"*~*~ OFFICIAL EMERGENCY PRESS CONFERENCE THREAD*~*~"

Giantmetfan07

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Alright, so there are rumors swirling of imminent changes here, and I am here to say these rumors are untrue. However, the owners have been recently discussing the idea of a name change, among other changes. There is one thing I can guarantee: Nothing if official. Nothing is set in stone. We're only discussing ideas on how to move forward, and how we can make this forum bigger, with more activity. 
 
About 1 week ago Shaggy & Iceman contacted me privately, which we do from time to time, and they asked me some basic questions. My commitment to SI, how do I feel about the IPB Software, would I be open to changing to another software, etc. Then came the big question - "What would you think about a name change?  Keeping the same IPB but changing Sportzin to something else, like SportsForums.com?"

I was honest. I said I was 50/50 on a name change because for starters it's not my decision to make, and I told him the reason we're still chugging along is because of the core group of guys. The members who have been posting here for 5+ years, some even since day

 
1. If they're not on board with a change of identity, it won't work.
2. It has to be a good name, something unique. An then I told him the best idea would be to start a website - could be attached to SI as a "main page" or be independent, and if it was working after a year, then you attach SI to it, and THEN consider changing the name. 
 
Turns out we were thinking along similar lines. Shaggy & Iceman own other forums, and their idea for a while has been to start a website, and use that sort of as a hub for all their forums. Forums they currently own, and forums they plan to create down the road. Their idea is to name it something like SportsDriven.com, which isn't too bad.  It's a bold idea, and I like it. And he admitted it may not work, but they want to go for it.
 
Then we turned things over to the staff. I mentioned that we have guys on staff, most notably Pugz, who have been here for a long time. If you want to gauge how a name change would be received, that's the place to get your first impression. And again, it seems like the staff is 50/50. I also told him to ask the members here before making any final decisions, because what's the point if the majority of the users aren't in favor of it? This isn't a Ricktatorship, it's a democracy. If we decide on a name, we'll vote. If the staff approves it, then we might go to all of the members and have you guys vote (I say maybe. I can't speak for the owners).
 
The idea is to bring in more traffic. A name change is one way. I'm sure there are others we could explore. Shaggy's feeling is that a name like SportsForums or The Sports Forum would show up higher in google searches, etc. He also told me he is open to suggestions. I don't know anything about SEO, I really wish I did.
 
Personally, I don't know if a name change will work. I feel like we could change the name, but it should be unique. And the best way for it to grow is by networking - by people hearing about it. "Hey, you should check out yada yada, great place to debate sports". Pushing it on social media platforms. Acquire other dying forums to bring in their members, even if only 5-10 stick around. Using weekly/monthly email newsletters to possibly bring back members who haven't been on in months or even years.  Podcasts (again, social media), etc. 
 
It won't change over night, but with hard work, after a few years it could work out. There are tons of examples of websites that blew up. One off the top of my head is Barstool. The writers are morons, there's no editing, content gets repeated - just a bunch of bros who started up a blog years ago and they sold 1/2 of it for millions. That's incredible. It took time, but it paid off. I'm not saying we'll make millions from this, but if you work hard and push the website, market it on social media and so on, it can be successful. 
 
 
This thread is for an open discussion on ideas. What are your thoughts. Do you think a name change would bring in more traffic? Do you have suggestions for other names. We're open to hearing suggestions on names or other ways to bring in traffic. We value your input. 
 

 
PS. It could be as simple as changing from "SportzIn.com/forums" to "SportsIn.com/forums". Someone goes on google and searches "Sports Forum" we show up right away. But with that Z, we don't. 
 
 

buzzy

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Just gonna paste what I said in the other thread:
 
 
 
I personally think naming it to something generic like "sports forum" isn't gonna give you significantly more traffic.

The biggest reason why we don't gain any new members is because we're a standalone forum. Usually how it works is that you have a main site with some actual content that people want to read, then they discuss it in the forum.

Get the main page running, rebrand it to Sports Insomnia for all I care for some proper spelling and get rid of the "sportzin" name which makes no sense to new people.
 
And gonna add to that, if you guys are gonna create a website, don't make it a generic sports news site. There's no market for that. People know where to get their sports news. Put the focus on making it a hub of original content, whether that's podcasts, articles, analyses, even graphics, just give people a reason to visit it additionally to espn.com, not instead of it.
 

Giantmetfan07

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Oh I agree with that 100%. And I told the owners that. I said they should do a website, and it should be original. Like a blog, because that's the direction the internet is going. 
 

elcheato

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I've been told I'm not welcome at The Sports Forum
 

Giantmetfan07

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Well I guess that eliminates that name. 
 

CameronCrazy06

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But what was with bosox trying to play forum police? From the other thread:
 
bosoxlover12 said:
Also the type of questions that illustrate why change is happening at SI

Outside of just a few, most people strongly dislike your guys' trolling, as it hardly offers anything to the board. New members hardly come, because if they state ANYTHING that isn't to your likings, you'd bash them by either being overly sarcastic or just straight be rude. That's the opposite of what we want here as a board.

So when we change from SportzIn to The Sports Forum soon (yeah [member=Shaggy], I'm on board now), shit posting like that won't happen. If you leave, you leave, but come on. Posts like that simply aren't productive towards the board's goals, and I can account for several members who agree with my sentiments
I seem to remember a similar incident a few years ago where bosox got a little too big for his britches, but I digress. Anyways, can we have an open discussion on who actually thinks the posting style of most of us on this board is a problem? Because everybody is guilty of it, even bosox. And to just spit in the face of the members of the board who have been keeping this site alive in favor of trying to bring in new traffic seems wrong to me. Plus like I said, I don't think we'd treat new members that way. We've been posting together with each other for a long time. We know most of the members on a first name basis. Hell we can put a picture to most members. Typically you treat people you're friendly and comfortable with in a much different way than you'd treat a stranger.

There is trolling EVERYWHERE on the internet. Amazon product reviews, youtube videos, comment sections, forums, EVERYWHERE. All of us should be grown enough to handle somebody ribbing us, and if you aren't, then the internet isn't the place for you. Obviously there's a line, but I can't think of a time where anybody who's currently active on the site has crossed that. We have a great thing going here. Sportz Insomnia (or Sports Insomnia?) should be long dead by now. All the main users who posted on this in its prime have grown up and should have left silly sports forums (not THE Sports Forum) behind. But for some reason, the key members of this board keep coming back, and we all know why. (Dan. the answer is Dan.)
 

JJ94

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Not that you should listen to my noob opinion, but I wouldn't care if this place was called fucknuggets.com 
 
Whatever helps the site and those who run it would be the best option.
 
(probably not fucknuggets.com)
 

Steez

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Barstool is a great example, in my personal opinion. Those dudes live the life, getting paid to watch and write/talk about sports. That style is what people want. Like buzzy said, people can go to espn.com for news and stats and shit. Blog style articles/media/podcasts would be a good way to drive in traffic and I personally think it would be fun as shit to have a few of us write articles and do a podcast and shit like that. 
 

Phil The Thrill

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I think blogs are a must. I am an exec on my school Sports Management Club and we started doing blogs this year on our website. Traffic tripled. Obviously it is easier for us to promote since we have a decent following and a platform through reaching the students at the school. The blogs need to be bold or interesting. More than just giving people an update on whatever is going around the world of sports. For example, I wrote two blogs on my jersey collection. People loved it because it was different.
 
I think the biggest thing is that people have no clue that we exist or how to find us. I personally don't know how to solve this since it's not like we have a school we can reach through. One step needs to be dropping the "z" in my opinion. As mentioned above, no one searches "sportz." 
 

Steez

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https://joeydonuts.wordpress.com/2016/02/05/do-you-even-dab-bro/
 
Sample blog post I wrote a couple weeks ago for what was going to be part of my résumé/application to Barstool haha. As you can tell I haven't updated it since, but if we got some serious shit going here I'd be down to write and do podcasts and shit like that.
 
And the whole Donuts name was just some made up mumbo jumbo that I thought sounded cool for a blog. But fuck it.
 

Fuhgeddaboudit

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steezo said:
Barstool is a great example, in my personal opinion. Those dudes live the life, getting paid to watch and write/talk about sports. That style is what people want. Like buzzy said, people can go to espn.com for news and stats and shit. Blog style articles/media/podcasts would be a good way to drive in traffic and I personally think it would be fun as shit to have a few of us write articles and do a podcast and shit like that. 
 
Yes, and I definitely like this article:
http://www.barstoolsports.com/chicago/barstool-chicago-local-smokeshow-of-the-day-emily-2/
 

Steez

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This a go yet? The blogs I mean?
 

Giantmetfan07

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We're discussing it. It might start out as a test run to see if we can get guys dedicated to writing week in and week out.
 

jonathanlambert33

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This board greatly needs new members, whatever it takes to get that I'm ok with
 

BwareDWare94

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I'd love to see a linked blog site as a test run. Perhaps get a few writers lined up among us and assemble something of an editing staff and go from there. Opinion pieces generate clicks, so while nobody wants to look like an idiot, there's a reason ESPN has so many loud-mouthed, dumb employees. They speak straight out of their asses and people don't change the channel. I'm not saying we should aim to be wrong, but if we do this, we need people to not be scared to write what they're thinking.
 

elcheato

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I'd be willing to write some hot take think pieces for the benefit of The Sports Forum. 
 

BwareDWare94

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elcheato said:
I'd be willing to write some hot take think pieces for the benefit of The Sports Forum. 
 
And how great would a fan's perspective of Cleveland and Cleveland sports be? It'd be fairly unique to us because you're not a known celebrity with any real reason to be anything but honest.
 

A.E

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Very hard to stay competitive and relevant with blogs. Just about every major league and network has their own blogging feature, not to mention a zillion opportunities for fans to blog in unofficial capacities. Once upon a time gfx and sim leagues were the backbone of this site. New members literally couldn't access either section until they posted and proved their worth. Just something to think about.
 

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