What do you think of spirit industry message boards? What do each of them offer and what problems do they have? We ask because we are considering bringing back the Spirit Post Forum. We are currently testing the software we would use if we decide to proceed, but wanted to get thoughts about the current message boards’ good points and problems.
Message Boards
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4 responses to “Message Boards”
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We use the SimpleMachines Forums on the Ga. Cheerleading Vent site. They have a great collection of plugins that really help minimize Spam bots and other crud that tends to junk up other boards.
From our experience the toughest thing is trying to keep some of the trash talk from taking over. However, if you foster an attitude of positivity amongst the community then it tends to become self-policing and the trash talk gets significantly minimized. We also have multiple forum moderators from amongst our core audience. It helps to have multiple eyes looking over all the topics, it’s just too much for any one person to handle.
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Thanks Sean.
We’re pretty sure we’d use bbpress here because of the integration with WordPress. One of our concerns is the trash talk that is/was present on other boards, but don’t know the best way to have it police itself. One thought was to lock posts shortly after they are submitted so users can’t go back and edit what they said. This would prevent some people from being too inconsiderate because they wouldn’t want their comments to be around forever.
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The boards need to allow SOME trash talk or they will die. If the ADMIN is too strict, people will just go somewhere else.
Varsity.com is very boring.
Cheergyms.com just doesn’t have enough traffic.
Fierceboard.com has the most activity and is actually run pretty well, although they get too worried about staying on topic.
Cheernj.com is too local (also cheergyms.com)
Most of the others that I’ve seen seem geared for 12 year olds.LikeLike
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Find the niche you want to reach and work it. Don’t try to be like any of the other boards or to beat them at their own game. Let the local boards be about what they are about.
I don’t think you can totally eliminate the trash talk, and it might not ultimately be in the best interest of the forum. (even though i personally detest it) The sites that have stuck and grown have a degree of trash talk on them, which ultimately brings new people on board to check out what is being said on xyz site.
What is needed are admins who are sensitive to the entire industry and not just one portion of it. Depending on one’s position and experiences in the sport they may see the cheer glass as half full or half empty. Neither position makes them wrong. In the same regard, admins should monitor their own biases as it is reflected in their decision making.
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Andre J. Carter 
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