unless you're trying to seperate the 13 year old girls (Landon Donovan is just dreamy) from the 13 year old boys (everything else).
     
  3. BenC1357

    BenC1357 Member

    Feb 23, 2001
    KC
    Yeah, if you were going to do this to curb the Donovan rush of 2002 in the MLS forum, what about the US forum. Two recent threads are Donovan in another magazine and Cobi on Animal plante.....

    I dont get it, but I dont think it really matters either.
     
  4. Huss

    Huss Member

    Aug 1, 1995
    New York, NY
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    We're trying to figure it out. Suggestions for MLS and US forums much apprecaited.
     
  5. Mr Hanki's Throne

    Mr Hanki's Throne New Member

    Mar 13, 2001
    Wellington, Colo
    I like this breakout forum.

    You might want to edit the description to include regular humor features like the captions.
     
  6. Rocket

    Rocket Member

    Aug 29, 1999
    Chicago
    Club:
    Everton FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Why not call the new forum "MLS: Players and Personalities" instead of "MLS: Fans"?

    "MLS: Fans" sounds like another name for the Rivalry forum.

    I'd put the Jack & Ty, Max Bretos, etc threads in the new forum in addition to the Veronica and Paulina fluff.

    And the new forum might make a good storebin for the ubiquitous "MLS WPL Prediction Thread #..."
     
  7. Fah Que

    Fah Que Member

    Sep 29, 2000
    LA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    We need this type of forum in San Jose forum badly. All the groupies over there should stop using San Jose board and post in that new forum.
     
  8. BenC1357

    BenC1357 Member

    Feb 23, 2001
    KC
    Have your mods move the LD threads over to the new forum if everyone agrees they dont belong in the SJ forum.
     
  9. Knave

    Knave Member+

    May 25, 1999
    Just to clarify Huss's somewhat ambiguous statement - I have no opinion on Landon's relative level of dreaminess. Got it? Good.

    Well, this new forum came out of a discussion in the mod's forum about the relative level of signal to noise at BigSoccer.com in general and on some of the MLS team boards in particular.

    I suggested that we might now have developed a need for something equivalent to the long established Women’s Soccer Fan Clubs and More forum to better accommodate the light and casual discussions that appear here ever more frequently. Giving these discussions a place of their own would help maintain a space for the serious and intelligent discussion that was and continues to be the primary reason that most of us come here.

    What I was mostly thinking about in making this proposal are the "teeny-bopper" type discussions that revolve around the likes of Donovan, Convey and Twellman amongst others. These threads could now go in the fans forum. Discussion about Paysee's merits and what MLS players you know personally would probably also qualify for the new forum. Dreamy threads about what logos need to go etc. might be just as well there.

    The Fan's forum could also an outlet if things really get oppressive on the team boards - as may be the case on the SJ board. Not every less than serious thread on an MLS team board would go there but I suspect that every team board will decide its criteria over time (fitting it to their board's character) and move the appropriate threads to the fans board.

    So we'd have five MLS boards that broke down roughly as follows ...

    ... and the MLS mods should amend these if I get anything wrong ...

    Ranked roughly by order of seriousness.

    MLS News and Analysis - for just that. Topics include serious discussion of news articles and analysis of their implications.

    MLS General - for discussion of the daily happenings, events and trends around the league. Perhaps things like attendance, playoff tables and the like could go there. Serious discussion of trends (ex. has contraction helped MLS?) would probably also go here.

    MLS Expansion and Stadiums – about just that.

    MLS Fans – for discussion of light and casual things. Landon’s love life and Veronica’s appeal would work here. Sightings of Cobi at a local mall or of Clint at a local watering hole would also be proper fare. And then there’s all the threads that you might classify as idle speculation and wishful dreaming. This would be a friendly forum as opposed to - well - the next one ...

    MLS Rivalries – do they have discussion there or is it just smack?

    ... or something along those lines ...

    Feel free to amend and correct ...
     
  10. jlo

    jlo New Member

    May 18, 2000
    Baton Rouge, LA
    I'm happy to know that the people at BigSoccer are wise enough to know what is serious discussion and what isn't.

    I'm also glad to know that a prediction league with 40 active participants needs to be placed into a "storebin", while attendance threads and playoff tables are considered serious.

    This is a soccer website. My threads are all about soccer games. I am at a loss to understand how that puts me in a category with Landon Donavan's love life and Cobi Jones' shopping habits. Eventually a new category will be created called "MLS: Utter Crap", and I bet I'll get stuck in that one, too.

    If the general consensus is that the weekly prediction league is "noise" rather than "signal", and that it is interfering with the enjoyment of the "serious" fan, then I have two alternative suggestions:

    (a) put it in a completely separate forum so it won't bother anybody; or

    (b) tell me you don't think the prediction league fits the master plan, and I'll take my marbles and go.
     
  11. Mr Hanki's Throne

    Mr Hanki's Throne New Member

    Mar 13, 2001
    Wellington, Colo
    There would be an argument that prediction league would go into "Games".... :(
     
  12. soccerdome

    soccerdome New Member

    Yeah, that would be cool. Use commentators.
     
  13. empennage

    empennage Member

    Jan 4, 2001
    Phoenix, AZ
    I agree with JLO the prediction league belongs in the general MLS forum.

    Why are the attendance threads not considered noise? Every week this is how the thread goes:

    -10 people make predictions on this weeks attendance
    -Attendance figures come in, and people bitch about SJ attendance
    -Someone jokes about creating a "Move SJ thread"
    -Someone does create a "Move SJ thread"

    -Someone creates the following weeks thread.

    I honestly don't see how that cannot be considered noise. The weekly thread is so predictable that it is like clock work.
     
  14. Rocket

    Rocket Member

    Aug 29, 1999
    Chicago
    Club:
    Everton FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    At least the attendance threads are occasionally interesting and informative.

    What do your prediction league threads have to offer besides:

    Clb 0:1 LA
    Chi 1:2 KC

    Clb 1:3 LA
    Chi 1:2 KC

    etc, etc, etc
     
  15. empennage

    empennage Member

    Jan 4, 2001
    Phoenix, AZ
    Well my point is that the attendance threads=noise, and all noise should be in the same forum.
     
  16. jlo

    jlo New Member

    May 18, 2000
    Baton Rouge, LA
    vw, the prediction league isn't designed to make good reading. It is designed to be a participatory activity. I don't pretend that it has any merit for the people who aren't involved in it. However, the same thing could be said for every topic posted on these boards. What do I care about the endless array of threads involving Veronica Paysse, Jack and Ty, or how the attendance at __________ is terrible and the team should be moved? I don't care. But I don't insult the authors of those threads, and I don't see other people doing it.

    The only meaningful way to measure the intrinsic worth of a topic is by the number of responses that the topic generates. The whole concept that there is some soccer elite that is capable of separating serious discussion from "noise" is preposterous.

    I have 40 regular participants in my topic of choice. How many do I need before I am immune from being labeled a noise maker?
     
  17. Rocket

    Rocket Member

    Aug 29, 1999
    Chicago
    Club:
    Everton FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    jlo,

    The only thing I disliked about the Prediction League was that the MLS General board seemingly had about 5 of those threads on page 1 at any given time.

    Personally, I think it would be nice if Huss created a new forum just for your league. That way all the prediction threads would conveniently be together in one spot.

    And the EPL guys are coming up with a prediction league too. Maybe it could go in there too, along with the season prediction leagues (BTW, thanks very much GPK/Huss for the 2 months free premium service I won as a prize for coming 3rd in last year's MLS season prediction league :) )
     
  18. sljohn

    sljohn Member

    Apr 28, 2001
    Out of town
    Here's my two cents:

    > I appreciate the moderators trying to improve the signal to noise ratio. That is a worthy objective.

    > The definitions given for "MLS News and Analysis" and "MLS General" are too close to one another. I thought the original purpose of News and Analysis was for an improved signal:noise ratio with the General forum being just that--for general league-wide (not team-specific) topics.

    > Based on the stated purpose of "MLS: Fans" the Weekly Prediction League does not belong there. This makes it look like you are already breaking your own rules!

    > I'd like to see the prediction league get its own forum under "MLS" (I'll even volunteer to moderate it if that's a concern). The prediction league is one of the primary reasons I frequent BigSoccer (and a strong reason why I decided to support BigSoccer with a premium membership). Like jlo, I am disturbed by the idea that it is not a fully welcome feature of BigSoccer.
     
  19. Huss

    Huss Member

    Aug 1, 1995
    New York, NY
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    It is absolutely fully welcome. We are always trying to find better ways to organize. Sometimes we screw it up. Perhaps we have this time.
     
  20. Godot22

    Godot22 New Member

    Jul 20, 1999
    Waukegan
    Some thoughts:

    1. "Less serious" does not equal "less important" or "less welcome." Nobody's saying that the prediction contest isn't a good thing, only that it's not at all worth reading if you don't participate, nor is it intended to be. Those who participate will find it wherever it is. For those who don't, it's one less source of noise on the MLS boards.

    2. Is the number of MLS forums already ridiculous? If not, how about an MLS: Contests forum, home to nothing but prediction league, guess the caption, and any other contests we dream up (maybe an attendance prediction league? People do it anyway.)

    3. As for the purpose of the "Fans" forum, if it's just nothing but Landongroupieness, that's fine, though I could personally care less. (Is there that much of that going around now?) But here's another potential use: make it place for discussion of the topics us vets are sick of: promotion-relegation, "ESPN are tools of the devil", "insert-aging-former-star-here to MLS" etc. It takes a special kind of perversity to go to a forum you know is filled with that kind of stuff just to point out that someone's idea has been rehashed a million times.
     
  21. Bigfoot

    Bigfoot New Member

    Do what the porn sites do:

    Separate the kids from the adults by requiring a credit credit card number to get into the adult discussion area of the site.

    Who wants to pay $30 ($40 if renewed) to discuss soccer with a 14, 15, 16 or 17 year old anyway.
     
  22. Jacen McCullough

    Nov 23, 1998
    Maryland
    I don't know how much I like that idea Bigfoot. I was 18 when I started posting here 4 years ago, and I don't think my posting was below the level of intelligent conversation. It all depends on the individual. Besides that, for every inane 15 year old Landon drooler on the Quakes forum, I could probably point out 5 or 6 "more mature" idiots among the BS crowd. It's more in how a poster acts than how old they are.

    JMac
     
  23. AndyMead

    AndyMead Homo Sapien

    Nov 2, 1999
    Seat 12A
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    So "name the caption" is less "fan stuff" or fluff than debates about Landon or Veronica?

    I don't understand the dividing line.
     
  24. Mr Hanki's Throne

    Mr Hanki's Throne New Member

    Mar 13, 2001
    Wellington, Colo
    I though captions would eventually end up in fluff. I don't like to have to wade thru serious discussions to get to my tabloid-style content.
     
  25. empennage

    empennage Member

    Jan 4, 2001
    Phoenix, AZ
    Why aren't the Rob Stone and Veronice Paysee threads over in the fan forum? After all that forum is supposed to be about the "personalities" of MLS

    I think it's because the moderators never really want a "fan" forum, they just wanted a place put the prediction league. So I say change the name of the damn forum or get rid of it.
     

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