Website growth options...

[CALUPA69]

Perusing the new format I noticed something that, at first, puzzled me but then struck me as something that should be addressed. Of the 17 SR/CONFERENCE listed, 5 have the vast majority of the total postings. Looking at some of these divisions it would appear like not a soul following the conferences/teams has any idea that D2FOOTBALL.COM even exists. Given the intensity of the reaction to virtually any social media posting, it seems highly unlikely that the miniscule numbers would exist if schools/conferences/fans knew where they could sound off about their team or more importantly throw some serious shade on their rivals.
Does anyone have any ideas how fans/ schools / conferences can be directly (DM, e-mail, snail mail) contacted to boost participation in the vast wasteland of say the SIAC ??? This has to be of benefit to the site as a whole. I wish I was tech savvy enough to make a difference, but I'm pretty much limited to raising the question. Hope there's an answer.

[Turbonium]

Would be simple enough to email the SID of each school to have them get it out to their fan base, well for those SIDs who do their job well anyways. However, if the attendance at those games is what I expect I don't know that many are going to care enough to spend time here.

[SW_Mustang]

Would be simple enough to email the SID of each school to have them get it out to their fan base, well for those SIDs who do their job well anyways. However, if the attendance at those games is what I expect I don't know that many are going to care enough to spend time here.

We are a niche in a niche.

Most schools have small fanbases, and only a handful of them are going to care enough to get involved with a forum.

I think we do have room for some growth though, even if we could nab 5-6 people from each school, that would make a huge difference on the board.

[Stanger86]

However, if the attendance at those games is what I expect I don't know that many are going to care enough to spend time here.

Bingo.

For the most part, the forum activity levels are reflective of the attendance numbers. There are a few exceptions (PSAC, NSIC out-represent what they draw, while the SIAC is under-represented)

[Predatory Primates]

I would think being one of the recognized polls would draw some traffic?

[CALUPA69]

Bingo.

For the most part, the forum activity levels are reflective of the attendance numbers. There are a few exceptions (PSAC, NSIC out-represent what they draw, while the SIAC is under-represented)

Sadly, not just the SIAC but the entirety of SR 2. While the other three SR seem to turn out in reasonable numbers (SR1-25088, SR3-16080, SR4-27390 ) SR2 appears to be totally unaware of the existence of the website. 4317 postings from 4 conferences cannot be reflective of the attendance numbers. Maybe some effort to stir activity in this region would be a simpler focus.

[Redwing]

Bingo.

For the most part, the forum activity levels are reflective of the attendance numbers. There are a few exceptions (PSAC, NSIC out-represent what they draw, while the SIAC is under-represented)

Hmm, doesn't appear to apply to the GLIAC either. Usually some pretty good crowds in the GLIAC and not a ton of posters. Guessing that many are just lurking?

[Supercal95]

Anything we can do to expand would be good. Just a few from each school is certainly possible and would make a big difference. I did like the old format of the site, at least on mobile, better.

[IronOre]

I would think being one of the recognized polls would draw some traffic?

That's what brought me here. Heard about CWU being ranked on the D2football poll.

[LegalRam]

Sadly, not just the SIAC but the entirety of SR 2. While the other three SR seem to turn out in reasonable numbers (SR1-25088, SR3-16080, SR4-27390 ) SR2 appears to be totally unaware of the existence of the website. 4317 postings from 4 conferences cannot be reflective of the attendance numbers. Maybe some effort to stir activity in this region would be a simpler focus.

If you notice for some reason some of the SR2 conferences were still having threads deleted after a month of inactivity up until earlier this year. So for example none of last seasons threads are listed in the CIAA section where as other conferences have threads from 2018. That has greatly skewed the number of threads and posts in comparison to some other conferences.

[CALUPA69]

Don't know the tech of the deletion format but the SR1 in FB and ATLANTIC in BB actually go back several years and I have accessed them on more than one occasion. Didn't actually realize that deletions even happened.

[Rowdy Crowdy]

Also, the SIAC is an HSBC conference which has their own boards which their fans will stick to.

[KleShreen]

Hmm, doesn't appear to apply to the GLIAC either. Usually some pretty good crowds in the GLIAC and not a ton of posters. Guessing that many are just lurking?

I think the GLIAC's issue is that GV and Ferris are the dominant teams there in the age of the internet. People tend to not want to show up if their team isn't winning, and in the GLIAC, it has been GV and either Ferris or Ashland or SV since the inception of the site. We've had Ashland fans come by, and they have faded off as their team has. We have SVSU fans come by, but they faded off while Collins was there. GV fans have remained relatively strong, but even they have faded off because the team has underperformed for the last 10 years. I think if there was a way to look at school affiliations for every person on this board, it is heavily correlated with how good those schools have been at football. If your school sucks at football, you're probably not looking for information or conversation with good football schools who crush you.

[Redwing]

I think the GLIAC's issue is that GV and Ferris are the dominant teams there in the age of the internet. People tend to not want to show up if their team isn't winning, and in the GLIAC, it has been GV and either Ferris or Ashland or SV since the inception of the site. We've had Ashland fans come by, and they have faded off as their team has. We have SVSU fans come by, but they faded off while Collins was there. GV fans have remained relatively strong, but even they have faded off because the team has underperformed for the last 10 years. I think if there was a way to look at school affiliations for every person on this board, it is heavily correlated with how good those schools have been at football. If your school sucks at football, you're probably not looking for information or conversation with good football schools who crush you.

Maybe so, but look at this year's posts... Not even that many, maybe 1 or 2, Ferris posters? Maybe on off on that, but I don't think there was even one post about this weekend's game other than GV's I'm hearing that Message bds are old school, but twitter or hell even instagram don't seem to fit real well. Guess I'm old school. Maybe having comments on articles is more effective, but then one needs articles. I know the Detroit Lions stories light it up with comments on Mlive or Freep/news, but it's hard to go back to those posts. I'm not ready to move on from this format, but my "numbers" seem to be dwindling.

[CALUPA69]

Also, the SIAC is an HSBC conference which has their own boards which their fans will stick to.

This isn't really heavy lifting. See many posters from other teams, conferences and SR posting several places. And even the SIAC can do their own thing on their conference board. Similar league CIAA was pretty active and aggressive when they were in SR1. Oh well.