What’s Next for Growing Our User Base?

[ambchang]

While all ideas are great, I’m worried about burnout. Everyone is doing stuff for free, and we still have our lives. The more stuff we make the more upkeep we need, which means we need more resources.

I just want to keep this simple and burnout the talented people.

 

[OK Computer]

No expectations at all. The forum as it is now is already amazing, and the team has done something special.

 

[scott]

While all ideas are great, I’m worried about burnout. Everyone is doing stuff for free, and we still have our lives. The more stuff we make the more upkeep we need, which means we need more resources.

I just want to keep this simple and burnout the talented people.

I appreciate this, considering I'm about to throw my fist through my PC... I've got the Community Grades project almost done and I'm struggling with getting the Form results to print to the master database... which should in theory be the easiest part of this whole goddamn thing!

 

[Ariel]

I appreciate this, considering I'm about to throw my fist through my PC... I've got the Community Grades project almost done and I'm struggling with getting the Form results to print to the master database... which should in theory be the easiest part of this whole goddamn thing!

I won't grade the last game because I wasn't able to catch it, however I think you probably over-complicated yourself a bit. For the time being you could have used the same form, just by convention state it refers to the last game played and use the timestamp column to match them to a game. This would result in a single spreadsheet with a simple format, then you could use google apps script to turn it into whatever format you want.

 

[scott]

I won't grade the last game because I wasn't able to catch it, however I think you probably over-complicated yourself a bit. For the time being you could have used the same form, just by convention state it refers to the last game played and use the timestamp column to match them to a game. This would result in a single spreadsheet with a simple format, then you could use google apps script to turn it into whatever format you want.

That's effectively what I did... I just added the option to show (and choose from) the last 3 games in the event people wanted to "catch up". Thankfully it's all working now. I do need to add in some logic so that the "Show All Games" option only shows past games (not future games) or maybe I'll just remove this option altogether since I don't know how many people are going to go back and grade games from a few weeks ago.

The good news, is it's all working as intended now. I was running into an issue where the form was returning some weird values that were throwing the script off, but it's all fixed!

 

[koriwhat]

That's effectively what I did... I just added the option to show (and choose from) the last 3 games in the event people wanted to "catch up". Thankfully it's all working now. I do need to add in some logic so that the "Show All Games" option only shows past games (not future games) or maybe I'll just remove this option altogether since I don't know how many people are going to go back and grade games from a few weeks ago.

The good news, is it's all working as intended now. I was running into an issue where the form was returning some weird values that were throwing the script off, but it's all fixed!

Scott, that whole games grade widget is remarkably awesome! Great work!

Where can we see updated grades at?

 

[scott]

Scott, that whole games grade widget is remarkably awesome! Great work!

Where can we see updated grades at?

The Dashboard updates every 15 minutes with the latest grades, and game stats update every morning. If you go to my pinned post in the main forum, I have the Dashboard embedded into the first post.

 

[Sugus]

I'll try to tackle the question from a different perspective, because while I share most posters' gratitude about the current board status and little interest in "too much growth", I also believe we should certainly be conscious about building towards the kind of model SpursTalk was excellent at: a board that is so good in its content that a newly-spawned die-hard fan (of which there'll be many as long as Wemby dons a Spurs jersey) can't stay away from it -- even when it's littered by trolls, unmoderated, etc, like ST was: a testament to its content quality.

There's two major factors that I think of when looking at what most "die-hard" Spurs fans came to ST for: the presence of an in-group which provides the ability to speak about your interest in real-time with others; and the aggregation of media from different sources, which provides the in-group with a higher level of information than "casuals" are privy to. ST made its bread on the former, but being an old-school forum, had significant issues with the latter -- and this is an area where BB could outshine its predecessor, IMO.

My point is - the better we can integrate media of all types into BB, and categorize or index it for ease of access, the more the forum will sustain and attract a healthy influx of real users that I think most of us would see as "the goal". Someone mentioned Ace3g's media posts and it's exactly what I'm speaking about - the kind of content availability that keeps you coming back to the "aggregation site", instead of having to jump to Instagram/Twitter/etc myself.

Anyway, onto practical suggestions: how about a dedicated "Highlights" thread for games specifically (as opposed to player highlights always being posted on each players' individual thread, obscuring them) that is pinned on the Spurs forum (do we have a max. pinned post number?)? And maybe another "Spurs Media" thread, catching everything from coaches' interviews, Youtube content creators/podcasters, and Twitter-borne Spurs content?

I'm unsure of the tools XenForo provides as far as highlighting specific posts or making the "frontpage" more dynamic, but again I'd look into being able to integrate media of different types, to support the text-based exchanges that we old-schools prefer.

 

[OK Computer]

You could just do a cron job and automate the posts coming from Spurs media without the reliance on someone posting it. All Spurs media from their youtube is gold because they post interviews and highlights. Run a bot to scan for IG posts from each Spurs player and have it posted automatically.

 

[OK Computer]

I was also thinking you could have AI do a summary of a game thread and capture everyone’s feelings throughout the game. I think that would be pretty funny. I know we have a game grade idea going already but this one could fetch game grades too. It would encourage everyone to post in a game thread for their thoughts, tbh. It would have a “united” or “team” feeling.

 

[OK Computer]

I was also thinking you could have AI do a summary of a game thread and capture everyone’s feelings throughout the game. I think that would be pretty funny. I know we have a game grade idea going already but this one could fetch game grades too. It would encourage everyone to post in a game thread for their thoughts, tbh. It would have a “united” or “team” feeling.

Ok, that’s crazy. Just a few hours ago @ambchang already thought of this idea and executed it. You must be my long lost twin.

 

[Ni-G]

Are we going to act like some kind of business start up in need of investors or wannabe celebrities in need of fame? I hope not. I take quality over quantity every time. Let's keep it free from casual fans spamming forum with dumb takes if possible (ok, I admit, I still hope that Jeremy will evolve into starting caliber PF).

 

[spurraider21]

Imo there’s no point commenting on spurstalk to continue trying to entice people to come over.

Comes off a little whiny at this point. The baselinebums thread is still on the top page there. Whoever wants to find an alternate forum will find it. The more we go back and post there it just feeds into an illusion that there is still some life at the old place.

 

[scott]

We had a 20-page thread for a pre-season game. I think it's pretty clear where the action is at this point.

 

[NotoriousHOP]

I agreed with the primary option of organic growth. Now I love the game grades project but I think we need a spot for a grade commentary thread. Part of what kept me coming back to SpursTalk was also the player and game analysis that Timvp provided. We can rotate responsibility for a grade article or a couple of knowledgeable posters can volunteer to provide this.

Content is king. I've been making efforts to add to this site in a way that far exceeds what I did at SpursTalk and I would be willing to volunteer to write the occasional article as a contribution. If we are producing original content, we can post it on other Spurs forums to try to lead people to our site. Also, we can add the site to our signatures on other forums. Even something generic like "BaselineBums.com - Come join to discuss all things Spurs".

 

[scott]

I agreed with the primary option of organic growth. Now I love the game grades project but I think we need a spot for a grade commentary thread. Part of what kept me coming back to SpursTalk was also the player and game analysis that Timvp provided. We can rotate responsibility for a grade article or a couple of knowledgeable posters can volunteer to provide this.

Content is king. I've been making efforts to add to this site in a way that far exceeds what I did at SpursTalk and I would be willing to volunteer to write the occasional article as a contribution. If we are producing original content, we can post it on other Spurs forums to try to lead people to our site. Also, we can add the site to our signatures on other forums. Even something generic like "BaselineBums.com - Come join to discuss all things Spurs".

What do you think about something like a Game Grades thread where I posted the results from the most recent game that included my grades with a brief write up, but also the average community grade at the time of writing and then maybe some selected highlighted user grades that I found interesting, and then that user could come and talk about what they say? Something like this for example (this is a truncated example)

	Scott's Grade	Community Average	NotoriousHOP's Grade
Mitch Johnson	4	4.2	2
Victor Wembanyama	5	4.9	5
Jeremy Sochan	1	1.3	1
Devin Vassell	1	1.8	2

Sample summary:

The Spurs pulled this one out despite absolute stinkers from Jeremy and Sochan. I give Mitch a lot of credit for pulling them in the second half. Just another typical off-again night from Devin as he couldn't hit the backside of a barn, and he just looked lost on defense. Jeremy... just looked lost overall. Of course I'm burying the lede here as Victor's quintuple-double pulled us back in the fourth quarter. Truly a game for the ages, we're all lucky we saw it.

I noticed that NotoriousHOP was less impressed with Mitch's performance in this one, so I highlighted his grades and would love to hear about what he saw.

What did you think? The Spurs have a tough stretch ahead, we're going to need something out of Jeremy and Devin if we're going to come out of this mini-road trip on the positive side of the ledger.

 

[NotoriousHOP]

I think that works. Plus everyone else can contribute similar to the old SpursTalk have threads. You gotta give the complainers room to operate.

 

[Ariel]

What do you think about something like a Game Grades thread where I posted the results from the most recent game that included my grades with a brief write up, but also the average community grade at the time of writing and then maybe some selected highlighted user grades that I found interesting, and then that user could come and talk about what they say? Something like this for example (this is a truncated example)

	Scott's Grade	Community Average	NotoriousHOP's Grade
Mitch Johnson	4	4.2	2
Victor Wembanyama	5	4.9	5
Jeremy Sochan	1	1.3	1
Devin Vassell	1	1.8	2

Sample summary:

The Spurs pulled this one out despite absolute stinkers from Jeremy and Sochan. I give Mitch a lot of credit for pulling them in the second half. Just another typical off-again night from Devin as he couldn't hit the backside of a barn, and he just looked lost on defense. Jeremy... just looked lost overall. Of course I'm burying the lede here as Victor's quintuple-double pulled us back in the fourth quarter. Truly a game for the ages, we're all lucky we saw it.

I noticed that NotoriousHOP was less impressed with Mitch's performance in this one, so I highlighted his grades and would love to hear about what he saw.

What did you think? The Spurs have a tough stretch ahead, we're going to need something out of Jeremy and Devin if we're going to come out of this mini-road trip on the positive side of the ledger.

I think it'd be cool to take the most interesting quotes as input, usually different people have specific comments on different aspects, so that kind of makes it richer. TBH, this is probably what I'd like the most to go along with the grades, a selection of quotes with the most interesting comments in the thread. If someone is interested in adding content, like NotoriousHOP suggested above, that's great also. Of course, in a way that's sustainable, because like it was posted elsewhere (I think it was ambchang that said this), we want to avoid burnout.

 

[scott]

That's a good suggestion, I can add a Comments field to the form and then glance through and pick out my favorite ones.

 

[ambchang]

@scott you just have really high expectations for sochan and Vassell and low expectations for wmeby to give those grades.

 

[Rod Strickland]

Are we going to act like some kind of business start up in need of investors or wannabe celebrities in need of fame? I hope not. I take quality over quantity every time. Let's keep it free from casual fans spamming forum with dumb takes if possible (ok, I admit, I still hope that Jeremy will evolve into starting caliber PF).

One thing I've taken a liking to here is the stricter modding has cleaned up a lot of the turnoffs of ST.

I'm not talking about the dumbshit that occurs from the Political forum that bleeds onto the Spurs forum, but the regulars who played the contrarian gimmick, posting nothing but Doomsday takes and pretty much trolling the rest of the fans with their shitty, purposely-negative takes.

There are a few posters here known for that and they're not playing that schtick much, if at all, here. That's the best thing about BB thus far.

 

[Area 51.247]

@scott you just have really high expectations for sochan and Vassell and low expectations for wmeby to give those grades.

Really high, when Jeremy's both playing two positions in a game while unavailable to play, to boot. Good thing Maestro pulled both Jeremy and Sochan in the second half.

 

[NASpurs]

One thing I've taken a liking to here is the stricter modding has cleaned up a lot of the turnoffs of ST.

I'm not talking about the dumbshit that occurs from the Political forum that bleeds onto the Spurs forum, but the regulars who played the contrarian gimmick, posting nothing but Doomsday takes and pretty much trolling the rest of the fans with their shitty, purposely-negative takes.

There are a few posters here known for that and they're not playing that schtick much, if at all, here. That's the best thing about BB thus far.

the season hasn't started. Give me a couple of games in and then you'll see my doomsday takes.

 

[scott]

the season hasn't started. Give me a couple of games in and then you'll see my doomsday takes.

Spurs start 6-0... then lose @ the Lakers... First "Is it time to fire Mitch?" thread appears.

 

[Exstatic]

Imo there’s no point commenting on spurstalk to continue trying to entice people to come over.

Comes off a little whiny at this point. The baselinebums thread is still on the top page there. Whoever wants to find an alternate forum will find it. The more we go back and post there it just feeds into an illusion that there is still some life at the old place.

Yeah, I didn’t get the feeling that anyone left cared to come over.