Re: State of the Forum Poll This forum has become a very big part in my life over the past two years. I really enjoy the opportunity to meet all the different people from different countries and cultural backgrounds and discuss the beautiful game with them... I love it. However, I think that our forum in particular is not as active as other ones, IDK if it is because of the lack of participation from our posters or the lack of Barça fans on the forum... In any case I like the atmosphere here, our poster are some of the best on Bigsoccer, our Mods are doing a great job...
Re: State of the Forum Poll The lack of participation is the biggest problem, but that I think goes hand in hand with the fact that we all get along and almost fully agree with each other. The Mods are excellent. I also believe we have some of the most capable and smart posters in the whole BS world.
Re: State of the Forum Poll As a relative newcomer and someone who's read a lot of other forums at big soccer, I think this forum is great. I'm extremely impressed with the posters here and I have learned a lot. Perhaps some more posters would be good, but only a few more. Many forums have way too many.
Re: State of the Forum Poll I really enjoy this forum and I think the mods we have are great. I think that there is room for improvement regarding the amount of posts. The participation could be increased, but I'd rather have quality discussions. I was thinking about this the other day and we all seem to agree that totalbarca is a really in depth website. I was thinking that maybe someone (or even a few people) could take some time to view some of the interesting articles and post a question or two surrounding that article. I'm not sure how to credit the source....or just to link it....I guess the moderators would know best. Anyhow, maybe every Monday and/or Thursday the new questions and articles they are related to could be posted and we could discuss it. I picked those days because it would increase forum participation on slower days. Perhaps this idea will come under scrutiny....but I really would like to see this Barcelona forum as being one of the best forums on here. Anyways, we can brainstorm ideas or suggestions on how to increase participation together.
Re: State of the Forum Poll When you say the forum is not as active as others...which forums are you comparing it too... Because this forum is a lot more active than a lot.... This forum is very organized...And all the threads actually mean something..Unlike a lot of forums on this site...for example...Look at the Arsenal forum or the Real Madrid forum... threads are great but to a degree you dont want to many threads...
i think this forum is really great.... i don't really care about the lack of participation because our discussions usually mean something unlike let's say the LPBs forum.
Re: State of the Forum Poll Perhaps I was erroneous in the words I used. I'm not specifically trying to compare this forum to the Arsenal forum and I'm not saying that I want many threads. I would like to see quality discussions (which we already have) but with more volume. I'm not saying that everyone who ever posts here should get on and spend all day on this site....but I think by bringing articles in to the mix....we can either agree or refute with the article itself. It may serve as a springboard for more discussion. All I'm saying is we have the greatest team on Earth, and I would like to see a bit more talking. I'm not criticizing us, because I enjoy the forum....I really do. I know I haven't posted as much as I did before, so I'm not blaming anyone. We have the best match threads and MOTM threads. Our discussion is on point to. I would just like to see more discussion that's all. If you look at it....our "other teams" discussion gets way more posts than our "Barca season" thread. I realize that there's many more "other" teams out there....but surely we can talk a bit more about our team. I think one of the problems may be that a lot of us don't speak Catalan or Spanish so its hard to understand (even with google translation) anything in EMD or Sport. Anyways, I really like this forum. I also realized that I mentioned the same point about four times, haha.
I like this forum and think that it benefits from having consistent participation by an evolving core of readers/commenters. Sometimes I do wish there was more participation - for instance I checked the season thread yesterday and the last comment there was from 3 days earlier - but I'd rather have the well organized threads, generally thoughtful analysis and discussion then simply have more posts. I think our mods and match thread starters do a great job.
Re: State of the Forum Poll ^^^ zing! I'll confess, as an off-and-on ol' timer here, that I haven't participated as much as, say, last season. This is just because of personal and professional troubles of late, but I still check in with the forum. When things settle down for me, I'll most likely be back in here striking up the banter... Keep up the good work, mods and especially VEB with the game thread openers.
inswinger just reminded me ...... props to VEB .... we definitely have the best thread opener in bigsoccer
sometimes i get lonely on matchdays when i feel like im replying to myself i miss the days when there was a lot more activity...... what happened to lucho anyways?
That happens to me many times too! Re: Lucho, He disappeared after he infamously said that Pique was the new Oleguer...
it's gotten to teh point where i've given almost all the regulars reps, and i can't even rep anyone anymore because of it.
Hey just want to apologize to Sodamnsmooth, I took something the wrong way and well just wanted to apologize publicly cause I blasted him publicly.Again sorry and may we enjoy together again. I will try to get the joke next time.
I guess I'll go first amongst the mods. It has been an absolute privilege to be a moderator on this board. Sure, it's easy being pleasant when the club you support wins everything, but even before the glory of 08/09, this place has always been a good-natured place to talk football and share some lol's. And, of course, to discuss all things related to Barça with some of the most knowledgeable posters anywhere. And when it comes to trolls, we don't let them bother us. Did you know after the CL final I didn't have to bin a single post or ban a single user? I think visitors see the tone we set and respect it. It's become an overused phrase but it fits here: this place is class. Now I made the joke in the Rivalries thread that I was OK with the lower traffic in here because it means less work for me, but honestly, I share the view that some of you have that it wouldn't hurt to have more posting in here. But you get out of this what you put into it. Post more, start more threads, do what you feel and if the consensus is to merge threads or whatever, the regulars will let us mods know (you can count on that!) There's so many competitions to talk about, or even NSR stuff to occupy our posting itches. And this place is cyclical too: next year's WC will bring more people here, just like it does every four years. And I do honestly miss some of the posters who've come before us: astabooty, lucho, sweetnickwilly, greddy, chrisc, elchico (I hope he's alright), tiemyshoey, acmilan_barcelona (although I have a sneaking suspicion he/she has come back as another poster), sangcule, ircule, even Jeffrey S who would come on here once in a blue moon and berate us for not talking tactics enough. But hey, people move on. Before Facebook, there was MySpace, and before that there was Friendster. Through all the fads of social networking, I've stuck it out on here. Because I love this board, I love this sport, but most of all I love this club and I love watching this club along with all of you! WAR PEP AND THE BOYS! VISCA EL BARÇA!!!
Kinda in the same boat of late. I feel for ya, hope you "sort" things out. While I just haven't been in a "great writing mode", nothing of Barça has escaped me. It's pumping too much blood and thoughts through my system... probably what keeps me insane these days. Seconded! He was right. They're Catalan and bearded, lol... true. Bravo Monty!!!! Thank-you to all you guyals here... I can only imagine if we all lived in the same city. We'd have to open up a pub of our own, get together and follow Barça's adventures... with the help of good drinks and tapas of course!! Andrés, you know who you are... keep up the fantabulous, it's appreciated to the max!
Great post Monty! Very hard post to follow, since I agree with everything you said. I quoted only this part, because to me it's what defines this forum the best. He's right, moderating this forum is always a privilege, never a chore. We've created a nice group here, Barça fans from all around the globe watching games and discussing the team together, respectfully. In the best times and in the worst times it has always been a nice place to be. I mean, most of the time I'd rather watch a game here, with you guys than go out to a bar surrounded by strangers. It's like watching a game with a group of friends. Sure, I miss some of the regulars from when I started posting here(all those Monty named plus Malicia), but thankfully we've gotten some great new members (what's up Andres!). As Monty said, new people are bound to come in. As long as we keep the forum this way, those new members who come in will respect that and act accordingly. But, I agree with some of you that this place could be more active. Let's all work on that together. We're a bunch of like minded people, who live in different timezones. There's always something to share, talk about or discuss. See an interesting article about Barça somewhere? Don't be afraid of sharing it with others! If you see something that's not Barça related, but you think is funny/cool, well share it on the NSR section, that's what it's for. Anyway, thanks for the input everyone... and keep posting. Visca el Barça.
Most of the above mentioned 'ex-posters' seem to have left or started posting less since I came . . .
I knew I would miss somebody! That's why I didn't want to get into the list of posters who are here whom I genuinely admire (and there's quite a lot of you!) because I knew I would forget someone there too! Better to offend those not around, I always say.