A few questions for those who have insight...and to clarify these are NOT exactly the same questions about whether traffic/participation is up or down or what non-D3soccer.com factors (like rise of social media platforms, increase in gravitation towards isolation and social detachment, Covid, etc, etc) might be at play. And again, I personally don't distinguish between the site and the board here.
Given how long this site has been around, why are there not at least a few regular participating posters from at least most of the usual prominent schools? I thought about this while posting overviews of the bracket quads in another thread. How can there not be a few associated with Montclair, Oneonta, Cortland, Lynchburg, F&M, Amherst, Calvin, OWU, Redlands, more from Kenyon, Wash U, Chicago, etc, etc? Are they here but just lurk and don't post, or is the vast majority of the D3 soccer community oblivious to the site's existence?
When there are like 35 "members" online and 250 "guests" who are the guests made up of mostly? Parents? Ex-players? Current players? Coaches?
And among the members and guests online at any given time, during the soccer season specifically, what percentage are soccer folks (perhaps some who also follow other D3 sports here) and what percentage aren't here for soccer at all and are following/posting about football, bball, etc?
I assume most D3 coaches are aware of the site. Do some or many follow and read what's written?
Do coaches before seasons formalize a rule about players not posting?
Do most coaches impose an edict about staying off of sites like this and social media in general?
Quote from: PaulNewman on November 10, 2021, 10:12:49 AM
A few questions for those who have insight...and to clarify these are NOT exactly the same questions about whether traffic/participation is up or down or what non-D3soccer.com factors (like rise of social media platforms, increase in gravitation towards isolation and social detachment, Covid, etc, etc) might be at play. And again, I personally don't distinguish between the site and the board here.
Given how long this site has been around, why are there not at least a few regular participating posters from at least most of the usual prominent schools? I thought about this while posting overviews of the bracket quads in another thread. How can there not be a few associated with Montclair, Oneonta, Cortland, Lynchburg, F&M, Amherst, Calvin, OWU, Redlands, more from Kenyon, Wash U, Chicago, etc, etc? Are they here but just lurk and don't post, or is the vast majority of the D3 soccer community oblivious to the site's existence?
When there are like 35 "members" online and 250 "guests" who are the guests made up of mostly? Parents? Ex-players? Current players? Coaches?
And among the members and guests online at any given time, during the soccer season specifically, what percentage are soccer folks (perhaps some who also follow other D3 sports here) and what percentage aren't here for soccer at all and are following/posting about football, bball, etc?
I assume most D3 coaches are aware of the site. Do some or many follow and read what's written?
Do coaches before seasons formalize a rule about players not posting?
Do most coaches impose an edict about staying off of sites like this and social media in general?
Pat could probably answer many of these questions better, but the bulletin boards bread and butter has always been football and basketball. The number of posts and views is a bit tricky to aggregate without admin level privileges, but they far outstrip what the soccer and other boards provide. Percentage wise, it makes sense that most guests are here for football as well this time of year, though basketball is obviously getting started.
I do know that coaches frequent these forums, but most are probably reticent. Insofar as social media policies, that's a good question: I haven't heard of any. I was wondering just that this morning while watching a D2 soccer vlogger (from Drury U.) do travel/game highlight vlogs. He uses footage which looks like the school feeds in the content. I was wondering if he and others do this 'under the radar' or whether they have official permission. If he doesn't, here's hoping that I haven't outed him: he's actually benefitting the program--I hadn't heard of Drury before finding his vlog.
I don't know how this platform counts guests, but many may be bots of sorts, and not interested lurkers. The forum format is probably a bit antiquated for college kids today: they're busy posting noods on SnapTok and not arguing here with geezers. I'll stick with the geezers.
Quote from: Centennial1 on November 10, 2021, 10:33:53 AM
I do know that coaches frequent these forums, but most are probably reticent. Insofar as social media policies, that's a good question: I haven't heard of any. I was wondering just that this morning while watching a D2 soccer vlogger (from Drury U.) do travel/game highlight vlogs. He uses footage which looks like the school feeds in the content. I was wondering if he and others do this 'under the radar' or whether they have official permission. If he doesn't, here's hoping that I haven't outed him: he's actually benefitting the program--I hadn't heard of Drury before finding his vlog.
I don't know how this platform counts guests, but many may be bots of sorts, and not interested lurkers. The forum format is probably a bit antiquated for college kids today: they're busy posting noods on SnapTok and not arguing here with geezers. I'll stick with the geezers.
Thanks...I don't want this to devolve into what's coll or not cool now for 18-22 year olds.
Here's another way of putting it. If there is a detailed and/or interesting post here about Mt St Vincent, Redlands, or W&L, will the coaches and players end up seeing it? Is the site generally known across the community or any many coaches/players oblivious (which is different than whether they value it or not)?
I know that players at Middlebury follow the site and the discussions, although they do not post.
Not aware of any W&L players reading this site. I do know of parents at W&L, Amherst and Kenyon that read this board, but I've never seen them post.
I think that the more discussion/posts/conversation there is, the more there will be. That's one reason I post even though I don't know nearly as much about soccer as many other posters.
This doesn't address the greater points made by PN, but I had to chuckle in realizing that the NRSC is running ads on these forums. I see one every time I forget to use adblocker/am incognito. 🤣
A few years ago, when one of the Tufts players was making a series of videos, a player in one of the videos specifically referred to something Mr. Right said on the board. So they were reading it.
Quote from: Buck O. on November 10, 2021, 12:34:15 PM
A few years ago, when one of the Tufts players was making a series of videos, a player in one of the videos specifically referred to something Mr. Right said on the board. So they were reading it.
Tufts has the most extensive operation going...text alerts about new material on the site to 50 or more ex-players, burner accounts, secret tunnels, mentions on ESPN's PTI...and that's just the little we know about.
Quote from: College Soccer Observer on November 10, 2021, 11:11:22 AM
I know that players at Middlebury follow the site and the discussions, although they do not post.
Are they instructed not to post?
I do agree with the point about forums being antiquated.
Possibly if the discussion was held on Reddit.
I do know years ago, there were players posting in the basketball threads. And definitely reading the threads. There were fans from multiple schools posting.
I'm just going to push back a little on the idea that younger folks won't post or will avoid message boards. College football has a TON of message board activity, as do a lot of other niche gamer, DnD, hunting, etc.
There's just not a lot of other places to have an in-depth, long-running conversation like this.
I think it's more "I've moved on with my life" type of deal. And, possibly, by the time they might circle back to being more of an active alum, they don't really know where to go other than whatever mailing list might be available from the AD.
I will say this: Hopkins has a soccer alumni group of Facebook with over 100 members. I've been posting updates throughout the season and the traffic/interactions has gone up steadily over the course of the season. I doubt many of those folks are aware of d3soccer, BUT they seem very willing to engage once they've been pulled into the Fb discussion.
/ramble
I think if we had threading capability where it was easier to find discussions of interest that you might see more participation all around. Yes, it's possible to start new topics (as shown by this one) but the UI doesn't make it easy to create and navigate around.
Quote from: Hopkins92 on November 10, 2021, 03:37:27 PM
I'm just going to push back a little on the idea that younger folks won't post or will avoid message boards. College football has a TON of message board activity, as do a lot of other niche gamer, DnD, hunting, etc.
There's just not a lot of other places to have an in-depth, long-running conversation like this.
I think it's more "I've moved on with my life" type of deal. And, possibly, by the time they might circle back to being more of an active alum, they don't really know where to go other than whatever mailing list might be available from the AD.
I will say this: Hopkins has a soccer alumni group of Facebook with over 100 members. I've been posting updates throughout the season and the traffic/interactions has gone up steadily over the course of the season. I doubt many of those folks are aware of d3soccer, BUT they seem very willing to engage once they've been pulled into the Fb discussion.
/ramble
Agree...which is why I took pains to not have this new thread turn into the millennials or Gen X or whatever the case may be vs geezers.
For better or worse, this is the place to be for D3soccer. I happen to think it's great and the people who have kept it going all these years are superb adn we're all indebted to them for the massive amount of hours that go into it....even stuff like the scoreboard and links to games, school team websites, all the available historical info, etc.
D4_Pace was part of Tufts' first national title and another one, and was an assistant for yet another, and all recently. He wouldn't be hanging here on a daily basis, monitoring what gets said, and frequently posting if the medium was too antiquated. He wouldn't waste his time in the middle of medical school.
Let's leave aside why there aren't more posters and more active posters.
I want to know if some, many, or most coaches follow along, whether parents (who we know are rabid and obsessed because what can possibly be more engrossing than spending all those years with you kid growing up and then watching him or her play college soccer even if it's D3) follow along, and whether players follow along.
is it possible to play (or be a parent of a player) for 4 years at Oneonta or Lynchburg, or JHU, or Redlands and be completely oblivious to the site?
Parent of an ex-player here, and I got interested in the site primarily as an extension of my son's soccer career (2015-2018). I find now that I'm probably at least as interested in the teams outside of New England as the teams I originally came on here to find out about and talk about. My son has moved on and is an assistant coach at a D1 school, but I still find myself watching probably more D3 games than D1 games at this point.
Quote from: PaulNewman on November 10, 2021, 01:12:03 PM
Quote from: Buck O. on November 10, 2021, 12:34:15 PM
A few years ago, when one of the Tufts players was making a series of videos, a player in one of the videos specifically referred to something Mr. Right said on the board. So they were reading it.
Tufts has the most extensive operation going...text alerts about new material on the site to 50 or more ex-players, burner accounts, secret tunnels, mentions on ESPN's PTI...and that's just the little we know about.
Honestly not too far off from the truth.
I don't know why the boards became such a big thing for our team. I think its partially cause when I was starting in 2014 the boards were like the wild west. I remember multiple parents of other teams were posting all sorts of stuff about how toxic the Tufts locker room was and thats why we never won. It was awesome to be sitting on the other side reading all that and getting a laugh out of it. I know a ton of the recent guys follow pretty closely and a few of them have had accounts for a bit but only written a few posts.
Quote from: PaulNewman on November 10, 2021, 01:14:30 PM
Quote from: College Soccer Observer on November 10, 2021, 11:11:22 AM
I know that players at Middlebury follow the site and the discussions, although they do not post.
Are they instructed not to post?
I think we had an unspoken agreement to not post.
Quote from: PaulNewman on November 10, 2021, 03:55:02 PM
Quote from: Hopkins92 on November 10, 2021, 03:37:27 PM
I'm just going to push back a little on the idea that younger folks won't post or will avoid message boards. College football has a TON of message board activity, as do a lot of other niche gamer, DnD, hunting, etc.
There's just not a lot of other places to have an in-depth, long-running conversation like this.
I think it's more "I've moved on with my life" type of deal. And, possibly, by the time they might circle back to being more of an active alum, they don't really know where to go other than whatever mailing list might be available from the AD.
I will say this: Hopkins has a soccer alumni group of Facebook with over 100 members. I've been posting updates throughout the season and the traffic/interactions has gone up steadily over the course of the season. I doubt many of those folks are aware of d3soccer, BUT they seem very willing to engage once they've been pulled into the Fb discussion.
/ramble
Agree...which is why I took pains to not have this new thread turn into the millennials or Gen X or whatever the case may be vs geezers.
For better or worse, this is the place to be for D3soccer. I happen to think it's great and the people who have kept it going all these years are superb adn we're all indebted to them for the massive amount of hours that go into it....even stuff like the scoreboard and links to games, school team websites, all the available historical info, etc.
D4_Pace was part of Tufts' first national title and another one, and was an assistant for yet another, and all recently. He wouldn't be hanging here on a daily basis, monitoring what gets said, and frequently posting if the medium was too antiquated. He wouldn't waste his time in the middle of medical school.
Let's leave aside why there aren't more posters and more active posters.
I want to know if some, many, or most coaches follow along, whether parents (who we know are rabid and obsessed because what can possibly be more engrossing than spending all those years with you kid growing up and then watching him or her play college soccer even if it's D3) follow along, and whether players follow along.
is it possible to play (or be a parent of a player) for 4 years at Oneonta or Lynchburg, or JHU, or Redlands and be completely oblivious to the site?
After the 2016 season, two of my teammates and I studied abroad with a player from Redlands coming off their elite 8 season and he'd never heard of the boards and was fascinated when we showed him. Most not have made it that far west yet.
Aha, I knew Redlands had an elite 8 season. Didn't they have a CB or GK that got drafted by MLS also?
A lot of stuff happens abroad. A Kenyon teammate and good friend of my son ran into Savonen of Brandeis who had played club with my son in I think Barcelona.
It was also Connor Coleman that Mr.Right said was slow, and he played with Savonen and my kid in the Cape Cod Summer League I think leading into his frosh year at Tufts.
Quote from: d4_Pace on November 10, 2021, 05:16:03 PM
Quote from: PaulNewman on November 10, 2021, 01:12:03 PM
Quote from: Buck O. on November 10, 2021, 12:34:15 PM
A few years ago, when one of the Tufts players was making a series of videos, a player in one of the videos specifically referred to something Mr. Right said on the board. So they were reading it.
Tufts has the most extensive operation going...text alerts about new material on the site to 50 or more ex-players, burner accounts, secret tunnels, mentions on ESPN's PTI...and that's just the little we know about.
Honestly not too far off from the truth.
I don't know why the boards became such a big thing for our team. I think its partially cause when I was starting in 2014 the boards were like the wild west. I remember multiple parents of other teams were posting all sorts of stuff about how toxic the Tufts locker room was and thats why we never won. It was awesome to be sitting on the other side reading all that and getting a laugh out of it. I know a ton of the recent guys follow pretty closely and a few of them have had accounts for a bit but only written a few posts.
I don't recall posting suggestions that the locker room was toxic but I do remember posting questions about whether Shapiro had taken a stand with a couple of prominent players that maybe set the course that unfolded.
I know quite a few coaches and players who lurk. I think there are multiple reasons why more people don't consistently participate.
1) Most parents or players are only interested during the 4 years they play and then they don't follow as closely. They might lurk or post a couple of times during those 4 years but that's it
2) This happens with any forum but the posting is predominantly done by a handful of "power" posters who dominate conversations. This definitely discourages some newer posters.
3) There may be a generational aspect as well. This forum has an older more serious vibe. No one wants to be drawn into needless arguments with posters who take the whole thing too seriously.
Quote from: Hopkins92 on November 10, 2021, 03:37:27 PM
I'm just going to push back a little on the idea that younger folks won't post or will avoid message boards. College football has a TON of message board activity, as do a lot of other niche gamer, DnD, hunting, etc.
Younger people read and post on forums, but the virtual environment has definitely moved many to other forms of social media including Reddit and Twitter.
I would wager a lot of money that the average age of a d3boards.com poster has been steadily increasing over the last 15 years.
Quote from: paclassic89 on November 10, 2021, 05:34:13 PM
I know quite a few coaches and players who lurk. I think there are multiple reasons why more people don't consistently participate.
1) Most parents or players are only interested during the 4 years they play and then they don't follow as closely. They might lurk or post a couple of times during those 4 years but that's it
2) This happens with any forum but the posting is predominantly done by a handful of "power" posters who dominate conversations. This definitely discourages some newer posters.
3) There may be a generational aspect as well. This forum has an older more serious vibe. No one wants to be drawn into needless arguments with posters who take the whole thing too seriously.
I'll respond to #2 and #3. I assume I'm one of the volume posters and the issue of whether the site can be intimidating or off-putting for new folks has been raised before. I'm sure there is something to that. That said, the way to make certain posters less prominent is for more posters to post, start threads, etc. Believe me, i know some of us including myself can be very annoying and get ridiculous from time to time, but I'm not sure that having the group that participates heavily and one could argue keeps things going go away or post less is the answer. And regarding #3, I try to have fun and keep some humor, so I hope you don't categorize all of us as retentive and humorless.
One last point....there is also a dynamic which I'm sure happens with other forums, or frankly any social situations, where new folks sometimes jump in like gangbusters and seem like they're trying to instigate some kind of confrontation.
D4, your post about toxicity reminded me of something that fits with at least some portions of the NESCAC having high viewership here (which of course fits with the NESCAC thread being the dominant thread on the site). Many years ago, like back to the 2013/2014 era I received a long, unsigned email from a person or persons who identified themselves as either then current or newly alum-ed Amherst players pleading about the coverage and complaints Amherst was getting around their sidelines routines and stuff. It was pretty intense. There wasn't any specific request but felt like they were wanting to influence someone participating in the Amherst discussions.
I think everyone has very valid points as to why or why not people participate or just lurk. I would just add that I think maybe it's just an awareness thing. I think a lot of schools put some credibility in the D3 polls and have seen a number of schools always mention if they are ranked. Easy for me to say, but I think this becomes the easiest way in raising the profile of the site and the boards.
As an aside, I do know some coaches that lurk, and would really love to know how many actually take a look at this stuff. To me it would be great to get the coaching perspective of everything that's going on, but understand why they don't.
I first found this forum when I was a junior and my team made the tournament, I was just curious to see what people were saying about different teams. I don't believe any of my coaches or fellow players came on here or even knew it existed, I honestly don't even remember how I stumbled upon it.
I have always thought that it would be cool to have a D3 soccer podcast. Podcasts have obviously exploded recently and seems to be a platform that could really be used to increase interest and knowledge about D3 soccer. I feel like a lot of current players and interested alumni would tune in if done properly. A weekly podcast during the season could highlight featured games, players to watch, interesting results from the previous week, and interviews with coaches and players etc. I think it would be easier to market or advertise to schools than a forum.
Quote from: SimpleCoach on November 11, 2021, 08:31:46 AM
I think everyone has very valid points as to why or why not people participate or just lurk. I would just add that I think maybe it's just an awareness thing. I think a lot of schools put some credibility in the D3 polls and have seen a number of schools always mention if they are ranked. Easy for me to say, but I think this becomes the easiest way in raising the profile of the site and the boards.
I don't see how the d3soccer.com national poll would help drive traffic here, since this site (d3boards.com) is a completely separate entity from d3soccer.com. That's another advantage that football and men's basketball have; not only are they much more popular sports on the D3 level than soccer, which means a bigger potential posting/lurking base, they also have the advantage of their primary national poll / national scoreboard / primary team-by-team and league-by-league information source being attached to this site. From this page you're reading right now you're one click away from just about everything you need to know about D3 football and D3 men's basketball, which is not the case with D3 soccer.
Quote from: LetteroftheLaw on November 11, 2021, 08:54:13 AM
I first found this forum when I was a junior and my team made the tournament, I was just curious to see what people were saying about different teams. I don't believe any of my coaches or fellow players came on here or even knew it existed, I honestly don't even remember how I stumbled upon it.
I have always thought that it would be cool to have a D3 soccer podcast. Podcasts have obviously exploded recently and seems to be a platform that could really be used to increase interest and knowledge about D3 soccer. I feel like a lot of current players and interested alumni would tune in if done properly. A weekly podcast during the season could highlight featured games, players to watch, interesting results from the previous week, and interviews with coaches and players etc. I think it would be easier to market or advertise to schools than a forum.
This is a really good point. D3 football has
Around the Nation, an excellent weekly podcast (which reverts to monthly, roughly, during the off-season) hosted by Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas. The fact that the man behind d3football.com and d3boards.com is also the host of
Around the Nation is a big plus for the sites. And men's basketball has
Hoopsville, which is actually one step up from a podcast. It's a full-blown streaming video show hosted by Dave McHugh, who is a regular presence on d3boards.com and a d3hoops.com Top 25 voter (and, incidentally, Dave is also the play-by-play broadcaster for the D3 men's soccer Final Four). Pat Coleman and d3hoops.com columnist Ryan Scott are regular presences on
Hoopsville, and d3hoops.com (which advertises on
Hoopsville) gets referred to so often on the show that there is a great amount of synergy between the show and the website. In fact, a lot of people seem to assume that d3hoops.com runs
Hoopsville, or vice-versa.
The D3 soccer landscape could really use a good podcast, if not a streaming video show, to raise national awareness and get that same sort of synergy going with d3boards.com's soccer section as well as with d3soccer.com. Then again, I'm not sanguine that anyone has the time or the expertise to do it. Heck, Christan Shirk and the rest of the guys who run d3soccer.com seem to be doing it on a wing and a prayer.
Quote from: Gregory Sager on November 11, 2021, 09:15:42 AM
Quote from: SimpleCoach on November 11, 2021, 08:31:46 AM
I think everyone has very valid points as to why or why not people participate or just lurk. I would just add that I think maybe it's just an awareness thing. I think a lot of schools put some credibility in the D3 polls and have seen a number of schools always mention if they are ranked. Easy for me to say, but I think this becomes the easiest way in raising the profile of the site and the boards.
I don't see how the d3soccer.com national poll would help drive traffic here, since this site (d3boards.com) is a completely separate entity from d3soccer.com. That's another advantage that football and men's basketball have; not only are they much more popular sports on the D3 level than soccer, which means a bigger potential posting/lurking base, they also have the advantage of their primary national poll / national scoreboard / primary team-by-team and league-by-league information source being attached to this site. From this page you're reading right now you're one click away from just about everything you need to know about D3 football and D3 men's basketball, which is not the case with D3 soccer.
Quote from: LetteroftheLaw on November 11, 2021, 08:54:13 AM
I first found this forum when I was a junior and my team made the tournament, I was just curious to see what people were saying about different teams. I don't believe any of my coaches or fellow players came on here or even knew it existed, I honestly don't even remember how I stumbled upon it.
I have always thought that it would be cool to have a D3 soccer podcast. Podcasts have obviously exploded recently and seems to be a platform that could really be used to increase interest and knowledge about D3 soccer. I feel like a lot of current players and interested alumni would tune in if done properly. A weekly podcast during the season could highlight featured games, players to watch, interesting results from the previous week, and interviews with coaches and players etc. I think it would be easier to market or advertise to schools than a forum.
This is a really good point. D3 football has Around the Nation, an excellent weekly podcast (which reverts to monthly, roughly, during the off-season) hosted by Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas. The fact that the man behind d3football.com and d3boards.com is also the host of Around the Nation is a big plus for the sites. And men's basketball has Hoopsville, which is actually one step up from a podcast. It's a full-blown streaming video show hosted by Dave McHugh, who is a regular presence on d3boards.com and a d3hoops.com Top 25 voter (and, incidentally, Dave is also the play-by-play broadcaster for the D3 men's soccer Final Four). Pat Coleman and d3hoops.com columnist Ryan Scott are regular presences on Hoopsville, and d3hoops.com (which advertises on Hoopsville) gets referred to so often on the show that there is a great amount of synergy between the show and the website. In fact, a lot of people seem to assume that d3hoops.com runs Hoopsville, or vice-versa.
The D3 soccer landscape could really use a good podcast, if not a streaming video show, to raise national awareness and get that same sort of synergy going with d3boards.com's soccer section as well as with d3soccer.com. Then again, I'm not sanguine that anyone has the time or the expertise to do it. Heck, Christan Shirk and the rest of the guys who run d3soccer.com seem to be doing it on a wing and a prayer.
The D3Soccer Podcast
The Die is Cast!
Quote from: LetteroftheLaw on November 11, 2021, 08:54:13 AM
I first found this forum when I was a junior and my team made the tournament, I was just curious to see what people were saying about different teams. I don't believe any of my coaches or fellow players came on here or even knew it existed, I honestly don't even remember how I stumbled upon it.
I have always thought that it would be cool to have a D3 soccer podcast. Podcasts have obviously exploded recently and seems to be a platform that could really be used to increase interest and knowledge about D3 soccer. I feel like a lot of current players and interested alumni would tune in if done properly. A weekly podcast during the season could highlight featured games, players to watch, interesting results from the previous week, and interviews with coaches and players etc. I think it would be easier to market or advertise to schools than a forum.
LOTL, did you find the forum directly via d3boards or via d3soccer.com? I must be in the minority but I found the forum totally because of visiting d3soccer.com and clicking on messages on the home page. One click and I'm in.
Also, I don't know the overall percentage but many team websites on their school athletic websites advertise and have a specific link to either d3soccer.con or the d3soccer.com poll or both. Some schools only include the coach's poll in new releases on their websites and some include both polls.
So I don't quite get how a large number or even majority of coaches and players wouldn't know about d3soccer.com, and if they know that, would visit the home page and never click on "Messages" when gets you directly into the forum.
Starting a podcast or video podcast sounds great and an excellent project for a retiree or for college students and/or very new alums to do as some kind of internship, but short of that it seems that the next best thing is our current deal where posters carve out a little space and an informally routine gig (like Mr.Right's NESCAC breakdowns and the like). Anyone who has followed Mr.Right over the years is gonna read what he posts whether you love him or hate him. Same with some other folks. D4 is now in that category and if he posts something pretty much everyone is gonna be interested in what he has to say or doesn't say...(like I've tried a couple of different ways to tell us if there was a turning point at Tufts with Shapiro and everyone getting on board with his system but as of yet he's (smartly?) avoided those invitations).
And obviously he's a little unique given the experience he has described but SimpleCoach is a great example of a new poster who created and now has maintained a space here that many now follow.
The informal, organic approach is the best we have for now. It doesn't take that long to figure out the culture and the norms here, and then posters can decide for themselves what and how much they want to contribute, whether to stir the pot or not, whether to take on certain posters or not, etc. For the most part, posters who limit themselves to sharing information and stories and don't get knee-jerk defensive or aggressive can participate happily and relatively unscathed.
Quote from: Saint of Old on November 11, 2021, 09:42:48 AM
Quote from: Gregory Sager on November 11, 2021, 09:15:42 AM
Quote from: SimpleCoach on November 11, 2021, 08:31:46 AM
I think everyone has very valid points as to why or why not people participate or just lurk. I would just add that I think maybe it's just an awareness thing. I think a lot of schools put some credibility in the D3 polls and have seen a number of schools always mention if they are ranked. Easy for me to say, but I think this becomes the easiest way in raising the profile of the site and the boards.
I don't see how the d3soccer.com national poll would help drive traffic here, since this site (d3boards.com) is a completely separate entity from d3soccer.com. That's another advantage that football and men's basketball have; not only are they much more popular sports on the D3 level than soccer, which means a bigger potential posting/lurking base, they also have the advantage of their primary national poll / national scoreboard / primary team-by-team and league-by-league information source being attached to this site. From this page you're reading right now you're one click away from just about everything you need to know about D3 football and D3 men's basketball, which is not the case with D3 soccer.
Quote from: LetteroftheLaw on November 11, 2021, 08:54:13 AM
I first found this forum when I was a junior and my team made the tournament, I was just curious to see what people were saying about different teams. I don't believe any of my coaches or fellow players came on here or even knew it existed, I honestly don't even remember how I stumbled upon it.
I have always thought that it would be cool to have a D3 soccer podcast. Podcasts have obviously exploded recently and seems to be a platform that could really be used to increase interest and knowledge about D3 soccer. I feel like a lot of current players and interested alumni would tune in if done properly. A weekly podcast during the season could highlight featured games, players to watch, interesting results from the previous week, and interviews with coaches and players etc. I think it would be easier to market or advertise to schools than a forum.
This is a really good point. D3 football has Around the Nation, an excellent weekly podcast (which reverts to monthly, roughly, during the off-season) hosted by Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas. The fact that the man behind d3football.com and d3boards.com is also the host of Around the Nation is a big plus for the sites. And men's basketball has Hoopsville, which is actually one step up from a podcast. It's a full-blown streaming video show hosted by Dave McHugh, who is a regular presence on d3boards.com and a d3hoops.com Top 25 voter (and, incidentally, Dave is also the play-by-play broadcaster for the D3 men's soccer Final Four). Pat Coleman and d3hoops.com columnist Ryan Scott are regular presences on Hoopsville, and d3hoops.com (which advertises on Hoopsville) gets referred to so often on the show that there is a great amount of synergy between the show and the website. In fact, a lot of people seem to assume that d3hoops.com runs Hoopsville, or vice-versa.
The D3 soccer landscape could really use a good podcast, if not a streaming video show, to raise national awareness and get that same sort of synergy going with d3boards.com's soccer section as well as with d3soccer.com. Then again, I'm not sanguine that anyone has the time or the expertise to do it. Heck, Christan Shirk and the rest of the guys who run d3soccer.com seem to be doing it on a wing and a prayer.
The D3Soccer Podcast
The Die is Cast!
Hold on! A D3 Podcast would be fantastic!!
Every Monday night we review the previous week's activity and talk about the upcoming week. We'd need 3 people who could give some insight into 3 regions each, with focus on top leagues or teams within those regions. That's about 5-6 minutes per league which shouldn't be too hard. Heck it takes me at least five minutes to read the NESCAC game predictions from Mr. Right.
Who knows how to set up a podcast? I'll happily contribute, not that anyone asked or is interested in my opinions :-)
Quote from: PaulNewman on November 11, 2021, 10:12:27 AM
Quote from: LetteroftheLaw on November 11, 2021, 08:54:13 AM
I first found this forum when I was a junior and my team made the tournament, I was just curious to see what people were saying about different teams. I don't believe any of my coaches or fellow players came on here or even knew it existed, I honestly don't even remember how I stumbled upon it.
I have always thought that it would be cool to have a D3 soccer podcast. Podcasts have obviously exploded recently and seems to be a platform that could really be used to increase interest and knowledge about D3 soccer. I feel like a lot of current players and interested alumni would tune in if done properly. A weekly podcast during the season could highlight featured games, players to watch, interesting results from the previous week, and interviews with coaches and players etc. I think it would be easier to market or advertise to schools than a forum.
LOTL, did you find the forum directly via d3boards or via d3soccer.com? I must be in the minority but I found the forum totally because of visiting d3soccer.com and clicking on messages on the home page. One click and I'm in.
Also, I don't know the overall percentage but many team websites on their school athletic websites advertise and have a specific link to either d3soccer.con or the d3soccer.com poll or both. Some schools only include the coach's poll in new releases on their websites and some include both polls.
So I don't quite get how a large number or even majority of coaches and players wouldn't know about d3soccer.com, and if they know that, would visit the home page and never click on "Messages" when gets you directly into the forum.
Starting a podcast or video podcast sounds great and an excellent project for a retiree or for college students and/or very new alums to do as some kind of internship, but short of that it seems that the next best thing is our current deal where posters carve out a little space and an informally routine gig (like Mr.Right's NESCAC breakdowns and the like). Anyone who has followed Mr.Right over the years is gonna read what he posts whether you love him or hate him. Same with some other folks. D4 is now in that category and if he posts something pretty much everyone is gonna be interested in what he has to say to doesn't...(like I've tried a couple of different ways to tell us if there was a turning point at Tufts with Shapiro and everyone getting on board with his system but as of yet he's (smartly?) avoided those invitations).
And obviously he's a little unique given the experience he has described but SimpleCoach is a great example of a new poster who created and now has maintained a space here that many now follow.
The informal, organic approach is the best we have for now. It doesn't take that long to figure out the culture and the norms here, and then posters can decide for themselves what and how much they want to contribute, whether to stir to pot or not, whether to take on certain posters or not, etc. For the most part, posters who limit themselves to sharing information and stories and don't get knee-jerk defensive or aggressive can participate happily and relatively unscathed.
Given that it was 8 years ago, I really can't recall how I found d3boards. That is my point though, where I went to school it was never talked about, I found it on my own. I really don't think my teammates ever knew about it since it was never discussed and I don't think teams from our conference knew about it either given the lack of posts about the conference as a whole.
Since the easiest way to find this forum is through d3soccer.com which many go to for rankings and articles (about the top teams), it makes sense that those who frequently post are supporters of those top programs. If you aren't on or support a ranked team you really have no reason to regularly go to d3soccer.com even if you're a current player, coach, or parent. This is just my personal experience coming from a respectable program but not a national powerhouse. The main reason I occasionally post is to fill a gap in this forum regarding a conference and some teams that I follow but do not get discussed a lot here.
Quote from: Gregory Sager on November 11, 2021, 09:15:42 AM
Quote from: SimpleCoach on November 11, 2021, 08:31:46 AM
I think everyone has very valid points as to why or why not people participate or just lurk. I would just add that I think maybe it's just an awareness thing. I think a lot of schools put some credibility in the D3 polls and have seen a number of schools always mention if they are ranked. Easy for me to say, but I think this becomes the easiest way in raising the profile of the site and the boards.
I don't see how the d3soccer.com national poll would help drive traffic here, since this site (d3boards.com) is a completely separate entity from d3soccer.com. That's another advantage that football and men's basketball have; not only are they much more popular sports on the D3 level than soccer, which means a bigger potential posting/lurking base, they also have the advantage of their primary national poll / national scoreboard / primary team-by-team and league-by-league information source being attached to this site. From this page you're reading right now you're one click away from just about everything you need to know about D3 football and D3 men's basketball, which is not the case with D3 soccer.
Quote from: LetteroftheLaw on November 11, 2021, 08:54:13 AM
I first found this forum when I was a junior and my team made the tournament, I was just curious to see what people were saying about different teams. I don't believe any of my coaches or fellow players came on here or even knew it existed, I honestly don't even remember how I stumbled upon it.
I have always thought that it would be cool to have a D3 soccer podcast. Podcasts have obviously exploded recently and seems to be a platform that could really be used to increase interest and knowledge about D3 soccer. I feel like a lot of current players and interested alumni would tune in if done properly. A weekly podcast during the season could highlight featured games, players to watch, interesting results from the previous week, and interviews with coaches and players etc. I think it would be easier to market or advertise to schools than a forum.
This is a really good point. D3 football has Around the Nation, an excellent weekly podcast (which reverts to monthly, roughly, during the off-season) hosted by Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas. The fact that the man behind d3football.com and d3boards.com is also the host of Around the Nation is a big plus for the sites. And men's basketball has Hoopsville, which is actually one step up from a podcast. It's a full-blown streaming video show hosted by Dave McHugh, who is a regular presence on d3boards.com and a d3hoops.com Top 25 voter (and, incidentally, Dave is also the play-by-play broadcaster for the D3 men's soccer Final Four). Pat Coleman and d3hoops.com columnist Ryan Scott are regular presences on Hoopsville, and d3hoops.com (which advertises on Hoopsville) gets referred to so often on the show that there is a great amount of synergy between the show and the website. In fact, a lot of people seem to assume that d3hoops.com runs Hoopsville, or vice-versa.
The D3 soccer landscape could really use a good podcast, if not a streaming video show, to raise national awareness and get that same sort of synergy going with d3boards.com's soccer section as well as with d3soccer.com. Then again, I'm not sanguine that anyone has the time or the expertise to do it. Heck, Christan Shirk and the rest of the guys who run d3soccer.com seem to be doing it on a wing and a prayer.
A lot of great background here from Mr. Sager. If memory serves Pat actually started out with the d3hoops side of things (Division III Basketball Online), with football being a somewhat reluctant addition early on. D3baseball was next with
Pat Jim Dixon being a major part of that team - he and Pat generally make it to the D3 World Series for great on-site coverage each year. d3hockey came along but never really got going. d3soccer was more active, Jim Matson (still listed as the moderator on the soccer boards but has not been active for at least a couple years) initially took it on after Pat spun it off from the d3sports empire and then Christian Shirk and the other volunteers took over d3soccer.com.
The difference between what I call the d3sports empire and d3soccer.com is that there is some revenue flowing in that underwrites d3sports and there's no corresponding revenue stream for d3soccer. Football used to be the big revenue generator with site-based ads and an annual "Kickoff" season preview which sold for like $10, less for .edu's. Basketball has had a different model, Dave gets some corporate sponsorship for Hoopsville and there used to be a d3hoops.com tournament in Las Vegas that had to kick in some money after costs - last in 2019, not sure if they're having it this year. I don't know of any funding for d3baseball other than site-based ad revenue. With the decline in site traffic overall and the pandemic there are now about 170 Patreon supporters who have replaced enough revenue to keep the lights on. None of those funds go to d3soccer, which is why you see what you see today on d3soccer. I'm grateful to Christian for doing what he does; as someone who volunteered and personally hosted (non-sports) web resources for over a decade myself I know first-hand how much time is required and how thankless the task can be.
Quote from: LetteroftheLaw on November 11, 2021, 11:08:27 AMGiven that it was 8 years ago, I really can't recall how I found d3boards. That is my point though, where I went to school it was never talked about, I found it on my own. I really don't think my teammates ever knew about it since it was never discussed and I don't think teams from our conference knew about it either given the lack of posts about the conference as a whole.
Since the easiest way to find this forum is through d3soccer.com which many go to for rankings and articles (about the top teams), it makes sense that those who frequently post are supporters of those top programs. If you aren't on or support a ranked team you really have no reason to regularly go to d3soccer.com even if you're a current player, coach, or parent. This is just my personal experience coming from a respectable program but not a national powerhouse. The main reason I occasionally post is to fill a gap in this forum regarding a conference and some teams that I follow but do not get discussed a lot here.
I think that you've hit on part of the problem. I can't speak with any authority about d3soccer.com, only on my impressions. Those are largely based upon the homepage's request for volunteer help and the homepage's admission that the proprietors lack the resources to update the site in order to optimize it for phones and tablets. (I do try to use d3soccer.com on my phone fairly often, and it's a real headache to try to get a desktop view out of most browsers.) The website is pretty bare-bones now in terms of extras, especially compared to its pre-divorce partners d3football.com, d3hoops.com, and d3baseball.com; there isn't a lot of in-season content provided in terms of columns (although Christan's Selection Day column is invaluable), so it's basically a resource for scores, standings, and schedules -- for which it remains
the crucial resource for D3 soccer.
I don't want to draw out Christan to have him give a full analysis of where d3soccer.com is at, but I suspect that you're right that it's only drawing a narrow slice of potential viewers. The incompatibility with phones may be pushing people away, but I think you're right that it's more a matter of only the fans of the top teams really feeling a need to go looking for a resource like d3soccer.com -- and the fact that the click connection between d3boards.com and d3soccer.com now only goes one way since d3soccer.com was hived off to new ownership doesn't help, either.
Quote from: Ron Boerger on November 11, 2021, 11:28:42 AM
The difference between what I call the d3sports empire and d3soccer.com is that there is some revenue flowing in that underwrites d3sports and there's no corresponding revenue stream for d3soccer. Football used to be the big revenue generator with site-based ads and an annual "Kickoff" season preview which sold for like $10, less for .edu's. Basketball has had a different model, Dave gets some corporate sponsorship for Hoopsville and there used to be a d3hoops.com tournament in Las Vegas that had to kick in some money after costs - last in 2019, not sure if they're having it this year. I don't know of any funding for d3baseball other than site-based ad revenue. With the decline in site traffic overall and the pandemic there are now about 170 Patreon supporters who have replaced enough revenue to keep the lights on. None of those funds go to d3soccer, which is why you see what you see today on d3soccer. I'm grateful to Christian for doing what he does; as someone who volunteered and personally hosted (non-sports) web resources for over a decade myself I know first-hand how much time is required and how thankless the task can be.
Yep. We all owe a huge thanks to Christan and his associates for keeping the lights on at d3soccer.com, even if only at low power.
As for Jim Matson, I think that he's now completely out of the D3 men's soccer picture. The fact that we didn't hear from him after Wheaton's big victory over NPU last week tells me everything I need to know about his absence. ;)
LOTL, you hit on another great point, and one anyone who attempted to start a regular podcast would have to consider. It seems true that the most interest comes from those associated with or having an interest in the higher profile and more successful programs. That doesn't seem like a dynamic unique to D3 soccer. Over the years I've dabbled in trying to feature/bring attention to some more "off the grid" programs. I enjoyed that but after a while that becomes a fair amount of work for seemingly little interest. The only conferences in my opinion that get pretty full coverage (albeit still of the more informal variety) from moe than one poster are NESCAC and UAA, which of course are the two top conferences. Even with like the Centennial that has a fair amount of posters and interest, this is the first year I can recall since I've been here that more than two words were said about Washington College or Ursinus. If I try to shine some light on the NCAC, I'm probably going to be focusing on OWU, Kenyon, and now Denison and sometimes Wabash (in the past sometimes DePauw and occasionally Oberlin).
Another thing for Ejay to consider as he embarks on his podcast is seasonality. Last week, this week, and the next week (leading into the Sweet 16 round) is the window of peak interest, and even then interest is heavily impacted by whether your own team or personal faves are still viable for making the tournament and/or haven't exited the tournament yet.
I recently graduated and would have to agree that our coaches never had to articulate that no posting on this site should happen by active players, that was an unwritten but pretty obvious rule. Even now, I'm still careful about what I say and will keep my alma mater lowkey for a year or two, since I don't want to be put in a position where I'm being asked to speak about guys I played with/against. But I'd say around 25%-30% of my team regularly read the LL and National Perspective feeds to see what alums and the frequent posters were saying about us.
Have to say that I love the idea of a podcast. Maybe a vlog of sorts that can be used as a podcast. Not sure I have anything to contribute but happy to help in any way I can. Also think it could be done on a shoe string budget.
My opinion is to first build it in writing then you can try a podcast. Also I feel the best way to contribute now is to follow 1 league and therefore 1 region because of all the non-con's(got this from Sager) you would end up seeing. Like how Sager does the CCIW and I do the Nescac but certainly the UAA, LL, NCAC and Centennial would be the next ones to follow. You have to try to be as fair as possible. Then you will build a base of support with equal coverage for all teams. You will also gain a knowledge unlike really any other for that league because of all the games you will see. To some that might be tedious and time consuming but I think it is the quickest way to get eyeballs. To me it is also something I would want to read about for other leagues. Podcasts are great but only ones that dig real deep and to do that for D3 Soccer you need to know each team inside out. To know each team is impossible unless you cater to one league. It can be time consuming but you will find ur saving time by not really following anything else on here. That is just me though.