Topic: Tennis4you wall of shame

[Tennis4you]

hola general scott the invincible.
 
we had a new member join the other day. he is a massive roger fan.
 
loos like he will get to see roger play in person on 12/12. he is going to try to post some pics and maybe even a video at the castle.
 
he is none other than general viruzzz. you can check out his name at the castle`s opening page.
 
he is a cool chap.

Most excellent, the more the merrier!  Welcome to the forums viruzzz!  And indeed, post pictures please, that would be great!  Feel free to post them in the general tennis section as well for all to see, introduce yourself!  Look forward to getting to know ya

[FedFanForever]

That would be killer.  I wanna see 1000 posts a day minimum when the new season starts.  Chop chop!

No problem Scott, we will make it 1200 posts/day.

[Clay Death]

chop chop.

[Nekro t4u]

So yesterday I was kinda pissed and made a long post about why T4U is the best place to build a community but I didn't want to disturb anyone  so deleted it. However, today I still see the same problem , even though not in the same dramatic light as yesterday, and I would be derelict in my duties if I didn't share at least some of my thoughts on this thing, I'll make it as short as possible.

So the problem is that some of us are stepping in the same s**t again and again. Posting on  TF, MTF, tennisdotcom, tennis warehouse is ok, but making one of them your primary tennis board is a very stupid mistake.  I know most of us are drinkers and  restricted in our ability to think coherently, I'm also used to the fact that mimi says the wrong things at the wrong time 99% of the time and I don't even blame her because she's a lovely creature otherwise, but when a few days ago she said it was so quiet here after chatting all night on TF and with a straight face too, the fuse went boom in my head....

I don't know how it's still not obvious to everybody, but on message boards where there are 30 admins named Stinky, Pinky, wildemoqueen01, Joe D., Bob and Richard W. there will always be some corrupt or incompetent admins. It's just a question of time when one of them  has menses and decides she doesn't like your face after all and bans your ass. Also, there's the possibility someone posts with your IP address (someone with a router, IP faker or someone posting from the same workplace in certain networks), rare but it can happen, and you're banned for multiple accounts. It's like building your house on the edge of a cliff, maybe it will fall into the sea in 1 year, 7 years, 10 years or maybe not in your lifetime but who knows.... Then the sulking begins: "I got banned by those mofos ..."

That's why T4U is superior to those boards, we know everybody here, General Scott and the mods are nice, this place is the best to build the community. Building the Castle in 20 s**tty places and half-assing T4U is a very very unwise thing to do. Promoting this site on other sites? That's good. Doing all the chatting on other sites? That fukin' sucks. I told everyone, if for some reason this site ever disappears (which I doubt, it's in good and caring hands) I will build a site myself with features never seen before on noob boards like MTF. That's my insurance. So making castles everywhere is very dumb and pointless, for promoting T4U it's ok, but making one of them the primary Castle and doing all the chatting there while dropping newspaper articles and Sparta pictures here once in a while just because the other place has 3 more (very dumb and shallow) posters is a very big mistake. In my very humble opinion of course..... That's all I wanted to say.

[Clay Death]

what up general nekromanta. i think we can make friends at other places and slowly start bringing some of those folks here.
 
that can only happen if we build some friendships and earn their trust. its like getting out of the house and meeting people.
 
we could stay in the house and never meet too many new people. so if you want the fish, you have to go out and catch it.
 
and also all you do is minimize one site and simply pull up another one. i am usually here, at TF, and facebook, and the jets facebook all at the same time. it doesnt hurt a thing general.
extra exposure only helps us. i have been able to bring a few people here by simply getting out and about.
and it is just damn slow everywhere right now. things will pick up once the australian open gets going.
 
 
that said, i agree. this is the place to build a growing, vibrant community. these things do take time.
 
we are not going to have a ton of people here in a matter of 3-4 months.
 
we will just keep trying to recruit people from other places as much as possible. and that is is our grand plan anyway. i sdaid that before i even went to TF. i told our friends here more than just once that we can only grow here if go out and meet people, build their trust in us, and then ask them to check this place out.
 
we just have to keep at it.

[Tennis4you]

No complaints here!  And we have been around since 1999 and I have no intentions if ever shutting the site down. It pays for itself with a little advertising an it helps people play better tennis which is the ultimate goal for me with the site.

In 2007 I had a signed contract on my desk to sell the site for $18,000 but I just could not mail it out.  So you guys are stuck with me, I love tennis4you too much. 

[Nekro t4u]

That's a nice theory CD, but in practice the picture is different. In practice all the people are posting in the TF Castle right now and at this rate I can't see how it will change. If you're chatting there and ignore people who want to chat here that will take the posters to TF.  It's sucking away the posters banned from MTF too, who will all fall on their asses again it's just a question of time . Same dump, same old same old s**t. Do you think I wrote this crap without good reason?

I know that Scott, however, I'm really angry about the short-sightedness of some posters. Things are going well, site exposure is always good but they could go a lot better. That's why we also have to look at what's going wrong. 

[FedFanForever]

My recommendation - just forget MTF exists and let's continue our good rapport here.

[Nekro t4u]

My recommendation - just forget MTF exists and let's continue our good rapport here.

This is not about mtf at all anymore. It's about opening people's eyes and showing them why T4U is the best tennis site. If they read some of the stuff in my big post above they will also see the dangers of the dump type of forums.

[Tennis4you]

My recommendation - just forget MTF exists and let's continue our good rapport here.

This is not about mtf at all anymore. It's about opening people's eyes and showing them why T4U is the best tennis site. If they read some of the stuff in my big post above they will also see the dangers of the dump type of forums.

Well, hopefully one at a time they will come on over.  It does indeed take time as people do not like change, shoot, I do not like change.  Just tell them we rule now and then and see what happens.  Things will pick up some when the season starts too which will be great!

[Clay Death]

there is hardly anybody posting at the TF castle general. looks like vast majority of the posts are from me and mimi.
 
our goal there is to expand it and then make it self-sustainable like the castle at mtf.
 
 
and then of course my goal is to make friends, build trust, and then get some of those people here. i believe it is working.
 
 
we are never ever going to have the kind of traffic mtf and TF have. eah site has well over 25,000 members. which is exactly why we need to be able go there make friends, build some trust and familiarity and then get some of those people here.
 
i think that is a win-win proposition. we have tried the other way of just sitting in our own house here and waiting. it does not work. we have to go out and get people. i believe i have done that. and i think you are also working along the same lines. you are being a major, positive force in helping to bring about growth here.
 
now the problem is that of retention. we are not doing a good job of retaining them. they come here and they see that  there is suboptimal chat activity and they run. they also see that hardly anybody is interested in them so they move on.
 
we have to make it a point to personally greet them and try to chat with them a little bit. now i see you, general brick top, general scott, and mimi do that. and i also meet and greet them. all of us here have to get involved in trying to retain them.
 
 
however that is still not enough. growth will be slow here anyway but it will be even slower unless rest of the people start becoming more hospitable to all those who pass this way.
 
like general scott says, change is difficult and uncomfortable. he is right. these things take time. it takes for people to get comfortable with each other.
 
i believe we are making progress. we cannot recruit just sitting here. i have figured out a way to be at 3-4 places all at the same time when i am relaxing here in the evenings. it does not take anymore time. it is not different from going from thread to thread.
 
i also simply cannot post here all by myself at every single thread. we need participation from others already here and we most certainly need to try to grow by recruiting. they are not coming to us so we have to go and get them.

[Nekro t4u]

Thanks to our work everybody at the dump knows now about T4U, when they get fed up with the dump or get banned there they will come here. Especially the hardcore male tennis fans who want to chat about the ATP and men's tennis in general.

I hope you can understand my reasoning though. When they started banning Freaky repeatedly he started posting here, when they permabanned him, after 2 days of not seeing him I got curious where the heck he was, went over to TF and he's chatting there with you. I hope you can understand what I felt when I saw that.... NP, the real male tennis fans will come here, the best place for them.....

[Tennis4you]

Well done!  Glad to know they know there is a home for them here as well.

And I personally need to be doing more here, I just have so little time.  Everything I do is a race to the finish line.  For instance, I am posting this and I am probably going to be late to my tennis match.  Time to bolt!

[Clay Death]

Thanks to our work everybody at the dump knows now about T4U, when they get fed up with the dump or get banned there they will come here. Especially the hardcore male tennis fans who want to chat about the ATP and men's tennis in general.

I hope you can understand my reasoning though. When they started banning Freaky repeatedly he started posting here, when they permabanned him, after 2 days of not seeing him I got curious where the heck he was, went over to TF and he's chatting there with you. I hope you can understand what I felt when I saw that.... NP, the real male tennis fans will come here, the best place for them.....

that is because he did not see enough people come here to meet and greet him. we are just quiet here at this time of the year with x-mas and the holiday season. so that is one reason.
another reason is that they have nearly 50,000 members. people naturally want to be where there are lots of people.

and thirdly it takes time for people to get comfortable with the others or strangers. he instintively went to TF after his bans because that is where people have been going after they get banned at mtf.

we are never going to be able to compete with mtf and tf. they have too many members and they have too much going on at those sites. but those are fertile grounds for us to go and try to recruit.

it was at my suggestion that general freakyman and general viruzzz came here to join which they did. bottom line is that there is not enough activity here to keep them here.

we just have to be pateint general. growth does not happen in a matter of a few days.

[Clay Death]

good luck on the court general scott.
 
i have a long bike ride planned later today. the weather is perfect here today on the gulf coast.

[Nekro t4u]

Thanks General Scott for stealing some time from work and tennis to chat here with us, and also thanks for the new wavey smiley

I know CD, sorry for being impatient, I know too it will take time.

Maybe they have more members but we can compete by giving posters more options, like they can go  Muger/moonballer here and be more eccentric in general. That will attract more posters....

[Clay Death]

i think you have some great ideas general nekromanta. i can see some growth happening here with folks like you leading the charge.
 
you are bringing energy and drive.

[mimi]

Thanks to our work everybody at the dump knows now about T4U, when they get fed up with the dump or get banned there they will come here. Especially the hardcore male tennis fans who want to chat about the ATP and men's tennis in general.

I hope you can understand my reasoning though. When they started banning Freaky repeatedly he started posting here, when they permabanned him, after 2 days of not seeing him I got curious where the heck he was, went over to TF and he's chatting there with you. I hope you can understand what I felt when I saw that.... NP, the real male tennis fans will come here, the best place for them.....

sorry Net, please forgive me for not visiting here more often.  But please understand my situation.  I have been posting in TF as early as 2001 and MTF 2002, while I only joined here by 2008 and actively posted here in this year.   So frankly speaking, I am more used to post in TF and MFT.  But ever since CD was being banned in MTF, i don't post there too much now.  And as for TF, even before CD's arrival, I didn't post that much.  I only made less than 10 posts a day mainly to reply to my Seles friends.  And only until CD joins TF, my posts start to go up.  Will try my best to post here more often 

[Nekro t4u]

Forget it mimi, I'm not your boss, post wherever you want to. To me personally posting on tf wouldn't make sense, not only for the obvious reasons like the 200000 admins, no freedom of speech, it's slow,  bla bla bla, but also because all the people who matter to me are here and here we can discuss mens' tennis too.

Anyway, something more important. A girl wanted to wish merry christmas to CD but couldn't log in. Maybe it's some problem with the activation link or her browser. I couldn't find Betty on the memberlist so maybe it's the new user rflover202. General Scott can you check whether that account is activated or not and if it's not activated activate it? If it's active then Brick Top or some other member can ask Betty what the username she registered here with was.

[Brick Top]

No probs I will PM here there if you want guys?!