I use New Posts, so it doesn't matter
https://www.woof.net.au/forum/search...e=vBForum_Post
I’m just waiting for the footy season to start and my contributions will increase
I’m unlikely to contribute much to conversations
I don’t have the passion to join in football discussions
I just don’t have the time any more
Twitter and Facebook suit me better
I’d prefer to just read the thoughts and opinions of others
Please don’t close the site, I’ll sorely miss my WOOF fix
I’ll be coming out of my summer slumber and will be right back into it soon
I use New Posts, so it doesn't matter
https://www.woof.net.au/forum/search...e=vBForum_Post
If you kicked five goals and Tom Boyd kicked five goals, Tom Boyd kicked more goals than you.
Formerly gogriff
FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.
As many have said, it can be challenging to find time to make articulate and considered contributions - particularly at this point of the off-season. We don't get huge amounts of access to pre-season training, the draft and trade period is a distant memory and we're another month away from real footy.
There's a lot of unknowns this season, along with a hint of expectation. I'm confident we'll see more activity as we near round one.
I guess i find it hard to be too active this time of year as theres not much going on, I'll still check in and lurk a couple of times a day.
Though i do mod a board(soccer, its small and good like this place) on BF i havent been on the Dogs board for years and dont want to ever go back(its terrible). I'd be happy to pay to fee/donation to keep this site going.
Im sure things will pick up again once the games start.
The curse is dead.
When I get a notification from the Bulldogs App or something on my Facebook feed about some big club news, I immediately log on to WOOF to check out the discussion and see if I can contribute.
If some big AFL news breaks I do the same.
Because this forum is the only online football discussion worth having.
Gary - when I discovered this site just over 4 years ago, i couldn't believe my luck. So many trips into and back from work since have consisted of checking WOOF for the latest news/thoughts of contributors.
I have not been a great contributor within most threads but have tried to instead identify a 'niche' space where I can contribute something in an area that is 'less mainstream'. As I have always been interested in watching 'seconds' football (purely for watching the development of the next 'gun'), I have been making contributions to the VFL thread on game days - obviously this restricts my input during the off season.
I also tend to go to many of the club's functions, so try to add some thoughts from these events from time to time - again this means limited input during the off season.
In a nutshell, I will be contributing to this site again in 2019 in those areas noted above.
Anyone can support a team that is winning, it takes no courage. But to stand behind a team, to defend a team when it is down and really needs you, that takes a lot of courage, so lets always be behind our boys and girls in red, white and blue.
At the risk of sidetracking the thread, I really appreciate your VFL updates and insights. Even if you do leave occasionally at halftime for a hot date.
A bunch of people have their areas on intense interest and share same (VFL, TAC, coaching, news articles, draft, trade etc). I think that's why WOOF is so good, you can log off most weeks feeling better informed across the board for it. But I think Gary makes a keen observation that of the hundreds of forum members maybe only 30 are active contributors. I know I appreciate when new posters jump in as regulars and enhance the discussions with their perspectives. When more news starts to filter in, I hope that's what happens too.
Rocket Science: the epitaph for the Beveridge era - whenever it ends - reading 'Here lies a team that could beat anyone on its day, but seldom did when it mattered most'. 15/7/2023
As BT mentioned your contribution has been significant, as have many other members, so it's not the case of wanting members to post for the sake of it but there are little ways members can choose to contribute a bit more to the site if they really want it to get stronger.
In general terms for a forum:
Quality over quantity also works particularly well for discussion forums and at times we have a few too many tweet type contributions that aren't worth opening the thread to start with.
Last year even the posting for the Marmo and James awards were well down in some weeks. I would have thought that is an easy thread for members to contribute to but after a loss it's basically the same 12 to 20 people casting their votes and that is low numbers for a forum that might have more than a 100 contributors log on during the day.
Starting threads is also a great way to encourage others to participate as is welcoming new members or acknowledging a quality contribution from another member. At the moment it's left to too few to try and keep things vibrant.
I know many people who have been with the forum for a long while are now time poor but if people are logging on 4 or 5 times a day and in some instances even more than that as many do especially during the season I think it's more about self motivation than genuinely being time poor.
We've only have about 60 people read this thread since it was started and only 45 have even cast a vote. That's very low numbers for a discussion forum even if it is the off season and means 25% of the forum members don't have the time to even select one of the pre-selected options provided.
Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"
That’s a bit sad. I have to say none of the options really felt like ‘me’ but since you asked me to vote I did...I would be keen to understand why others chose to ignore the request? I have to admit, I wasn’t really sure what to pick...I have been with the site from the start and for someone interstate it plays a key role in keeping me connected with the club. I am not really a snap face person so whilsr I technically ‘follow’ the club on social media I really don’t. And whilst I technically have the clubs app on my phone, I really don’t. And whilst I technically follow a heap of afl journos on twitter so I can see bulldogs content, I really don’t. Honestly, I grew tired of the ‘special’ members commentary video with Bevo etc emailed directly to me by the club as well... I pretty much rely on this site for all of that stuff...and the comments of the posters on here’s really colour my opinions on the team.
On your other points here whilst I do try to contribute every week, I pretty much never, ever vote in the awards threads mostly because I just don’t care who the ‘best’ players were in any given game (and I don’t think that is a secret). The site is great. I wish there was a bit more debate (I guess) but honestly some times when I post it is just to write stuff down and I really don’t care what others think about it (again, probably not a secret).
Do I miss anything we ‘used’ to have? Of course. I mean, obviously I miss fight club. And further to that I miss the interviews TCD used to do...I miss those a lot because it gave it stuff that was ‘ours’ and the fact these guys who many of us so admired would give up a bit of time for a ‘fansite’ made it just feel a little more special and important. I think that ‘stuff’ certainly encouraged interaction and brought people to the site but then again, you have the stats not me.
I don’t know mate. I log on here pretty much every day to see what my ‘bulldogs people’ think about the world...I don’t have many of them over here - I mean, my business is a left foot barrel from Freo hq and the eagles are building their new home base at my footy club - and I would feel pretty lost without it.
What should I tell her? She's going to ask.
Thanks MJP, if there are other options that might more accurately reflect how people feel, I'm happy to add them to the poll.
As I said in the opening post it's more about trying to gauge if there is enough interest in the WOOF community to keep the site running.
One of the great pleasures I had when we originally started the site was that I think it linked more interstate members with the club and they didn't feel the isolation they might have previously. But now there are many different options available that might be better connect people with the club especially the time poor supporters. I think online communities like WOOF can still bridge that gap for the non Victorian based followers of the club but there are substantially more platforms that communicate to the supporters.
Last year I contacted something like 80 lapsed members of the site that used to contribute to discussions but now don't. Some say they will lift it up a notch but in most instances it's perhaps one or two posts before it dries up again. Most of them say that they would just prefer to read the thoughts of others and they don't want to contribute and many don't even bother to respond.
I do get that things like voting for the better players each week isn't for everyone but it's an example of how we've lost momentum. To me it's more about the quality of discussion not necessarily the volume but if there is low volume and the contributions are more in line with tweets than genuine discussions it's not a good sign for the site going forward.
There needs to be a reason for people to log on and want to contribute to discussions but if there is only a handful of posts to read and the quality of the posts isn't much then it certainly won't motivate others to contribute.
I still enjoy talking about the Bulldogs and it's is something I don't think I will ever grow tired of but I'm not sure how many others still have that passion.
Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"
I will say that if the club performs better I suspect many more will cast votes on the best on threads. When the team plays shit and it's really just Macrae and one other who had a good day it's hard to care who the 4th best on was because the 4th best on probably wasn't that great.
When you have a good run and there are well performing players you want to highlight and different performs to choose from that's when those threads become more interesting and relevant.
I often don't vote because I don't keep track very well of who performed (back in the day I'd barely notice half of Scott Wests many possessions until I saw in the stats he had 45 or something)
I can recall living on the Central Coast of NSW in the 90's and having bugger all access to news, reports, TV and even radio calls of the game. I used to have to sit in front of the PC and AFL.com hitting the refresh button every 30 seconds to see how we were going.
I'd also have to knock off a bit earlier on a Monday and drive out to Terrigal to get the Sunday papers before the news agent shut.
I even used to record the footy show which started about 11pm on Thursday night and watch it a day later.
Fortunately with the advanced technology if people want to follow the club now from interstate there are plenty of options.
Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"
I contribute quite a bit on the game day threads themselves particularly when we play interstate not so much when we play here as I’m fully focussed being at the game and always post up my after match thoughts at the end.
Where did Lantern go?
"Footscray people are incredible people; so humble. I'm just so happy - ecstatic"