Thoughts On The Pay Sites
I've been a Scout member for a while but I am finding that I can't handle the sheeple like mentality around there anymore. I'm not sure how Rivals or 247 goes but any outside information is taken down immediately which seems insanely childish. My biggest gripe with Scout is Tom [Beaver]. He seems useless and always tries to belittle members. Anyway, do Rivals or 247 offer a quality product with an intelligent forum for discussion?
[ed: de-naughtied]
January 7th, 2013 at 3:31 AM ^
January 7th, 2013 at 4:10 AM ^
Damn. That short essay must have taken forever to type on a phone.
January 7th, 2013 at 5:58 AM ^
January 7th, 2013 at 6:14 AM ^
January 7th, 2013 at 6:14 AM ^
January 7th, 2013 at 7:13 AM ^
January 7th, 2013 at 11:54 AM ^
January 7th, 2013 at 1:14 PM ^
January 7th, 2013 at 11:25 AM ^
That encapsulates how I feel about Scout and what I've witnessed. The "Teacher's Pet" posters make some topics unreadable. How much adulation can someone receive for doing their job? It's complete nonsense.
January 7th, 2013 at 11:47 AM ^
January 7th, 2013 at 6:57 AM ^
Anyone that pays for a pay recruiting site is a moron. The sam information is on mgoblog within minutes if not before rivals, scout, and 247.
January 7th, 2013 at 7:29 AM ^
Exactly, in fact most information is on here before any of the pay sites. I realize it's only 10 bucks a month but why waste your money on information that you can get here for free?
January 7th, 2013 at 10:52 AM ^
I thought that before I got my subscription and it's just not true. The important stuff does end up over here but there's a lot of information that never makes its way onto MGo.
January 7th, 2013 at 2:37 PM ^
Sorry, but it is the case. I used to have a rivals sub. I canceled it for several reasons, primarily being that any information that was posted by the Rivals staff was already on mgoblog. I also canceled because I got sick and tired of the groupthink and circle jerk on the Fort, especially during the last coaches search. Balas, Anison, and John Borton's infatuation with Harbaugh got old. So was their tearing apart of Rich Rod and blantant acceptant of the Freep investigation. They would also play favorites with posters that accepted their line and thinking and would instantly blast anyone that posted otherwise (BlueMonster was definitely a teacher's pet on the board).
Michael Spath is only person I respect at the Wolverine. He is a good beat reporter that is connected with the hockey program.
January 7th, 2013 at 7:35 AM ^
Think about the business model for a second. These guys have "sources" in the athletic department who feed them info...and then they turn it around and "sell" it for a profit. When the same information will be available for free shortly thereafter should it be noteworthy. Ethical? Maybe. Worthwhile to invest in? No.
Not to mention almost everyone who runs these sites think they are, to put it simply, "the shit."
January 7th, 2013 at 9:25 AM ^
Most of the info they get comes from interviewing recruits.
January 7th, 2013 at 7:47 AM ^
January 7th, 2013 at 8:40 AM ^
Personally I don't think you can get much more value from them - If you stay up to date with this site and listed to Sam Webb you should be good.
I agree with the smugness - not a fan of really any paysite contributor. I was a member of Rivals during the coaching search and found that most of their info regarding the search was very wrong.
January 7th, 2013 at 11:16 AM ^
If anything pay for ESPN because it's dirt cheap, there's a bunch of fluff, TomVH has updates and you have access to ALL other ESPNsider content - no matter the sport.
I'd pay for ESPN and visit MGoBlog as much as possible. You won't miss a thing.
In this day and age, info travels so quickly through social media, no one really has a "scoop" anymore. It's all stolen within seconds.
MGoBlog is just like a premium/pay site...I'd just stay here. You'll eventually get tired of some of the bickering and useless negging, but it's still worth it. Scout hasn't been any good since 2008. Rivals has never been worth the money. 24/7 is just trying to make money and get clicks/views.
Trust me on this one.
January 7th, 2013 at 8:57 AM ^
If you really are interested in the information that doesn't makes it here, open up an account to each and share it with a group of friends. There are a dozen of us who share a Rivals and Scout login. We don't post on those boards though.
January 7th, 2013 at 10:06 AM ^
I do this with Netflix, not sure why I didn't think to do it with the premium sites. I still won't because I can't stand those sites...but for those interested in them, this is a great idea.
January 7th, 2013 at 9:02 AM ^
I'm subscribed to Rivals, 247 and Scout right now. They don't really give you anything you can't get here. They break info before it shows up on here, but only by a hour or two it seems. I got all three because I'm in Afghanistan and have a lot of down time to kill. Once I get back to the states I will cancel all three and stick to MGOBLOG. FWIW I would rank them Scout, Rivals then 247. Thats based on the boards and mods. Scout and Rivals are close, 247 lags way behind imo.
January 7th, 2013 at 9:18 AM ^
I currently subscribe to Scout and Rivals, and I used to subscribe to 24/7. I'd rank the as follows:
1. Scout
2. Rivals
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3. 24/7
I think Scout gets the best information and gets it the quickest. Also, despite the forum software's age, it's still better than Rivals. You can follow the conversations better, and as a result, the conversations are better.
Both Scout and Rivals certianly have their own majority mindset. Frankly, it can be annoying on both, but that's just how message boards are. If there is a perfect one, I've never seen it.
January 7th, 2013 at 9:52 AM ^
The lead dog on Scout's Michigan site is pretty sensitive about bringing in other material that is sourced from 247,Rivals, or TomVH, which I can understand that I guess. They all have the same business format, so it makes sense that they would not like their traffic directed to other sites with the same business model.
What I think is quite petty is that anything that comes from valuable free sites such as MGOBLOG, UMHoops,or Tremendous also gets bombed off of the site immediately. The pay sites have their own little niche market, so someone posting something from one of the free sites isn't going hurt anything in the grand sceme of things. Most Michigan fans are familiar with the valuable free sites anyway and check on them regardless, so deleting any content from them is an exercise in futility to begin with.
Hell anything Sam posts on that bored, he mentions on his recruiting roundup segments on the radio anyway, and I don't see him firing Sam for giving it away for free.
January 7th, 2013 at 10:00 AM ^
January 7th, 2013 at 10:10 AM ^
If you're considering a membership, I'd recommend evaluating the article content and not the boards. They're a mess everywhere. This is the only one where you'll find a community mostly dedicated to discussion based in relevant data. Also I've never seen anyone banned here for expressing an unpopular opinion with class.
January 7th, 2013 at 10:31 AM ^
And have a grand total of zero discussion thread posts to my credit. I never read them, period. I like Rivals for the straight news, and for the fact they separate out their speculation/whispers/rumors (usually in the "Inside the Fort" segments) about recruiting and such from their "straight" columns. I find the discussion threads here to be much more fun, have a better sense of humor and esprit-de-corps, and generally agree with the consensus views more often than not.
Rivals does tend to be a bit more of a company line and never really questions the wisdom of the establishment the way Brian does-- and I think there's a place for both. I guess you could say I read one for the party line, and one for dissent, and feel I've gotten a balanced picture at the end of the day.
I wish they'd get a better copy checker for the articles as they're often typo-ridden, but other than that, I'm pretty happy with it as a compliment to the content on MGoBlog, enough to keep paying the not-insubstantial price tag.
January 7th, 2013 at 11:59 AM ^
I don't understand people who actually pay for those sites. To know in advance where a kid will recruit, when that information will be posted on this blog eventually, is not a big deal to me. I don't need inside information (and we don't even know if that "inside information" on those sites is legit or not) on this team because MGoBlog provides all the information I need...for free.
January 7th, 2013 at 2:53 PM ^
I didn't renew my ESPN membership because everything gets posted on this site hours after it's released on ESPN. I'm starting to greatly dislike these paysites and their 'schocking' headlines to get clicks. I'm beginning to see the darkside in all of these paysites; hounding 16 and 17 year old boys and generating profits off their statements. These kids can't even see what's being written about them! I remember one recruit having to ask a writer on Twitter permission to see an article written about him. These pay sites are just another hugely unethical part of college football.
Now that my rant is over, when is Larue visiting?
January 7th, 2013 at 5:39 PM ^
He hasn't decided whether to visit or not.