Jumping the Shark: Why the MGoBoard is Unreadable
Everyone has their own special moments. You know, the moment the light bulb goes on and you say to yourself: "Self, the Board is absolutely unreadable now."
My special moment occurred yesterday morning when I just couldn't stop myself from checking the Board (dumb, I know). My instant reaction?
YEEEEEHAW! Doom, death, despair, Ignorance, insults, opinions galore!
(I know, I know. Cool story bro. But I'm getting there.)
Tell me, MGoPeoples, when was your "Jump the Shark" moment? Did it happen back during the post-Carr coaching search days? The Fire Rodriguez days? The Fire Borges days? After Akron? After UConn? After Penn State? This weekend?
Disclaimer: This is not to say that we will never visit the board. Its simply an open discussion so people can see why some regulars stop visiting the Board and adjust accordingly. And for those of you that say "Good, stop reading. You're a douche bag anyway," I say "Fine, I will!"
November 4th, 2013 at 10:47 AM ^
November 4th, 2013 at 11:05 AM ^
response!
I'm betting my clicks are about a tenth of what they were. It has pretty much been a gradual slide, accelerated by incidents that have already been mentioned multiple times and one of my pet outrages. I generally look at the front page, look at the board and read perhaps one out of ten posts. Given my age, a lot of things look young. My fingers tremble with trepidation every time I take to the keyboard.The more important detail, to my way of thinking, is that it doesn't bother me as much today as it did earlier in the year.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:33 AM ^
the issue is bigger than the Board. The issue is social media in general, sports related or otherwise. The Board is a feast of negativity and false bravado. It is a place where it does matter what you say, it now only matters how you say it. Casual conversation is a thing of the past, now every discussion must have a "winner" and "loser." It is basically this country in a microcosm, socially and politcally. People have settled on one thing, they disagree, even to the extent of using other peoples statements only to form their own, while giving no thought at all to the substance of what is said. It is important for the rational people remaining on this site to continue posting in the hope that this place can again resemble what it used to be at one time.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:07 AM ^
I've been on here forever and rarely comment anymore because of all the snarky comments, sophmoric behavior and general rudness. Most of the posts leading up to the MSU game where about how they weren't any good or hadn't played anyone. When there were any posts/comments that gave them credit for being 6-1 (like Michigan) that person was destroyed by asinine and nasty comments. Why? Because it's easy to tear someone down behind the security of a digital avatar. I agree with you about how there must be a winner and loser and there is no place for common ground. If you are a masochist go read the comments on the politcal boards of each side and you will see nothing but intolerance and hatred for the opposing side while ignoring the issue. I also believe social media makes much easier to succumb to groupthink since you can choose the amount of exposure to opposing veiws.
The shark jumping moment for me was when the discussion came up about student attendance at football games and one commentor mentioned they make it from Dearborn. They were ridiculed by multiple members (all joined after 2011) because they just went to a satellite campus and were not real students. That really annoyed me since I never missed a game in the three years I had tickets (2005-2007) and I went to Michigan-Flint. From that moment on I have rarely participated in the discussion board because so many on here just lack any level of decorum.
November 4th, 2013 at 12:04 PM ^
that for all the "Make it OT", "you misspelled looser [sic] or your grammar is incorrect", "this was already posted, or shouldn't be" crap we complain about now, it was far worse before. This is why I post a new topic on the board, and have considered and even drafted diaries and decided not to post them.
So there was some snarky shit before - just in a different nature.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:34 AM ^
November 4th, 2013 at 10:43 AM ^
Says board is unreadable. Writes a post on the board.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:46 AM ^
LOL. Read the disclaimer.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:59 AM ^
The fact that they didn't read the post is the real irony.
November 7th, 2013 at 12:21 PM ^
That make it unreadable. Snark from assholes.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:35 AM ^
Unfortunately, my never read the comments policy for the rest of the internet has to apply here as well.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:39 AM ^
I was a reader long before I actually had an account and I usually refrain from commenting for the most part. The knowldge and insight on this board was fantastic in 2010 it seems to me that ever since Bacon mentioned the blog in "3 and Out" things have gone to shit.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:39 AM ^
I look for usernames I recognize and mostly read only their comments. This isn't fair to new posters, but I have to do it for my own mental health.
Another thought: I think you can - speaking very generally - tell the difference between those of us who endured the RR years on the blog and those who didn't. I think the former group is more tempered in their reactions to Michigan's current problems...though maybe I'm making that up.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:57 AM ^
November 4th, 2013 at 10:58 AM ^
I endured the RR years and it didn't make me more tempered. If anything it pissed me off and I think Hoke should be treated the same even to the detriment of the program - as bad as that sounds. The treatment of RR by the DB cast, in my opinion, was very deeply troubling (as "deeply troubling" as a sports like substance can be in my life - which is not very). It just really pissed me off. It really felt to me like we were the "seat's taken" type of crowd on the bus to the new kid.
The Meyer success doesn't help at all.
I think I may need to just take a break from allowing sports to drive my emotions. I need to enjoy my weekends again.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:09 AM ^
Agreed plus 1000
November 4th, 2013 at 11:14 AM ^
My opinion of the Michigan football program changed for the worse due to the treatment he received. It disgusts me to think of it even now. I don't think we (to the extent that people on a blog control things, which is laughably little) should visit that treatment on Hoke, though. That sad fact is this: To make it worth replacing Hoke, Michigan would have to find a guy who is a sharper football mind, someone with Midwestern recruiting ties (or someone capable of making them quickly), and someone whom alumni and former players/coaches would accept...Terribly, that last requirement may well be the hardest. Michigan football is about as inbred as the Habsburgs, and apparently there will always be many people ready to stab you in the back unless you coached for Bo or for someone who coached for Bo, speak with non-regional diction, and want to run a pro-style offense.
I think we all need to take a step back as far as how much Michigan's teams affect our weekends. It's something I'm working hard on myself.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:27 AM ^
the wife of the coach needs to dress and wear her hair in an acceptable fashion.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:44 AM ^
Thinking about the crap that the Rodriguez's took for using words like "ain't" or having the wrong hair or making nacho dip makes me want to root for another team - or burn down an ivory tower.
November 4th, 2013 at 12:03 PM ^
I come here to relax. I actually found forming and presenting arguments regarding which coach or coaches' feet to lay the blame for this year's lost season relaxing and interesting after a busy, hard-working week with considerably higher stakes than a football result.
In high school and my early young adult years football was essentially one of the most important things in my relatively meaningless life. Even when I felt I had "matured" in my early 20s a tough loss would be hard to take.
I still cherish watching a Michigan game on a Saturday afternoon, and I enjoy thinking about and discussing the team, but this is only a diversion from weightier matters for me. One of the best things about posting here is that what I say, and what we are talking about, doesn't really matter at all.
****
As far as replacing Hoke, the cart is waaaaay before the horse here. At worst a staff shake-up is in order, and Hoke has shown the ability to attract good talent. I agree that RR was treated poorly here, and I disliked how much grief he got before he really deserved to get it.
But he was fired after three years because of what happened on the field, and Hoke's record isn't even remotely comparable. If RR had won, he would have been embraced, just as all winners are. Any outsider can come in and succeed at Michigan if they win.
November 5th, 2013 at 12:13 AM ^
November 4th, 2013 at 3:13 PM ^
Wholly cosign, Dudeness. You just expressed a feeling I've been trying to put my finger on, and far better than I could've.
November 7th, 2013 at 12:24 PM ^
I want to be in the club where we enjoy our weekends because we are living our own lives--not so thouroughly through the success/failure of our football team and what every "Joe Blow" says or if they disagree or not.
That's what the recent meltdowns have done for me.
November 4th, 2013 at 2:45 PM ^
Then I noticed that people who's opinions i respected were posting less and less. The signal to noise ratio started going downhill quickly. Now I don't visit the Mgoboard unless I'm looking for own-fanbase schadenfreude.
The board doesn't know if it wants to be a place for srs discussion, or the RCMB. This in-between stage isn't working.
Also super annoying: posting links that were 3 days old, asking questions about where to watch Michigan football because you were at a family reunion/wedding/secret cabal meeting in New Location when you could simply google within the blog, and the dog thing. Never forget.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:39 AM ^
THANKS A LOT, OBAMA
November 4th, 2013 at 1:55 PM ^
So I am curious. How does this not equal a political statement? The entire point of this internet meme is to minmize the opinion of those who dislike Obama's politics. It would have been the same as republicans saying "Don't worry, it's Bush's fault while mocking the other side."
November 4th, 2013 at 10:43 AM ^
I responded to a comment about Rich Rod on Saturday night, and stated now was not the time to relive that again and ended up in Bolivia with -8500 points. Touchy, touchy people.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:45 AM ^
I'm un-Bolivianable.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:47 AM ^
But hey, at least the weather is warmer.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:41 AM ^
first few comments on the Board to get a sense of where a thread is headed. But, I have generally skipped 80+% of the Board posts during this football season.
If it were my blog, I would have suspended Board posts until the tech issues are resolved that permit user mods. The Board is now becoming a liability to MGoBlog and reducing the brand equity Brian, Seth, Ace, et al have built.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:45 AM ^
But also understand that this is Brian's living here. Suspending the comments or board posts would have drastically cut down the number of hits and other such things. I really just don't think it's a realistic or viable option for Brian. So I wouldn't fault him in any way for not cutting down the boards for the season.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:09 AM ^
large business I built from a concept into a viable, sustainable enterprise. One of the most difficult decisions I had to make was to walk away from a client and contract that was very lucrative in the short term, but potentially a drag on our brand equity over time.
Brian is a very smart and capable entrepreneur, he just needs to make sure he doesn't let his brand get away from him before it is too late to recover it.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:15 AM ^
And you have to look at short-term compared to long-term success. In this situation though, I don't see how walking away from so many clients (clicks) would overall be beneficial to him, especially when there are many, many other blogs/boards where fans can go. They may not migrate back if they have no place here.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:33 AM ^
Just to play devil's advocate, what if all of the posters like you start moving to other sites instead of posting here and then they don't come back. Then, the site is left with the people you were complaining about. Not only is he losing page clicks, but the overall quality of comments declines.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:50 AM ^
I never think you're going to lose significant value from losing just one member. So if I left, I don't think the value lost would be significant. Now, if a bunch of good posters left, yeah, the board quality would go down, but would that stop the majority of posters from still coming here, clicking the site, commenting on things, I don't think the a degree that would have a significant affect on the sites numbers.
I do agree that there is a balance that you need to look at and how you want this board to look/act. I just don't really see that tipping point being "some people leave". It would have to be a mass exodus. IMO, the easiest way to start a mass exodus would be to shut down the boards entirely.
I'm not arguing your overall point, as I agree with it. I just don't see where Brian could personally benefit from shutting things down rather than only risking to lose some posters. Just trying to put myself in Brian's shoes, if some quality posters said "we're out of here!", I would probably say "well that's unfortunate, oh well".
November 4th, 2013 at 12:09 PM ^
You, at least, have some understanding of the difficult decisions a "person in charge" has to make. There's a lot of angst about Brian's blowup over the recruit comments. I see both sides of it--Brian can be a bit harsh about disagreement, after all. But he also has larger things in consideration, like the problems that could arise if this board got a large, mlive-ish reputation for bashing recruits and the implications that could have on its relationship with the football program.
Part of the problem is that the issues being griped about here are really no different than the rest of the internet.
November 4th, 2013 at 2:59 PM ^
...except that there wasn't actually any recruit-bashing, and the recruit in question came onto the board to say he'd re-read the thread, realized no offense was meant so none was taken and everything was cool.
If it was concern about a recruit feeling bashed, that would have ended it, but it went on like nothing had happened, because the real issue for both sides was elsewhere.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:45 AM ^
Word.
November 4th, 2013 at 10:48 AM ^
From my experience, user self-moderation only works when the mob is on the side of peace and sanity. Right now, the mob is decidedly in Torch and Pitchfork territory.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:00 AM ^
allows you to avoid trolls and garbage very rapidly.
I also like gallows humor and some of the Board's best work has come during times when things weren't exactly going well for the team. We had plenty during the GERG tenure. This year, it just seem like our bitterness as a fanbase had a different, meaner tone.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:31 AM ^
This year, it just seem like our bitterness as a fanbase had a different, meaner tone.As a longtime poster, I have to confess that the tone of the board has lead me to just avoid it for those weeks following bad losses like Penn State and then Saturday's debacle. The endless, mindless whining and finger pointing and whatnot just leaves me numb. Can Da'Shawn Hand just commit to Michigan already and pick up everyone's spirits?
November 4th, 2013 at 11:08 AM ^
Very true. Up until this weekend I felt like "innocent" people get hammered by self-moderation point system and stifles their posts but now I think that people need to get blasted, at least after losses like this last one. Fewer threads after losses are better than this crap, IMHO.
November 4th, 2013 at 1:09 PM ^
No self-moderation system is going to be perfect, but if each poster was given only a limited number of negs to parcel out per day (plus have each neg cost posters a point, as was once the case), then I think that would cut down dramatically on the number of cases of "innocent" people getting hammered.
One thing I'm really tired of whenever this topic comes up are the many people who just laugh off the concerns about the state of the board, saying, this is the Internet, what do you expect? That attitude is part of the problem, because this board used to be moderated (both by the posters and the mods themselves) to be better than the average board. Part of the reason this board has jumped the shark for me is the increasing presence of people who simply don't care about the level of discourse here.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:16 AM ^
you can't speculate that just because the football program is underperforming, and that people are frustrated that tthis place would only get worse with user moderation.
I was here for the end of the Carr era, as well as RR's, they wer'nt often pretty, but the boards had a crude self-regulating conciousness.
We are in wild west territory here now, and things are already frustrating because no feels they are as invested without the smidgeon of power that moderation gives us.
Right now our options as board members are one of two choices:
1. have the time, & energy to get into a discussion about a board post we either like or dislike. or
2. Ignore it completely. (which can often be misinterpreted as tacit approval)
The 3rd option of simply voting up or down sent a quick easy message to other posters that they were either supported, or disagreed with and why?
Serious breeches of conduct were also swiftly corrected without always needing a ban hammer.
I was never a particularly useful board member, but since the season has started I've cut my visits in half, and my posting by 90%. Only a part of it has to do with the football team.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:27 AM ^
But as a mod during many trying times (including the late RR years, which were... yeah), I can tell you that the self-regulating consciousness had to be backed by serious moderation from on high. Now, I will say that the blithering bullshit was better labeled, which certainly helped. But people see it as a panacea, but we could bring back voting today (actually, we can't, but IF we could), it wouldn't make much of a difference in holding back the tide.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:56 AM ^
I'd NEVER advocte a moderator-free board, that's insane.
But let people have a bit of ownership & responsibility for what they do & say around here and it would help immensely. Would it completely stop post bed-shit meltdowns? Of couse not, but this blog wouldn't be swinging to such extremes and would bounce back to sanity faster IMO.
Are you saying now for the record that comments can't/wont ever be user moderated again? This is the first I've heard of this and it's alarming.
November 4th, 2013 at 12:07 PM ^
User voting can and will return. We just can't do it instantly.
Some people seem under the impression it's basically a switch that Brian has just chosen not to flip. They tried, and failed, to revive the necessary module in Drupal, but it looks like it'll have to wait for the total site revamp/upgrade to the next version of Drupal.
November 4th, 2013 at 11:36 AM ^
I don't think the vocal mob is indicative of the overall board readership. I think most lurkers want to stay-the-course, but the self-moderation feature most lurkers used to contribute their viewpoint is now gone.
And I would wager that # of lurkers > # of posters.
November 4th, 2013 at 12:42 PM ^
Or require all new threads to be approved by a mod before they are published