Downsouth 6,327 Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 As I mentioned in a post earlier the oneBoro forum is getting more and more mentions elsewhere and for your entertainment I have copied and pasted a comment from obviously a very decent chap from the fmttm forum about oneBoro, hopefully he may decide to join up as well but I do appreciate the comments he made, especially about "the gang" Agree about OneBoro Some great posts over there lately, they have some genuine ITK at times, there's less novelty account rubbish, obviously the forum software is decent but the key for me is they have 2 admins and 9 moderators to make sure things tick over as expected. Seeing a lot of usernames from here popping up over there lately. It's interesting that they even do giveaways with Carabao for game tickets etc. Why aren't they represented at the fans forum I wonder? This is a good question and one we have tried to address previously but fair play to Jen (Red Rocket) because she has volunteered to represent oneBoro at the next Fans Forum involving MFC. Jen will take notes and will let all forum members know the contents of the meets and advise us if anything of interest surfaces. On behalf of the forum, thank you Jen for this gesture and maybe because you are nosey as well? 3 Link to post Share on other sites
Blanco 4,917 Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 Good for you Jen. I look forward to the information from the meetings ? Link to post Share on other sites
Downsouth 6,327 Posted August 15, 2019 Author Share Posted August 15, 2019 Actually it would be good to hear from those of you who do have dual membership or have recently joined us from fmttm and to let us know your thoughts and opinions. Thanks in advance Link to post Share on other sites
Downsouth 6,327 Posted August 15, 2019 Author Share Posted August 15, 2019 I actually do not know if we are limited to just one representative but if not and anyone would like to attend with Jen then please let her know or state their interest on here. We can always ask about the permitted numbers. She is away in Canada for a couple of weeks so may not be too active at this time Link to post Share on other sites
Otto42 23 Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 1 hour ago, Downsouth said: Actually it would be good to hear from those of you who do have dual membership or have recently joined us from fmttm and to let us know your thoughts and opinions. Thanks in advance Joined about a week ago when fmttm had technical issues (yet again) and saw you mentioned over there. Seemed to be more genuinely ITK than some of the fmttm wind ups in the transfer window?. Like the layout especially the fact you can focus on the Boro stuff. Have been with fmttm for a long time, never really got on with come on boro, so nice to have an alternative. 3 Link to post Share on other sites
Denzel Zanzibar 6,972 Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 (edited) Is Come On Boro still active? Bloody hell, I gave up on that years ago when it was populated with trolls and wannabe frontline members. Just had a peek over there - *** me, and I thought fmttm was bad! Makes you appreciate Rob and OneBoro so much more :) Edited August 16, 2019 by Denzel Zanzibar Link to post Share on other sites
RiseAgainst 3,793 Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 DS - I was a daily visitor to FMTTM for many years. I owed a personal debt of gratitude to their Rob, and stayed long after the lack of mobile support and posters 'playing the man not the ball' became wearying. It's also quite politicised, which is often intrusive. This forum is light years ahead, both technically and in terms of the calibre of debate. It's good to see increased user levels, too, because the only thing that's held OB back (in my opinion) has been the comparative lack of activity on non-match days. I really think OB should be represented on fan forums, since the level of debate on here is far superior to FMTTM, or COB in particular. I know fans of other clubs check out Boro forums periodically (I do it for various clubs), and I shudder to think what they'd make of our fans if OB wasn't at the top of their Google results... 4 Link to post Share on other sites
Downsouth 6,327 Posted August 16, 2019 Author Share Posted August 16, 2019 Many thanks RA for your post and comments contained within. OneBoro will be represented I m about to email them concerning this matter. Because we do not discuss generally political matters, religious matters et al then you are correct in that there can be a lull in topic debates outside the favourite threads but we do encourage subject matters from anyone. You have probably noticed that we tend to have similar subject matters under one umbrella we believe this works well as there is no repetitive discussions going on. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Changing Times 12,347 Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 (edited) Also, the tyrannical mods try to shut down most of the good debates and discussions anyway moderation team are innovative and amazing at every level ??? Edited August 17, 2019 by Uwe Obvious typo 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
DanFromDownSouth 1,706 Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 1 minute ago, Changing Times said: Also, the tyrannical mods try to shut down most of the good debates and discussions anyway ? Link to post Share on other sites
Downsouth 6,327 Posted August 16, 2019 Author Share Posted August 16, 2019 Ok I have emailed the fans forum and will await further advise. For your interest or not I have used a link where you can read the minutes of their last meeting below: http://www.boro.support/middlesbrough-supporters-forummeeting-29/ Link to post Share on other sites
Changing Times 12,347 Posted August 17, 2019 Share Posted August 17, 2019 You are a disgrace, Uwe ? You'll probably get a promotion now mind. Link to post Share on other sites
AsheAshe 55 Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 (edited) Hi, I am the poster that made the comments in the OP I used to run a massive teesside based music forum (over 10k members and massive traffic), and currently run a few large subreddits so know very well what the challenges are with regards to building and maintaining a public message board. I regularly make suggestions over at fmttm because, having been in that position before and being one of the few admins proposing changes regularly (to deaf ears), I've seen how quickly a community can become irrelevant with changing technology - our killer was Facebooks rise in popularity and we didn't move with the times by integrating facebook features, social sharing etc and it was a slow killer, which was a shame as we had plenty of time to respond to that change coming in, and I feel like all the signs that were there for us are even stronger over at FMTTM. I've been reading FMTTM for years but only posted on there for 3-4 years, but throughout that time there has been constant promises of upgrades which never materialise. The fact is, as long as FMTTM remains ensnared in that weird fans online ltd group (which Rob is a minority shareholder in), it will never really move. The demographic of the fmttm readership is clearly ageing, and people are regularly banned for crossing lines, yet not replaced with new users due to the limited appeal of the design and features - basic things like being able to search, message a user, embed a photo or a video or a tweet in a post, until 2 weeks ago you had to do a manual workaround with every link you posted otherwise it would not direct properly, daft stuff like that. It is a great community and most communities are defined by their user base, but when that community ages, dies off, loses interest in forums etc, you need a steady stream of new users signing up, getting involved, inviting their mates to it etc. The only new usernames you really seem to get over there are troll accounts, and because of their poor toolset they can't deal with them at all. The moderation team is basically Rob + 1 other, so any issues seem to drag on for ages and each incarnation of a troll poster is allowed to go on for weeks until they reveal themselves, despite everyone knowing who they were ages ago, and cross the line again, which gets incredibly tedious. I look to sites like OneBoro and Ready To Go in sunderland, as examples of what a football message board should look and operate like. Easy to register, easy to use, easy on the eyes and good features that makes it not a frustrating experience. Any site like this really has a main competitor in facebook as communities like Everything MFC and Boro Banter Page capture a lot of readership from those that want a one-stop-shop social media experience. It's more people that want to be engaged in a community that flock to message boards, so you cant have a mega frustrating user experience and a site that looks like it was designed in 1996 and expect to be successful on an ongoing basis. What @RiseAgainst said above about visiting fans is key too - I've seen tiny tiny teams come here and when I have checked out their forums to see what they say about us its quite funny, as they often have shiny nice websites and they are shocked at the state of FMTTM. A lot of the users on FMTTM are fairly resistant to change though because they like how FMTTM looks and works and don't want "fancy" new things added, which is fair enough but any redesign or change of forum solution could be done with the legacy design in mind. Boggles my mind that a modern forum does not have a search feature for example. But you bring these things up and you get hit with an attitude of "if you don't like it here, just leave" - that is literally the problem - people are leaving. I was surprised that OneBoro wasn't represented to be honest - it seems well ran, has a proper "team" in place to deal with issues, does giveaways with sponsors etc. The fans forum represents the fans but doesn't really make it clear how fans make sure they are properly represented, and this is a big forum so should be, otherwise certain agendas that get pushed at FMTTM will obviously take the forefront and can present a slanted view - for example regardless of your opinion on goal music, FMTTM were pushing people to do the survey and vote against goal music - not just telling people that the survey was there for people to give their opinion. I suggested that Rob contact other fan groups to get that message out and he didnt seem keen. Rob is a good bloke that works hard on fmttm but he is trying to be a one man band that does everything, and thats where it falls down - old articles from 10 years ago, interviews from 7 years ago, squad profiles having Jason Steele as our first choice keeper etc. If you cant maintain stuff like that then dont have it and just focus on the community. I think this is where he is going wrong though as this site has admin and moderator team appropriate to the community size whereas its pretty much Rob, and rarely from time to time the other guy. RE the fan forum, one key thing about it is no one tracks actions raised through to resolution. @DCI_Gene_Hunt has been vocal about this, and I have too as (outside of my many side businesses) I work in a role where we run a lot of meetings and actions are tracked, owners assigned and updates are given. They would not have time to run through these updates in the meeting, but they would not need to be - they could just maintain an action log and have someone chase up outstanding ones for a position. Like wise the feed-in of what is to be discussed is fairly chaotic. Rob just puts a thread up and everyone spews what they want to be discussed into it, no priority sorting based on how many people want a thing to be discussed etc. 6 Link to post Share on other sites
Downsouth 6,327 Posted August 19, 2019 Author Share Posted August 19, 2019 Terrific first post thank you very much. I have contacted MFC Fans Forum in order that we can be represented and awaiting contact from them. Our Rob has put a lot of time and effort to keep the oneBoro site as modern as possible and hopefully as and when you have time to navigate the features and site you will find just that as well as all the social media accounts we are linked with. Things are improving a new blog will be up and running soon relating to match days and an active live twitter account for match days as well. Enjoy your time here and you are we welcome you to this forum Link to post Share on other sites
RiseAgainst 3,793 Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 Outstanding post @AsheAshe. Great guy though he is, FMTTM's Rob won't change the design or functionality of the site, and it's slowly strangling the life out of their forum. It's a shame so many offers of help have gone unacknowledged over the years, especially when you consider how much work goes into keeping OB looking fresh and easy to use. 2 Link to post Share on other sites
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