Strat and TSN

I first started playing online strat a couple months ago, I have been reading posts where people have mentioned that since strat has left tsn the community has shrunk significantly. If this is true (I personally dont know since i never participated on tsn) what do you think the reasons are? And if it is true why would strat leave tsn?

Anyway I was just curious.

Scott.

Strat didn't leave TSN, they were given the boot by TSN.

I will try an make an educated guess - TSN is a site that not only hosted Strat, but also had links to fantasy baseball and all the major sports and thus attracted more views with links and ads on their pages to play Strat. TSN had to get significantly more views than our current homepage. More views=more players

I will try an make an educated guess - TSN is a site that not only hosted Strat, but also had links to fantasy baseball and all the major sports and thus attracted more views with links and ads on their pages to play Strat. TSN had to get significantly more views than our current homepage. More views=more players

Not really. It has more to do with poor customer service, and lack of real communication between SOM and long time customers. There is also an issue of unkept promises (new cards every month-which we were getting at TSN, manager points, etc) that was lost in the transition from TSN to SOM.

The message boards at TSN were also more open and made for lively debate without fear of being censored (unless you were truly offensive). It felt more like a community at TSN. On here, Garcia does his weekly blog, most of the time about something no one really cares about. And his blog is locked so customers can not respond or ask direct questions. They do a poor job of managing expectations and only do so only when the heat starts to rise.

Bernie was in charge at TSN. He wore all hats there for this game. While he wasn't always johnny on the spot, he interacted with the customers and gave us something to look forward to.

thats a pretty accurate summation from RedRum.

I would agree with you there - there was more of a community in TSN and Bernie did communicate with us on new developments. But the community has shrunk not only because of poor customer service, but because of SOM's low visibility - not enough new blood to keep this going. I would say the real hardcore community of players is a vanishing breed due to perceived poor customer service. I've been at this for about 10 years or so and though SOM has had it's problems with TSN and in the current home site, it;s also true that there are a lot of whiny crybabies who complain about EVERYTHING and decided to take their ball and go home

I would agree with you there - there was more of a community in TSN and Bernie did communicate with us on new developments. But the community has shrunk not only because of poor customer service, but because of SOM's low visibility - not enough new blood to keep this going. I would say the real hardcore community of players is a vanishing breed due to perceived poor customer service. I've been at this for about 10 years or so and though SOM has had it's problems with TSN and in the current home site, it;s also true that there are a lot of whiny crybabies who complain about EVERYTHING and decided to take their ball and go home

I agree. I've been playing this since the beginning, and while I've seen articulate complainants with legitimate complaints about SOM, I've seen many more whiny malcontents who incessantly carp about SOM while continuing to play it...or leaving it and (not long after) returning.

That being said, I do think there are things players--particularly forum participants--can do to improve and enlarge the SOM community.

1. Participate in and contribute to more forum threads. A lot of forum participants will only contribute to forum threads directly affecting them personally--such as individual league chats--or will only respond to forum threads or posts put up by their friends or posters they know. If many (if not most) of the posters keep doing this, new posters will have no opportunity to "join" the community, since nobody will participate in posts applicable to them or even respond to their posts.

2. Treat "newbies" and those you don't know--and their posts--with the same respect and/or consideration as you would one of your forum friends. Again, I've seen posters either treat people they didn't know with disrespect or discourtesy they wouldn't show their forum friends, or attack or team up against them simply because they were debating against those friends.

For example, the first time I read this forum, I saw a professed new player get in a disagreement with Micheal Grammes over Macintosh (of all things). Although neither Micheal nor the poster disrespected each other, some friends of Micheal's jumped all over the guy. One idiot, (whom I will not name) even threatened him and said "Fan Boys get slaughtered."...real "welcome to the community" stuff. That newbie never posted again and I assume stopped playing SOM.

So, in short, if members of the SOM community want to improve and enlarge that community, we need to get more communal and more welcoming.


P.s. I have never seen a statement that wasn't profane or abusive censored. Can somebody please give me an example of one that was?

I Strether-

I have to correct you on a couple points-

One: There were many non-profane/non-abusive threads censored; some of which had to do with complaints about SoM policy, some of which had to do with things that were not directly to do with SoM but which had a bearing on the community or sports in general.

Secondly, most of the complaining crew- which actually at some point were the majority of the customers stopped playing because of poor communication and poor customer service-
a lack of response to issues that were and are occurring.

This is the main reason the boards aren't active anymore- in fact, a few of the people who were vocal against those that complained, now dont say a word on the boards, and neither do most of those that complained who were censored.

I think a number of us stated that the current situation (with a lack of returning players and a lack of a lot of new players) would come to pass exactly as it has, given what I just said...and voila...so it is.

I Strether-

I have to correct you on a couple points-

One: There were many non-profane/non-abusive threads censored; some of which had to do with complaints about SoM policy, some of which had to do with things that were not directly to do with SoM but which had a bearing on the community or sports in general.

Secondly, most of the complaining crew- which actually at some point were the majority of the customers stopped playing because of poor communication and poor customer service-
a lack of response to issues that were and are occurring.

This is the main reason the boards aren't active anymore- in fact, a few of the people who were vocal against those that complained, now dont say a word on the boards, and neither do most of those that complained who were censored.

I think a number of us stated that the current situation (with a lack of returning players and a lack of a lot of new players) would come to pass exactly as it has, given what I just said...and voila...so it is.

You're not correcting me on anything I said here, nor are you even really countering what I said.

Firstly, I never said there were never any non-profane or non-abusive posts censored; I said I never saw any that were, and asked for some examples, which you have as yet to give. A summary of the quote and why they censored it would suffice, since I believe you. I''ve only recently been watching the ATG boards, so I imagine I missed it. But in my experience, the only quotes I've seen removed deserved it.

Secondly, apparently some (if not most) ATG emigrants left because of poor service or communication; I'll take your word on that...although, they did not constitute the majority of the SOM playing community. However, I will again maintain that, while many complainants articulately make legitimate complaints, most I have seen in my 13 years have been whiny malcontents who incessantly gripe about SOM in general--most often when games or seasons don't go their way--while still irrationally paying for a product they deem deficient.

And I'm sure those who left ATG, and SOM in general, are part of the reason the community has dwindled. But, as I mentioned in the second (and main) part of my previous post, improving and enlarging our dwindled community demands improving the current nature of the community, and its participants, itself. Since you didn't address that part above, I would appreciate your thoughts on my suggestions and how they would enlarge and improve the community...if you are truly interested in improving and enlarging it.

I Strether-

I have to correct you on a couple points-

One: There were many non-profane/non-abusive threads censored; some of which had to do with complaints about SoM policy, some of which had to do with things that were not directly to do with SoM but which had a bearing on the community or sports in general.

Secondly, most of the complaining crew- which actually at some point were the majority of the customers stopped playing because of poor communication and poor customer service-
a lack of response to issues that were and are occurring.

This is the main reason the boards aren't active anymore- in fact, a few of the people who were vocal against those that complained, now dont say a word on the boards, and neither do most of those that complained who were censored.

I think a number of us stated that the current situation (with a lack of returning players and a lack of a lot of new players) would come to pass exactly as it has, given what I just said...and voila...so it is.

You're really not correcting me on anything I said, since your corrections don't really counter what I said.

Firstly, I never said there were never any non-profane or non-abusive posts censored; I said I never saw any that were, and asked for some examples, which you have as yet to give./ A summary of the quote and why they censored it would suffice, since I believe you. I''ve only recently been watching the ATG boards, so I imagine I missed it. But in my experience, the only quotes I've seen removed deserved it.

Secondly, apparently some (if not most) ATG emigrants left because of poor service or communication; I'll take your word on that...although, they did not constitute the majority of the SOM playing community. However, I will again maintain that, while many complainants articulately make legitimate complaints, most I have seen in my 13 years have been whiny malcontents who incessantly gripe about SOM in general--most often when games or seasons don't go their way--while still irrationally paying for a product they deem deficient.

And I'm sure those who left ATG, and SOM in general, are part of the reason the community has dwindled. But, as I mentioned in the second (and main) part of my previous post, improving and enlarging our dwindled community demands improving the current nature of the community, and its participants, itself. Since you didn't address that part above, I would appreciate your thoughts on my suggestions and how they would enlarge and improve the community...if you are truly interested in improving and enlarging it.

Can you give a summary of some of the whiny malcontents who incessantly gripe? Your best recollections would suffice since I too believe you.