LET ME ASK YOU ABOUT THIS ONCE MORE......

[PatrickMcIrish]

There have been several polls on these featured games up top but I want to hear from the guys who actually participate here. For that reason I don't want an anonymous poll, I want to see who has what to say and try to work out the pros and cons. Every vote is important but let's think this over and discuss like men without anyone getting flamed for their opinon. Let me stress no one is married to this idea. There are no ego's or anything behind the scenes where anyone is trying to stuff something down our throats. All the RX is trying to do is give it enough time to either work or flop before they discard the idea completely.

As most of you know I am down to my last 13 days working here. It's important to note I am on my 3rd year of betting hoops here with you guys, will be here 3 years from now after I quit working here too. Why? Because I like this area of the forums and don't think the focus is here as much as it should be. When I leave I would like to give the owner the right impression on what would be best for his site. With my role here as the head mod and seeing as I came from the pick forums if anyone should have some insight it should be me. For that I am asking you guys to fill me in. I ask for the proper answers on this not only because I want to leave on good terms but also because I plan on staying here and using these forums. I want what is best for all of us. So in that regard please no one think they are going against someone by stating what they think. Let's see where we stand when the respected members down here state their opinions, then I will gather all this up and pass it along to the new guys. Thanks in advance, I have not ever tired of staying down here and hanging with you guys.

 

[Drunkn247]

Pat I think its a good thing. At first I hated the posts all on the top. I especially like it in the NFL Forums because the threads are more active. If noone replies to them or votes they will not be useful but if they are used then it will be helpful. I dont like when people post their plays in those threads instead of starting their own. If you are looking for a particular poster then its hard to search around and find them if they only post in the top threads because you will not be looking for them in that thread. I don't know if i'm rambling on or not but I think it makes sense.

 

[PatrickMcIrish]

No you aren't rambling at all, thanks Drunk. Here's a guy who hated it but now is warming to the idea.

Here's the rest of it which gives you an idea sort of what the RX intends to develop. That way you know what we want it to be one day. People are creatures of habit, it takes them a while to get used to something new and feel comfortable with it. The mindset we want is those topics belong to us in the forums, not the RX. It's actually more work to put them up every night, that alone should show you we are trying to do this for the posters. That doesn't mean the idea has to work though. Let me give you my personal view so we can at least see where I hope it leads too and where it might benefit us one day.

As far as it belong to us, that's just what I mean. We use them the best way we can to help us. For instance when the line hits for those college games that aren't posted someone steps up and posts what they are. They weren't available when I posted. As the day goes on and there are major line moves maybe someone can post to it an we can get a snapshot of what is going on throughout the day.

Also for the whole injury thing. Sometimes decisions are made late in the day and not everyone has Don Best. If I live in Orlando and hear at 6PM that T-Mac is going then post to it in the featured thread. People pay big money and go through a lot of effort to develop a team of cappers around the country who can specialize on certain teams. Here we have a huge headstart, we have posters from every part of the US who can contribute when their local team is up there. It pains me I didn't start on this earlier but I really think we can develop this in to something that can help us. Even stuff about streaks and other things team are involved in can be put up there, anything focusing on the game and the line is perfect. I mean some guys know their local teams well enough they just get a feel for what is going on. Believe me most cappers feel they can't get enough information, I feel the same way.

The main criticism against this does make sense though, I have to give them that. Mostly the cons feel they should be allowed to "vote" on what thread is up top. Every time someone posts they are voting on what they want to see by bringing that thread back up top, some merit to that. However if we have to counteract that I have proposed we try and feature them at the bottom of the first page. Not sure if we can do that yet or not though. As long as we know there is an established spot for them I am fine with that. When I get off work at 630PM and the game tips at 7PM it's nice to come right to a featured game and see what information is available. If it ever takes off cappers will be contributing to that as the day goes on. I can still go out and find what other cappers are saying, this is just something extra that I have in our quest to beat the man. Sometimes it's hard to look through 5 pages of threads if pressed for time, I just need quick info. It's a great headstart and a great tool to read everything I can on the one game I want to bet on almost instantly if we use this correctly. Can look for more stuff later....

The participation we are getting now may not be worth it but the potential is huge. I think it just needs a little work so my vote is we hang on a little longer right now and see what you guys think. Sometimes getting the word out takes a while, as I said new things are slow to catch on at times. And BTW there is 50 threads on the front page of this forum, we will try and limit the number of games we feature. In the NBA we don't do over 5 or 6 and only stick to the top 25 in college hoops. I guess what I am saying is it's still not going to knock our good cappers off the first page. I mean instead of 50 topics we might be down to 45? Anyway don't want to influence anyone but I did want to kind of throw out some ideas on where I'd like to see it heading. Thanks.

 

[lockline]

I think it should be done away with. youget the same anaylsis when a poster posts he/she likes Purdue over okla people read it and post their thoughts. I Think it clutters the board and makes people think the site is just trying to get hits. Look at the number of hits each game gets compared to each poster.I think the people who come to this forum have spoken...

 

[jwunderdog]

I think it could be useful if first you post a preview of the game. Second if posters added factual information,not opinions of who they like, that is taken care of in the voting part.

I know of several posters myself included that have bet on games that were at neutral sites that I thought were home games. Injuries, I don't know how many times I have read in my local paper about players that were not going to play that night, but nothing on DOn Best until right before the game. These little things can make a big difference in your year.

 

[bigal19]

I know I am not a frequent poster, and my opinion might not count for as much as others, but I HATE seeing all that garbage at the top of the page. I read a lot up here everyday and get some good stuff from it. But I find those polls pointless.....the same information can be gathered in a way that is much more helpful.
To me it is only distracting.

 

[NickfromNJ]

I don't think the poll part is necessary but I like being able to click on a matchup and see peoples written opinions.

 

[oldmanTED]

I like the idea of the poll and like it conveniently located at the top of the page. You can quickly take a glance before looking to other posts. As for content, I think pertinent information like injuries and significant line movements would be of value. As for cappers opinions on the outcome, I prefer that those be started in separate threads so viewers can easily find someone they are looking for and comment if they so choose. If the polls are kept, it would be nice to see greater participation. Football polls clearly get more participation than hoops. Note the SEC Championship poll last week. All it takes is a quick click to vote. Of course, one would hope that the posters would vote the way they truly feel, otherwise the poll would be useless.

 

[King of the Road]

I really like the organization that this brings and makes things easy to find. Frankly, I think it's overdue and it should by all means be retained. If you have a pick or just some thoughts or info to post on one of the "big" games, do it in these threads. Then rather than having to read dozens of different threads involving all kinds of different picks, you can cut right to the chase. Big timesaver.

There are sooooooo many college hoops games esp on Wed. and Saturday, these "focused" threads for lack of a better word are key.

You might even consider a thread for a particular conference. There are some good guys in here on lower profile conferences such as Southern, Big West, Sun Belt, Missouri Valley etc. Personally, I find more value in those lines than I do the power conferences.

Basically I'm in favor of anything that makes this site more user friendly and this organization style does that.

 

[FairWarning]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by King of the Road:
I really like the organization that this brings and makes things easy to find. Frankly, I think it's overdue and it should by all means be retained. If you have a pick or just some thoughts or info to post on one of the "big" games, do it in these threads. Then rather than having to read dozens of different threads involving all kinds of different picks, you can cut right to the chase. Big timesaver.

There are sooooooo many college hoops games esp on Wed. and Saturday, these "focused" threads for lack of a better word are key.

You might even consider a thread for a particular conference. There are some good guys in here on lower profile conferences such as Southern, Big West, Sun Belt, Missouri Valley etc. Personally, I find more value in those lines than I do the power conferences.

Basically I'm in favor of anything that makes this site more user friendly and this organization style does that.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Totally agree.