Kmcalpin Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 Thought I'd start a new thread to continue this discussion. There are many and varied reasons for decreased site traffic and I wouldn't care to quantify their effect. The team isn't enjoying the success it had recently and that may be a club related reason. This influence will wax and wain. Then there's the internet effect. Generally, online football fora have decreased in popularity as fans have become familiar with them. Thats not peculiar to Steelmen online. No doubt there are other general reasons. Now on to the site specific reasons - my own opinion of course although based on the views of mates who don't now use the site. There's been an overabundance of negativity, trolling and online bullying that has put many off posting. For some posters its more about them than the club at times. For example "I'm not going to the game on Saturday" or "I'm not going to renew my season ticket". That kind of comment is perfectly acceptable if we're discussing reasons for poor sales/attendances etc but not otherwise. I've never felt the need to post that I wasn't going to a game as I didn't think it would be of general interest. Then there's online bullying and trolling eg treatment Leeanne, TrafficLight etc etc. I may not agree with theirs and other similar posts but I've never ever felt the need to get personal. Disagree fine but don't get personal. Comments should be confined to addressing comments and not about posters. Reasoned but robust debate, discussion and different opinions is what this site should be all about not abuse or petty name calling. In that respect I think the Mods could be a bit more assertive. Finally, talking further of the Mods, some of whom I know, they do a great job overall. Its an unpaid and thankless task and entire voluntary. To put matters in perspective, the site fulfils a very important role and every year helps the club financially (take a bow Iain). Without them the site simply wouldn't exist. To Ian (Bucs) and other Mods - thank you. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onthefringes Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 Well aware of some showing apathy. Not just a Steelmenonline issue - is it not the case that forums have taken a backseat to social media streams in recent times? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 Well aware of some showing apathy. Not just a Steelmenonline issue - is it not the case that forums have taken a backseat to social media streams in recent times? This is definitely the case in my (work related) experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well Up For It! Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 All valid points. Would add that following on from our "glory years" of repeated European competition and finishing second, there was so much, in the politest possible way, ultra negative pish spouted on here on a daily basis. I'm generally of the consensus that the a large proportion (would maybe go as far as to call it a majority) of our fans are absolute doom merchants, desperate for the next bad result, performance, club news, etc so they can jump on the "See...told you so!" This stuff with McGhee midweek is a perfect example of it, calling for him to be sacked 10 games into the season is madness giving the very unexpected top 6 place he lead us too last season. I'm personally not on here as often, and when I am, each visit gets shorter and shorter due to this plague of negativity and its evident it has scared away many regular posters over the years. Sadly, it has also played a part in pushing me away from Fir Park, with me almost making as many away games as home games over the past few years due to the utter nonsense you hear from "fans" during games (although the main reason is I now live a trek away from Fir Park, so logistics are an issue at times especially with unusually kick off times/midweek games) This negativity is also evident on the Facebook groups that are also to blame for the reduction in traffic on football forums. At the end of the day, we are a very small provincial club on par with the likes of St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Ayr, Dunfermline, Falkirk, etc and yet we have constantly punched harder and lasted the test of time longer than any others of our size. I absolutely love our little diddy team, and even though there has been many, many times when watching them has left me deflated, angered, enraged, confused, bewildered, etc I don't wear that as badge to go on a self-righteous crusade on an online forum preaching how I with my experience of watching football know so much better than all the "idiots" who have spent their life working in the game. Sure, have your opinion and argue your case but so many of our fans (and particular on here at times) think they have all the answers, are always right and are not happy unless they have campaign against someone. However, I wouldn't change a thing over my 30 years supporting Motherwell - its been a drama fuelled roller coaster ride. The last decade has certainly spoilt us, and maybe that has intensified the deep lingering negativity now things aren't as rosy as what they once were. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinjy Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 The posters on here love the doom and gloom. Look at the posts and views for the Inverness game. Over 12,000 views and 172 posts. A fine performance and win against Ross County gets 8,500 views and 127 posts. Says it all for me. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desp Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 I think that's more about society in general, Sinjy, than on here in particular. For example, I find you're more likely to speak up/complain/write a review etc about a poor meal you've had, rather than a good or decent one. I think that's just the way people are in this part of the world. Onthefringes pretty much covers it in his post. The rise and rise of social media is the real cause for the online forums fading away. It's far easier for a fan to communicate after a game through Facebook or Twitter to 200 people (most of which, that person will know). With Twitter, especially, it has opened up so much that, if you're that way inclined, you can communicate directly with the players in question. I don't know what all of the players are like in that respect, but Louis Moult certainly runs with it and takes time out to get back to fans who reach out on Twitter. To many, that's a far better way of communicating about a game than having a discussion with some prick from the East Stand* that you've never met. * aimed at nobody in particular, there's one or two in that part of the stadium... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onthefringes Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 The posters on here love the doom and gloom. These accusations and counter accusations do little to motivate traffic... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joeboy Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 The posters on here love the doom and gloom. Look at the posts and views for the Inverness game. Over 12,000 views and 172 posts. A fine performance and win against Ross County gets 8,500 views and 127 posts. Says it all for me. The days after the Inverness were when a lot more people would have been spending the day sitting at a computer, probably making them more likely to come on here. Maybe the County posts will have surged after today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al B Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 It boggles my brain that anyone could be of the opinion that Trafficlight was bullied. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
postiejim Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 I very rarely make Matches now so I appreciate the reports.... positive and negative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiemunster Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 It boggles my brain that anyone could be of the opinion that Trafficlight was bullied. That's the thing though, fucking liars, just jealous of trafficlight and all he's achieved. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goggles & Flippers Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 My attendance on here is similar to my visits to Fir Park, they've wained recently due to work and apathy. My friends who I sat with have all ditched their season tickets (there was 5 of us at one point). I was active when I genuinely was optimistic about the future and the team. Now I'm just for want of a better word "mehhh", partly because I feel a little let down at my attempts to help the WS and club which were dingied. There's a lot to be said for knowing nothing of the background and just rocking up to watch the football. That has spilled over into here and just find myself reading and only commenting when I see something that brings on the red mist. With respect to here, its turned a tad negative but you'd expect that, it was a nice place to be when we were amassing points. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweed Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 Generally I only come here after a game now as I enjoy reading people's views win, lose or draw whereas before I read it every day. Now find I can catch up more on social media. Also I now work in Edinburgh so out the house 7-7 most days whereas when the site started I was at uni so arsed about on it more. World just moves on I think.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yabba's Turd Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 The club's online presence has certainly increased since the early days of the forum, their site has been overhauled and Twitter and facebook make global interactions much more commonplace than a specific forum, it's not specific to steelmenonline, I've seen quite a few decline in activity, I'd been part of a group of friends who organise events at the American fitba for 3 years and only found out there was a forum a few months ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weeyin Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 MFC TV and the Mixlr commentaries also add to the media available for consumption. Not to mention the increase in the number of our games shown on Alba these days (Ross County on Sunday and the Dundee game next weekend). I still enjoy this site, though, as it's easily accessible at work and from my phone, and there is the odd nugget of information to be found amongst the posts from the odd nuggets. The abuse handed out can be harsh sometimes, but not compared to other corners of the internet - and I think we do a pretty good job of self policing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoshi-1991 Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 I know it's not fun to read negative posts however I do find them useful. It's good to see if my opinion is shared or if others have another perspective on things. Would also be interesting to see if there is a rise and fall of traffic during transfer windows, as I know that I at least check the forums more during the windows. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMWellfan Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 Andy_P reckons forum mods can't be bothered sending out a weekly digest email. That's the equivalent of a pub that can't be bothered restocking, or a brickie that can't be bothered with cement. It's fundamental - fundamental - to forum traffic. So fundamental that when I showed the two relevant threads to my three Internet marketing expert pals last night they burst out laughing. Do you have any idea how important email still is? It's the Holy Grail of the Internet. ..................... Pick out the best posts of the week and send them. Pick out the best match analyses for the week and send them. We all know we can read the 300 word media report about who passed to who and who scored. We are fans, we want more detail than the media can give us. How did McMillan do? How about the new signing? Watch the threads on here, you'll see questions like that all the time. You'Ll see members go out their way to mention new players in their match reports. Kmcalpin, is always detailed and reasoned in his reports - let as many as possible read them. ..................... Email header - "Have You Seen Chris Cadden Play?" Text It looks we have a real find from the Academy - Chris Cadden......blah blah ....... consistent man of the match performances aged only ...... blah blah ........... have you sent him play? Get along to Fir Park and watch our new star of the future. ........... Ben Heneghan - From Obscured to Assured Dealing in the transfer market is always risky but McGhee looks to have dug out a gem in Ben Heneghan ........ blah blah. From reserve team obscurity to assured performances ...... ................ This will drive people back to the forum, and even more important, back through the gates at Fir Park. It's a gold mine for the club, The Well Society, and the forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desp Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
numpty Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 Andy_P reckons forum mods can't be bothered sending out a weekly digest email. That's the equivalent of a pub that can't be bothered restocking, or a brickie that can't be bothered with cement. It's fundamental - fundamental - to forum traffic. So fundamental that when I showed the two relevant threads to my three Internet marketing expert pals last night they burst out laughing. Do you have any idea how important email still is? It's the Holy Grail of the Internet. Anyone who wants emails from the forum -- and I live in my email client, so I'm definitely one of them -- can set up their preferences to get an email every time a new topic is posted to any sub-forum, or any time a new post is made to a specific thread. That's a lot more useful to me than spammy digest emails, to be honest... means the only time I actually have to visit the website itself is if I've had an email about a post that I want to reply to. (Or actually, to subscribe to a new thread that I've had an email about... annoyingly, in this latest version of the forum software, the 'new topic posted' email doesn't include a 'subscribe to new posts' link, which the previous version used to have.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burn_Broomfield Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 Andy_P reckons forum mods can't be bothered sending out a weekly digest email. That's the equivalent of a pub that can't be bothered restocking, or a brickie that can't be bothered with cement. It's fundamental - fundamental - to forum traffic. So fundamental that when I showed the two relevant threads to my three Internet marketing expert pals last night they burst out laughing. Do you have any idea how important email still is? It's the Holy Grail of the Internet. ..................... Pick out the best posts of the week and send them. Pick out the best match analyses for the week and send them. We all know we can read the 300 word media report about who passed to who and who scored. We are fans, we want more detail than the media can give us. How did McMillan do? How about the new signing? Watch the threads on here, you'll see questions like that all the time. You'Ll see members go out their way to mention new players in their match reports. Kmcalpin, is always detailed and reasoned in his reports - let as many as possible read them. ..................... Email header - "Have You Seen Chris Cadden Play?" Text It looks we have a real find from the Academy - Chris Cadden......blah blah ....... consistent man of the match performances aged only ...... blah blah ........... have you sent him play? Get along to Fir Park and watch our new star of the future. ........... Ben Heneghan - From Obscured to Assured Dealing in the transfer market is always risky but McGhee looks to have dug out a gem in Ben Heneghan ........ blah blah. From reserve team obscurity to assured performances ...... ................ This will drive people back to the forum, and even more important, back through the gates at Fir Park. It's a gold mine for the club, The Well Society, and the forum. So you're suggesting the Mods give up their current jobs and spare time to do this? Before you go running like a dog with 2 dicks about this, be mindful that this is purely an unofficial Motherwell forum that has nothing to do with either the Well Society or MFC. Those who have kept it going have absolutely no duty whatsoever to be spamming members in order to increase traffic, if anything that would make more come off of here. The mods do it voluntarily,probably much to their exasperation at times and should be applauded on doing a thankless task. It's far too simplistic(fantastical even) to suggest increasing traffic on a forum will increase footfall at Fir Park. The problems with Scottish Football run far deeper than being able to talk shite on an unofficial forum. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weeyin Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 Andy_P reckons forum mods can't be bothered sending out a weekly digest email. That's the equivalent of a pub that can't be bothered restocking, or a brickie that can't be bothered with cement. It's fundamental - fundamental - to forum traffic. So fundamental that when I showed the two relevant threads to my three Internet marketing expert pals last night they burst out laughing. Do you have any idea how important email still is? It's the Holy Grail of the Internet. ..................... Pick out the best posts of the week and send them. Pick out the best match analyses for the week and send them. We all know we can read the 300 word media report about who passed to who and who scored. We are fans, we want more detail than the media can give us. How did McMillan do? How about the new signing? Watch the threads on here, you'll see questions like that all the time. You'Ll see members go out their way to mention new players in their match reports. Kmcalpin, is always detailed and reasoned in his reports - let as many as possible read them. ..................... Email header - "Have You Seen Chris Cadden Play?" Text It looks we have a real find from the Academy - Chris Cadden......blah blah ....... consistent man of the match performances aged only ...... blah blah ........... have you sent him play? Get along to Fir Park and watch our new star of the future. ........... Ben Heneghan - From Obscured to Assured Dealing in the transfer market is always risky but McGhee looks to have dug out a gem in Ben Heneghan ........ blah blah. From reserve team obscurity to assured performances ...... ................ This will drive people back to the forum, and even more important, back through the gates at Fir Park. It's a gold mine for the club, The Well Society, and the forum. I'm sure the forum admins would be delighted if you want to donate your time and expertise to implement and run this. And for what it's worth, I'm the opposite when it comes to emails. If an email takes me to a website it's usually after I have hit the Unsubscribe link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMWellfan Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 So you're suggesting the Mods give up their current jobs and spare time to do this? Before you go running like a dog with 2 dicks about this, be mindful that this is purely an unofficial Motherwell forum that has nothing to do with either the Well Society or MFC. Those who have kept it going have absolutely no duty whatsoever to be spamming members in order to increase traffic, if anything that would make more come off of here. The mods do it voluntarily,probably much to their exasperation at times and should be applauded on doing a thankless task. It's far too simplistic(fantastical even) to suggest increasing traffic on a forum will increase footfall at Fir Park. The problems with Scottish Football run far deeper than being able to talk shite on an unofficial forum. How long do you think it takes? Or you don't know and you just posted for the craic? As for your last comment - absurd beyond belief. A typical example of someone who hasn't a clue what they are talking about jumping in with two feet. Email is the Holy Grail of Internet marketing. I bet everyone reading this post sees emails every day from companies they have bought from in the past, airlines, etc. And guess why they do it, go on, guess? It's to remind their previous customers ( fans ) that they are still there, and what news/new deal there is to entice them. And guess what? It works - and that's why they keep doing it. But here we go again - someone who doesn't know what they are talking about slides into a conversation and derails it with nonsense. Fantastical that you think email marketing doesn't drive customers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMWellfan Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 Anyone who wants emails from the forum -- and I live in my email client, so I'm definitely one of them -- can set up their preferences to get an email every time a new topic is posted to any sub-forum, or any time a new post is made to a specific thread. That's a lot more useful to me than spammy digest emails, to be honest... means the only time I actually have to visit the website itself is if I've had an email about a post that I want to reply to. (Or actually, to subscribe to a new thread that I've had an email about... annoyingly, in this latest version of the forum software, the 'new topic posted' email doesn't include a 'subscribe to new posts' link, which the previous version used to have.) Thank you very much for describing the effective way you adopt email notifications. You are clearly an experienced user of forums and Internet mailing services. May I point out that the biggest single complaint another forum I watch ( 180,000 members ) gets is when the digest email doesn't arrive on a Sunday? That's because what you regard as "spam," is other people's chance to catch up on the best topics of the week. Which just goes to show that your experience and preferences do not represent the experience and preference of everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMWellfan Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 I'm sure the forum admins would be delighted if you want to donate your time and expertise to implement and run this. And for what it's worth, I'm the opposite when it comes to emails. If an email takes me to a website it's usually after I have hit the Unsubscribe link. Which begs the question why you subscribed in the first place? Once again, your experience doesn't talk for everyone. I'm still overseas ( I'm always overseas cos I run my business via the Internet, hence why I know so much about email marketing ). I'll be in Scotland for six days in December. If a mod wants to meet so I can show them how to do this I'm happy to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
numpty Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 Thank you very much for describing the effective way you adopt email notifications. You are clearly an experienced user of forums and Internet mailing services. May I point out that the biggest single complaint another forum I watch ( 180,000 members ) gets is when the digest email doesn't arrive on a Sunday? That's because what you regard as "spam," is other people's chance to catch up on the best topics of the week. Which just goes to show that your experience and preferences do not represent the experience and preference of everyone. Indeed they do not. Luckily, like yourself, my 20+ years as a successful UX designer had shown me that already. They also tell me that Steelmen Online is not a product that needs to be sold, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure why people are so concerned about whether the traffic is doing up, down or sideways in the first place. Does it really matter? Times and interaction preferences change, and if and when it becomes financially unsustainable, then we'll say goodbye and move onto something else. (To be honest, I'd already quite like to have something like a Slack channel instead, but that's probably just me and my silly AB preferences...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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