Caps Fan
Years ago

ozhoopsboards - essentially dead ?

That forum used to be very active and interesting, any particular reason why its seems so dead now ?

Did they just moderate it out of existence , or got some legal warnings that got the wind up the admin/owner ?

Topic #39874 | Report this topic


Exozhooper  
Years ago

It's pretty much just KBrulz replying to himself these days.

It got moderated to hell.

They stopped allowing people to register posting and now it has died.

Reply #597841 | Report this post


Ricky  
Years ago

One of the reasons I post here.. tried to register and email admin before on OHB.

Fans def need somewhere to vent, discuss and/or debate.

Don't think there's anything else. Need to let more ppl know about this site.

Reply #597842 | Report this post


Freethrows  
Years ago

Generally much quieter than hoops, because the mods don't allow Anons to post. I still like it and use it, because you generally get more intelligent conversation. @koberulz is not as bad a poster as some others (nor is Dazz, really)... at least they don't tend to slag or smear other people's posts unless provoked.

There's still some pretty decent discussion over there. If you're not registered, send Derryck an email and get a name for yourself. See if you can spark it up!

Reply #597845 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Bruce stuffed it for everyone.

Reply #597848 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

"It's pretty much just KBrulz replying to himself these days."

Thats funny. Have never bothered with that site, Hoops has always been enough to keep me interested. can only imagine how bad it is, if someone is saying there are worse posters than Dazz and Koberulz.

Reply #597855 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

I will stick with this siteI enjoy most topics being a basketball fanatic.
Posters like Koberulz don't bother me. It's the internet there are alot of interesting people out there

Reply #597861 | Report this post


fstos  
Years ago

Derek the guy who set it up is too busy or has lost interest in running it.

Its a pity because the basketball discussion was more robust over there and many of the posters had great insights into the teams that they followed and the sport in general. It might pick up a little once the season starts but because it is difficult or impossible to join up it will slowly fade away with no new blood.

Reply #597866 | Report this post


LV  
Years ago

Ozhoops has been dying a slow death since about 2006. 2009 was about the last time it was properly busy. Derek just hastened the process.

Hoops feels like the last of the Mohicans- the internet and the Times have moved past forums.

Reply #597868 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

For what it's worth, trying to minimise or prevent spam can get pretty time consuming and I assume Derek's measures in limiting registrations were largely about dealing with that. However, if registration is too hard and you have any level of churn, you will taper off quickly.

Hoops is a bit of a free-for-all for posting, but there are a lot of unseen methods used to try and limit the dominant types of spam which are mostly quite predictable.

These days, 95% of posts on Hoops come from registered users and most of the anonymous posts you see are registered users posting anonymously.

Social networks have likely taken a fair chunk out of forums, but depending on the time of year and which leagues are active, Hoops' traffic is fairly strong.

Reply #597869 | Report this post


fstos  
Years ago

Still plenty of activity here with a few ozhoops regulars also drifting over.

I ozhoops heydays I only used to pop in here after a 6ers loss to watch the carnage.

Reply #597870 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Too many Matts. Too much bitterness from the usual suspects. Certainly legal issues as well that still linger.

Reply #597889 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

"Certainly legal issues as well that still linger."


hahahahahhahahaha good one Bruce!

Reply #597899 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

As simple as it sounds ozhoops fell off because they made it difficult to have conversations.e.g. User registration, megathreads etc. No one wants to look through 50 pages to see if anyone is talking about a certain topic and opening a new thread seems somewhat taboo. Where as hoops is a lot more free to chat about whatever you want

Reply #597901 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

http://ozhoopsboards.com/showthread.php?t=8603

Reply #597902 | Report this post


Wookiee  
Years ago

That's doubled the number of new posts already :D

Reply #597904 | Report this post


AngusH  
Years ago

I used to post in both places, but haven't visited ozhoops in probably a year or so. I prefer old school forums, but this place is almost reddit-ish which makes it good for quick posts/game threads.

Reply #597905 | Report this post


Ricky  
Years ago

Def prefer this scrolling layout for sure..

Reply #597906 | Report this post


Bear  
Years ago

I have always found those types of forums cumbersome and difficult to navigate, this one is much more 'user friendly'...

Reply #597907 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Until things fall off the front page

Reply #597911 | Report this post


Hendo8888  
Years ago

"Requests are up to date as of 23 Jan 2014."

There's your problem

Reply #597913 | Report this post


S1L3NC3R83  
Years ago

Why did Ozhoops taper off?

Simple, apart from pay the hosting bill for the site the owner and sole administrator has not visited the site in 3-5 years.

The last thing he did was appoint new moderators for the NBL forum Nerf Herder, meg, singy and myself. Singy disappeared before he had even started moderating, meg preferred not attracting hate so wasn't actively moderating, Nerf Herder and myself tried to reign in the wild west Ghost town that the NBL forum became by cracking down on some divisive/disruptive personalities e.g. joycefan

Nerf had things come up in his life that limited his time to help and I finally cracked it after an untouchable ran to Twitter to complain about my moderating to Derek. So I permabanned joycefan and left.

Nerf came back and the few posts that do still happen there seem to be more civil since Townsville went bust; however as Derek is from Townsville don't expect any increase in interest from him.

Derek is the sole administrator; he is the only one who can see or approve new signups or do anything other than delete, edit or sticky posts.

Reply #597914 | Report this post


Wookiee  
Years ago

Yeah there are pros and cons for both styles, I find ithard to find stuff here when it's not on the front page or the latest posts when it's been a while since I've been here, compared to ozhoops, but the lack admin involvement hindering new blood really helped the death of it come a lot sooner... plus the very loud and obnoxious minority scaring off anyone new from trying too hard...

Reply #597915 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

plus the very loud and obnoxious minority scaring off anyone new from trying too hard...that's sums up very well

Reply #597918 | Report this post


LV  
Years ago

Whatever happened to Skinner?

I mean, I know he's still alive and reffing and whatever, but back in the day he did a large chunk of the moderating and seemed to be Derek's right hand man

Reply #597919 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

"Whatever happened to Skinner?"

Nerf had him whacked.

Reply #597920 | Report this post


Wookiee  
Years ago

Double tap to his avatar, yup...

I think real life got in the way, plus internet forum moderating is a pretty shit and thankless job for the most part...

Reply #597921 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Red ink everywhere...

Reply #597922 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

There are others here who have moderating access, but I doubt any of them actually use it as they are mostly from the early days of the forum. I have an intermediate level of moderation where some people can put posts in a Sin Bin where they are checked by me. If you would like to have that ability, email me.

Wookiee, there are some changes in the works, but if you email me any of the worst pain points, I can try to jumpstart a few of the worst things.

It could definitely use paging for one thing. The WA SBL thread is monstrous.

Reply #597923 | Report this post


Not Anonymous :)  
Years ago

I had been a member from almost the start. Never heard from any mods, never got involved in flame wars, never posted anything that hadn't been safely posted here or elsewhere, certainly nothing that wasn't in the public realm.

Didn't get into the valdemort or stuff , yet logged in one day and could not post.

Sent an email asking what the problem was, perhaps my account had been hacked ??? never go a reply.

Really Quite Odd.

Reply #597925 | Report this post


Not Anonymous :)  
Years ago

there was a 3 letter acronym in my above between the "or" ??? "stuff" referring to an infamous historical debate that I was NOT a part of ;)

there must be an automatic edit/delete here - cool ;)

Reply #597926 | Report this post


Wookiee  
Years ago

@Isaac - I think pagination would be it, really, on threads list page and in threads, otherwise I dig it... no pain points other that Mock :D

Actually, a link to the last post on the thread instead of just the timestamp would help, but that's only minor...

Reply #597928 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Skinner was hounded by the usual suspects.more things in life than ozho abuse.

Reply #597929 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Oh please, Skinner brought almost every negative interaction upon himself by being a terrible mod. He loved the authority.

Reply #597930 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Skinner is now the head of referees in Queensland... and that isnt a joke. Actually, it is a joke, but it is real.

Reply #597932 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

A 'like' button would be amazing as far as popular posts. Not threads, but individual posts within the thread conversation.

Reply #597933 | Report this post


anon  
Years ago

It's all mattic's fault. What a douche canoe. Bullied the thing to death

Reply #597935 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Clearly some people came to hoops.
Unlike others they couldnt stay away
Ruined it for everyone.
I certainly know who ruined it
Ozhoops was killed by one person
Unlikely we've heard the last from him
Stupid Tasmanian.

Reply #597937 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

@Isaac - I think pagination would be it, really, on threads list page and in threads, otherwise I dig it... no pain points other that Mock :D

Actually, a link to the last post on the thread instead of just the timestamp would help, but that's only minor...

1. Pages in threads.
2. More visibility of older threads.
3. Search.
4. Link to last unread post in thread.
5. Ability to edit posts.
6. Easier markup for posts.
7. Ability to post links.
8. Reserve registered names so others can't use them.
9. Better quoting system - ability to name the quoted poster and link back to quoted post. Not sure if the first is doable currently, but the second goes back to the links thing.

Those would be my points, with multi-page threads and links the only two that I think are particularly important. The SBL thread just about crashes my browser now.

Reply #597941 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

10. Ability to make numbered lists.

Reply #597942 | Report this post


Juan  
Years ago

No pages in threads please! Scroll much better.

Reply #597946 | Report this post


Southern Joe  
Years ago

"Ozhoops was killed by one person
Unlikely we've heard the last from him
Stupid Tasmanian."



I would've thought it was a Queenslander you were referring to ... but would you be "eyeballing" a suspect ??

Reply #597949 | Report this post


Luuuc  
Years ago

If we're taking suggestions, I think the main difference-makers would be

- The ability to jump to the first unread post in a thread (but I'm guessing that would take some serious work to achieve)

- Allow more than 1 page of threads, so that slightly older topics could be more easily found without needing to resort to a google search. I think this would also help to minimise duplicate threads. I think about 3 pages would be enough (or alternatively just stick with one page but have it show the most recent 150 threads rather than 50)

- I don't know about other people, but my bookmark to this site uses the "Latest Action" link. For some reason, threads with just 1 post (i.e. no replies) do not show up in that view. It would be handy if they did.

Reply #597952 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

No pages in threads please! Scroll much better.
Have you tried opening the WA SBL thread? It literally locks my browser up for a full minute.

Pages would also make it easier to find the last unread post. Game day threads can sometimes have 20 posts before the game starts, and then you come online after the game and find the thread's up to 80 posts, and finding that point can be difficult.

Reply #597953 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

- I don't know about other people, but my bookmark to this site uses the "Latest Action" link. For some reason, threads with just 1 post (i.e. no replies) do not show up in that view. It would be handy if they did.
Forgot about that one. Definitely agree.

Reply #597954 | Report this post


How Do I Embed?  
Years ago

Can there be a stickied thread about how to embed videos and images?

Or someone want to tell me how to do it?

Reply #597957 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

HTML. YouTube offers an HTML embed option under 'share', for images use this: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_images.asp

Reply #597959 | Report this post


PeterJohn  
Years ago

"plus the very loud and obnoxious minority scaring off anyone new from trying too hard."

that certainly stopped me from going over to OzHoops to read what was going on.

On possible changes to this site, I support pagination (as per Koberulz, makes last unread post easy to find) and an improved search facility for old threads. Also support easier insertion of links.

That said, I find the current format and style pretty good value for the price!

Reply #597963 | Report this post


Ricky  
Years ago

Pagination on OzHoops was awful.. hopefully if we do end up getting it here, there'll be at least a larger number of posts per page before it starts paging.

Reply #597965 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Yeah quoting would be nice. It bugs me when some people are able to do it but not the common folk :(

Also linking of Twitter posts. Good especially for rumors / off season player movements

Reply #597982 | Report this post


Cuszy  
Years ago

Bouncers are gr8 m8

Reply #598000 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

Pagination on OzHoops was awful.. hopefully if we do end up getting it here, there'll be at least a larger number of posts per page before it starts paging.
You can choose in your settings how many posts to show per page. Default is 25, I set it to 50.

Reply #598002 | Report this post


Lemon Custard  
Years ago

BJ Carter was better than Anthony Stewart

Reply #598006 | Report this post


Kingpodge  
Years ago

You never forget the first argument you have with Mattic, mostly because it's probably still going.....

Reply #598012 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

I know I've been working on an upgrade forever, and my dev version doesn't help you until it's live, so take the following with a grain of salt.

A 'like' button would be amazing as far as popular posts. Not threads, but individual posts within the thread conversation.
My dev version in progress has this. Up/down voting per post so authors get "karma" and people can knock down trolls.
there was a 3 letter acronym in my above between the "or" ??? "stuff" referring to an infamous historical debate that I was NOT a part of ;)
You used angle brackets so it was parsed as HTML. Joyce threatened legal action over people using the acronym "SoJ" - most laughable thing in the history of Hoops - but while his name was tweaked to use a 0 instead of O, SoJ was never moderated. The ridiculous Smyth restriction has long since been lifted.

Pagination is also in the dev version. What sort of idiot wouldn't build that in from the start... Arghh.

I will build in links-to-latest-post now. It will work for threads that get new posts after the feature has been added.
8. Reserve registered names so others can't use them.
This is the thing most holding up the dev release - how to make sure the right people get the right ID where there are conflicts? I should probably just do it and then deal with conflicts case by case.

Yes, there will be a quoting system (not like OzHo with multiple quotes per post - I think that encourages a bad style of argument) and links to replied to post. This would enable people to see when someone has replied to them as well.

I really wish all SBL fans would feel free to start per-round topics for their comp rather than the mega-thread. Even per game if the interest is there. Same with the other state leagues - please go for it. As long as one thing doesn't swamp the forum, I don't mind - topics are free...
The ability to jump to the first unread post in a thread (but I'm guessing that would take some serious work to achieve)
This would require either the assumption that people read up on every thread on their last visit, or some other per-user-per-topic tracking. I am planning for people to "watch" threads to get updates this way, either notifications by email or just when visiting.
I don't know about other people, but my bookmark to this site uses the "Latest Action" link. For some reason, threads with just 1 post (i.e. no replies) do not show up in that view.
I will look into this.
Can there be a stickied thread about how to embed videos and images?
Yes, certainly for YouTube videos. I avoid encouraging it for images and general HTML because it's too easy for people to screw up and then can waste my time trying to fix it.
Also linking of Twitter posts.
There is embed code on the Twitter site for each post that you can copy and paste. I will try to make time to put up a quick guide. I'll post again when it's ready. I am working until 2am nightly at the moment, so hard to fit all these things in unfortunately.

Reply #598016 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

This is a test for the jump-to-latest-post functionality.

Edit: OK, it works. If there has been a post since this function was added, its thread in the index will have the last post date linked to the comment. Anchor links in HTML can be unreliable in pages with loads of anchors so I can't promise this will work in the mega-threads.

Edit again: Give me a minute. Will try to get this happening for every thread.

Reply #598019 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

I really wish all SBL fans would feel free to start per-round topics for their comp rather than the mega-thread.
I remember there was very nearly not even a new thread for the season.

You could always just lock the thread if it gets too unwieldy, that'd force someone to create a new one.

Appreciate the responses, but could you address the linking issue? I think I recall you saying it was an issue with IPs being associated with spam, but is there a reason it remains disabled even if registered and logged in?

Reply #598020 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

This is a test for the jump-to-latest-post functionality.
Are you able to set this as the link that will be followed when making a new post, so the thread jumps to it instead of loading at the top of the page?

Reply #598022 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

Appreciate the responses, but could you address the linking issue? I think I recall you saying it was an issue with IPs being associated with spam, but is there a reason it remains disabled even if registered and logged in?
Can you clarify what you mean here? Which linking issue?

Reply #598023 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

Whenever I attempt to make a post with a hyperlink in it I get an error message:

Error 5.029291. Please contact the forum operator.

Reply #598024 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

Can there be a stickied thread about how to embed videos and images?
Added a guide (linked from the footer and in the new-topic and topic-reply forms) explaining how to embed YouTube videos and tweets.

Embedding Content

(Until the forum switches from HTML to potentially something like Markdown, I'm reluctant to encourage the masses to start embedding images.)

Reply #598025 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

koberulz, I've upgraded your account level to be able to post links and also Sin-Bin posts.

Reply #598026 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

Cheers, that'll make life a bit easier.

Reply #598027 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

Added a guide (linked from the footer and in the new-topic and topic-reply forms) explaining how to embed YouTube videos and tweets.
Should this include a mention of the custom-width setting?

What's this sin-bin thing?

Reply #598028 | Report this post


Luuuc  
Years ago

While we're talking improvements...
If we really want to bring the magic, I'd like to request that koberulz begins each post with

Hey,

And signs off with

- koberulz



Reply #598029 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

Reply #598030 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

For particular user levels, every post has a Sin Bin link. Clicking it will withhold a post from public view until I've reviewed it. You can use this to alert me to spam or posts that are particularly offensive or legally questionable.

Added custom width. I was hoping that max-width CSS would deal with things but while it works for images, with iframes it requires a second div and I don't have time to write a reliable output filter for that.

Reply #598031 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

I don't see it? You sure you upgraded the right account?

Just tried to post a link, that's still not working either.

Reply #598033 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

Reply #598034 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

Okay, had to log out and log back in. Sorted.

Thanks again for that.

Reply #598035 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

Quick and basic search function added at the bottom of each page and linked in the footer. Search form. Will try to find time to add paging tomorrow.

Dev preview for anyone who cares.


Reply #598036 | Report this post


Freethrows  
Years ago

Good on you, Isaac. You're a small champ. Anyone who says otherwise is a chump.

Reply #598039 | Report this post


Wookiee  
Years ago

The ability to jump to the first unread post in a thread (but I'm guessing that would take some serious work to achieve)

This is what I was trying to think of yesterday and especially with the longer threads (without the thought of how it could be done) is probably the main feature that I use at OzHos... Might add some DB bulk if like you say, it had to be assumed that every registered user was looking at every thread and it had to track if the user had read that thread or not even though they had visited the site...

Big thumbs up for all the little changes :)

Reply #598045 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

It's certainly possible and I'm not worried too much about the database load, it's just non-trivial to build.

I would definitely like to build in the ability to watch threads for replies and it would probably relate to that. I figure that could bump forum traffic by 20% so there's a commercial case for it too, but we'll see.

Probably more a matter of where it fits within the interface if you need to have links for the thread proper, the most recent post in the thread, and then the earliest post added since you last viewed a thread.

Current thinking is that you would have a list of the last, say, 20 topics you browsed, and there would be an indicator in that list when you returned of how many posts had been added since last read.

Reply #598049 | Report this post


Bear  
Years ago

Technical innovation is the cornerstone of competitive strategy!

Reply #598053 | Report this post


Bear  
Years ago

Perhaps the new platform will take care of this repeat posting issue that turns up every now and then?

Reply #598055 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

I'll put that on the list. It's likely people double-clicking or submitting twice rather than waiting.

Reply #598056 | Report this post


LV  
Years ago

Great work Isaac

Forums are dead...long live Forums!

Reply #598057 | Report this post


Ricky  
Years ago

I vaguely remember seeing a poll on here before..

Is that something we can create?

Reply #598058 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

There wouldn't have been one here for a decade. I do have a poll-specific site and did some integration at some point, but it's long abandoned.

Let me try to get the basics upgraded before worrying about any of that.

Reply #598059 | Report this post


Ricky  
Years ago

Yeah def, really appreciate your effort on feedback.

Reply #598063 | Report this post


Caps Fan  
Years ago

I immediately DEMAND Galactic Overlord mod status so I can delete all these off-topic posts and give a life ban to the trolls like Issac who have taken MY tread off-topic

:))

Great dedication Issac, the good treads are a credit to what you have freely provided to us all, the bad threads are unintended consequences of giving intoxicated monkeys internet access.

By the way, as you would know, i do like the ability of having occasional access to "non-de-plumes" and the ability to post as "anon". I hope that remains.

Thanks again

Reply #598065 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

I vote yes to a poll function. What does everyone else think?

Reply #598070 | Report this post


Freethrows  
Years ago

^ Register a handle for yourself and you get the right to vote.

^^ @Caps Fan, did you mean "noms de plumes"? That's French for pen names. :D

Reply #598077 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

Caps Fan, I think there might be a shift to enforced registration, but the ability to use a temporary anonymous alias for particular posts while logged in is likely to remain. These would be obviously marked and essentially replace anonymous posts as people know them now.

Reply #598079 | Report this post


Very Old  
Years ago

"Caps Fan, I think there might be a shift to enforced registration"

IMHO - I think that this is essential, and still requiring to be logged in to reply as well.

" but the ability to use a temporary anonymous alias for particular posts while logged in is likely to remain:"

I think leaving the alias is good.

Reply #598107 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Isaac take your time with the improvements and get some rest I don't want to see you up till 2am every night

Reply #598110 | Report this post


Double Clutch  
Years ago

FYI Isaac, I still do some moderating here and there (a very light touch though). Mostly changing titles of deciding nba finals match/playoff threads each year for those who haven't watched the reply and restoring posts when threads are incorrectly flagged for moderation. Very rarely have to delete spam.

I love this forum. I will cry if it ever closes.

Reply #598114 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Certificate alert it seems Isaac?

Reply #598120 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

I was hoping that max-width CSS would deal with things but while it works for images, with iframes it requires a second div and I don't have time to write a reliable output filter for that.
Do I take this to mean I no longer have to worry about adding a 'width' tag to images (and doing it incorrectly and instead changing the width of the entire page
Another suggestion that occurs to me: the ability to preview posts. Might lead to fewer HTML errors.

Reply #598358 | Report this post


koberulz  
Years ago

)

Reply #598359 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

Wouldn't be high up the priority list. But I've considered an edit option with edit history which would serve instead of a preview.

Reply #598361 | Report this post




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