Did anyone get any feedback from the powers that be as to why they decided to shut the message board down? I don't believe it's a money issue since the rest of the site will stay up. Did the Browns/Blackburns keep tabs on it over time and decided to pull the plug after the draft? Or was it the players? Any inside info or rumors out there?

It doesn't make much sense to me. Yeah, a lot of other forums have, or will, close. Both around the league and in other sports. But how many of them saw the activity that bengals.com did? Simply saying a NFL team closing their message board is to be expected because other NFL teams have closed theirs isn't exactly apples to apples when some teams see a fraction of the activity.

Think of the amount of page views that message board saw a year. I'm nowhere near an expert on how this new and exciting world wide web worksm but I have to think that with the amount of traffic that site saw that it makes little sense to close it from a financial perspective. 1.) It had to more than pay for itself in traffic to the site. 2.) Even if it didn't, the amount to maintain it is next to nothing.

So if it wasn't closed due to lack of use or because of money then what else could it be? Well, many have speculated it has to do with criticism or negativity. That the team didn't want to provide a forum (literally) for people to bash their product.

If this is the reason then I think it's incredibly short sided. The amount of traffic lost to your team's site is going to be huge. The amount of customers you will anger, although small, still outweighs the money saved. And, let's be honest, that criticism and negativity is just going to move elsewhere. Twitter, facebook, another site, around the water cooler, talk radio... It was there before the board, it will remain after the board. It's in Cincinnati, it's in Chicago. It's even in places like Dublin, and Manchester, and *insert town and sport here* It's a part of sports and their fans. It comes with the territory. So if by any chance they were trying to silence it or prevent it in some way then that seems incredibly stupid or naive.

But anyway, I don't really know, it's hard to even venture a guess. If only because none make very much sense. Why close something that is being used as much as it was? By message board terms it was a rousing success. Why close something your customers enjoy? Why risk losing traffic to your product? Why risk angering even a few of your most vocal fans? And most of all, why schedule it to be closed in the middle of the year, with less than a months notice? Why not A.) Wait until the end of the calender year and regular season. B.) Give people more notice. C.) Both. What's the rush, where's the fire?

As with much of what this team does, it makes little sense. I wouldn't be shocked to find out that Mike finally learned about it after 10 years and clicked on it one day and didn't like what he saw. Right after he asked "The files are IN the computer?"

(05-13-2015, 03:05 AM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: It doesn't make much sense to me.  Yeah, a lot of other forums have, or will, close.  Both around the league and in other sports.  But how many of them saw the activity that bengals.com did?  Simply saying a NFL team closing their message board is to be expected because other NFL teams have closed theirs isn't exactly apples to apples when some teams see a fraction of the activity.

Think of the amount of page views that message board saw a year.  I'm nowhere near an expert on how this new and exciting world wide web worksm but I have to think that with the amount of traffic that site saw that it makes little sense to close it from a financial perspective.  1.) It had to more than pay for itself in traffic to the site.  2.) Even if it didn't, the amount to maintain it is next to nothing.  

So if it wasn't closed due to lack of use or because of money then what else could it be?  Well, many have speculated it has to do with criticism or negativity.  That the team didn't want to provide a forum (literally) for people to bash their product.  

If this is the reason then I think it's incredibly short sided.  The amount of traffic lost to your team's site is going to be huge.  The amount of customers you will anger, although small, still outweighs the money saved.  And, let's be honest, that criticism and negativity is just going to move elsewhere.  Twitter, facebook, another site, around the water cooler, talk radio... It was there before the board, it will remain after the board.  It's in Cincinnati, it's in Chicago.  It's even in places like Dublin, and Manchester, and *insert town and sport here*  It's a part of sports and their fans.  It comes with the territory.  So if by any chance they were trying to silence it or prevent it in some way then that seems incredibly stupid or naive.

But anyway, I don't really know, it's hard to even venture a guess.  If only because none make very much sense.  Why close something that is being used as much as it was?  By message board terms it was a rousing success.  Why close something your customers enjoy?  Why risk losing traffic to your product?  Why risk angering even a few of your most vocal fans?  And most of all, why schedule it to be closed in the middle of the year, with less than a months notice?  Why not A.) Wait until the end of the calender year and regular season. B.) Give people more notice. C.) Both.  What's the rush, where's the fire?

As with much of what this team does, it makes little sense.  I wouldn't be shocked to find out that Mike finally learned about it after 10 years and clicked on it one day and didn't like what he saw.  Right after he asked "The files are IN the computer?"

I'd agree and say Mike Brown and/or the front office doesn't want to pay to give us a place to make fun of them. Unfortunately for them, it's incredibly short sighted and MOST of the criticism that originated on the board was based in logic. Guess they're just a bunch of whiners.

They'll soon realize they "cut the wrong guy".

(05-13-2015, 07:16 AM)Interceptor Wrote: They'll soon realize they "cut the wrong guy".

I decided to not go to Bengals.com for a while to show my displeasure. Used to go there every day and I would often click on an ad for them.

We may be placing more importance on ourselves than is warranted, but it certainly appeared to me that there was a large number of fans participating.
Could it be they are so stuck up that they can't handle criticism? Do they cover their eyes and go LA,LA,LA WHEN SOME GOOFBALL SAYS THEY SUCK.?
It has to be Dalton's fault. They seem to smart at business to dump a group of customers.

This is the first time I've criticized the Bengals:
WHAT A DUMBASS DECISION! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING? ARE YOU HIGH OR SOMETHING? THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS SHOULD BE FIRED!

I find it hilariously ironic that one of the main themes on that board through its tenure was the bashing of the organization and Mike Brown and the thing that ended the message board was pretty much an organizational decision.

Funny how that worked out.

(05-13-2015, 05:06 AM)treee Wrote: I'd agree and say Mike Brown and/or the front office doesn't want to pay to give us a place to make fun of them. Unfortunately for them, it's incredibly short sighted and MOST of the criticism that originated on the board was based in logic. Guess they're just a bunch of whiners.

I'm not sure I buy into this theory. As much negativity that went on in there, its not like there aren't other outlets that give fans a chance to be negative on a much more public level. Twitter, Facebook, other forums etc.

Maybe its not the theory that I dont buy into, but an argument against it. There were good and bad things about that forum from an organizational perspective, so why not just keep it if there are other forums of media that fans use to bash the organization that are much more public?

I don't really think it had anything to do with the financial costs of the forum, or the tone of the content on the forum. Neither of those arguments make much sense for many reasons the posters above have already pointed out.

Perhaps it had to do more with an attempt to build/extend the brand. Think about it, a bunch of die-hard Bengals fans talking about the Bengals to other die-hard fans doesn't really do much to build the brand, with respect to increasing exposure. However, forcing all those fans to discuss the Bengals over facebook, twitter, instragram, whatever ensures that others in our social circles are exposed to the Bengals. This in turn increases exposure and builds the brand. It seems fairly minor, but it's the only thing that I can't immediately dismiss as not being logical right off the bat.

While it stinks for those of us who are quite dedicated to the message board, it's a pretty simple decision for the organization.

We're part of a pretty tight-knit community, but at the end of the day there were maybe how many active users on the message board? 1k would be a VERY generous estimate. The effort put into the board by the organization (funds, manpower, etc.) simply wasn't really worth it. It stinks, moreso because we love the team so much, but it does make sense for the organization to focus on higher-volume platforms.

I have been shouting this from the roof tops for awhile but nobody has been willing to listen. Denny is a closet Ravens fan whose ultimate goal since day one has been to destory the forum from the inside.

At the end of the day, all of this is speculation. The organization will likely never give a public reason for the closure of the boards.

On a related note, is there a plan to get this board linked to one of the popular Bengals fan sites like Cincy Jungle or something? Would be nice to find a way to expand the community. Maybe eventually making this board the "unofficially official" Bengals MB.

It seems to me that this is just another example of the Brown family not listening to their customers.

In all my life, I have never seen a business so willing to take on their customers rather than listening to their customers and providing them with things that they want.

How many times over the years have we heard from either Mike Brown or Marvin basically telling us that we don't know what we're talking about?

(05-13-2015, 09:26 AM)WeezyBengal Wrote: I find it hilariously ironic that one of the main themes on that board through its tenure was the bashing of the organization and Mike Brown and the thing that ended the message board was pretty much an organizational decision.

Funny how that worked out.

The irony is crushingly strong

(05-13-2015, 10:10 AM)MizzouBengal Wrote: I don't really think it had anything to do with the financial costs of the forum, or the tone of the content on the forum. Neither of those arguments make much sense for many reasons the posters above have already pointed out.

Perhaps it had to do more with an attempt to build/extend the brand. Think about it, a bunch of die-hard Bengals fans talking about the Bengals to other die-hard fans doesn't really do much to build the brand, with respect to increasing exposure. However, forcing all those fans to discuss the Bengals over facebook, twitter, instragram, whatever ensures that others in our social circles are exposed to the Bengals. This in turn increases exposure and builds the brand. It seems fairly minor, but it's the only thing that I can't immediately dismiss as not being logical right off the bat.

That seems like the most likely reasoning to me. I would find it hard to believe that an exceedingly small handful of fans venting their frustrations would have caused the board to shut down. Same with financials reasons, the board isn't even a drop in the bucket.

Just to throw out another thought, is it possible that this is coming down from on high by the league offices? Maybe they are trying to get all the teams to phase out their boards over the next year or two?

Why would the NFL want team message boards shut down?

To me the most believable explanation is criticism. Your most diehard fans are typically your most critical, because they have so much more emotionally invested. Casual fans don't visit message boards or care enough to criticize.

The costs of maintaining a message board are peanuts, and I don't see any believable explanation for why the NFL would want them shut down.

How are we supposed to have a forum type discussion on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

You can't really make topics.


I heard people talk about extending the brand. I agree they can extend the brand to non die hard fans through those mediums.

While I use Twitter a lot...I only use facebook on rare occasions, mostly for cute cat videos Instagram... I won't even touch it.
I'm not even that old but I refuse to join Instagram and use any new method of Social Media outside Twitter or Facebook. Its all to much.
I digress.

The forum will be missed. But it seems the majority of active members have moved here.

What would be classy of the organization is if they put a Hyper Link on the team website to the new Board here.
Just have a quick disclaimer page saying its a fan run forum, and they aren't responsible for anything that appears on this site.
Click Ok to continue.

That would be very cool of the Bengals to do.

Now we got to build our rep back up. Our Post counts. Oy... So annoying.

(05-13-2015, 11:36 AM)jakefromstatefarm Wrote: Why would the NFL want team message boards shut down?  

To me the most believable explanation is criticism.  Your most diehard fans are typically your most critical, because they have so much more emotionally invested.  Casual fans don't visit message boards or care enough to criticize.  

The costs of maintaining a message board are peanuts, and I don't see any believable explanation for why the NFL would want them shut down.

I think you just answered your own question there.

(05-13-2015, 10:31 AM)CinciREborn Wrote: I have been shouting this from the roof tops for awhile but nobody has been willing to listen. Denny is a closet Ravens fan whose ultimate goal since day one has been to destory the forum from the inside.

I looked, but apparently you haven't shown up on google earth on any rooftops..Maybe a tree was in the way..

(05-13-2015, 11:32 AM)Mr Jinx Wrote: That seems like the most likely reasoning to me. I would find it hard to believe that an exceedingly small handful of fans venting their frustrations would have caused the board to shut down. Same with financials reasons, the board isn't even a drop in the bucket.

Just to throw out ahought, is it possible that this is coming down from on high by the league offices? Maybe they are trying to get all the teams to phase out their boards over the next year or two?

I'm guessing that if it's a league edict it has to do with the fact that the league always seems to make themselves look bad at every turn..This could easily be their way of trying to shut down just any voice of decent that they can.
What? Fans are giving us to much shit on forums? Shut em down..
I wouldn't be to shocked if at some point they make an effort to shut down all boards citing copyright infringement or some other such legal maneuver.. That too could backfire on them, but I'm guessing that since they have heavy influence in the halls of power it seems worth the risk..

Like I've said before, the Detroit Lions shut down their boards around 10 years ago because of fans bashing them. I'm not sure what they said over there. I've gone on some of their fan created forums and a lot of them were ticked because of the way the boards shut down.

We know that some players read the message board. It's easy to think that more players read them than we really knew. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the bashing of Andy played a role in there, whether miniscule or majorly.