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Surly Horns State of Things End 2023


immamac

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1 hour ago, G650 said:

Absolutely not. The music forum is arguably the one top forums on the board and it is it's own little fiefdom. Polluting it with Music and TV is nonsensical.

Over the years I've "discovered" some great bands from that forum. In my experience, the recs there are better than Spotify, Pandora, or any of the rating sites.

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47 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

 I would love a daily highlight/catchup on recruiting.   If it's 2 items, fine, if it's 10 items and takes 60 seconds so be it

Ima, delete this if I'm breaking any rules, but for this purpose, I like reddit LonghornNation's daily sports talk thread. You can sort by best and very quickly get the important news from one day.

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4 hours ago, BurntOrange&White said:

 

There are nearly 30 forums and sub-forums on this site alone. If you are a new member coming to the website it's overwhelming, ESPECIALLY if you are trying to read a younger audience. Simplicity is best when trying to achieve that and get eyes on the site and a younger demographic. Also with a more consolidated look you are more likely to get engagement on topics as people are scrolling the thread. That simplicity carries over to the mobile version which should be the priority in terms of how the site flows because majority or younger generations are viewing from those devices and not a laptop or pc.

Forum: Other Sports - 14 post in december
UT Sports Subform -  11 threads with post in December
Futbol - 18 Threads with post in december

Why does Other sports need 3 dedicated forums when ALL of those active post would be on page one?  It is creating unnecessary extra clicking and browsing to see all the same "Other Sports" content.

Gambling should be merged into another category as well as it has only 18.2k post total and 4 active post in December, period. Perhaps "Hobbies" would be the best merger for gambling. 

Forum: Hobbies
Video Games - 10 post in December
Books - 7 post in December
Nerdz - 2 post in December

Music is entertainment just as Movies and TV are so it should be merged to streamline discussion about all of those topics without having another forum to visit. 

Just look at the difference. in post on the forum. While music is a little more active it doesn't even have 100k total post. All the popular music threads would still be page one and it would save people having to go to two separate forums to find out about entertainment type stuff.

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Looking at the totality of the board 

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It's all about streamlining and making the browsing of the forum as simple as possible for new users. But reality is there is a TON of gatekeeping that also happens on here. Anyone that ask a simple question or starts a thread asking a questions immediately gets shit on and told to go read the 200+ page thread or to stfu you're an idiot blah blah blah.  Couple the gatekeeping with the "META-Threads" is a hinderance. There are times some great stories are out there that don't get enough talk because posters are throwing the news stories into the HUGE meta threads.

Also to reiterate the FATWA of a potential new user just because the board thinks they're dumb or whatever is a hinderance to growth. Yeah they may be annoying and shit initially but that doesn't mean they'll stay that way and the initial post here are exactly what they are, shock value. 


 


Oh shut the fuck up. You’re an idiot. 
 

blah blah blah

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40 minutes ago, Hook1997 said:

As far as getting new people to signup you would need some posters to be a bit nicer to them. There is definitely a contingent here that bullies the new people and scares them off.  

Very hard not to respond “fuck those pussies” to this.  No idea what you’re talking about.  
 

You could do that TikTok scam with the dog that steps on buttons to “talk” but with an aggy instead of the dog.  

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8 minutes ago, Liquor and Poker said:

Very hard not to respond “fuck those pussies” to this.  No idea what you’re talking about.  
 

You could do that TikTok scam with the dog that steps on buttons to “talk” but with an aggy instead of the dog.  

It’s not just aggy and there’s plenty of examples of it over the years.  Someone new post a different opinion of someone but nothing bad, then one of the main ones negs them.  The rest of that group follow with negs and shit talk.  Yea there’s a have thicker skin element to it but it’s definitely off putting when you first signup.  

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46 minutes ago, Dendox said:

Long time lurker who posted more frequently on HF and Shag due to fewer family/professional responsibilities.  I love the hell out of this site and find myself frequenting it more of late - mostly because I have had more time.  

I am an old - but not ancient.  Mid 40s.  My .02 are in line with many of the others who have posted already about impediments to posting, generally, and original content, specifically.

Olds use computers.  Utes don't.  Ute content generation has to be done by phone and typically is limited to videos.  At least my two utes.....

I don't envision a scenario where my two utes generate anything that would warrant posting on this site.  Not that you have asked them to to do that but my oldest is a rabid horn and simply doesn't find sites worth his time.  Everything he does on the internet is content consumption (videos). When he needs to learn stuff - youtube videos.  When he needs to digest stuff - reels/tik-tok for his topic of choice.  

I don't see that generation changing anytime soon.  

My perception of the other pieces - meta threads are overwhelming.  I "know" the vast majority of the posters on this site so I have a comfort level clicking into an old thread near the end and figuring out the current state of affairs.  I don't think that new people would feel like they can catch up when the threads are a gagillion pages long.  

I think there are too many sub forums.  I find myself forgetting to check certain subs for MONTHS.  When i do, i see the several threads i love and then endeavor to catch up.  A daily digest, to me, may be great.  Particularly for recruiting.  I like the idea of the posts that receive X amount of rep being called out in some way.  

 

Tangentially related to the OP - I recently started contributing to TOF.  I have been three-fiddy for. a bit.  I value what you all do and provide and I am happy to contribute a bit more if it helps relieve pressure.  Once kid's college tuition is off my back, I am happy to contribute considerably more.  

This is such a strong post. This is the dilemma. 

I don't have a problem collapsing the boards down that are lightly trafficked and this seem due to happen. 

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My biggest suggestion, and I think we talked about this in person, is it’d be great if there was a way to toggle only to the most popular or most engaged posts on a thread. Some threads move fast and there are understandably duplicate posts and/or points of view. An original response may get repped a bunch, then 5 more people say the same damn thing and obviously don’t get repped. Plus we’re pretty damn good at getting wildly off topic. I’d imagine many folks don’t care to read those posts. You wouldn’t have to monitor threads, but if there was an option to change your thread-view to hide posts that don’t have reactions (good or bad), or only view posts with more than X number of reactions. When I fall far behind, I usually just scroll quickly through and only stop at posts that are highlighted as “popular.” If you could save the need to scroll for those, you could consume a lot more content in a shorter period of time. 

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As one of the younger users on here, I understand the content struggle around my generation and the ones after. Luckily I was raised a bit old school and picked up a couple books growing up so I don’t mind the reading involved here. I also don’t think there’s a big “gap” between older and younger posters. We all want the same thing for the most part, just that maybe newer posters should lurk more at first to get a feel for the culture of the board and understand its layering. For example, there is a big difference between posting on the football/recruiting threads compared to the movie or travel threads. 
 

I think if you want to attract a younger audience, Surly is going to have to be better with Twitter and TikTok. Like immamac and others stated, the attention span on those sites are small and quick to the punch. But I believe for the most part, younger generations like to attach personality to a face.  For example, it was absolutely hilarious watching RGBIII shotgunning a beer at 1 o’clock in the morning in the urban thread, then months later him being on national tv discussing Texas and NIL. The same for the Arkansas away game trip.  Need more of that type of content that can be packaged and delivered through social media. It would boost the sports side of things but it could also bring more traffic to the travel/food and movies boards. This site isn’t your average message board but on the outside it is which turns off the younger crowd. 

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3 hours ago, Dendox said:

Long time lurker who posted more frequently on HF and Shag due to fewer family/professional responsibilities.  I love the hell out of this site and find myself frequenting it more of late - mostly because I have had more time.  

I am an old - but not ancient.  Mid 40s.  My .02 are in line with many of the others who have posted already about impediments to posting, generally, and original content, specifically.

Olds use computers.  Utes don't.  Ute content generation has to be done by phone and typically is limited to videos.  At least my two utes.....

I don't envision a scenario where my two utes generate anything that would warrant posting on this site.  Not that you have asked them to to do that but my oldest is a rabid horn and simply doesn't find sites worth his time.  Everything he does on the internet is content consumption (videos). When he needs to learn stuff - youtube videos.  When he needs to digest stuff - reels/tik-tok for his topic of choice.  

I don't see that generation changing anytime soon.  

My perception of the other pieces - meta threads are overwhelming.  I "know" the vast majority of the posters on this site so I have a comfort level clicking into an old thread near the end and figuring out the current state of affairs.  I don't think that new people would feel like they can catch up when the threads are a gagillion pages long.  

I think there are too many sub forums.  I find myself forgetting to check certain subs for MONTHS.  When i do, i see the several threads i love and then endeavor to catch up.  A daily digest, to me, may be great.  Particularly for recruiting.  I like the idea of the posts that receive X amount of rep being called out in some way.  

 

Tangentially related to the OP - I recently started contributing to TOF.  I have been three-fiddy for. a bit.  I value what you all do and provide and I am happy to contribute a bit more if it helps relieve pressure.  Once kid's college tuition is off my back, I am happy to contribute considerably more.  

Utes like discord though. Is there an active surly discord?

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Just now, chainsaw said:

Utes like discord though. Is there an active surly discord?

This is key here....discord is amazing. There is one and there is monetization on discord as well.

 

To my knowledge there isn't a big Texas server so that is a market we could corner. 
 

 

@immamac needs to invite me back and give me admin perms so I can help him set it up to look super nice.

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People saying be nicer are full of shit. Ban hammer stupid idiots for threadahitting and worthless trolling. It’s destroys threads. The football board would be a cesspool of troll shit if we didn’t crowdsource real trolls. I have ZERO interest in being a part of a community where half the posts are troll shitting.

case in point, the Washington game week thread was unreadable for a while, we pushed out the thread shitters and now there is a really high quality conversation ongoing the last page or more.
 

Shit talking is different especially if it’s witty. But we are about to end up in the SEC and the trolls are out there and will most certainly try to infect the boards. Fuck trolls ban them immediately. If that means quality posters don’t come as often so be it.

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28 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Gatekeeping at its finest ^

Let the trolls in without a process to get rid of them most thoughtful posters will either avoid those boards that are destroyed or eventually leave all together.  Disagreement and shit talking is different.  
 

all you have to do is go look around at message boards that allow untempered trolling they are a complete waste of time.

 

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32 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Gatekeeping at its finest ^

I quoted your wrong post, but you get the drift.

15 minutes ago, immamac said:

The discord thing is doable. I even built an integration for bidirectional sync. 

I know a thing or 2 about running / setting up discord servers as well. Happy to tag in here too Imma since I'm always at my pc anyway.

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1 minute ago, troph said:

I disagree. And the reason why it’s only horns now is the same reason why only you and dahobbs are on their board, they don’t really have any quality posters or quality conversation because their board has become a fucking cess pool of idiotic trolling. You think letting “WA good, Texas bad, queers and steers, oh yeah well you’re a fag” trolls continue to post will make that thread better well we are just not ever going to see eye to eye.

Basically it’s a microcosm of the rest of the internet.  Facebook comments, instagram comments, Reddit, other message boards. The only difference is level of moderation. Some self policing here, not over handed but not like the big platforms.
 

the problem isn’t we ban hammered idiots. The problem is humanity has deteriorated to shit. Quality interaction is at an all time low. This place is a radical exception. 

 

It's gatekeeping that you're doing....The board needs fresh blood, PERIOD. 

They're being that way initially for shock value and you have no clue if they'd be a good poster or not long term.

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Just now, BurntOrange&White said:

It's gatekeeping that you're doing....The board needs fresh blood, PERIOD. 

They're being that way initially for shock value and you have no clue if they'd be a good poster or not long term.

Go read their boards, it’s absolute garbage, it’s not even funny it’s stupid.

4-5 have come over here. 2 are solid. 3 were trolls. Absolute trolls.  I have no say here, it can go where it goes. Imma can take it where ever he wants but if you think the 3 that were banned are the posters this place needs then man I don’t know what to say. Hit a critical mass of them though and those willing to engage in thoughtful discussion or witty banter will slowly disappear. 
 

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Not sure what that was about (I’m not talking about the immediate post above that’s a good one) but I’ll restate the one thing that I said that I think is worth a shit.

the equation for bringing new quality posters is known. They’ve told us. They all came over during the thujone dick pic heyday and they stayed. Create good funny content and push it out on channels younger people pay attention to that’s it.
 

now once you get their attention getting them to engage on these boards is an uphill battle but if you can create a community with several channels including this but also other channels then you can grow. That’s all I’ll add. Peace. 

Edited by troph
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7 minutes ago, mvlonghorns said:

I'm probably one of the youngest people in here, in my late 20's. I find myself more often going to Baizer's subreddit as my first source of Texas sports info on the Internet. I find it easier/simpler to digest with the daily discussion threads. Unfortunately for reddit, they are mostly all idiots who have nothing additional to add besides posting news. I enjoy reading people's takes here way more.

 

Some of the things that frustrate me about this site:

* The football board has way too many threads, and maybe three of them are worth reading if you want to keep up with the current team/season. Half the threads are that LTX guy posting random tweets, which clutters up the board and makes it difficult to find stuff. I would also love if we separated NFL stuff from CFB stuff, as IDGAF about the NFL.

* The threads for player commits are all exactly the same. People post the same gifs or memes to the point where I never bother reading them anymore. They tell you nothing about the player and why I should be excited about them. If I just wanted to know "Why should I care about Trey Moore?", his commit thread would not tell me that, I need to dig through the recruiting thread to figure that out.

* Ditto to what others have said on a Discord integration or something similar. I find it hard to post from my phone which dissuades me from posting more often.

Yeah we don't need the 9.95er analysis necessarily but who they are, what they've done and why it's a good thing would be EXTREMELY valuable for those threads vs their recruitment tweet and a bunch of titty gifs. 

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@immamac appreciate you and everyone else in the community for your hard work on this site. 
 

I lurked for years going back to shaggy. Joined during Covid. Was a TXHSFB coach for 10 years with 2 state championships. Worked my way up to DC at a 5A and said fuck all that haha. I would post every now and then in the football thread or recruiting and got tired dealing with people who don’t know jack. 
 

Still mostly lurk, but I enjoy catching up on news etc from some of the posters who seem to have some inside knowledge or an actual clue of what they are talking about.
 

I also frequent the food recs in the travel threads and bourbon threads. Can’t wait for Nola and the tailgate! Hook ‘em 

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6 minutes ago, CoachEmUp64 said:

@immamac appreciate you and everyone else in the community for your hard work on this site. 
 

I lurked for years going back to shaggy. Joined during Covid. Was a TXHSFB coach for 10 years with 2 state championships. Worked my way up to DC at a 5A and said fuck all that haha. I would post every now and then in the football thread or recruiting and got tired dealing with people who don’t know jack. 
 

Still mostly lurk, but I enjoy catching up on news etc from some of the posters who seem to have some inside knowledge or an actual clue of what they are talking about.
 

I also frequent the food recs in the travel threads and bourbon threads. Can’t wait for Nola and the tailgate! Hook ‘em 

Please join the Washington game week thread and post your thoughts as a coach. I’m serious. Some of us really would like to hear it. I’m not an expert, I try to be thoughtful with my thoughts and views - well game threads are different - but when someone with some knowledge shows up I really want to listen. So please consider adding your 2 cents.

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3 hours ago, mvlonghorns said:

People post the same gifs or memes

Ben Stiller Basketball GIF

3 hours ago, mvlonghorns said:

I need to dig through the recruiting thread to figure that out.

I thought there were separate threads for prospects that had all their info, or at least links to their profiles. I personally don't really dissect their particulars so I guess this has never bothered me. I look at stars, maybe clips.

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Just tossing an idea at the wall. 

 

I've seen bounties mentioned and kids these days are video oriented. 

 

SEC shorts oriented Texas content would probably be a hit , make fun of stupid aggies, drown in losses , gloat in wins etc . It's a win win 

Another idea would be some sort of tiktok / video aggregator of texas style content may drive some traffic and engagement. 

We tend to just toss this sort of stuff in threads but these things could be first class resources on the site and easy to find 

 

 

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13 hours ago, immamac said:

Yeah we don't need the 9.95er analysis necessarily but who they are, what they've done and why it's a good thing would be EXTREMELY valuable for those threads vs their recruitment tweet and a bunch of titty gifs. 

Along these lines... I think something like Airtable, Google Sheets, or another collaboration tool could be useful as a master tracker for annual recruiting classes to help highlight who the key Texas targets are and who the better players are. Much of this information is shared in the recruiting threads, but it would be nice to have this synced centrally.

A recruiting class table (ex: 2025 Recruits) would have columns of information like this:

  • Player Name
  • Position
  • Composite Rank
  • Texas Priority (High, Med, Low)
  • Likely Leader (Texas, other school)
  • Bobby B update notes
  • Gerry H update notes
  • IT update notes
  • 247 update notes
  • TFB update notes
  • Surly take / thoughts (e.g. "might not have a committable offer because Player X committed")

Permissions could be granted to a handful of recruiting addicting degenerates here to update and post info as available. 

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5 minutes ago, BigOrange1 said:

 @immamac what happened to the podcast?  i'm sure it's time consuming, but i think getting to "know" the site owners could make it more likely that people would want to participate on the forums.

I feel like this could be good too. As sports change through out the year, have some of the people who are more involved with those sports on. I think I lurked the volleyball thread and isn't @Js1 our resident volleyball nerd? Why not have him on one week to talk about our portal hunting there, or a post mortem of the season. 

Even if you @immamac or RGB can't be on all the time, if we could have one person devote time to a weekly thing like a producer, and rotate people on to talk different sports, coaching searches, fund raisers, shitting on aggy. It could be really good and a way to get people involved in the site and drive additional engagement.

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