Off-Topic POLL: If this forum closed at the end of the season

[Jimmytaff]

Yeah but TDA hasn't posted yet

Is that important?

 

[bluethrough™]

Is that important?

Let you know tomorrow

 

[Iforbach]

The functionality and quality of design on this board far exceeds any other City messageboard. The Kernel has brought some great ideas and innovations and the competitions are good fun. It's interesting that the Facebook group has such good numbers which don't convert so much to this board, at least in terms of active contributors. It can't be because of the quality and design. So maybe message boards don't appeal so much to the younger supporters? CCMB seems to be running out of steam, though the football debate can be good. AAMB is shit. This season, I have engaged far more with Vlogs and Podcasts then ever before. View from the Ninian is quite entertaining as is Alternative Wales.

 

[Jimmytaff]

The functionality and quality of design on this board far exceeds any other City messageboard. The Kernel has brought some great ideas and innovations and the competitions are good fun. It's interesting that the Facebook group has such good numbers which don't convert so much to this board, at least in terms of active contributors. It can't be because of the quality and design. So maybe message boards don't appeal so much to the younger supporters? CCMB seems to be running out of steam, though the football debate can be good. AAMB is shit. This season, I have engaged far more with Vlogs and Podcasts then ever before. View from the Ninian is quite entertaining as is Alternative Wales.

Run out of steam? Cunts haven't boiled water for ten years

 

[Mr Shitpeas]

The functionality and quality of design on this board far exceeds any other City messageboard. The Kernel has brought some great ideas and innovations and the competitions are good fun. It's interesting that the Facebook group has such good numbers which don't convert so much to this board, at least in terms of active contributors. It can't be because of the quality and design. So maybe message boards don't appeal so much to the younger supporters? CCMB seems to be running out of steam, though the football debate can be good. AAMB is shit. This season, I have engaged far more with Vlogs and Podcasts then ever before. View from the Ninian is quite entertaining as is Alternative Wales.

Yeah Alternative Wales is great. Run by a big City fan too. The thing is though, vlogs and podcasts aren’t a replacement for forums (in fact lots of the references and comments they make are clearly directly taken from this very MB) they are just different and would work really well in combination imo.

 

[Iforbach]

Yeah Alternative Wales is great. Run by a big City fan too. The thing is though, vlogs and podcasts aren’t a replacement for forums (in fact lots of the references and comments they make are clearly directly taken from this very MB) they are just different and would work really well in combination imo.

They are different. And each have their place. And they can be mutually supportive. But they do compete for some people's time. I guess from the Kernel's perspective, the challenge is to encourage migration and ideally subs from these other channels. Not sure what the answer is - maybe some kind of partnership? Kernel will know better than me.

 

[Captain Fishtits]

I’d probably set up my own forum
Captain Fishtits only two Cardiff Citys forum
Intro music would be South of Heaven by Slayer
Friday night would be a Blazing Saddles night everything from beans parties to stampeding cattle through The Vatican
Oh and I’d ban @Nugent at random times for no particular reason
No I wouldn’t go anywhere else as I don’t think anyone else would have me

 

[Chas michael michaels]

If foruns were pubs you'd have the AAMB echo chamber in the borough / Cornwall.
Kernels forum has taken a cross section of all of the Canton heyday pubs.
I'm not sure if the CCMB forum would be a pub. Probably reading the programme in the ground sipping a Bovril

 

[Chas michael michaels]

@kernel any plans for any forum merch again?
The last promotion cups and stuff were class

 

[Mr Shitpeas]

They are different. And each have their place. And they can be mutually supportive. But they do compete for some people's time. I guess from the Kernel's perspective, the challenge is to encourage migration and ideally subs from these other channels. Not sure what the answer is - maybe some kind of partnership? Kernel will know better than me.

Football podcasts are different in the same way as forums are. For example Cardiff city world is just chatting about formations and tactics and a bit of club politics which gets pretty boring after a while, whereas VFTN and AW are like the chats you have with your mates in the pub (the latter also has a really good magazine and arranges social events) and that’s exactly what this place is like, chatting shit in the pub after the game. That’s why in think they would work really well together.

 

[Iforbach]

Football podcasts are different in the same way as forums are. For example Cardiff city world is just chatting about formations and tactics and a bit of club politics which gets pretty boring after a while, whereas VFTN and AW are like the chats you have with your mates in the pub (the latter also has a really good magazine and arranges social events) and that’s exactly what this place is like, chatting shit in the pub after the game. That’s why in think they would work really well together.

Maybe a good fit.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

I’d probably set up my own forum
Captain Fishtits only two Cardiff Citys forum
Intro music would be South of Heaven by Slayer
Friday night would be a Blazing Saddles night everything from beans parties to stampeding cattle through The Vatican
Oh and I’d ban @Nugent at random times for no particular reason
No I wouldn’t go anywhere else as I don’t think anyone else would have me

I’d join just for the intro music and farting.

 

[TroggBlue]

I hope this isn’t a testing of the waters to potentially get rid of the forum. This is my favourite form of social media, I say this as a phone addicted 21 year old too. I could wake up tomorrow and have been banned off insta, Twitter and TikTok and wouldn’t really bat an eye but coming on here and seeing this place is gone would upset me no end. Love this place and the people on it.

 

[Gary Madine's Fight Club]

I'd probably not join any of the other ones, nor any other medium of following the club.

This is by far the best of the forums available and it's not close. I get why you're prompting it, but I think if you're worrying about being unwillingly associated with them you're a little bit stuck (as I see it) on ways that you can dissociate this forum with the others. Short of changing the name (but to what?) and either finding a way to get yourself to the top of the Google rankings for the forum where AAMB currently sits it's pure luck on who sees it.

We've all been around long enough to know that Mike's forum is completely dead (and often inaccessible by design) and Annis' is full of sockpuppets, a clan of followers who hang on his every word and a complete hatred of the club, but people who don't know the club don't have that context we have. Even if you look at the UX/UI side of things this place is miles ahead of both with far less intrusive adverts and even things like stickied threads are properly demarcated so there's no conclusion. You've got things they don't have like the emoji responses/gif responses and the profile customisation/credits/bets systems that also separate this place from other forums - all of which are engaging enough to help keep a lot of people here instead of going elsewhere.

I don't know how your metrics work, but I'd guess we're probably top of the metrics for site activity based on the graveyard that is CCMB and the limited userbase (be it sockpuppets/banned users) on AAMB. None of those appeal in any way to go to if this place went. I'm more than happy to pay to keep this place running every month, which I certainly wouldn't do elsewhere. I think also the folk on here are a bit nicer on the whole too which does help.

 

[Joecity]

I wouldn't bother. I'd put the fiddle in the roof.

 

[Nugent]

Im banned off comb and aamb so my hands are tied.

If this place went id probably have to try and fill about 2 to 3 hours of my time up.

So that would be more lefty WUMing on Tik Tok and FB.
Or more wanking. And at 48 yrs old I really should calm down on the wanking aspect.

 

[Joecity]

You are my forum
My only forum
(Apart from one where men post naked selfies)
You make me happy
When skies are grey
You'll never know just
How much I love you
Oh please don't take my forum away

 

[BlueNugs]

Id knock it on the head. I was sick and tired of Mike's forum though I really enjoyed it for a while but it was shit for at least two years before I shifted my efforts here. AAMB was never for me. Other forums always feel locked in the past to me - the only other one I regularly frequent is a Wales one but that feels analogue while this forum is digital. Comb and AAMB are telegram.

This is a super useable forum that is always looking to improve and try things. I like the majority of posters here, enjoy the humour and breadth of discussions. I didn't ever envisage myself paying for a forum but this place was a God send during COVID so felt I had to contribute towards it. Never paid for anything else on internet that isn't shopping or streaming

 

[Woody]

This is the only forum I've ever become a regular user on and that's because I found it welcoming, appreciate the structure and functionality, enjoy the general tone, the company and the moderation (to the extent I could reasonably expect to.). The Colonel and his helpers do an excellent job. I don't agree with everything or everyone on here but I'm free to either say so or disengage with that aspect of the forum and keep my enjoyment of the rest of it.

I was a member of CCMB long before this place and also have a login for AAMB knocking around somewhere and both of them lack some or most of the above attributes, which is why I've never really participated and only visit either extremely rarely, usually out of curiousity after seeing something mentioned on here. I wouldn't bother with either if this place did close.

I mentioned yesterday on another thread that IMO, it would be worth rebranding this place (either back to OOCC or something else) to separate it from the other forums. If there's a feeling that the club treat all the boards as one entity, it's not all that surprising considering that the three are called "Cardiff City Message Board", "Cardiff City Forum" and... "Cardiff City Forum." None of our (part-time) club hierarchy will take a close enough interest in our online goings-on to understand that these things are three quite separate and different groups. Neither will a lot of City fans, as evidenced by the Facebook crowd often struggling with the concept that there is an online message board behind the pages they're interacting with.

Perhaps the end of the season could be an opportunity for a bit of a renewal?

 

[Knees up Brian Clark]

I'd go where kiffa and eat your own fritters go me