This site
Around 2 years ago I floated the idea of promoting this site to a much greater degree and to a larger audience. Specifically I suggested an ad or two in the JCP and/or East Tennessean. The idea was rebuffed at the time because of a fear of attracting trolls, flamers, other people trying to hawk their nonsense. I think the benefits outweigh the cost. So we`ll have to stamp out a few more people than usual trying to sell baked goods or magazines, and you`ll have to deal with a few more idiots usual. Big deal, it will be well worth it.
If this truly is the last/only bastion of dissent (not sure I buy that), then we should want this place to be the most widely used/read sports related "media" in the area. This place is too hard to find, too "off the grid." Most seem Ok with that, not me. I found this place by pure accident while looking at the ETSU basketball Wikipedia page. There was a link at the bottom of the wiki page for this board, it's no longer there btw (something we can fix).
Its time to go MAINSTREAM, and not just as a message board.
Message boards and discussions are great, but they're not for everyone. This place should be about more than just discussion. This should also be a place to come for facts and information. And by facts I don't mean things you have to scroll through 30 pages to get to. There have been all sorts of articles and posts with good info in them that have simply gone by the wayside. I went looking for info detailing basketball budgets that was posted here a year or so ago and gave up because I was pressed for time and the search feature wasn't working. There have been all kinds of budgets info, interviews, articles, and other things that have been lost. Bucster posted a treasure trove of old Bucs basketball games, they are twisting in the wind now in a maze of different threads and posts.
What we need is a sticky'd post with an index of links to any and all relevant facts and info. An index complete with headings and links would not only be giant time saver but also an excellent source of info.
There have been tons of articles, pictures, videos and other things that have been posted that have been posted and are now lost. Some of the links to articles are now dead and unrecoverable. There's nothing we can do about those now short raiding JCP and other sites archives. In the future though, we can paste the articles into posts with citations so they don't get lost or die when the links go bad. I was looking for the article that was posted here a few years ago with quotes from the AD and President at UNC Charlotte over the return to football. Guess what, that article is twisting in the wind as well. Most likely the link is dead by this point, info lost. Dave Mullins recently said that the days of Mid-Majors attracting 10,000 fans are over, that's a article with a quote that should be indexed and added to to the sticky.
We have plenty of people here who are good writers, there's no reason why that writing should be limited to posts strung out over a variety of threads and pages. There is no need for us to take away from the message board discussion to do it either. We can collectively write sourced and cited fact-sheets/talking points for basketball, football, and athletics in general. That way, the appeal is not just a bunch of people arguing on a message.
People get upset with the media for not taking Bartow, Mullins and others to task, for tossing out softballs. Why not invite members of the media to participate here, or at the very least visit the site. At worse they get a different take on the issues. At best they participate and/or start asking many of the same questions we've been asking and wondering about for years. Mainstream media around the country are now including links and picking up stories from blogs and message boards, why not this one? I read Michigan and Cincinnati blogs written by full-time bloggers who have press credentials. Now I don't expect that in this base but you get the idea. If we become more than a message board then we become impossible to ignore or dismiss.
The advertising is probably the easiest, least time consuming part of this, though the most expensive (depending on what we decide to do). We could run a small ad every month or every other month in the East Tennessean for relatively cheap, JCP is more expensive but not impossible. A logo/motto and ETSUFANS.COM is all it would need to say. I know from personal experience that using a school's official logo can get you into hot water so we can always come up with our own. Advertising on campus is even easier, especially if there are current students on board. It doesn't take much to hang flyers on campus, just need approval from the ARC. There have to be some digital media people on here who could design a flyer. If not I have several friends who were digital media students who I could talk into coming up with something. There is plenty of nonsense on the boards on campus right now why not a flyer for this site?
The easiest of all advertising we could do comes via social media, Twitter, Facebook, etc and it’s free. It would take a second to create an ETSUFANS.com Twitter Account or Facebook page where relevant info, articles, etc are linked or tweeted out. There are already ETSU related Facebook groups packed with members who could be reached by a simple link or post. No one likes spam so clogging a site with links isn't a good idea but a quick message to admin of the group is all it would likely take.
Now its going to take some leg work and time but I think transforming this site is a worthwhile goal. Fan1 certainly shouldn't be responsible for doing all the heavy lifting as much of it is time consuming.
*Que "We are the world"
If we all pitch in and help in the process this is very doable, and in a relatively short period of time.
We lambaste Mullins and others for being small minded and not thinking big while we all sit here in our small little niche. The goal for this site should be to be read by the same number of people who read the sports section of the Johnson City Press.
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