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Rational Thoughts on Board Drama

I'm shocked at how fast the message board over there has turned into a ghost town. I think a lot of occasional visitors to the DS forums are probably wondering where everyone went. Hopefully they'll figure it out sooner rather than later.
 
TheIshThatSaved WakeForest said:
The thing is that there just hasn't been much info flowing in the past year. Evidenly the new 'culture' of Bz is to keep things closer to vest. I enjoy the national coverage by Evan and company during the summer events more than anything Wake specific.
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The sweet irony of Buzz being an ass leads to them losing their subscribers.
 
ZDeac said:
I'm not sure you guys realize what DS's business really is, though. They may make a little bit of money from ads served on the free board, but the really money is in the premium subscriptions. As long as they can maintain the flow of insider recruiting information there are Wake fans willing to pay for it.

DeaconsIllustrated (Rivals) has never had a very active board, but they've stayed in business for a long time because Jared does a great job providing the insider football recruiting scoop that people want. They don't need the active board to make that work.

This is absolutely the best user experience available. It's the best free product available. Scout's free product may very well fail. But that doesn't mean DeaconSports will disappear.
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But people will no longer pay those premium subscriptions when there is equally good or even better information and a better user experience here. Scout and Fox Sports are corporations. I understand there are local folks who control a lot of the content and probably make a living off that board. But they will not survive when an equivalent or better product is free. I don't know all the ins and outs of their business, obviously, but when a superior new product comes on the horizon, if rival competitiors don't adjust, they will fall by the wayside. People will only continue to purchase Premium over there for so long out of loyalty before they figure out they're wasting their money, unless DS ups the ante and starts providing better information and a better product. Then that would be an excellent thing and an example of why this competition is good for the user.
 
I guess, in my mind anyway, it remains to be seen whether or not this board really will have "equally good or even better information" than Scout/Rivals. It can (and I think will) have equally good if not better discussion of wake-related topics, I just have trouble believing it will be able to have the same level of recruiting information.

I can't really speak to the quality of Scout's bball info, but I have plenty of first hand experience with what Jared provides to the Rivals board and I've never seen anyone with nearly the depth of information he has posting it on a Wake free board. For the people who want that info, there's nowhere else to get it, and they gladly pay for the right to get it. Look at the football recruiting thread Jared has started here. That information is pretty detailed, and probably plenty for the casual fan. But he wouldn't be posting that if he didn't have even more in depth/recent stuff up on his own board for the people serious enough to want it.

If the stuff here really is as good as what Scout has had as of late, then yea, Scout is in big trouble.
 
I think the Deaconsports model is a dying model at least for Wake Sports. You really can't have a model built off of such a small clientele to begin with. There are 1000 graduates a year, maybe 50 to 100 care that much about sports. Also of those people I don't think there are that many people that are chomping at the bit for super secret recruitment information. For the most part, and the reason why the old boards worked so well, is because Wake fans like the school looked towards the board as a community. Since the school is so small, everyone on the boards knew each other. It was a way to keep in contact with each other, share our passion, talk sports. Sure there is recruiting here and there but for the majority of people its about sharing Wake Forest sports as a whole since many of us are scattered through out the country. With all the nonsense that went down over there it drove people away. This place opened up and here we are. As far as recruiting information for over here, as Irish pointed out the times are a changing. If I want to follow recruits, I can follow them on twitter, facebook friend them. Kids these days update stuff like crazy, you can know which way someone is leaning on committing as well as what they bought at the mall. So at least for me and probably a lot of other people Wake Community first everything else second.
 
ThinkingWithMyDeac said:
I think the Deaconsports model is a dying model at least for Wake Sports. You really can't have a model built off of such a small clientele to begin with. There are 1000 graduates a year, maybe 50 to 100 care that much about sports. Also of those people I don't think there are that many people that are chomping at the bit for super secret recruitment information. For the most part, and the reason why the old boards worked so well, is because Wake fans like the school looked towards the board as a community. Since the school is so small, everyone on the boards knew each other. It was a way to keep in contact with each other, share our passion, talk sports. Sure there is recruiting here and there but for the majority of people its about sharing Wake Forest sports as a whole since many of us are scattered through out the country. With all the nonsense that went down over there it drove people away. This place opened up and here we are. As far as recruiting information for over here, as Irish pointed out the times are a changing. If I want to follow recruits, I can follow them on twitter, facebook friend them. Kids these days update stuff like crazy, you can know which way someone is leaning on committing as well as what they bought at the mall. So at least for me and probably a lot of other people Wake Community first everything else second.
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Good post.
 
Definitely a good post, and you're right that the market for premium subscriber information is not that big for a school like Wake. I imagine that for big state schools there's a lot more money in it, but having been in the business myself for Wake there's no way anyone is making a living off of it. Even if DS has 10 times as many premium subscribers as DI has they still aren't making a living wage off of it, and I doubt the gap is that large. The only way it works is if you have another "real" job/are a student and are passionate enough about it to put a lot of time into something for a little extra spending money.

As Jared mentioned in the super user thread, I was one of those fans who simply didn't have the passion for the recruiting stuff. It's true, and I'm totally okay with that; it's why I'm here now. But, I know for a fact there are people, even if it isn't a really big number, who do really love the recruiting stuff and are happy to pay for it. I say more power to them, and I hope they enjoy it. As I said before, the DI board has survived a long time (and with a good community) with less than a hundred regular users. It's just a different focus.

For everyone else, a place like this is perfect, as you said.
 
I'm the guy that's posted routinely that Scout/DeaconSports is running a dying business model. I believe that, based off of every other website I visit on the Interwebz.

I was also a History major, so what the fuck do I know.

Anyways, who knows that ginger kid who wants to watch the world burn? We're going to make him a MOD!
 
Irish is on the SAUCE. I love it! ...I may or may not be as well.
 
I was on the sauce.

Now I'm crushing me some Captain Crunch. W/ Crunchberries. Nom nom.
 
I lived with ZDeac once. :fistbump

But seriously, good post. The 3 boards all fit their niche. Football, basketball, and the thunderdome.

We need an unofficial footy board though. dv7???
 
So DS will continue to thrive because 100 or so limp dicked, bitch titted face painters can share "insider" information about 16 year old boys?

Nice.
 
i'm sure thinkingwithmydeac posted on the other board, but i can't for the life of me figure out who it is. makes me angry.
 
oh i'm sure it's obvious, just having a sr moment
 
Marquee Moon said:
Think harder

Just think of who is missing over here
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Turf? Naz?

In re: this thread, I get the feeling some around here actually take these things seriously and go so far as to think about the boards and who said what for more than 10 seconds after getting off the boards.

I'm thinking there are those who think this is something more than an anonymously stupid way to piss away the clock.
 
Marquee Moon said:
So DS will continue to thrive because 100 or so limp dicked, bitch titted face painters can share "insider" information about 16 year old boys?

Nice.
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I have no idea what the subscriber base is. But let's say it is 200 at $90 a year or whatever they are charging. That's $18k per year total. I'm not sure how much FoxSports takes, but I'd assume it's a good chunk, over half probably. I'm not sure what amount makes it worth it to them, but if they're earning say $9k a year off it and a third of the subscriber base then goes away, you're now looking at $6k. Two-thirds leave and it's 3k to be split among a few people in whatever fashion. Not much. Somewhere there's a breaking point, but who knows what that breaking point is.
 
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