The Culture of Message Boards

Discussion in 'The Thunderdome' started by volfanjo, Sep 1, 2011.

  1. volfanjo

    volfanjo Chieftain

    I was at work today and thinking that with 8th Maxim, there are now six Volunteer message boards with sizable and active contributors. Three of those sites -- Scout, Volquest and Volnation -- have been around several years. The other three -- OuterMonvolia, Vols, [itch bay] and 8thMaxim -- were created out of some disagreement or frustration with their initial board (OM grew out of Scout, V,B grew out of Volquest, and obviously this one out of Volnation). I have only been doing the message board thing about three years now off and on, but I have three questions I would like to pose to you.

    1. Do we have -- in comparison to other schools -- a more sizable message board culture, and are the 6 boards a tribute to that, or is it just that the same 1,000 guys are posting on all of them?

    2. Are other message boards for other teams as contentious as ours seem to be? Both within and across boards.

    3. This is the question I really want answered. In 100 years when someone writes the history of Vols athletics, will message boards be significant enough that someone will write about the great VolNation dust-up of 2011, or the time Steve Forbes by way of Mike Griffith accused Hat of torpedoing the bball team, or the time Sab wrote a love letter to a QB prospect from California? I'm saying this jokingly but also seriously... Are we an important enough part of Vol culture to be accounted for, or all we all simply using this as a nice distraction from all the other hassles this otherwise cruel world piles upon us?
     
  2. volinbham

    volinbham Member

    good musings - I have no answers other than to say we aren't significant in the big scheme but the boards are significant to us.
     
  3. kptvol

    kptvol Super Moderator

    This site initially is going to have a bit of an anti-VN feel. That's just the nature of the beast considering our early membership. Hopefully we'll separate a little more completely over the next few months.

    But as to the point of your thread, I think the boards are getting to be more and more important. It's 24/7 Vol news being brought to you by thousands of followers. Any news story, any twitter happening, any Rivals star rating change, any comment made by a coach that might possibly be able to be taken out of context or blown out of proportion... it's here. Right away. And everyone knows about it. Any average joe can now log onto a message board and get 20 or more Vol tidbits of news in just a moment rather than browsing all over the net to read about. Hat has blogged about the immediacy of the internet lately. Message boards basically make the internet even more immediate. And it spreads the message out to a lot more people. Little things only a few people would normally notice now get made into threads with hundreds of views.
     
  4. Lexvol

    Lexvol Guest

    Here are the factors:
    1. You have a group of posters who "find each other". The talent on the site recognizes the other talent. ( Please don't take this too seriously, I know it is just a damn message board)
    2. Talent begins to form a bond...and to some extent tries to truly educate the general populace. For instance, it was the Fulmer situation that eventually birthed OM.
    3. The moderation team grows, and some take themselves way too seriously.
    4. The talent gets frustrated and tells the group to go [uck fay] themselves.

    That is basically how it happens. Pretty darn simple and easy.

    Have to admit it is fun to post what you like, and allow your work to stand on its own merit.
     
  5. possumslayer

    possumslayer Roadkill Guru

  6. IMISSTHEBOWLBROS

    IMISSTHEBOWLBROS Contributor

    Yes . It is!
     
  7. volfanjo

    volfanjo Chieftain

    Someone bumped my first ever post on this site. What the heck?
     
  8. InVolNerable

    InVolNerable Fark Master Flex

    No one enjoys virgin memories.
     
  9. Oldvol75

    Oldvol75 Super Bigfoot Guru Mod

    Wow, how did you post that with no name, much less 0 posts? Never mind, it was just a random post on my screen and now when I quoted it shows Lex.
     
  10. IMISSTHEBOWLBROS

    IMISSTHEBOWLBROS Contributor

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