Forgive the overly cheesy paraphrased reference to a 1980’s one-hit wonder.\u00a0 It does, however, cover the subject of the following ramble.\u00a0 This won’t be yet another sports-related blog as the vast majority of those paying any attention to Washington Redskins content have taken a leave of absence until the regular season draws near.\u00a0 And who could blame them?\u00a0 Being a Redskins fan is exhausting.\u00a0 It wasn’t the subject matter of the song but Stevie Wonder described what it’s like being a Skins fan in a few verses:<\/p>\n
You took me riding in your rocket, gave me a star
\nBut at a half a mile from heaven you dropped me back
\nDown to this cold, cold world<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So, when fans exit message board forums stage left even at the first sign of the end of the Redskins season it’s not only unsurprising but understandable and expected.\u00a0 It’s also unsurprising when forum staff do the same.\u00a0 For them it’s not only the emotional drain but also the mental drain of months of (often) thankless work.\u00a0 It takes a lot to keep a forum operational, much less to keep one active and growing.<\/p>\n
For website administrators the challenges are greater still.\u00a0 There is no off-season for a website trying to survive and carve out a niche in what is an overly-saturated market.\u00a0 There are, literally, tens of thousands of sports websites all trying to be unique in some small yet meaningful way.\u00a0 That’s the result of competing with one another for traffic.\u00a0 If competing with the specific niche of other Redskins sites wasn’t enough of a challenge the internet has recently presented a new one: Social Media.<\/p>\n
What used to be unmatched quality and ethics in print journalism has been replaced with instant gratification.\u00a0 Print media is struggling to survive in a digital age.\u00a0 Long form media is struggling to survive in a 140 character limit age.\u00a0 Many would rather speak but not be spoken to or talk but not listen or digest information in bytes small enough for toddlers.\u00a0 Social media leads old school journalists to believe the world is coming down with a severe case of attention deficit disorder.\u00a0 If social media is any indicator the vast majority of people stopped reading this two or three paragraphs back.<\/p>\n
But social media serves a purpose.\u00a0 It’s a manner of disseminating more information to more people more quickly than is possible even with huge, established sports media outlets.\u00a0 Very few are concerned with the lack of ethics in social media.\u00a0 Everything is regurgitated.\u00a0 Nothing is vetted.\u00a0 No one gives a crap.\u00a0 Two seconds after they’ve read some complete nonsense they’ve moved on to the next hot topic.<\/p>\n
Ideally, the solution would be to combine the best of social media with the best of traditional print media and the best of message board forums.\u00a0 Each has its merits and its caveats.<\/p>\n
Here is where it gets personal.\u00a0 I’ve been webmastering and administrating websites for twenty-five years.\u00a0 I began venturing into message boards back in the days of AOL and dial-up, even before the marvel that was the 56k modem.\u00a0 I love everything about creating a site and equally importantly, creating the sense of community that goes along with it.\u00a0 I love receiving member opinion on how to make a site better, although admittedly not all of it is practical or even possible.\u00a0 I love working to make a site grow and adapt with the times.\u00a0 Having said that, I’m at a complete loss for how to effectively counter the migration of so many good members to social media.<\/p>\n
If a site has social media in the forms of facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. will members actually spend any time reading the articles and blogs or posting in the forums?<\/p>\n
This site has lost quite a few members over the years to something else which has occupied their limited “me” time.\u00a0 Any number of life circumstances may have contributed to their leaving.\u00a0 This site isn’t alone in that.\u00a0 Every sports website is suffering.\u00a0 I’d like to know why.\u00a0 Is it social media alone?\u00a0 It it life circumstances such as marriage, children, job changes, etc.?\u00a0 I’m reluctant to throw a poll up because I’d like some level of detail in the answers.<\/p>\n
If you’re spending less time on traditional sports media sites and you’d like to tell me why I’d love to know, not for the purpose of judging but solely for the purpose of knowing if it is possible to change and adapt a site to the social media age.\u00a0 I don’t mind fighting lost causes.\u00a0 I’ve been married.\u00a0 I’m familiar with losing battles.\u00a0 If it is impossible to meet the “needs” of the masses with a traditional website not to fret.\u00a0 This one isn’t going anywhere.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Forgive the overly cheesy paraphrased reference to a 1980’s one-hit wonder.\u00a0 It does, however, cover the subject of the following ramble.\u00a0 This won’t be yet another sports-related blog as the vast majority of those paying any attention to Washington Redskins content have taken a leave of absence until the regular season draws near.\u00a0 And who … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1675,305],"class_list":["post-8927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-information","tag-social-media","tag-thn"],"yoast_head":"\nSocial Media Killed The Message Board Star | The-Hogs.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/the-hogs.net\/blogs\/2016\/05\/23\/social-media-killed-the-message-board-star\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Social Media Killed The Message Board Star | The-Hogs.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Forgive the overly cheesy paraphrased reference to a 1980’s one-hit wonder.\u00a0 It does, however, cover the subject of the following ramble.\u00a0 This won’t be yet another sports-related blog as the vast majority of those paying any attention to Washington Redskins content have taken a leave of absence until the regular season draws near.\u00a0 And who ... 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