We Need YOUR Input ​🙏​

[harry_rag]

Ok, onto the proposed structure and how it fits with the main objective of, let's call it, punter friendliness.

The first problem I have here is that if we're going to have a "go to" place for anyone looking to post or read everyone's bets I wouldn't know where to find it on there! Sticking it away under "other" hardly feels like doing justice to what should be the busiest thread on any given day, people posting their bets on the latest matches. It needs to be prominent and easy to find so you'd expect it to be accessed via the top link (but obviously Premier League wouldn't be appropriate for a thread covering all leagues).

Having gone through this 3 stage process of thinking about it and posting, I'm left with the question of why are we still retaining those 4 separate sections from Premier League down to Other? Can't we be bold and go the whole hog, and just have a single section for all predictions with as many threads as it needs (as is the case with the racing section)?

My feeling with this is I can see the negative (we perpetuate the "where do I post/look" problem and it still puts some people off getting involved) and I'm not sure what those sections are for if people are posting all their bets on the games in a single thread. I could see the reason for having 2 sections one for betting on matches and one for antepost/season long stuff maybe but I think there's a case for ripping the plaster off and doing away with league specific sections.

At this point I need to defer to the fact that @StevieDay1983 and @Fader have put far more time, effort and thought into this and are more experienced at the whole forum running thing than me (and at least one of them can fire me) so there may well be a rationale for keeping those sections that I'm entirely missing. My question boils down to is there specific benefit from retaining those separate sections that outweighs the negative perception that's there's still a bit too much clutter?

[harry_rag]

I guess I'm proposing a structure that looks something like this (the top 2 names are just place holders). The first section would mainly be the ongoing midweek/weekend threads where all bets on any games could be posted and found in one place. The second would be for antepost threads and ongoing midseason discussion. So within that you could have separate threads for each league that would last the whole season. (That could serve whatever purpose is envisaged by retaining separate sections for some leagues). Seems tidier to me!

PL Football Forums

All in the game…

Tis the season…

Last Man Standing

Football Tipster Competition

Fantasy Football League

[Torque]

I'd like to see a simple structure of 'Weekend' games covering Friday to Monday as that delimits most league games and 'Midweek' games covering Tuesday to Thursday which delimits most cup action.

[Torque]

Thinking about it, it might be more accurate to say Friday to Monday for domestic football and Tuesday to Thursday for Champions League etc.

[MCLARKE]

Totally agree, one thread for Friday to Monday and one for Tuesday to Thursday each week. I think people will soon get used to it.

[harry_rag]

48 minutes ago, Torque said:

Thinking about it, it might be more accurate to say Friday to Monday for domestic football and Tuesday to Thursday for Champions League etc.

Trust me, I've got the whole midweek/weekend thing covered, I've been doing it for a year it's just that no-one's noticed because there are too many threads in too many sections! 

As you say, the norm will be Friday to Monday and Tuesday to Thursday. But as I'll be starting the threads on an ongoing basis it will be easy enough to sense check if that needs tweaking in any given week. There's bound to be the odd awkward exception but it's unlikely to cause any issues (the FA Cup can be spread out over any combination of days nowadays).

There are quite a lot of weeks where various leagues have a weekend set of fixtures then go again midweek. Again, I'm more than used to catering for that and, by and large, people tend to bet on the first lot of games before they turn their attention to the next ones.

[Trotter]

Bee in bonnet time .......... 😜

Obviously the football competitions should have separate forums

But I really don't see why we need more than one forum for football bets

I don't get this business of half the week on one forum and the other half on another forum ? Why ? .......... what's the advantage of it ? People could start threads as needs be on the single football forum.

Let's say someone starts the equivalent of the £20 a day thread on football ........ would we have to split the thread between two forums ?

It just seems messi (see what I did there) when we could have everything in one place.

[harry_rag]

6 minutes ago, Trotter said:

Bee in bonnet time .......... 😜

Obviously the football competitions should have separate forums

But I really don't see why we need more than one forum for football bets

I don't get this business of half the week on one forum and the other half on another forum ? Why ? .......... what's the advantage of it ? People could start threads as needs be on the single football forum.

Let's say someone starts the equivalent of the £20 a day thread on football ........ would we have to split the thread between two forums ?

It just seems messi (see what I did there) when we could have everything in one place.

I don’t think you’ve got your bonnet on straight! We’re not talking about two forums, we’re talking about one (in terms of where people would post their bets on the games). I assume you don’t have a problem with a new thread every day for horse racing, or do you think all the bets should be placed in one massive thread for ever and ever hereafter?

Well the idea is similar for footy but not a new thread every day. I’d start a thread say for midweek footy this Tuesday to Thursday and everyone could place their bets or check out others. Then there would be a thread for the weekend (Friday to Monday) then a new thread for the following midweek and so on in perpetuity.

A new thread every day in the racing section as that’s the optimum frequency, 2 threads a week in the footy section for the midweek and weekend fixtures because that seems to be the optimum frequency. In the racing section it’s left to whoever wants to post first to start a new daily thread, in the footy section I’ll make sure threads are started in a timely fashion (unless you’re trying to do me out of a job).

[Trotter]

OK, @harry_rag ......... I did think you were suggesting two forums 

👀

[harry_rag]

1 minute ago, Trotter said:

OK, @harry_rag ......... I did think you were suggesting two forums 

👀

Maybe one for antepost and season long stuff but a single section for all threads relating to betting on individual games, much along the lines of the racing section. Just with two threads per week rather than one every day.

Bear in mind that’s just my counter-proposal at this stage, though it seems to have struck a chord with a few people (at least with those who understood what I was whittering on about)! 

[Fader]

I'm just going through all these points. I've come to like the Weekend Football Predictions (Fri - Mon) &
Midweek Football Predictions (Tue - Thu) idea. I wonder if we need a third for ante-post stuff, though.

[harry_rag]

15 minutes ago, Fader said:

I'm just going through all these points. I've come to like the Weekend Football Predictions (Fri - Mon) &
Midweek Football Predictions (Tue - Thu) idea. I wonder if we need a third for ante-post stuff, though.

I had to really watch my terminology when doing those posts as I kept mixing up “sections” and “threads”! I’m fairly easy on the antepost aspect so the 2 options I’m mooting are as follows. Both involve 3 sections for the competitions as proposed. Apart from that we either have:

• just one other section where all necessary threads are started (as per the racing section), I’d start two threads each week for the midweek/weekend games and any antepost threads would be in there as well. I’d pin and unpin stuff as required to keep it at the top, or
• have a second thread for all the antepost/season long stuff. There could be a thread each for the main leagues that starts off as the antepost thread and carries on with any discussion about what’s going on in that league during the season.

There’s the argument to go the whole hog in terms of simplifying things and just have the single section with all necessary threads in but I can see the appeal of having the match betting area and a separate area for those having antepost bets and who want to discuss developments in the league and markets throughout the season.

[StevieDay1983]

OK, so based on the feedback that's been given we've slightly tweaked things to this current new design:

The football section will now just be a single area for all football-related betting chat and individual threads can then be set up for different competitions, matches, matchday, betting types etc. Just one area to post all your content. The search bar can allow you to search for specific content e.g. Premier League or betting markets etc.

We've decided to add Boxing & UFC Betting to the sports section due to the potential engagement for that. The North American Sports section has also been added because we feel the forum will benefit from Google search results for that content.

We've also edited the areas from being called Predictions to Betting. Hopefully, this will help people unfamiliar with the site realise that posts don't need to be restricted to just posting a tip or making a bet, it can be about anything to do with the betting side of things from sharing ideas, strategies, potential tips, stats, or form etc.

What do you all think? Looking a lot better? 

[Fader]

Think of all that time saved scrolling 

[harry_rag]

10 minutes ago, Fader said:

Think of all that time saved scrolling 

Now that we've removed any potential barriers to posting in the footy section I'm expecting a huge influx of new posters putting up winning tip after winning tip so I can jack in my own efforts and just tail them! 

[Trotter]

I like the new design @StevieDay1983

Looks very neat and concise !

[StevieDay1983]

21 minutes ago, Trotter said:

I like the new design @StevieDay1983

Looks very neat and concise !

Couldn't have done it without all your input so thank you. 

[StevieDay1983]

50 minutes ago, Fader said:

Think of all that time saved scrolling 

I can finally crack on with reading War and Peace now! 

[harry_rag]

First stab at a thread in the new-style footy section for the midweek action. We've moved heaven and earth to give you a simplified format but, unfortunately, we can't magic up any particularly interesting games to bet on just yet!

[Torque]

I've just remembered something else that I think should have a place in the site reboot and that's some kind of welfare section. @StevieDay1983 you might remember we chatted about it some time ago. It's not very rock and roll I know, but what jogged my memory about it was the 'winners circle' sub forum. I'm all for trumpeting the winners, as long as the other side of betting is given some attention.

Otherwise, we are in danger as a forum of doing what the bookies do; shouting from the rooftops and glamorising every big winner while staying ever so quiet about all the losing bets and problem gambling which pays for the winning bets with plenty left over afterwards.

[harry_rag]

I’d agree there’s some merit in doing something from a responsible gambling perspective even if it’s basically linking to relevant sources. I’m more inclined to say I don’t like the notion of the “winners circle” thing. It sounds like an after-timers (if not BSers) charter. If you want to encourage others to follow your tips than post them in the relevant threads and let us judge for ourselves. Maybe keep a P/L record if you’re that keen on convincing us. There’s the systems/glory hunt threads if you want to go down that route.

Against a backdrop of constructively culling a lot of threads we seem to have created a new one here that there’s no demand for and that, for me at least, isn’t very appealing.

i don’t want to come across as a killjoy but the occasional one that got away or cheeky after time anecdote is readily catered for in the relevant thread without having to create a specific place for it.

[StevieDay1983]

11 hours ago, Torque said:

I've just remembered something else that I think should have a place in the site reboot and that's some kind of welfare section. @StevieDay1983 you might remember we chatted about it some time ago. It's not very rock and roll I know, but what jogged my memory about it was the 'winners circle' sub forum. I'm all for trumpeting the winners, as long as the other side of betting is given some attention.

Otherwise, we are in danger as a forum of doing what the bookies do; shouting from the rooftops and glamorising every big winner while staying ever so quiet about all the losing bets and problem gambling which pays for the winning bets with plenty left over afterwards.

Hi @Torque.

Firstly, I want to say that responsible gambling is very important to us here. On a personal level, I have unfortunately seen the impacts of gambling addiction on a couple of close friends so it is something that we've discussed at length about how to go even further to address. This has included looking at private forums that can be safe spaces for talking about issues or providing more resources for people to access.

Secondly, it's something we continue to look at every day and we always welcome suggestions from you guys. As mentioned before (and this kind of answers @harry_rag's post too), none of these changes are stuck in the mud. Our forum and community is a live being and in a constant state of flux. If there is something that isn't working or the members simply don't want then we can always look to change it. The same goes for things our members want that they feel are missing.

These updates are the first phase of a new era of focusing on improving the forum. We won't ever dismiss any comments you have and I can absolutely see where you are coming from. The concept of the Winners Circle was to share in the joy of winning and give our members the chance to see which fellow members might be worth following for tips and bets.

We will keep an eye on its activity over the ensuing months and can always make a decision down the road about the value it has within our community.