Why...?

[BonnieBengal]

(05-13-2015, 01:01 AM)DaltontoKroftSBchamps Wrote: 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?

I'm totally shocked. I haven't been able to get on the board anyway the past five weeks because I'm in Japan working temporarily and my IP address is always banned at Bengals.com whenever I'm in Japan. This is the first I've heard of this. That board was very popular!!! Is this real?

[Interceptor]

(05-13-2015, 05:22 PM)BonnieBengal Wrote: I'm totally shocked.  I haven't been able to get on the board anyway the past five weeks because I'm in Japan working temporarily and my IP address is always banned at Bengals.com whenever I'm in Japan.  This is the first I've heard of this.  That board was very popular!!!  Is this real?

You're here, ain'tcha?

[Interceptor]

(05-13-2015, 11:01 AM)jakefromstatefarm Wrote: 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?

[BonnieBengal]

(05-13-2015, 05:22 PM)BonnieBengal Wrote: I'm totally shocked.  I haven't been able to get on the board anyway the past five weeks because I'm in Japan working temporarily and my IP address is always banned at Bengals.com whenever I'm in Japan.  This is the first I've heard of this.  That board was very popular!!!  Is this real?

Since I haven't been able to get on the Bengals board the last five weeks, I had no idea what was going on. I guess I'll post here and CincyJungle. Cincyjungle must be absolutely thrilled.

[CinciREborn]

(05-13-2015, 05:05 PM)grampahol Wrote: I looked, but apparently you haven't shown up on google earth on any rooftops..Maybe a tree was in the way..

No rooftop
Currently in my car

[Shepdawg]

I can't believe they're closing the board due to financial reasons. The message board doesn't cost all that much to run, (although they're not free) Simply put, the sale of a couple of tickets, a few jerseys. a handful of hats, or whatever else it may be that they sell, would cover the costs. How many of those things were sold because the customer, is forum member and was on the sight as a regular due to the message boards almost daily?

The other thing I don't think they considered is how many fans get a chance to better connect with the not only the team, but the players as well. Maybe not so much in a direct sense, but through family members and former coaches, etc. I understand David Shula would post there on occasion, and I know Shayne Graham's sister (Bengal Sis) I think was her name, used to post, along with MJ's father. (Torro) I believe was his name there and I'm sure there are many others that I am missing, but the point is the fans had a better avenue to connect with the players, even if it was through their family members posting. That brings more loyalty from fans, if they at least feel they have a connection with some of the players on the team.

The other point I wanted to make is I find it ironic, and hypocritical of the Bengals to chastise Chad and T.O. a few years back for their use of social media, but now they are directing their fans to the very platform they claimed caused such a distraction on the team. At least with the message board the conversations were 90% football related. That's not the case with Twitter or Facebook. I don't post a lot, but when I want to talk or read about football, and in particular the Bengals, I don't really want to sift through all the crap on Twitter and FB to get to it.

Needless to say, I was very disappointed to learn they were closing the other site. But I am happy to see so many folks here from the other place.

Thanks to everyone and their efforts to get this new site up and running. I look forward to reading and chatting about the Bengals here, and we'll let the other site

[*Awful Llama*]

Sad, yes, but at least we have a home. Bengals.com can just watch its visitor stats fall through the floor.

[TSwigZ]

(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.

It makes sense considering he never lost his cool and was always content with whatever the team did win/lose didn't matter he stayed content

[Ryuko]

(05-13-2015, 05:20 PM)Bengal Dude Wrote: 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.

But on social media, everyone's as kind and loving as can be

[CageTheBengal]

Not really sure what the real reason was all I know is the reason we were given felt like a bunch of crap. Twitter and Facebook do not promote discussion in the same fashion as a message board. If they were trying to shut down the forums because of fans voicing their displeasure then the jokes on them because how long did it take for the community to migrate? The discussions will continue but the franchise took a hit with their hardcore fans.

[BonnieBengal]

(05-13-2015, 07:09 PM)Shepdawg Wrote: I can't believe they're closing the board due to financial reasons.  The message board doesn't cost all that much to run, (although they're not free) Simply put, the sale of a couple of tickets, a few jerseys. a handful of hats, or whatever else it may be that they sell, would cover the costs.  How many of those things were sold because the customer, is forum member and was on the sight as a regular due to the message boards almost daily?  

The other thing I don't think they considered is how many fans get a chance to better connect with the not only the team, but the players as well.  Maybe not so much in a direct sense, but through family members and former coaches, etc.  I understand David Shula would post there on occasion, and I know Shayne Graham's sister (Bengal Sis) I think was her name, used to post, along with MJ's father. (Torro) I believe was his name there and I'm sure there are many others that I am missing,  but the point is the fans had a better avenue to connect with the players, even if it was through their family members posting.  That brings more loyalty from fans, if they at least feel they have a connection with some of the players on the team.

The other point I wanted to make is I find it ironic, and hypocritical of the Bengals to chastise Chad and T.O. a few years back for their use of social media, but now they are directing their fans to the very platform they claimed caused such a distraction on the team.  At least with the message board the conversations were 90% football related.  That's not the case with Twitter or Facebook.  I don't post a lot,  but when I want to talk or read about football, and in particular the Bengals, I don't really want to sift through all the crap on Twitter and FB to get to it.  

Needless to say,  I was very disappointed to learn they were closing the other site.  But I am happy to see so many folks here from the other place.  

Thanks to everyone and their efforts to get this new site up and running.  I look forward to reading and chatting about the Bengals here, and we'll let the other site

Financial reasons? How many pennies will that pay towards AJ Green's contract?

Like someone else said, shutting that board down won't stop the discussion. It will continue and I think the players are smart enough to find other boards to read that are not on Bengals.com.

[Chipperson]

Why? I'll tell you why

Cuz it's a crooked letter or sumptin

Dvv dvv

[CinciREborn]

(05-13-2015, 07:54 PM)TSwigZ Wrote: It makes sense considering he never lost his cool and was always content with whatever the team did win/lose didn't matter he stayed content

Be careful with the knowledge you have gained. It can get you exiled in certain places

[BonnieBengal]

(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.

I find the fans who post on the Bengals Facebook annoying. Most of them have very little knowledge of the Bengals and are still spouting cliches from the 90's and early 2000's.

[Ryuko]

(05-13-2015, 10:26 PM)BonnieBengal Wrote: I find the fans who post on the Bengals Facebook annoying.  Most of them have very little knowledge.

FIFY

It's impossible to have an intelligent public conversation on facebook. I think that's why most of us migrated here.

Speaking of which, we have this hot young thread and we're still talking about the old, dying one?

[Shake n Blake]

There's 3 possibilities I've considered, none of them involve money.

1. The wrong person read the forum. Possibly Mike, Katie, Hobspin, or maybe even a player or two. Perhaps Dalton, Gresham and/or Maualuga saw a negative thread and pitched a stink about it. Total speculation, but I could see something like that happening. All 3 of these players (and more) have fired back at fans on social media.

2. The FO just decided they want to focus on other parts of social media or adding something new to the website.

3. I'm not making any accusations (again, just speculating), but maybe the admins/mods were tired and wanted out, and the FO just decided to close shop instead of keeping things rolling with folks they weren't familiar with. 34 sounded pretty burned out to me and he was kind of the head honcho there. If that's the case, I can't blame 34, because I'm sure it was a lot of work and he was at it for 10 years.

[jfkbengals]

(05-13-2015, 10:45 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: There's 3 possibilities I've considered, none of them involve money.

1. The wrong person read the forum. Possibly Mike, Katie, Hobspin, or maybe even a player or two. Perhaps Dalton, Gresham and/or Maualuga saw a negative thread and pitched a stink about it. Total speculation, but I could see something like that happening. All 3 of these players (and more) have fired back at fans on social media.

2. The FO just decided they want to focus on other parts of social media or adding something new to the website.

3. I'm not making any accusations (again, just speculating), but maybe the admins/mods were tired and wanted out, and the FO just decided to close shop instead of keeping things rolling with folks they weren't familiar with. 34 sounded pretty burned out to me and he was kind of the head honcho there. If that's the case, I can't blame 34, because I'm sure it was a lot of work and he was at it for 10 years.

#3 makes the most sense to me

[BURROWorBUST]

My 2 cents worth of speculation has to do with the timing.

The closing was announced less than a week after Whitworth's wife got him in a little trouble with her tweet on his account. My guess is that the organization just decided to eliminate anything social-media related that was within its power to eliminate.

Again, this is pure speculation.

[Shake n Blake]

(05-13-2015, 11:09 PM)Shady Wrote: My 2 cents worth of speculation has to do with the timing.

The closing was announced less than a week after Whitworth's wife got him in a little trouble with her tweet on his account. My guess is that the organization just decided to eliminate anything social-media related that was within its power to eliminate.

Again, this is pure speculation.

Very plausible, and family members of players have been on those boards before.

MJ's father and Shayne Graham's sis come to mind.

[DaltontoKroftSBchamps]

(05-13-2015, 10:32 PM)Ryuko Wrote: FIFY

It's impossible to have an intelligent public conversation on facebook. I think that's why most of us migrated here.

Speaking of which, we have this hot young thread and we're still talking about the old, dying one?

One of the reasons I was wondering is I live outside the Cincinnati area.  Like many fans who don't know other Bengals fans where they live, I followed the Bengals.com message board for thoughtful discussion, news updates and entertainment though I never signed up.  ESPN's AFC North blog was also pretty good before they switched to Facebook a few years ago.  Fortunately, I happened to visit the board last Sunday when the shutdown was announced.  Imagine the fans who check in when training camp starts or in September and wonder where to go or who they can discuss the team with.  Hopefully this won't turn off some fans around the world who have to follow by the web or otherwise watch NFL Network or go to NFL.com to get Bengals updates.