Wolves Site

[Craig Arko]

 

I understand you're doing your best to keep the site updated with content, along with maintaining other stuff on the site, AND your real life work/school stuff. 

I share the same concerns as Levi on Vikings Journal. IMO, the conversations need to breathe a bit more and let others chime in. It's difficult to follow a conversation between 2 posters when 7 twitter comments from people we may or may not care about are sandwiched in between.

Maybe we're more used to the flow of Twins Daily. Where a person starts a thread, and let's the conversation flow from there. 

I'll still stop by and post my 2 cents from time to time, and understand you'll run the site how you want. But, like Levi, I think the Twitter comments can be too much.  

It sounds like the cultures of the sites are quite different. Which is absolutely fine, and probably even desirable.

 

But there is more competition for Vikings mind-share than Twins, if I'm following correctly, and that makes it hard to build up a decent size poster base.

[Pardon My Dinger]

No Vikings. Wolves. 

[TheLeviathan]

I have sympathy for what you're trying to do Funky.  You want there to continue to be topics and fodder for discussion and doing so single-handedly probably does lend to twitter being useful.  You're in an unenviable spot, one I don't have any grand ideas to help you out of.  The problem is that there isn't a large enough posting base.  Losing some really great article writers didn't help either.  

 

I also won't lie, the way it's constituted now just doesn't drive me to show up and contribute.  Along with a few other factors.

[Vanimal46]

 

It sounds like the cultures of the sites are quite different. Which is absolutely fine, and probably even desirable.

 

But there is more competition for Vikings mind-share than Twins, if I'm following correctly, and that makes it hard to build up a decent size poster base.

I guess that is the beauty of these sites, is that each one is run in an unique way, with different posters, styles and the like. 

I'm not aware of other Vikings blogs out there. I'd like for Vikings Journal to grow since it's so easy to click on the link on top of this page. 

[Pardon My Dinger]

 

I have sympathy for what you're trying to do Funky.  

Nothing's worth doing if you can't do it funky. 

[TheLeviathan]

 

I guess that is the beauty of these sites, is that each one is run in an unique way, with different posters, styles and the like. 

I'm not aware of other Vikings blogs out there. I'd like for Vikings Journal to grow since it's so easy to click on the link on top of this page. 

 

Also because I actually appreciate some of the insights shared here and those same posters sharing on that site would be nice.  I'm rooting for it as well.

 

And obviously I wasn't talking about you Vanimal.

[Funkytown]

 

It sounds like the cultures of the sites are quite different. Which is absolutely fine, and probably even desirable.

 

But there is more competition for Vikings mind-share than Twins, if I'm following correctly, and that makes it hard to build up a decent size poster base.

 

This is exactly right. I've actually been part of Vikings communities for probably 8-9 years now, and I am currently part of three others that have been up for 8, 10, 12 years (not an exaggeration). And they are the first to show up in search engines when people search for Vikings forums. Not to mention Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. There are a couple of other Vikings forums I know of that have been up for years, too. I don't look at them often, but they have posters with 10, 20, and 30 thousand posts, so I can about imagine how long they've been up. There is a lot of competition out there, and it takes time. A lot of time and energy. Anyway, thanks for "getting it".

[Craig Arko]

 

This is exactly right. I've actually been part of Vikings communities for probably 8-9 years now, and I am currently part of three others that have been up for 8, 10, 12 years (not an exaggeration). And they are the first to show up in search engines when people search for Vikings forums. Not to mention Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. There are a couple of other Vikings forums I know of that have been up for years, too. I don't look at them often, but they have posters with 10, 20, and 30 thousand posts, so I can about imagine how long they've been up. There is a lot of competition out there, and it takes time. A lot of time and energy. Anyway, thanks for "getting it".

I ran a Mac tech support forum for a decade, so I understand intense online competition.

 

Anyway, best of luck to you, with the site and everything else.

[Funkytown]

 

I have sympathy for what you're trying to do Funky.  You want there to continue to be topics and fodder for discussion and doing so single-handedly probably does lend to twitter being useful.  You're in an unenviable spot, one I don't have any grand ideas to help you out of.  The problem is that there isn't a large enough posting base.  Losing some really great article writers didn't help either.  

 

I also won't lie, the way it's constituted now just doesn't drive me to show up and contribute.  Along with a few other factors.

 

What other factors? Feel free to PM me (on Vikings Journal, obviously). 

And, yes, Twitter does help a lot. I use it to find interesting stats, articles, and other random tidbits to try to keep the conversation flowing. It doesn't always work, but I also see that some threads have minimal comments, but hundreds of views. That's why I keep doing it. I know people are reading, so I keep as much updated as I can. With full-time work and school, I bet I still spent 15-20 hours on the site every week doing what I do. With being done with school, I'll have more time now to dedicate to actual site promotion, so we'll see... 

 

You guys find it annoying? Yeah, so do I to have to constantly do it, lol. But it is what it is. It's slowly paying off, as we've got a few new members this week. I have to keep at it, keep promoting blogs, keep looking for writers, keep communicating with everyone behind closed doors to make things happen, keep sharing our work on Twitter, Reddit, other Vikings sites, etc. It'll take time, but we'll get there. But don't ever expect it to be Twins Daily, because it never will be. But I'm confident it'll eventually be a decent-sized community with regular conversation flow and less tweets. I can't wait!

[TheLeviathan]

The two biggest factors for me are these:

 

1) I've got a group of people here I've known for almost half my life.  Brock, Chitown, Psuedo, Smerf, both Nicks, snepp, Chief, and probably a few others that i'm forgetting (and will rip me horribly for and deservedly so) so some of the feel here is simply like going to your favorite sports bar and talking with your buddies.  Along the way a bunch of other voices I respect have added themselves to that group, people I agree and disagree with from time to time.  So it feels like this is partly my community.  I'm not sure Vikes Journal will ever have that, but it certainly doesn't now.

 

2) And that sort of leads into the second point, I find the average poster here is just so much more thoughtful, knowledgeable, interesting, and intelligent than many over there.  That sort of burns my desire to post too.

[Funkytown]

 

The two biggest factors for me are these:

 

1) I've got a group of people here I've known for almost half my life.  Brock, Chitown, Psuedo, Smerf, both Nicks, snepp, Chief, and probably a few others that i'm forgetting (and will rip me horribly for and deservedly so) so some of the feel here is simply like going to your favorite sports bar and talking with your buddies.  Along the way a bunch of other voices I respect have added themselves to that group, people I agree and disagree with from time to time.  So it feels like this is partly my community.  I'm not sure Vikes Journal will ever have that, but it certainly doesn't now.

 

2) And that sort of leads into the second point, I find the average poster here is just so much more thoughtful, knowledgeable, interesting, and intelligent than many over there.  That sort of burns my desire to post too.

 

1) I feel the same way about the main members at Vikings Journal, as well. 
2) That'll come with time.

 

Overall, we like to have more fun than anything. There is some serious, in-depth talk, but there is just as much casual talk, because, we too have known each other for years. Heck, we used to call our Game Threads "Support Groups" because that's how we roll. We try not to take ourselves too seriously. I can see where that's not always appreciated, but that's our culture. And I aim to keep it that way. As Vikings fan, if we couldn't laugh together ... well, you know, it'd be awful! 

 

 

No Vikings. Wolves. 

 

You can have your thread back! Sorry about that.

For the record, I agree about the Wolves/Lynx site!

[Pardon My Dinger]

It's pretty obvious that we're not going to get our Wolves site, so I did some digging. 

 

http://www.all-about-wolves.com/

 

Honestly, it's a little dry. And they don't love my candor. But, it's a start. 

[TheLeviathan]

 

Overall, we like to have more fun than anything. There is some serious, in-depth talk, but there is just as much casual talk, because, we too have known each other for years. Heck, we used to call our Game Threads "Support Groups" because that's how we roll. We try not to take ourselves too seriously. I can see where that's not always appreciated, but that's our culture. And I aim to keep it that way. As Vikings fan, if we couldn't laugh together ... well, you know, it'd be awful! 

 

I don't mind the fun aspect, but I love actual, smart analysis too.  Arief was so freaking good, when he left it ripped a major part of my reason for being there.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Also because I actually appreciate some of the insights shared here and those same posters sharing on that site would be nice.  I'm rooting for it as well.

 

And obviously I wasn't talking about you Vanimal.

 

But you do mean me, right? Right?

[Mike Sixel]

 

I don't mind the fun aspect, but I love actual, smart analysis too.  Arief was so freaking good, when he left it ripped a major part of my reason for being there.

 

Ya, this was a big loss, imo.

 

For me, Twitter is blocked at work, so the posts are just blank......which is annoying. When I am home and looking, I can enjoy most of the Twitter work. 

 

I think Funky is doing a good job trying to build something new, in a competitive market. Personally, I used to go to footballs future all the time, but that group has become more and more serious and less and less fun. I have not yet built up any feeling for the Vikingsjournal community as a community, but maybe that will change over time.

 

Or, maybe moving away from market will continue to erode my interest....

[Squirrel]

 

Ya, this was a big loss, imo.

 

For me, Twitter is blocked at work, so the posts are just blank......which is annoying. When I am home and looking, I can enjoy most of the Twitter work. 

 

I think Funky is doing a good job trying to build something new, in a competitive market. Personally, I used to go to footballs future all the time, but that group has become more and more serious and less and less fun. I have not yet built up any feeling for the Vikingsjournal community as a community, but maybe that will change over time.

 

Or, maybe moving away from market will continue to erode my interest....

Or .. maybe moving away will strengthen your desire to find a connection to it. That's basically what happened when I moved from MN. In Canada, I sort of didn't really look for any means, but when I moved to Chicago, I did. That's when I started going to the ESPN boards, then to BYTO, then here. I was swallowed up in a sea of White Sox fans and those boards, such as they were, were my islands of survival! (Okay, yeah, I'm being overly dramatic.)

[TheLeviathan]

 

 

Coming to Twins Daily is a breath of fresh air for me.  It helps me remember that not all places in the world are over-hot armpit, driving death trap, poorly educated, stuck in the 1960s hell holes like Arizona.

 

So, I guess that's another reason i'm rooting for Vikings Journal!  

[Craig Arko]

Why wouldn't you say this over at Vikings Journal? I share your guys' concerns with not having time to bounce around ... and I'm only over here to see if you guys have the same problem, because our site hasn't been working for nearly two hours now. This conversation was an interesting find. That's for sure!

 

Anyway, as far as the Twitter comments, I do that to save time. Up until a week ago, I was working full-time and going to school full-time ... also basically running the forums part-time. Not to mention, I work overnights. (I should actually be sleeping right now, but I stayed up to do a few things on the site since it's been down for two hours.) It was a lot to handle. I do the best that I can, because when it comes to the forums, I literally do ALL of it myself. I also run the blog section, look for and guide new writers, share our stories on Twitter and elsewhere, etc. It's a lot! So when I have time, I find stories and interesting tweets to keep my small community informed. I'm sorry that you hate it, but that's just the way that it is. 

 

Until we gain more regular members who contribute their own content, it is probably going to be this way. I'm sorry that you guys hate it, but I'm doing the best that I can. There are multiple other Vikings fan forums that have been around for over a decade. Do you know how hard it is to compete with those and establish your own community, basically from the ground up? Especially now with Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter ruling the world? Yeah, it's not easy. It takes a lot of work ... and time. I thought that was universally understood. I'm sure Wild Xtra has the same struggles as we do. Anyway, until we grow, I guess it's just going to suck and make your brains bleed internally. 

 http://vikingsjournal.com/public/style_emoticons/default/govikes.gif

So here's my two-bit radical socialist proposal; link the Sports Bar area of the different sites together. It would be a good place for the communities to intermingle, and maybe that would benefit everyone.

[Brock Beauchamp]

So here's my two-bit radical socialist proposal; link the Sports Bar area of the different sites together. It would be a good place for the communities to intermingle, and maybe that would benefit everyone.

Were that technically possible, it would have been done ages ago. I'd LOVE to have that feature but it would require the entire code base to be dismantled and rebuilt.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Were that technically possible, it would have been done ages ago. I'd LOVE to have that feature but it would require the entire code base to be dismantled and rebuilt.

 

And? How hard can that be, really? 

 

[Shane Wahl]

I guess I don't understand what the issue is with not having a site for the Timberwolves, especially given the fact that the Wild somehow have a site instead. The Timberwolves are now an actually interesting team.