Is The Forum Obselete?

In a fairly busy week fixture wise there were just 8 posts on the banter section with only 1100 views.

Compare that to the same weekend last year (108 posts and 5000 views) tends to suggest that the forum is on its last legs.

I have noticed certain users have reduced their posts or no longer come on here at all and whilst Widds alone will have reduced traffic by 50% I personally miss regular input from the likes of;

rocket ledge
Joey Essex (the funniest person on here)
Dan Mitchell
Gifford
Jimmyb
The lads at Bharat Talbot (Yella, Talbot Keeper, Sol Sol Bamba)
hotshot66
Joey Barton
Paul Daniels
Sparta3
etc...

Any thoughts....!?

some of them are no longer with alliance teams marc
ie rocket ledge,joey Essex,paul daniels,joey barton and some of the Talbot lads
but they haven't been replaced by
anyone else
when the most popular topic at the moment is 'the one word follow on' you really are struggling
even hellboy's become nicer  
the early season banter has almost disappeared and most of the posts are coming from
the lads in div 7

We have to keep the banter flowing otherwise the forum would be dead. I agree alot of the general banter has disappeared. Even the Div 7 banter has slowed. Plough New Boy and all the plough banter boys have vanished!! I try to keep Div 7 banter alive and kicking but even i have slowed up on my posts!! Happy banter folks

The forum has been getting worse the last few years... nothing like the days of super polska, beer machine, etc

asked question on a thread is forum dead ,,, reckon it is dying a slow death

The forum still has it's place but the emergence of Twitter etc has reduced it's traffic. Also the emergence of smart phones which makes it a more clunky way of reading/posting topics. I very rarely sit and read the forum on a desktop now, which is what the forum is built for, and I doubt I am alone.

Agree with the observation in principle and the facts Blackie are difficult to ignore

However, this only tells half the story.  

At United Revolution, for example, we have played one game in the last 9 weeks (this was last week), we are not alone.  

The forum's traffic has always been based on games played.  Whether this is pre or post match banter, results, scorers, league tables etc.  

With no games this is bound to be affected

Plus as Nath correctly points out the growth in Twitter and its use by Teams and the league its self may have had an impact.  

League twitter - @allianceleague1

Going forward we hope to have full fixture list each week this will help.  Twitter is something that will be intergrated along with the forum and the website, pushing visitors between the three sources of information.  

For example the draw for the Stokes Cup Final took place last night at 9pm LIVE on twitter, this is just the first in many different things we are trying to do to ensure that the league is moving forward, we didnt massively promote this in advance, however, it gave us the oppurtunity to test it and from my point of view it worked.  As a result this is something we can repeat in the future with a greater audience/presence on forum and twitter simulatiously

I see it that the forum is far from dead, but along with the website needs to be reviewed for the start of next season where potentially some further improvements and enhancements can be made.

LONG LIVE THE FORUM

the argument that the forum does not appear to be the primary source of information anymore
is sort of proved by the fact that the draw was live on twitter last night but nobody has felt the need to confirm it on here,although there are 2 topics that refer to it
contrary to popular belief not everybody uses twitter and facebook

Pochin agree completely not everyone is on Facebook or Twitter we are fully aware of that.....personally I don’t have Facebook.

The only reason that the forum was not updated last night was purely down to human error, I typed the draw out on the forum and then didn't press send....I officially failed the intelligence test for sure

The league has made tools at its deposal for communicating with its members email, phone, text, forum, facebook and twitter are just some of these. The most appropriate one is chosen given the circumstances, the message and the audience.

Yesterday is the first example of a different method being used for breaking news that would have previously been exclusive for the forum. In future I would intend on doing such activity forum and twitter/facebook in tandem

Hope this helps

There's nowt like supporting the alliance then hey?

so everyone wants to be in the teams, why not keep the forum going as the number 1 place to come, this forum is more exclusive that tw@tter, any old plonker goes on there....... forum first.....
otherwise what is the point of ANYTHING!!!!!!!

Are you not on twitter Helly?

thanks pete that explains it,thought it was strange not being posted on the forum shortly after the draw,
and glad to know that the site is still going to be a main source of information

No, what's the point of writing one sentence, when I can come on here and write as many words as I like.

Tw@tters ok if you haven't got much to say, doesn't that just about sum up how boring people can be.

Guttuso wrote:

The forum has been getting worse the last few years... nothing like the days of super polska, beer machine, etc

Twenty20 and Grotbags were also highlights oh and whistleblower who used to annoy Widds

I think the rise of Twitter has caused this decline, that is the only reason