Dylan, is there any way you could play around with different formats (maybe a different host) for the forum? This forum isn’t as user friendly/easy to navigate/clean as others. I think the we could get the forums active.
We’re always looking to make things better. What in particular do you have problems w/ in terms of the current setup.
We started with Vanilla b/c it’s nice for a smaller forum (keeps more content in one place) and figured it would be somewhat slow in the offseason.
You know, I’m not really sure. I get all of my UM basketball news here but do most of my posting at the Rivals National CBB board. I do my Michigan oriented posting at “http://mgoforum.forumotion.com/”. It is a very standard Message Board set up and makes navigating easy (ie: search, advanced search, new posts, etc.). I don’t have the slightest clue how website design goes, though. This forum feels more like an extension of the blog postings rather than a forum that could get 3-4 page discussions going.
I’m not trying to critique, just trying to have a 1-stop-shop… and your site is very close 
…this forum setup seems way better to me than mgoforum. JMO
I don’t use the extra features on the mgoforum, but I like this forum setup for what it is. Threads which people can add their thoughts to without having to worry about specific posting rules aside from basic etiquette.
I guess I’m just too use to traditional message boards (which I love). This reminds me too much of MLive and Facebook.
I still think we’d get more forum traffic if the forum was the same type as InsideTheHall. I complain a lot, eh? lol.
I still think you’re wrong.
If I was wrong, the general “College Basketball” section would have more than 2 threads active in the past two months. This site gets too much traffic (I think) to have that little of interest in national CBB talk.
I love this site, though, and plug it as much as possible on other forums. This is one of the most well put together basketball sites out there and Dylan and Joe do a heck of a job staying objective on their breakdowns.
If I was wrong, the general "College Basketball" section would have more than 2 threads active in the past two months. This site gets too much traffic (I think) to have that little of interest in national CBB talk.
Much as with MGoBlog, I don’t find that I would dive much more into a forum than the “recent topics” thread. I understand there is utility beyond that, but the UMHoops staff have done a good job bumping threads as they become important (i.e. prospects threads as there are updates). To each their own of course, but I would find having to dig through categories of forums on here cumbersome and would make me find less enjoyment here.
Well, there are severally really good forums for Michigan Football. (The Fort, UMGoBlue, 247Sports, etc.) but there isn’t a good Forum dedicated to Michigan basketball. I just think it’d be awesome to have a forum like for Michigan Basketball and what better place to have it than the best site for Michigan basketball?
I don’t really understand what you mean by digging through categories?
I guess I just don’t like how this “forum” feels more like an MLive blog comment section than a traditional Message Board. I love traditional Message Boards, but I guess I’m in the minority.
I would bet my life that it would increase traffic, though.
I don't really understand what you mean by digging through categories?
I just mean having to find which specific “subforum” on the forum a thread I’m interested in posting on is in. Granted, may not be the case all the time, just saying.
The Jaguars message board I post on (jungle.jaguars.com) has a “View my content” tab that shows you all the threads you have posted in or chose to follow. There is also a “recent topics” tab. Message board options have gotten pretty dang nice.
What would it hurt? lol.
We already know how this forum works and the traffic/amount of discussion it generates. We should just try the other format (vBulletin type format) and see if we like it better. Come conference play, we decide which one is better at stick to it.
The MLive basketball forum use to be really busy and had a handful of good posters. It sucked, though, because it was troll-city and poorly moderated. Here, we could get that kind of traffic/discussion with good moderating.
Everyone needs to agree with me :).
It’s not really an easy change. The community isn’t really big enough yet here to justify making the switch to vBulletin or XenForo or anything like that right now. It’s something we’ll continue to consider.
If you build it, they will come. :).
There are so many Michigan football forums, we basketball forum-junkies are starved.
Here’s one minor (and humble) suggestion: keep the header always visible on the top of the screen so one doesn’t have to re-scroll back to the top of the page each time to get around. It may help to also make the “Home” link at the bottom of the page separated from the comment box, so it’s easier to see.
But overall, keep up the great work, Dylan!