Hi all, Following feedback over a period of time, we're considering creating a separate section of BBS, for non-football threads. We didn't just want to force it on people though, so we thought we'd put it to the vote. Just a few points to make: - We would only create one 'non-football' section. Other forums have multiple sections, but tbh we want to keep things as simple as possible. More sections = more admin overhead If people vote for it, we will trial it for a period. If it starts going Wild West, it will get pulled The exact same BBS rules will apply there, as they do on the main forum. That's a given. It isn't a green light to go all 4chan More than ever, we would be relying on people to use the 'Report' function responsibly. We simply don't have the bandwidth to be checking every thread Will leave it up for a week, and go with the majority. Ta.
Personally, I'd leave the forum as it is. There's other sections, and have been other sections in the past which I reckon the vast majority don't read. If someone does want advice on something non football related, the majority of the traffic, and people who could help, may never see it.
Don't see the need personally. We're not exactly swamped with posts so may as well all be in one place.
I’ve got a feeling it might go the other way. That forum will get loads of threads and the football one will get one match day thread, a bunch of newsbot posts and nothing else the rest of the week.
I like it as it is. Think with the season kicking off we will hopefully have done great positive results to talk about instead
Don’t change…that’s what makes this site better than other forums …if you only want to talk football just open the football related threads
I can honestly say that if that happens I will probably stop using the BBS. Not out of any kind of protest but because it would be dead on the football page the majority of the time and frankly in too lazy to have to switch between forums to check both to see if anything is interesting. Engagement would definitely drop across the board, not just me. The way I see it is that all posts from today and yesterday have fitted on the first two pages. So in order to read anything from the last two days I have to do one click. Can you make it less than one click for me to see two different forums? Nope? Then what's the point. I checked the BBS before I left for work this morning. Every post started or replied to since then is on one page. Your proposal is for it to be split into two pages. There's absolutely zero advantage to that, all you've done is made two relatively quiet pages.
This forum is a special place because it is the way is. Please don't change it. I've been on here and it's previous incarnations going back to 1996/7 season and love it. There have been occasions when it's got a bit much (COVID and Brexit being the worst) but in general it's been my happy place. Also the odd occasions when I've met people in the flesh have been uplifting - particularly when I got involved with the Patrick Cryne flag with @Stahlrost and dropping in to see @arabian_ian in Broughty Ferry.
I think I would leave if you split football out. I enjoy the mixture of BFC and general popular culture. Some people seem to want to remove any politics but many of them also struggle to not get involved in it.
A compromise (if possible) could be to split the page into two, basically exactly like the stickies are. Have football related posts at the top and then a red line and non football related posts underneath. That way, people could not scroll down if they’re not interested about anything else, all posts are grouped together and they’re all on the same ‘page’. I’ve not counted how many posts can fit on the screen but maybe have 15 - 20 of each showing before you need to click to the next 15 - 20 for each section.
My bath mixer tap broke about 7 years ago so I posted a question about it on here and the BBS came to my rescue.
I like this. But I'm sure there'll be more football posts soon - especially if we concede first tomorrow.
I was going to vote Yes (change it) at first, but after reading the replies, which are all valid points btw. I've gone with No (leave it as it is).
Voted no. Don't see the point in it. What I would like is for thread titles to be a bit more descriptive, a little less low effort so that I know what it's going to be about before I open it up. One word titles that give no indication don't make me want to engage (in fairness this hasn't been quite so much of a problem recently).
Each to their own but personally for me yes I would like to see a separate section purely because I don’t tend to involve myself in anything political or anything for example that is currently happening around the country I just like to live in my own world so coming in here to just read football is what I want. I don’t want to be bombarded with constant politic opinions and arguments on here as well as every other platform the world has to offer There’s enough places to vent and post your opinions and sides on any given event o person just want to come here and read about barnsley football
This place is like dropping into a pub. All sorts of topics and opinions. You join in where you want, ignore what you don't like. Imagine standing in your local, you mention football and the barman says “We’ve got a separate room for that sort of talk mate. Get in there or you’ll have to leave.”
We did it years ago and put it to a vote like this, and we went with the majority and changed it. It only lasted a matter of months though, before things were asked to be changed back to normal. We did ask then if fans could be more clear with the thread description/title. And maybe put 'ot' in to suggest that its off topic, from football.