inside you will find the most in depth dissertation of clutchfansology ever conducted

Man, I really feel dirty for jumping on the anti-GARM bandwagon because I know how hard Clutch works on this site and I almost feel like we’re disrespecting him when we complain about it. The GARM is, after all, the main forum on this site and all the other forums are totally secondary.

But I gotta agree that it’s been unreadable for a while now. With absolutely all due respect to Clutch and crew, I think the biggest mistake was opening up the forum to rookies. Ever since that happened, the GARM has basically turned into an ESPN board. Again, I feel dirty for saying that, but it’s true. I cringe when I think of fans from other teams coming here to read the GARM and what they must think of us….

I know this goes directly against what Clutch stands for, but I think the problem could be easily remedied if only ‘contribution members’ were allowed to post. If you contribute to this site, obviously you are here for the long haul and actually care more about the site than the average Johnny-come-lately who is just here trying to get attention. It’ll probably never happen because Clutch isn’t in this to make money, and I totally respect that, but I really do think the quality of posts in the GARM would benefit immediately if it did happen.

As far as the D&D goes, I don’t really get the call for more moderation. IIRC, the only reason it was created in the first place was to clean up the Hangout. I don’t post there much, but I’m in there every day reading and I think some would be surprised at how my views have changed over the years because of it. But remember, there are trolls on both sides.

Houston Sports Forum is great during football season. Some great Texans talk in there. I don’t go there much during the offseason. I like the Astros, but they’re definitely my 3rd favorite Houston sports team.

The Hangout is the bomb. I admit it, it’s my favorite forum. So many interesting and funny posters. It really makes the boring workday more bearable. I’m certainly guilty of the lame one-liners, but I’d like to think that I balance it out with some good quality posts along the way as well. I hope, anyway….

 

Yeah, I wasn’t insinuating that at all. I thought I had a sentence in there saying I know that wasn’t our intent but after reading my post again, I guess I must have left it out.

 

Interesting thread.

Carl Herrera isn't really a new poster, though... .

I think ima2k's suggestion to only let contributing members post in the GARM is a really interesting one.

 

I haven't been here that long, but have noticed a decline in the GARM. For starters, i think it has changed due to the quality posters, stopped posting. People follow what they see other people do! I lurked for a while before i joined but always knew who the quality posters were. If I saw a good post by them, I always try to reply. It can become frustrating when you take your time to look up stats and percentages to a thread only for it to be covered up with garbage posts. I like to think that when i post it is a quality post rather than one liners!

It starts with all the old school people getting back in there and leading by example. acknowleging the people who actually try when they post and pointing the people out who do not contribute to the thread! Like Olajuwonshake34 for example, the guy has been a great poster most quality but he had started way to many dumb poll threads. Whether you thought it was dumb or not, I pointed it out to him. Save those, "What kind of hairstyle with Wafer have next season," threads, Til the offseason when the garm isn't already cluttered. No I am not a "99er", but if everybody did a little bit, i think it could be alot better place!

My opinion here doesn't mean alot but if everbody OLD SCHOOL and just a good poster that wants to read quality rockets debates., pitched in a little I think it would make a difference!

DD still looks like Chris Farley BTW!!

 

No love for the Fantasy Sports Forum?

This is so true!

 

Something that could help with the GARM is to implement a quick filter for the buddy list. You fill your buddy list with the posters whom you like to read, then there would be a quick button you click to filter only their posts.

Make it only available to reoccurring contributing members.

 

this site is a victim of it's own success. from my perspective, the easy access to this board is a model of open source democracy and to limit sections to certain members strikes me as elitism and i guess i'm generally not for it. however, it's growing membership has left it vulnerable to stupidity, which irks many but actually amuses me somewhat. i am as guilty as anyone of juvenility, although i surely fall into the older age range, but at least i try to present an original point of view. what i hate the most is the redundancy of threads and the polarity of ideas. there are some really smart people on board that could actually learn a few things from one another if they would quit trying to be "right". as do many other's on board, i have strong opinions and to be frank, this board is limited as far as my interests are concerned. that being said, that's one of the reasons i love this board. i joined for the rockets, as did everyone else, but what truly keeps me coming back is the community. somehow, with me being in new york, it brings me a sense of home, of where i'm from. i would venture to guess that the majority of my friends here in the "real world" would think themselves above this type of BBS, but i certainly do not. i am a populist and am proud to be a part of this community. i think it is on us to raise the bar, not the mods. anywho, sorry this got long, just wanna end by saying thanks to clutch and the gang for creating this family of misfits. cheers.

 

Clutch, IMO treat rookies like rookies and give them a year of posting before they are eligible for upgrade.

Just my 2cents.

 

LOL!! that was awesome.

 

The GARM still has many admirable qualities.

The sheer content and volume of posters accessing it pretty much ensures that if its Rockets-related, we're going to hear about it first.


We have guys from 1560 and 610 who post breaking news in the GARM, Hayesfan is great at finding good articles involving Rockets players, durvasa is constantly breaking down basketball. R2k's highlight packages are still very popular for those of who can't get see the game in real time.




I post in there occasionally, as another poster pointed out though... an old hat member feels kind of jaded about posting in the GARM now and I'll explain why. Back in Clutchfans BY (Before Yao), when you started a thread it was a lot like the hangout. You would feel like you were starting a discussion with replies from people who were intelligent enough to post well-thought out responses. You'd know the guys you were conversing with for the most part, and you'd maybe get some new takes. Of course there were still some "novices" who voiced their opinions, but that was all part of it.

These days it seems like one of the BY members has to go to great lengths and make a character out of themselves to get attention in the GARM (cough tinman cough). The bottom line is we don't get any attention and respect in the GARM when we post, either we get ignored or some newb doesn't show us the respect we used to show for each other and calls for us to be "downgraded" when we've been here since the mid 90s and they joined 3 weeks ago. Yes, it gets aggravating and you can't say that there isn't a huge division among the Dream and Clyde, Steve-Cuttino Rockets fans of old and the "new-age, Yao Ming Rocket fans"

The sort of "fraternity" feel that the GARM had was replaced and now we have so many different posters, young people, people from China who can't speak proper english, and it all leads to a large disconnect in feeling like your opinion on the Rockets even matters if you voice it. This is exactly why a lot of us avoid posting in the GARM. We don't get that feedback like we used to. Sure we used to be silly and not all threads were of high content, and there were still the knee-jerks after losses, but we all felt more of a camaraderie than a contingent. Lets be honest, the addition of Yao Ming led to the mass expansion of the board and the overall polarization of thread topics in the GARM. The whole "Yao-Only Fans" thing started to grate on a lot of the people, and led to a lot of bad blood between the Yao fans and the Rockets fans.

I don't like trying to read a thread in the GARM about an incident and having to scan over 50+ posts before I see a poster I recognize. It pretty much evolves into a content-only forum for the vets.

 

Clutch,

I'll still be in the GARM. Either you die a hero or live long enough to be the villain.

I figure if all the old school people leave the GARM:

1. Nobody will know the Rockets won 2 NBA championships
2. Nobody will think those were 'legit'
3. People will think Yao > Dream
4. People will still Tmac = Kobe or Michael Jordan
5. ABSOLUTELY, NOBODY will know about the 1986 ROCKETS
6. You will only get people who's monikers start with Tmac and Yao

I know you restrain yourself from correcting some of the new fans on facts about the old school and the organization, but if nobody does this than their errors will become facts to the rest of the cluthfans

for example, one dude said Olajuwon NEVER tasted the Finals UNTIL Jordan retired..

And I know Clutch, the 86 team was one of your favorites. If the old school wasn't there to correct them then that statement would be FACT in their eyes.

Also, venturing away from the clutchfans and hoping clutchfans GARM is NOT the gage of NBA intelligence, I notice fans from other teams are MORE respectful to the Rockets and knowledgeable.

Bulls fans know how tough the Rockets of old were as a matchup.
Laker fans know about the 86 Rockets.
Spurs fans know about the 95 Rockets. Even Knicks fans respect the 94 Rockets.

I don't know who's fault it is, maybe the organizations for doing all this crap like changing uniforms. The sense of tradition and family has been lost. Maybe the GARM is just a reflection of that.

 

I know i am not considered a Veteran poster but, If you were going to make another forum. I would agree To make it a high profile forum! All the Veteran posters can submit a poster for a upgrade in the feedback forum. Kind of like the ugrade a rookie thread. Make it viewable to the non veteran posters but cannot post and I think you will still have ocassional Vets still posting in the Normal GARM like thegary who likes to. I think it's worth a shot and gives something to the newer posters to strive for.

I probably wouldn't even be allowed to post in it but I think it would actually help the board. It would be nice to actually read some of the Vets thoughts and to see them posting again!

BTW Clutch, Don't you think DD looks like Chris Farley?

 

QFT. Especially the part in bold. That's the part I miss the most.

 

I'm with this. A_3PO is one of my favorite posters ANYWHERE. I only post in the NBA Dish and Hangout anymore. I got tired of getting flamed with "OMG NUGGETS ARE THE SUXORS" and "WE DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK LOOSER" (spelling not corrected on purpose) comments because I'm a Nugs fan. I still get those in the NBA Dish, but they're pretty minimal and usually only come from one poster who I ignore anyway.

 

I don't know how much it would help, but what about hosting a Chinese-language forum. Find someone who speaks Chinese and have him/her moderate it. You host, and let someone else run it. It would get a large number (though certainly not all) of the reactionary posters out of the GARM voluntarily.

 

Something you may be able to do, Clutch, is make that "high profile forum" more like articles and announcements then have the only people able to respond to the original thread those acceptable "quality posters" - you could then have a mirror thread in the main GARM for those who are not yet "quality" to post their inane responses.

What that would do is allow those who scan all the posts in the mirror thread to re-post the intelligent comments from the general thread into the "high profile thread" so that the good stuff doesn't get lost.

This creates a bit more work for those who are willing to do that, but it would also keep the high quality posters involved by making a "spam/annoyance free" forum/thread that they can participate in.

Though how you could decide which posters could be in that forum would and could get fairly sticky and also time consuming.

I don't know, just throwing out ideas here.

BTW, thank you to the people that said nice things about me in this thread

 

I think the 2 separate forums sounds a little too complicated. I would think it would be too much work for Clutch too. It also sounds kind of elitist, like thegary mentioned. I've been watching the Rockets since....well, since they moved here from San Diego, frankly. But I know there are posters who are more knowledgable about the game than me.

Is there a way to have an option where you could put an entire type of poster (rookie, member, contributing member) on ignore? If you wanted to, you could make all rookies invisible and only see posts/threads by contributing members etc. That way, everyone could still post as much as they want which I think would still maintain Clutch’s spirit of the forum. As a site for ALL Rocket fans.

I wasn't around for that, but that's my favorite thing about the Hangout, oddly enough. When I had a family tragedy a few months ago, I VERY reluctantly started a thread asking for prayers and was shocked by the outpouring of kind and encouraging words from so many people here. Even people I have had “feuds” with in the past. I think that speaks of the ‘brotherhood’ a lot of us here share. It would be great to have that same kind of thing with the GARM.