1 - Phil
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oliveducks Needs Your Help
I feel it's time to address the elephant in the room here, which is limited participation.
Oliveducks started out completely unplanned on short notice when the paper gave a couple days notice that comments would not be allowed. I had no idea if this would work or even if my post for this site would get taken down. The site didn’t even have the yellow or green colors you see now. Despite next to nothing with no organization things took off really well. I believe a few post even broke 10,000 views in the first week. The Rose Bowl game thread was super active and so much fun.
A few months later the pandemic hit and really killed a lot of momentum on the site and a number of members never returned. Looking back to last year we had a smaller, but still active group. The Buckeyes chat was active and still very enjoyable.
Going into this year I still really enjoy posting and debating various aspects of the Ducks on here. Unfortunately, the number of logged in members in the chat is becoming extremely small.
The dwindling numbers can be attributed to a number of things. Many of which I could’ve dealt with better from the start like making of few basic rules on here and making the site better from the get and go. Really the biggest problem is the site is not attached to any type of content. Successful forums more times than not are attached to content either professional or non-professional. I know of few of you have voiced that you like the site because I don’t produce content and this just operates as an open forum and not a fan boy site per say. The problem is every site has a lot of attrition and needs new members to survive.
Hindsight is 20/20 and a site with a better name, modern look, and features including active chat pings not needing refreshing, gif, and picture to post options would’ve been ideal. If anyone has a desire to try to set up a really sleek new site for say next season let me know. Again there would have to be a way for people to find it. It’s nothing more than a thought versus a plan at this point.
Having say a YouTube channel or say a blog could be a great way to get new members. I simply don’t have the time, desire, or skillset to do either. Let’s be honest anyone who reads my comments knows a career in journalism is not in my wheelhouse lol.
It brings us to the present, which begs the question can this site survive as is? I still enjoy it for now, however we’re dangerously close and treading water when it comes to participation. A lot of folks stop by that are not logged in. From what I’ve read this is totally normal on a forum as most have a 90% lurkers, 9% semi-regular, and 1% frequent posters.
I’m not ready to pull the plug or just give up yet. Regardless of who’s on here I’ll still be posting through the season. I recently sent a few emails out to members who haven’t been on the site for a while. I did hear back from one member who might be back on and hopefully some others might get the email who lost the site.
Oliveducks still has value as a place to talk Ducks that is absolutely free, void of excessive moderation, numerous links to Ducks articles, and current members who really write well and add great content. Thank you very much to the active members on here right now.
This is really the time for anybody to speak up with ideas and interest in continuing the site. As I’ve posted before any non-members or anyone with login issues can email me at oliveducks@tutanota.com.
For now I encourage everyone to keep posting or make one if you haven’t for a while. Any help with suggestions or simply inviting fellow Ducks fans to the site is encouraged. Looking to next week I’ll be traveling and watching the Colorado game on record later. If anyone wants to do a game chat by all means put up a thread. It would be great to get a chat going for the Huskies game in 2 weeks.
Thanks for your time reading this and as always Go Ducks!
Sincerely,
Phil
- DucksReign
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
Hi Phil...
First of all, thank you for everything you do for this platform...I don't express my appreciation as frequently as I should.
Second, thank you for your message, thoughts and "sounding the alarm" so to speak.
Personally I don't have any technology know-how in terms of setting up a more elaborate site.
Otherwise, in no order of importance...
1) I do think you are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. To go to a more elaborate site requires more investments of time, money and resources. Yet standing still produces what you are writing about.
Maybe it is my imagination or lack of awareness but it sure seems like there are more Duck comment platforms than just a few years ago when this site began. Some but not all are fan boy websites.
My favorite target, FishDuck has even made a substantial pivot. I visited the site a few days ago after not looking at it for months and months and much to my surprise, they now have significant paid advertising BUT in my opinion it barely makes the site readable / enjoyable(aside from my own personal dislike for Mr. FishDuck) because those ads are in blocks between various content pieces. So it is a lot of scrolling to get where you want to go. Yet I know previously, Mr FishDuck was paying for the site out of his own pocket; he tried or thought about paid subscriptions, etc. but now, I am assuming, the paid advertising should be helping significantly but it does come at a cost.
2) As I have expressed on here a number of times, my issue with fan boy websites including FishDuck, is they have no access to the Oregon Athletic Department, its teams, coaches, etc. Most of them cherry pick off the internet information and articles; then carefully rewrite it to avoid legal issues by making sure it is understood that it is not their original writing but rather they are sharing. Mr. FishDucks has his own slew of writers but again, no access to what they are writing about.
3) My participation on here has been fueled in part, I would like to hope it is around 50 / 50 is also cherry picking what I think are interesting articles from the internet; positing them here for discussion and so forth. We didn't all agree on Olive and I am sure my opinions on here are not to everyone's liking BUT I participate on a regular basis...some of which is sharing links.
4) Honestly and I say it without knowing anything about the process...to address every key issue you noted, it might be best to "move" the site to Facebook...Duck stuff comes up all the time on my Facebook page...news related and groups. For example, there is one group, "Oregon Ducks Football" that is private; based in Eugene, moderated by 8 people, began in 2011 and has 49,000 members!
I mention that because when I typed in "Oregon Ducks Football" on my Facebook search area...over 10 groups showed up and those don't include the news media. I am not on social media other than FB but I believe that is where people go TODAY to participate...especially once newspapers / outlets like the Oregonian, ESPN and others shut down their comment sections.
I don't believe FishDuck is active on Facebook because it would be a nightmare for Mr. FishDuck to try and moderate it.
I can see the eye rolls now but John Canzano is VERY ACTIVE on Facebook promoting his new platform; he interacts with commenters; shares his articles and so forth.
But simply having a FB page doesn't solve anything unless you produce stuff to talk about.
Yes, honestly, you / we are at a crossroads and fighting a losing battle when it comes to participation(which to me is different than "views"...one article posted by Mr FishDuck himself on that site had like over 500 views but only 2 replies).
Anyway, I don't know what if any of my thoughts are helpful. Thanks!
Last edited by DucksReign (10/30/2022 1:40 pm)
- Phil
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
DucksReign wrote:
Hi Phil...
First of all, thank you for everything you do for this platform...I don't express my appreciation as frequently as I should.
Second, thank you for your message, thoughts and "sounding the alarm" so to speak.
Personally I don't have any technology know-how in terms of setting up a more elaborate site.
Otherwise, in no order of importance...
1) I do think you are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. To go to a more elaborate site requires more investments of time, money and resources. Yet standing still produces what you are writing about.
Maybe it is my imagination or lack of awareness but it sure seems like there are more Duck comment platforms than just a few years ago when this site began. Some but not all are fan boy websites.
My favorite target, FishDuck has even made a substantial pivot. I visited the site a few days ago after not looking at it for months and months and much to my surprise, they now have significant paid advertising BUT in my opinion it barely makes the site readable / enjoyable(aside from my own personal dislike for Mr. FishDuck) because those ads are in blocks between various content pieces. So it is a lot of scrolling to get where you want to go. Yet I know previously, Mr FishDuck was paying for the site out of his own pocket; he tried or thought about paid subscriptions, etc. but now, I am assuming, the paid advertising should be helping significantly but it does come at a cost.
2) As I have expressed on here a number of times, my issue with fan boy websites including FishDuck, is they have no access to the Oregon Athletic Department, its teams, coaches, etc. Most of them cherry pick off the internet information and articles; then carefully rewrite it to avoid legal issues by making sure it is understood that it is not their original writing but rather they are sharing. Mr. FishDucks has his own slew of writers but again, no access to what they are writing about.
3) My participation on here has been fueled in part, I would like to hope it is around 50 / 50 is also cherry picking what I think are interesting articles from the internet; positing them here for discussion and so forth. We didn't all agree on Olive and I am sure my opinions on here are not to everyone's liking BUT I participate on a regular basis...some of which is sharing links.
4) Honestly and I say it without knowing anything about the process...to address every key issue you noted, it might be best to "move" the site to Facebook...Duck stuff comes up all the time on my Facebook page...news related and groups. For example, there is one group, "Oregon Ducks Football" that is private; based in Eugene, moderated by 8 people, began in 2011 and has 49,000 members!
I mention that because when I typed in "Oregon Ducks Football" on my Facebook search area...over 10 groups showed up and those don't include the news media. I am not on social media other than FB but I believe that is where people go TODAY to participate...especially once newspapers / outlets like the Oregonian, ESPN and others shut down their comment sections.
I don't believe FishDuck is active on Facebook because it would be a nightmare for Mr. FishDuck to try and moderate it.
I can see the eye rolls now but John Canzano is VERY ACTIVE on Facebook promoting his new platform; he interacts with commenters; shares his articles and so forth.
But simply having a FB page doesn't solve anything unless you produce stuff to talk about.
Yes, honestly, you / we are at a crossroads and fighting a losing battle when it comes to participation(which to me is different than "views"...one article posted by Mr FishDuck himself on that site had like over 500 views but only 2 replies).
Anyway, I don't know what if any of my thoughts are helpful. Thanks!
That's all very helpful feedback. I'm glad you're a major contributor to the site. I appreciate it and no need to thank me. Outside of blocking a number of spam bot accounts I don't do a whole lot. oldretired guy spends a lot of time posting links and keeping an eye on things so I was remiss not to mention him in my previous entry.
Your posting of articles to comment on has been great and is what makes sense for a forum like this. I like hearing your thoughts and debating =19.5pxissues too even if we don't agree on everything all the time. Personally I enjoy a forum that always debate and =19.5pxdissenting views.
Good point on the people posting is what matters and not page views.
Running a flashy website with a paid domain is definitely not in the cards. Like you mentioned you would need ad revenue to offset the cost unless I'm paying out of pocket or a membership, which are both ideas I'm not interested in pursuing. For this site I don't pay anything and the host runs the ads. As promised I've found them not to be intrusive and they don't even show up in the phone version.
I see value in a FB group if it was able to actually attract new members. Personally I have and account, but try not to spend much time there. Some of our other members on here I believe mentioned some time ago that they liked the site since it didn't require an FB account. It's certainly something I would consider.
One option I did think of is Discord. It has all the features including all the threads loads new comments without refreshing. The format is super easy to use and change notification features. I'm on a few hobby threads and it works really well. If you're not familiar it started for gamers to instant message each other and now is used by all sorts of groups. It would be a low input idea that includes all the high tech features. The biggest downfall is what would be the catalyst to bring people in? Your FB suggestion might have an advantage if it would draw new users.
To my surprise if you Google "Oregon Ducks Forum" this site is the 6th listening from my location at least. I'm not sure this has led to new members though.
For the meantime I'm going to try to stay active and see if I can't turn this sight around and then evaluate the future of the site at the end of the football season based on participation levels and what other people are feeling.
Much appreciated DR
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Thread Starter- DucksReign
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
I did a little research and found the process for creating a private group on FB is simple(first link) and private means people have to be approved to join(second link).
I will take a look at Discord...the advantage of course with FB is there is already a captive audience...Duck football fans, alumni, etc.
One easy way to market participation is for each person to promote the site on their own FB page. Of course we could also promote this site now on our FB pages.
Trade-offs for everything and FB may not be the best option but it does address the issues challenging you here with this site.
Regardless, increasing participation cannot be done by one person alone.
,-Learn%20about%20membership
- Phil
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
I did a little research and found the process for creating a private group on FB is simple(first link) and private means people have to be approved to join(second link).
I will take a look at Discord...the advantage of course with FB is there is already a captive audience...Duck football fans, alumni, etc.
One easy way to market participation is for each person to promote the site on their own FB page. Of course we could also promote this site now on our FB pages.
Trade-offs for everything and FB may not be the best option but it does address the issues challenging you here with this site.
Regardless, increasing participation cannot be done by one person alone.
,-Learn%20about%20membership
You're right that it's going to take more than one person to increase participation. Thanks for the suggestions.
I just added a share link that appears on the top of every topic. You can click on it and share it on your own FB page. This could be a great way to share an upcoming game chat or a topic you find of interest.
In terms of FB groups I am familiar with them. At this point I don't want to split discussions or try to move anything over to a FB group. Just creating a group to redirect people here probably wouldn't work very well without putting out a lot of content on the FB group.
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Thread Starter- Florida Duck
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
First of all, thanks for reaching out to me, Phil. My iPad did a crash and burn last year and I lost this website. With my excellent computer skills, I was not able to find it again!! I enjoy the discussions on this website, also had the opportunity to kid my Ohio State friends last year, but I did not know how to get in touch with you to report!
I'm back up and running so will take part in discussions again. Wish I could help with product research, but I'm a follower, not a leader in this field!
- bedupivi
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
Hi Phil The first comments posted on this site was Sunday, December 29th, 2019. That has been 1,037 days ago! Two years, ten months and 2 days. At lot has happened since then. Since the Oregonian editor, Therese Bottomly canceled the comment section of the Oregonian, I was happy, along with other Duck fans, to read and post comments once again. As you noted, the Covid scare shut down everything, including comments. However, now that it's over, a lot of readers, including myself, have not posted comments. I'm just thinking out loud for a minute...the heading says Oregon Ducks Football. I'm wondering if it would help to include Oregon Ducks Basketball, too. As much as I enjoy watching my Ducks on the gridiron, I also get excited watching them on the hardwood, too. It's one week from today when Coach Dana Altman and his Ducks start the season. Coach Altman has once again put together a group of young men who have the potential for a deep run in the NCAA tournament. Facebook may be the way to go, but it will keep me, and maybe others, from reading and commenting as I am not on any social website and do not plan on doing so. Whichever way you go, I wish you the best.
Last edited by bedupivi (10/31/2022 11:00 am)
- DucksReign
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
I'm just thinking out loud for a minute...the heading says Oregon Ducks Football. I'm wondering if it would help to include Oregon Ducks Basketball, too. As much as I enjoy watching my Ducks on the gridiron, I also get excited watching them on the hardwood, too. It's one week from today when Coach Dana Altman and his Ducks start the season. Coach Altman has once again put together a group of young men who have the potential for a deep run in the NCAA tournament.
Excellent point. Perhaps "Oregon Ducks Sports"... something which implies being inclusive of all Oregon sports teams. Speaking of, Coach Graves has reset the women's team who have a preseason ranking of #20(men are #21) in both the AP and Coaches polls.
- oldretiredguy
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
Hi Phil The first comments posted on this site was Sunday, December 29th, 2019. That has been 1,037 days ago! Two years, ten months and 2 days. At lot has happened since then. Since the Oregonian editor, Therese Bottomly canceled the comment section of the Oregonian, I was happy, along with other Duck fans, to read and post comments once again. As you noted, the Covid scare shut down everything, including comments. However, now that it's over, a lot of readers, including myself, have not posted comments. I'm just thinking out loud for a minute...the heading says Oregon Ducks Football. I'm wondering if it would help to include Oregon Ducks Basketball, too. As much as I enjoy watching my Ducks on the gridiron, I also get excited watching them on the hardwood, too. It's one week from today when Coach Dana Altman and his Ducks start the season. Coach Altman has once again put together a group of young men who have the potential for a deep run in the NCAA tournament. Facebook may be the way to go, but it will keep me, and maybe others, from reading and commenting as I am not on any social website and do not plan on doing so. Whichever way you go, I wish you the best.
I like that idea. We did start having basketball chat, and that just sorta fizzeled, but I too would like having more all around stuff, so I'll start posting more non-football related content if that's something we all want. DR puts up lots of great links as well. I would love to see this board continue, tho going to FB is not something I would support: I have never been on there and don't intend to start.
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
First of all, thanks for reaching out to me, Phil. My iPad did a crash and burn last year and I lost this website. With my excellent computer skills, I was not able to find it again!! I enjoy the discussions on this website, also had the opportunity to kid my Ohio State friends last year, but I did not know how to get in touch with you to report!
I'm back up and running so will take part in discussions again. Wish I could help with product research, but I'm a follower, not a leader in this field!
Welcome back Florida Duck!
I'm sure a lot of folks would be interested if you have a perspective on how Mario is being perceived at this point in Florida.
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Thread Starter- Phil
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
Hi Phil The first comments posted on this site was Sunday, December 29th, 2019. That has been 1,037 days ago! Two years, ten months and 2 days. At lot has happened since then. Since the Oregonian editor, Therese Bottomly canceled the comment section of the Oregonian, I was happy, along with other Duck fans, to read and post comments once again. As you noted, the Covid scare shut down everything, including comments. However, now that it's over, a lot of readers, including myself, have not posted comments. I'm just thinking out loud for a minute...the heading says Oregon Ducks Football. I'm wondering if it would help to include Oregon Ducks Basketball, too. As much as I enjoy watching my Ducks on the gridiron, I also get excited watching them on the hardwood, too. It's one week from today when Coach Dana Altman and his Ducks start the season. Coach Altman has once again put together a group of young men who have the potential for a deep run in the NCAA tournament. Facebook may be the way to go, but it will keep me, and maybe others, from reading and commenting as I am not on any social website and do not plan on doing so. Whichever way you go, I wish you the best.
Good to hear from you again. I'm interested in Ducks basketball too. We used to game chat and talk more about them. I did post about new recruits a month or 2 back. It would be nice to chat more about them. I agree with the name change that shows up as Oregon Duck Football for the app version. Perhaps "All About Oregon Ducks"?
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Thread Starter- OldMacManaic
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
@Phil @ORG
you guys should look into Slack. it's not too hard to set up and administer a Slack website. a fairly robust host platform runs about $15 per month ($I'd be happy to chip in$). you can create topic-based channels; regular, long-running channels for #duckfootball and #duckbasketball, or ad hoc channels #huskyweek or #gamechats. much nicer UI, & users can attach weblinks, images, and videos w a few clicks. you can limit posting to registered members and still open viewing to the genital public.
as we say in my line of work: good, fast, cheap. pick any two.
this boardhost forum has served us well these past two years. it's ugly & text-heavy, I know. and you can't post images or videos. but the price was right.
I think the slowdown in activity might be owing to a general calm in Duckville. football is winning the games it should, without too many hiccups. basketball hasn't started yet. some recruiting news now & then. but by & large not a whole lot for us to be jabbering about.
definitely don't go w Facebook or another conventional socmed platform. all you'll get is trolls, spam emails, and intrusive advertising. I had a FB acct for 36 hours once; got like a 40 percent discount on an expensive golf purchase for signing up. then FB scoured my entire address books from five different email accounts and started prompting me to connect w people on dist-lists that I didn't know or hardly knew. I canceled; still got the golf gear.
good luck and chive on. I've got some bandwidth toward the holidays at the end of Nov; I'll do some digging into what it would take to create and admin a slack site.
Last edited by OldMacManaic (10/31/2022 1:15 pm)
- Phil
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
I agree with the name change in the app and desktop version. How does "All About Oregon Ducks" sound?
I just switched this and am open to changing it to something else.
Thanks for the feedback from everyone. I'll reply more later as I have to get back to work about the site status and all. To get to the point I have no desire to switch to FB or another platform immediatly. The FB option is not one I'm personally interested in as much just because I'm not a huge fan of being on FB for various reasons.
Happy Halloween and Go Ducks 🎃
Last edited by Phil (10/31/2022 1:21 pm)
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Thread Starter- Phil
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
@Phil @ORG
you guys should look into Slack. it's not too hard to set up and administer a Slack website. a fairly robust host platform runs about $15 per month ($I'd be happy to chip in$). you can create topic-based channels; regular, long-running channels for #duckfootball and #duckbasketball, or ad hoc channels #huskyweek or #gamechats. much nicer UI, & users can attach weblinks, images, and videos w a few clicks. you can limit posting to registered members and still open viewing to the genital public.
as we say in my line of work: good, fast, cheap. pick any two.
this boardhost forum has served us well these past two years. it's ugly & text-heavy, I know. and you can't post images or videos. but the price was right.
I think the slowdown in activity might be owing to a general calm in Duckville. football is winning the games it should, without too many hiccups. basketball hasn't started yet. some recruiting news now & then. but by & large not a whole lot for us to be jabbering about.
definitely don't go w Facebook or another conventional socmed platform. all you'll get is trolls, spam emails, and intrusive advertising. I had a FB acct for 36 hours once; got like a 40 percent discount on an expensive golf purchase for signing up. then FB scoured my entire address books from five different email accounts and started prompting me to connect w people on dist-lists that I didn't know or hardly knew. I canceled; still got the golf gear.
good luck and chive on. I've got some bandwidth toward the holidays at the end of Nov; I'll do some digging into what it would take to create and admin a slack site.
I've used Slack for work in the past. Slack would be a huge improvement, but I think Discord is even better and has more features.
It's also free so we wouldn't have to worry about trying to get donations or having to personally pay for it myself every month.
I'm already on if in a couple of different groups. Both are not gaming as that's what it was first created for and now has evolved. It has all the Slack features you mentioned and it's really easy to use and get the hang of.
Check out this article on it "Though there are a lot of free communication programs online, Discord stands out thanks to its wide array of chat options. It combines all the best features of more commonly used programs, such as Skype and Slack, with an easy-to-use interface"
Last edited by Phil (10/31/2022 2:18 pm)
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Thread Starter- bedupivi
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Re: oliveducks Needs Your Help
I haven't heard of discord before. I occasionally look at the Portland Winterhawk site and they use disqus as their platform. It seems pretty user-friendly to me. Just a thought.
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