hedge
life takes guts
Bump
Looking for your suggestions and feedback
- Thread starter SixFourThree
- Start date
Bump
Joker
Well-Known Member
add a link to the rules up top, no one ever scrolls all the way to the bottom
HELL-V
New Member
Maybe have a sticky for newbies to explain to them how to buy something from a board bro.Also when i click on my avatar on the mobile site under the update your post,i never realized there was options bevause they only appear when i touch the empty space. Is there not away to just send a pm to a person without everyone having to see it,or is it because i cant see all of the fast links?
onion
Addicted to Softballfans
Search function still is poor. Should be able to just search in the section you are in and have them default to latest post matching the sort. I believe all changes are too late though at this point. Since the reformat I am sure everyone notices the lack of activity on this board. When the selling forums don't have new posts for days, there is a lack of activity. So how about building a time machine and going back to when all these changes were made and leave it be?
Gators21
Manager
All true.
Joker
Well-Known Member
get rid of the "upload a file" button or remove the 1mb limit on files. people try and use that to upload pics in the marketplace. 1mb limit is tiny when any phone pic will be 5-10mb
Country469
Well-Known Member
Yeah we need some mora those type mods
Joker
Well-Known Member
stfu and pay attention
Precision
Precision
Thats what i'm saying. It's seems very dead on here. I can't sell bats or anything on here anymore... I remember when i could sell my used bats in under an hour. now you don't even have to refresh your listing for a week because it will stay on page 1... WTH
Bow Commander
Well-Known Member
Combination of Facebook softball groups, it being off season, and a few truly douchey members.Thats what i'm saying. It's seems very dead on here. I can't sell bats or anything on here anymore... I remember when i could sell my used bats in under an hour. now you don't even have to refresh your listing for a week because it will stay on page 1... WTH
Precision
Precision
It's sad man... This place used to be booming. I loved it here when I played ball. Maybe this place will pick back up.... Who knows...
CougarHunter1B
Member
Maybe a fresh face-lift will help. Start by reducing the softball discussion forums and updating the manufacturer section and adding all bat brands. (remove glove manufacturers)
hedge
life takes guts
Blaming the glove section put my brain in a pretzel
One of the biggest parts of these type of forums is the "for sale" thread and quite frankly it's not been a very good place to post items for sale here. Too many times, someone will post something and within minutes after posting, there will be some member or members expressing their opinion as to whether the OP is pricing to high. It's not a price check.. if the poster wants to price high, it's their problem and the post shouldn't be derailed cause some other poster thinks the price is to high. If the items is priced to high.. the OP will ultimately find out but surely doesn't need to have someone kill the post by declaring to everyone how expensive it is.
Stretch19
Grow up
and how exactly does telling people that they are priced too high, kill a forum?
do you think that discourages people from selling more stuff on here? discourages them from visiting the site at all? while that might be a complaint of yours, have a community that essentially polices itself and sets the market is typically a good thing; if people still sold their stuff on here after listing higher than usual prices, do you think they would be frustrated? no. if they sold it, they wouldnt care if someone came on here and told them their asking price was $50 higher than where it should be, etc.
lets be real here, at the height of SBF 8-10 years ago, facebook groups and market place didnt exist and this was the single best option for people looking to buy/sell/trade softball equipment, along with discussing the game with other people who played softball.
with the addition of the market place to facebook along with groups that are created locally, regionally and nationally for the sole purpose of selling softball related equipment, SBF is no longer the only game in town, nor is it the easiest, nor is it the most preferred.
with the ability to take a picture on your phone, upload that picture directly to a facebook group on the same phone through a user friend app, its undoubtedly a lot easier to sell stuff on FB than it is here, not to mention anyone looking to buy can scroll their phones much easier on the FB app than they can on SBF.
in addition to the buying/selling aspect, there are several regional groups that i am aware of that are available for discussions. talk about the upcoming tournaments, the results from previous weeks, free agents, rumor mill stuff, etc. prior to those groups on FB, people would use the regional groups here for that or other sites like old scout, etc.
participation across the board in softball is down. take a look a the numbers from the last 5 usssa worlds, ill use the E division since its historically the biggest one of the bunch:
2018: 208 teams in 3 WS tournaments combined (in the past there was always 200+ teams in FL alone)
2017: 272 teams in 3 WS tournaments combined
2016: 216 team in FL alone; number of teams not entered on USSSA for West Worlds in OR or North Worlds in MI
2015: 414 teams in 3 WS tournaments combined
2014: 420 teams in 3 WS tournaments combined
lastly, lets look at who is still left playing the game. many of the folks who were here 8-10+ years ago when this place was really jumping, no longer play softball. they are older, have families, have better careers, etc that requires more time than out of their day. message boards as a whole were huge in the late 90's into the first decade of the 2000's. its not just SBF, but countless other message boards across the internet have seen decline in traffic. its just not the preferred vehicle of choice for the younger generation like it was 15-20 years ago.
you dont need to find a message board dedicated to a specific subject to find answers anymore. i dont need to go to a toyota forum to learn how to replace a headlight on my 4runner. i dont need to visit a lawn care forum to learn the best way to go about fertilizing/aerating my yard in the fall like i did in the past. i can go to youtube and watch a video someone made and poof, theres my answer.
the decline of SBF has literally next to nothing to do with people telling others in the selling thread that they are pricing their junk too high.
do you think that discourages people from selling more stuff on here? discourages them from visiting the site at all? while that might be a complaint of yours, have a community that essentially polices itself and sets the market is typically a good thing; if people still sold their stuff on here after listing higher than usual prices, do you think they would be frustrated? no. if they sold it, they wouldnt care if someone came on here and told them their asking price was $50 higher than where it should be, etc.
lets be real here, at the height of SBF 8-10 years ago, facebook groups and market place didnt exist and this was the single best option for people looking to buy/sell/trade softball equipment, along with discussing the game with other people who played softball.
with the addition of the market place to facebook along with groups that are created locally, regionally and nationally for the sole purpose of selling softball related equipment, SBF is no longer the only game in town, nor is it the easiest, nor is it the most preferred.
with the ability to take a picture on your phone, upload that picture directly to a facebook group on the same phone through a user friend app, its undoubtedly a lot easier to sell stuff on FB than it is here, not to mention anyone looking to buy can scroll their phones much easier on the FB app than they can on SBF.
in addition to the buying/selling aspect, there are several regional groups that i am aware of that are available for discussions. talk about the upcoming tournaments, the results from previous weeks, free agents, rumor mill stuff, etc. prior to those groups on FB, people would use the regional groups here for that or other sites like old scout, etc.
participation across the board in softball is down. take a look a the numbers from the last 5 usssa worlds, ill use the E division since its historically the biggest one of the bunch:
2018: 208 teams in 3 WS tournaments combined (in the past there was always 200+ teams in FL alone)
2017: 272 teams in 3 WS tournaments combined
2016: 216 team in FL alone; number of teams not entered on USSSA for West Worlds in OR or North Worlds in MI
2015: 414 teams in 3 WS tournaments combined
2014: 420 teams in 3 WS tournaments combined
lastly, lets look at who is still left playing the game. many of the folks who were here 8-10+ years ago when this place was really jumping, no longer play softball. they are older, have families, have better careers, etc that requires more time than out of their day. message boards as a whole were huge in the late 90's into the first decade of the 2000's. its not just SBF, but countless other message boards across the internet have seen decline in traffic. its just not the preferred vehicle of choice for the younger generation like it was 15-20 years ago.
you dont need to find a message board dedicated to a specific subject to find answers anymore. i dont need to go to a toyota forum to learn how to replace a headlight on my 4runner. i dont need to visit a lawn care forum to learn the best way to go about fertilizing/aerating my yard in the fall like i did in the past. i can go to youtube and watch a video someone made and poof, theres my answer.
the decline of SBF has literally next to nothing to do with people telling others in the selling thread that they are pricing their junk too high.
Agree with the poster right below your post.. but I will reply to the first line.
It doesn't kill the forum at all, but it certainly doesn't help. It's not one big thing that makes or breaks anything..it's all the little pieces that make it or break it.
Stretch19
Grow up
no, most of the time the downfall of something like internet forums is due to one large thing...an easier way to get all the content you need and communicate to anyone you want in a more user friendly manner, not smaller pieces
that and softball sucks and less people are playing than in years past
that and softball sucks and less people are playing than in years past
CougarHunter1B
Member
haha. the point I was trying to make is that the site appears busy while there are too many forums with no activity. scaling it back could help. .. then again, maybe not.
hedge
life takes guts
How does site size have anything to do with site traffic?