Why so quiet?

[oldhawkfan]

I check this board a few times a day all year long. The off-season is usually pretty slow and quiet around here except during the height of free agency and the lead up to and directly following the draft. OTAs and mini camps usually bring a bit of traffic too. Once training camp starts, this board usually has lots going on. Not this year. What’s going on?! Where are all the new threads and this player and that player evaluations? We are over a week into camp and this board is QUIET! Are people not as excited? Is the overall traffic to this board down? Fans are allowed at practices this year. Where are the .netters? I used to go to camp practices 2-3 times a week back in the old Cheney days and would post my observations on another board. It almost feels like pre-internet days in terms of information around here.

 

[AROS]

I've been wondering the same thing myself. The lack of board activity this time of year is conspicuous.

I miss the Cheney/NET days.

 

[flv]

Multiple sports internet boards have gotten very quiet since last year. I'd suggest that there are multiple factors at play. Such boards tend to have a higher proportion of members who are over the age of 40. Many of these 'internet veterans' have become weighed down with real life concerns over jobs, money, health, etc and just don't feel as sociable as they used to. A higher proportion have passed away than would normally be the case over a year. Multiple sports organisations have annoyed older fans with social gesturing. Multiple boards have under-moderated agenda posters and lower quality posters. All of these have contributed to a general malaise where other members now chose not to log in or contribute.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

I think message boards and forums in general are going the way of the dodo. Most fans are now on platforms like Twitter to get their sports fixes and interact with other fans and players.

 

[RastaHawk12!]

I think message boards and forums in general are going the way of the dodo. Most fans are now on platforms like Twitter to get their sports fixes and interact with other fans and players.

Your avatar freaking rocks.

As for the topic... I am here several times a day and was wondering the exact same thing.

 

[xray]

Every sport over the past year or so has lost big chunks of their audience/fans . The Olympics for example are not generating much interest . Maybe the die-hard sports fans are a thing of the past .

 

[pittpnthrs]

I think message boards and forums in general are going the way of the dodo. Most fans are now on platforms like Twitter to get their sports fixes and interact with other fans and players.

This. All message boards are dying off. Its all Facebook and Twitter now.

 

[CalgaryFan05]

I check this board a few times a day all year long. The off-season is usually pretty slow and quiet around here except during the height of free agency and the lead up to and directly following the draft. OTAs and mini camps usually bring a bit of traffic too. Once training camp starts, this board usually has lots going on. Not this year. What’s going on?! Where are all the new threads and this player and that player evaluations? We are over a week into camp and this board is QUIET! Are people not as excited? Is the overall traffic to this board down? Fans are allowed at practices this year. Where are the .netters? I used to go to camp practices 2-3 times a week back in the old Cheney days and would post my observations on another board. It almost feels like pre-internet days in terms of information around here.

Good point. Well F that, and F twitter

I'll start a few misguided threads - 'cause i got some questions, and 'I'm' excited for even the preseason at this point!!!!

 

[XxxZagnutxxX]

I quit posting for the most part. I miss the scout board days where we actually had a community. I really miss Les ((Pithy) Radish to many) and feel he was our glue that held us together when we moved here. I loved the articles people wrote for the scout message board. Even Pehawks' fat crayon writings that were transcribed into text were worth reading. I got to meet many of you pre-gaming back in the day and at Cheney training camp. Now days, it's attack after attack on opinion. I still visit to read some of the more interesting features (and posters) here and try to keep up with the team, but I had to log in to post this.

 

[AROS]

For me, it's been the degradation of community that is what used to make .NET so special. Sure, there were always trolls and knuckleheads but they were dealt with and the heart of the community, the quality posters and members who had a genuine respect for one another - and it showed in the respectful debates and knowledge sharing - thrived here.

There's still a small but loyal group of quality people and longtime members that post here and that alone keeps me checking in from time-to-time. All the knuckleheads (you know who you are) that still make this place insufferable at times are blocked so I blissfully don't have to read a word from them. I've heard from too many tenured members recently who have called it quits due to the constant attacks. I wish they would have heeded my advice to simply add them to their Foe list but it is what it is. I'd rather block 150 people and still read the comments of 5 or 10 quality folks but that's just me.

Perhaps forums are going the way of the dodo. If that's the case, so be it. .NET may be on life support but it was a damn good run. Almost 24 years. I'll always be proud of the community and friendships built here.

 

[knownone]

I'm not sure this is indicative of the end of forums. This year is weird from a life and Seahawk's perspective, so people are just less engaged than normal. Think about it. The Seahawk's have had the same nucleus for damn near a decade. We know roughly what our expectations are, and there is not much young talent that garners excitement. Right? We didn't have a first-round pick; we're not rebuilding; our culture is largely stable. So what is the narrative to drive discussion during a weird time in all of our lives?

Sports are kind of a meaningless topic for debate when the sport itself is not active. The old-school discussions dry up because they are entirely subjective. Most sports fans are sophisticated enough now that they realize arguing about a subjective hypothetical is silly. So the only thing worthy of large-scale discussion is off-season drama or relevant news, which is for a certain demographic of members. Like, do any of us (besides John) care about Wilson's Instagram feed? Because those conversations are 90% of the sports-related discussion on social media.

 

[chris98251]

Not a lot of news coming out about the team, the links posted are mostly blocked right after posting, nobody is doing an observation thread in any detail like in days past that got a lot of views and discussion, I think a lot of life stress and burn out has happened due to the last year and a half. Not just here, but in internet based entertainment. Call it cabin fever, burn out, not sure really or all the above and then some.

 

[taylorvon29]

This place just sucks. Literally every informative poster is gone. Why am I even posting this

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[Fade]

I'll point some others out besides the obvious ones mentioned already.

1) The Carroll Seahawks are a rinse, repeat team. Everything has been discussed ad nauseum for over a decade. Win 10 games, get bounced early in the playoffs, Carroll talks about wanting to run the football more, injuries etc.. The Waldron hire gives opportunity for something new to talk about, but people are waiting to see it in an actual NFL game with him calling plays before giving their takes.

2) The league is currently not a good product. Just sit and watch an entire NFL broadcast start to finish that doesn't involve the Seahawks if you don't believe me. It is a multitude of factors not just one thing. The softening of the game, long commercial breaks, ridiculous rules, bad officiating, + many more. But ultimately interest is dwindling overall and I don't see the trend reversing anytime soon. Ratings will be down again, and its only going to get worse.

If less people are consuming the product, less people will be discussing said product.

 

[Maelstrom787]

There are a lot of factors. Much of it is just the natural progression of things. There's no real need for an outlet to talk football, you can do it on Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, hell even Instagram.

For a traditional forum, there needs to be a really, really close-knit community for it to truly thrive, especially in terms of maintaining the same membership and activity that was around when forums weren't such an outmoded form of conversing.

Not to be discounted, either, is the fact that this past year has been constant trauma surrounded by millions of deaths over a pandemic that turned over many of our lives.

 

[UK_Seahawk]

A lot of fair comment here especially on message board interaction and to that end there have been conversations on how we can get more content delivered to the board for users.

That said there really is a dearth of Seahawks stuff out there at the moment for example if I wanted to waste a bit of time at work I could type in "seahawks" into Youtube and various links to interviews and relevant stuff lifted from the networks would be available. There just doesnt seem to be much there currently and what is there is weeks old, a few bits and bobs from the official website and thats your lot.

I guess the Seahawks arent the circus some of the other teams are. It might be good for the team but its sure boring as hell for those who want to consume Seahawks content.

 

[Hockey Guy]

This forum, & forums in general, have become a place for people to vent & get instant reaction.

With the stress of life, this isn't changing anytime soon.

 

[James in PA]

The organization has been at a standstill since the SB heartbreaker. A good team, but not close to sniffing another SB since. Every year they try to sell us on how they’ve upgraded an area of weakness from the year before, but its always the same result in the end. I think people don’t want to get their hopes up again.


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[Jerhawk]

I started the "should we resign Jamal Adams" poll and was surprised to see over 100 votes. That was nice.

I wish more folks would've added their thoughts in the "training camp observations" thread but it is what it is.

I enjoy logging in every day. You're all my friends.

Aros, Maelstrom, Sgt Largent and many more. All of you are great posters

 

[Sgt. Largent]

2) The league is currently not a good product. Just sit and watch an entire NFL broadcast start to finish that doesn't involve the Seahawks if you don't believe me. It is a multitude of factors not just one thing. The softening of the game, long commercial breaks, ridiculous rules, bad officiating, + many more. But ultimately interest is dwindling overall and I don't see the trend reversing anytime soon. Ratings will be down again, and its only going to get worse..

This is a good point, and in general a microcosm of the current state of media in general.

Idk the average age of the posters here, but I'd venture to guess it's much older than the average age of consumers of other platforms of entertainment (social media, streaming and internet services), which is how the large majority of people consume sports and entertainment now.

So 10 years ago this site still had a steady flow of new and younger fans, especially during the beginnings of our SB run to keep membership up and post traffic brisk, but as time went on not only has the team become kinda stale to discuss as far as drama and interest........but probably more than that, it's what you said, those people probably bailed on the NFL product, or at the least bailed on spending time investing in the Hawks here and elsewhere, and just went back to being casual fans waiting for the highlights or clicking on Twitter a couple times a game to see what the score is.

The age of investing a large amount of a fan's time watching all the games, and then discussing it here and elsewhere is dying.