D3soccer.com traffic

[d4_Pace]

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.

[d4_Pace]

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.

[d4_Pace]

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.

[PaulNewman]

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.

[PaulNewman]

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.

[paclassic89]

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.

[WUPHF]

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.

[PaulNewman]

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.

[PaulNewman]

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.

[SimpleCoach]

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.

[LetteroftheLaw]

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.

[Gregory Sager]

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.

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.

[Saint of Old]

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.

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!

[PaulNewman]

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.

[Ejay]

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.

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 :-)