Let's have an open dialogue. Let your voice be heard.

Anyone else feel like the forums have sort of...stagnated?
It might not be my place to say this, but it just seems like the community on Tapology is not as lively as it once was. And for someone that has been here since the early days, it's kind of upsetting. I know I really should not speak on this matter as I am barely active myself. It just appears to me that things used to be a lot more vibrant. 

I apologize if this oversteps my boundaries as a mod. But I want to encourage more discussion on here. 


Edit: It has been brought to my attention that GreenHornet created a similar thread months ago. Let's build on that. 

* Edited at 08.02.2016, 10:40 PM ET *

As you said yourself, you haven't been around too much. You need to engage people in conversation. Join the event threads, etc. 

I think sometimes the community can be a little tough to break into for a newbie. That starts with the veteran members engaging them as well. 

We hear the complaints. We're always working to make the site the best that it can be, and in terms of event coverage, content and interface, it's constantly improving. More people are using the site now than they ever have been, but the Forums certainly aren't reflecting that. It's something that's been on Greg's radar for a while, but I don't think there's a magical fix. 

What do you guys think needs to change on the Forums? What do we need to implement? Or is this simply a matter of members who have grown scarce coming back in.

[I'd also like to get ahead of any arguments that we're ban-happy or discourage arguments, etc. I've honestly banned less than 5 people in the history of the site. And none of them permanently. Hell, I've had drag-out brawl/arguments with plenty of members here, whether its over steroids or some other business. We encourage an active and even an argumentative community. Anyone who has been banned has been because they have directly ignored repeated direct requests to avoid racial comments or directly-insulting behavior toward other members.]

I never said I haven't been around. I am watching the activity on a daily basis. Unfortunately, I am guilty of not contributing to the discussion. 

As for the complaints that mods are ban-happy, I am right there with you. I have only suspended a handful in my time here, and lately suspensions have been almost nonexistent. 

The purpose of this thread is to create that open discussion. See what the members feel is missing. Perhaps some of it are projects that are works in progress. But perhaps others might be initiatives we've never really thought about. 

* Edited at 08.02.2016, 11:02 PM ET *

I remember what someone from GreenHornet's thread said: it was something like it would be better for the forums if they were more organized, and I agree with that sentiment. Like, a section for UFC fight threads, other promotion fight threads, forum games, etc. 

I run the Survivor game here on the forum, and I think that part of the reason it doesn't get as many players as it used to is mostly a direct correlation with the activity of the forums. But I also think more people would play if they saw the thread, especially since it ends up on the second page within a day (not that it's a bad thing as it shows the activity of the forums, but most people don't click past the first page of threads). 

Anyway, I just want to end by saying that I respect everything the mods and admins do. I haven't been around as long as some members here that I'm friends with, but I do love the site and a lot of the people on it. But I think that a cleaner forum system would be the best first step. 

@Skelliher  It's a two way street you know?  I will make someone comfortable here if they are willing to have enough courage to post.  The idea that our forum is this closed community where we are a bunch of tribal members is ridiculous.  Just post.  It's not like this place is 4chan or Reddit. 

As far as tweaking the forums goes, personally the major thing that stands out is that it needs to be better organized.  There is no proper sorting of threads and things get lost unless someone remembers to bump a certain thread.  I would personally like to see the forums be run on the Xenforo platform (which is the gold standard for forum software nowadays).  Secondly, as mikeyg said in the forum I created, a PM system would be fantastic.  I am tired of having to always use my comments section on my page to message someone.  I'd like to be able to use a PM system so I can message who I want without it being open to the forum to see.

* Edited at 08.02.2016, 11:29 PM ET *

Agreed with regards to the forum sorting. Maybe something along the lines of 

UFC/MMA Discussion
UFC/MMA News
Forum Games and Contests
General/Random

It's not a perfect idea, but it's a nice topic point.

* Edited at 08.02.2016, 11:27 PM ET *

The one thing we cannot deny as a community, however, is the sheer magnitude of this database. The admins and contributors have helped grow this site into one of the most complete encyclopedic resources for MMA on the entire web. 

Seriously Skelli, you guys need to give yourselves several pats on the back for that one. I think we've taken you all for granted. It's one of the reasons I want this place to succeed so badly. 

* Edited at 08.02.2016, 11:34 PM ET *

I was a Super-moderator / Admin for a non MMA site for over 5 years that generated over 80,000 unique users each day and peaked with around 9,000 members online daily ( not including guests ) .

Yes, vbulliten of course was used which made it more organized ( trusted members could be assigned to different sections as mods , then eventually promoted to super-mods to cover and help for all sections ) .

I understand vbulliten costs money to run that's why I would like to see a contributor forum member program ( contributing member could be labeled as V.I.P's .)

I realized while typing this that it would cost alot of work and time to get running and that the OG's here like the way things are . If vbulliten was implemented I would happily give my free time to this site and cause ( so would many others ) .

Anyways thanks for this site .. it's really all I have left as far as the internet concerns .

BTW : If this is how you feel about my post .. no hard feelings . I understand . LOL

* Edited at 08.02.2016, 11:54 PM ET *

I'd be happy to part with a few shekels so that the site could get a forum structure.

Same here, and mine are actually real shekels ;)

EDIT:: Also, my 2 cents, though I'm not an experienced forum user (this one is the only one I am or have ever been active on), just reinforce what's already been said. Some kind of "stickiness" (whether it be by proper segmentation or some other method) that keeps the popular/ongoing/game/etc threads accessible and visible.

As I said, not a frequent forum guy, so the only insight I have is what I feel is lacking here and might generate a bit more "action" both from new users, (who don't see the threads that used to keep the forum alive because they simply got drowned down and subsequentially not used until Legz randomly bumps them 12 years later), and already frequent users, who used to post in those threads every now and then but aren't going to dig 3 pages into the forum just to find them. I don't really have anything to compare to for more ideas.

* Edited at 08.03.2016, 12:10 AM ET *

Bill Burgess made these forums fun. 

The forums are still fun during big events, but other than that it can be a bit slow sometimes. 

Maybe a little forum sorting could be OK, but I would argue against making a whole bunch of different categories. Keep it simple. 

I doubt a lack of sorted forums is really the reason for it being a bit slow though. 

I watch sometimes  from the hill 
hi all 


I agree with comment

why many people on here don't moral virtue correctly 

And stagnate the wine and bread 

How ger , 

don't comment with such lash 

contribute and reap fruit you elf 

before you condemn the deeds of others ,

Who sow crops in good condition

remember what came before will beginafter  

 

* Edited at 08.03.2016, 1:24 AM ET *

First im gonna say that I love Tapology its a great site with a fun and easy going community and the database is huuge like my wang. but amazing things aside...the forums have gotten slower and slower, and like some others have said I think a few (not much) separate sections could simplify things and encourage discutions, there are several good threads that get burried too fast. maybe a sucribe button could be a "simplier" solution without having to change a lot of things on the site.  imo its a vicious circle, there's not a lot of forum activity and that doesnt make it attractive for new tapologyst to engage, why bother when the last activity was 2 -3 hours ago, and on the first page there are several threads with activity of 1 day ago, probably newbies wonder who is even watching this? I know there are a lot of lurkers and  I get that there are times during the day that activity will slow down, but still.  easier access to older threads  can encourage activity when there aren't to much going on.

lets make tapology rage again!


p.s if it helps I can get back to the asses and boobies AV's

* Edited at 08.03.2016, 2:19 AM ET *

Tapology needs a way to attract new members and have them keep on coming back. Let's suppose the Tapology forum is the greatest forum of all time. The most intelligent people. The most interesting discussions. The funniest ****posts. Debates that will answer all of world's social, political, and economical problems and the meaning of life. Even though that's all true today, that **** doesn't matter if no one's heard of us.

We need marketing.

This word of mouth **** won't cut it anymore. When I google "mma", "mma websites", "mma forums" I don't see Tapology at all. When I google "mma picks", it's only on page 5 for me.

The forum will probably always be third fiddle to fight predictions and the fight database. Way easier said than done, but if we can somehow get a sudden of burst of people on Tapology to predict fights, the forum will be more active. The thing is if there are MMA fans who are trying find a website to submit MMA predictions, are they going to go to Tapology or UFC.com Fantasy... or DraftKings with monetary incentive?


But I have a plan crazy enough to make Tapology great again.

* Edited at 08.03.2016, 3:19 AM ET *

A lot of mma forums are slower.  Especially those without direct news outlets.  The accessibility of social media and growing fantasy mma aps and such have slowly taken people's interest of the forums, IMO. 

The set up isn't the smoothest either tho. 

* Edited at 08.03.2016, 2:41 AM ET *

I <3 Tapology, and I will continue to heart it no matter what changes might come it's way. That is all. I trust you guys will only improve this fine site if changes of any sort happen.

I was on Sherdog since 1998 and when i found this site, i didnt go there much after that. 

To build off of what dtrain said with people losing interest in forum game threads, one of the problems with every thread not being categorized (coupled with people comments on fights being publicly added to oddsbot's threads) is that there is a lot of the more popular threads get bumped down to the point that we as users have to take time to search them out via our post count.  It's a right pain in the ass to do.  That's why I feel that, if we organized the threads by section, we wouldn't have this oversaturation of threads to look through and could even sticky threads that are popular so that we can get more participants for games and don't lose threads people like (ex. Bill Burgess's Culture of Tapology thread, The Future UFC Stars Thread, You Laugh You Lose, and etc.).

* Edited at 08.10.2016, 3:37 PM ET *