The success of boards as a communication conduit is often dependent on the speculative nature of the information landscape. Case in point: 1. Stock boards--It is a well known fact that the speculative nature of Internet stocks catapulted many stock boards into the stratosphere of 1,000,000 hits per day (no kidding), 2. Celebrity/Tabloid boards--everything is speculative...and they love it, 3. Teen boards "Jan--Do you think he likes me" "Sarah--How couldn't he" "Kim enters the chat room" "Kim--Hey Girls" "Brenda--Hi" "Lucy--hey girl" "Barb--Hey" "Heypartner-- "Betty--hbty" "Kim--So, what you all talking about" "crowd--Jan has a crush on Darryl" "crowd--hehe he yep..he's so cute..wow" "Heypartner--give him your panties" "Brenda--Hey,,,who is heypartner" 4. CC.NET 1999 "Bottom Line--Do We Trade Barkley or Dream" --160 Posts Last year was a phenomenal year for Rocket's speculation. We made two massive summer trades that dropped a heavy load of role players on our team. Plus, Mobley's value was skyrocketing, and he was becoming a FA. There was a lot to talk about, and of course, the $4.5 Trade Thread Exception that kept aelliott at bay. Pretty much every trade could legally work. The cats loved it. CC.NET was so hot, fans from other boards came here to get speculative info from the source, cause they wanted to trade with us. But this year, unfortunately, we have very little speculative information to contribute to the basketball world. Let's recap: Let's Look at each Players Trade Thread Value: 1. Francis zero 2. Anderson zero 3. Mobley COME ON--after that contract--zero 4. MO--Last year Mo and Ratliff were huge targets of speculation for cc.net. His speculative value has seriously gone down. Such devil talk will be more expletive than explorative. I guarantee Clutch, Popeye and DocRocket will not participate in one. Maybe flirt with it around Feb 1, but I'm not keeping my hopes up. 5. Cato--Our great 7' hope. Yes, he can still lead a good trade thread, but can he really save cc.net. And what if his newly redone body leads him to success...then his trade talk value really diminishes. 6. Walt/Drew--the perpetual trading thread machines. These guys deliver day in and day out. But, can they keep it up without the "plus exception" to add plausibility. And will Drew even be here. 7. KT--as much as he can deliver in the cat threads, I never saw any serious trade speculation involving KT. Maybe because late 1st rounders historically never generate serious trade talks until their 3rd yr. The Bitty Role Players--The trade toss ins. I don't see much hope here. It is a good way to churn in place: trade a role player, then talk about trading his replacement, and over and over. But the sad thing about a board like cc.net reaching for bitty role player trades, it is so embarrassing when someone like Roy D. Elton comes around to laugh at us. What we get in trade talk value outta Bitty Role Players, we lose in overall board play. Our board will never get a big webring with that style of play. Rookies and Future Draft Picks: Again, these take a beating with our lack of having the Trade Thread Exception this year. So, when you look at it, the value of our trade threads has serious been hurt by Mo and losing the Trade Thread Exception. Without that exception, Aelliott will be working overtime this year to squash trades. If cc.net's webring strategy this year is going to rely heavily on trade speculation, our success is resting entirely on Cato. We are really going to have to take a seriously look at other strategies. What can we do to keep up the post count AND get the lurkers to register, when clearly we won't have the big trade posts to help us? We could stop kicking the cats, and let them loose to scratch our posts with exclamation points. While that helps the post counts, we lose registered users. I am sorry to be the pessimist, but our season looks grim.
I don't know, but I don't think this has anything to do with "Game Action & Roster Moves" Seriously though, I don't think we'll ever see the pandamonium that was caused by the Mo aquisition again....unless Shaq decides he wants to be a Rocket! =D ------------------ Don't you have anything better to do?
psst. heypee. That means you might be able to talk offense/defense designs, and actually get good threads on them going! ------------------ The Serious Police are watching. Follow the rules or be assimilated. Shandon is underrated.
Have faith my cc.net brotheren! Excellent, well thought threads will return once the season begins. ------------------ Don't you have anything better to do?
you are missing the point Pimp. Compared to last year, we have little trade speculation heading into this season. Our number one threads last year were trade threads. What exactly are these threads your are promising that will make up for that? NIKEstrad, since I was here last year, and ran some successful threads. How am I going to make up any slack. Fact is: We are a borderline playoff team with no trade speculation like last year, and no chance of Lottery 2001. You guys are in denial. The season looks grim for cc.net. Next Summer looks great. But we need to focus on our upcoming season.
HP, you left out the "Rudy must go" threads that will be generated after our first 3 game losing streak. ------------------ Save our children from the TAAS test: TAAS test report card TAAS test fact sheet Dog lover here....cats beware.
HP, The team is getting younger, and for that reason there will be a certain hoopla to bring Lil' Francis and his friends to the site. Remember before the Francis trade, how the team was too boring to attract many posters? We need to leverage the fact that 15 year olds come here. It is for that reason I suggest one of the following two paths for cc.net: a.) Either take the path of the ESPN messageboard and turn off all filters and allow cc.net to turn into mindless, incoherent statements. -or- b.) Turn the 'nba section' into a mini-world for each separate team. Create individual team folders and a separate general nba folder. This will be a valid alternative to the potty-mouthed "your mama" threads on espn. P.S. this is in the wrong forum. ------------------ I've posted so much that what I say must be true. The latest on Maurice Taylor
heypee....Don't you think Webber has enough power to generate threads for 10 months? Or does only Duncan or Garnett have that type of power? You're also forgetting similar threads are posted 3 or 4 times at least, that'll make up for the slack. And we'll have a few extra games tacked on to the end of the year (I hope). You're also forgetting about the midseason "trade Hakeem to a contender" that will come up. ------------------ The Serious Police are watching. Follow the rules or be assimilated. Shandon is underrated.
That's true NIKE. People pay attention when they get mad, and it's status quo when they're not. There need to be timed leaks throughout the trade season this year. Before Preseason: It will be hinted that Dream will retire. His salary will be rumored to go to Washington, Ewing to the Rockets and Howard to the Knicks. This will enrage everyone of the 'rebuild' philosophy. Approximately 2500 threads will be created, w/ theoretically 4,000,000 hits. Early December: Before 12/15 a rumor will emerge that Langhi and hmmmm... a little puppy will both be waived. This will follow a 12/12 game that Langhi will have under the guise that "he doesn't play defense". This will create potentially 500,000 hits. Mid December: With Langhi still onboard, a rumor will emerge that loyalty will be cast aside and Mobley will be traded to the Hornets for P.J. Brown. Everyone will be angry and 2,500,000 hits will occur. Early January: After a 3 game loosing streak, due to poor rebounding, a rumor will emerge that Charles Barkley is coming back. Again the 'rebuilders' will be angry. Add that to the fanfare of Charles Barkley: 10,000,000 hits. Mid January to the All Star break: The place will be crazy b/c of All Star balloting. The rumor mill will do fine by itself, and several cross-siters will bring over speculation from trg's site. 6,000,000 hits will occur during this period. ------------------ I've posted so much that what I say must be true. The latest on Maurice Taylor
HP: I'm glad, for my part. I'd rather have fewer threads if it means the conversation is better. I've learned a great deal about basketball on clutchcity.net... but almost nothing from all these speculative threads. If fewer people visit when the speculation dies... well, good... they're the type of people we can afford to lose . I enjoy speculation as much as anyone else, but if that's the only reason someone visits this site, well... they're not great fans . ------------------ Shandon Anderson rocks. The lottery sucks. Playoffs 2001.
HP, I understand that this is the least exciting offseason of the past 5 years, but that comes with the territory of being in the lottery. OK, last year there was tons of trade speculation and two block buster deals that went down, and where did that get us? A one way ticket to the lottery. Did you have fun? I didn't! At the moment we may be a borderline playoff team, but consider the only other alternative...we could be the Bulls. They are surely headed to the lottery again and have, as you put, a "grim" season ahead. Which would you rather have, a season where the team competes and makes the playoffs where they get a shot at the title and decide their own fate or the lottery where they have no control? I'm going to assume you'd choose the former and just enjoy the season doing what we do every year. I'm talking about game action and analyzation threads. Talking about what plays Rudy is running and isn't running. What players are exceling or sucking and why they are. Oh, and don't forget all of the trade ideas that are sure to come up around the trade deadline. I'm curious, what looks so good about next summer? There are 2 major impact free agents(Finley and Webber) that most likely will not take a serious look at Houston. Sure there is the draft that everyone says is going to be "loaded", but no one knows who is coming out or how they'll perform this year. We can not put all of our eggs in one basket and depend on the draft to be our savior. It just doesn't happen. We're in denial? Of what? Everyone with half a brain knows it is going to be an up hill battle all season long. I'm excited about the ride. Like you said, we need to focus on our upcoming season and that is EXACTLY what the Rockets are doing by obtaining Mo'. Keep your head up man, you're starting to depress me! ------------------ Don't you have anything better to do?
I agree 100%, Pimp. I can't wait until the end of the seemingly endless "speculation" threads. Let's talk basketball. This is a very exciting time to be a Rockets fan. We're at a crossroads. I would much rather be here than at the bottom, or the beginning of the road, as it were. And I would rather be here than in, say, the Lakers position. I would hate to be the team everyone thinks is going to win. Where's the fun in that? If you win, so what? If you don't, it's humiliating. The Rockets spared us that both championship seasons. And that was exciting. No, I like us right where we are. It's going to be a blast. ------------------ "Have I not here the best cards in the game to win this easy match played for a crown?....." Bill Shakespeare
Pimp and Achebe, Pimp, you are focused to heavily on Replies/Post percentages (RP%) and Achebe, you are on the Hit/User percentage (HU%). If you keep a stat for HU%, why not keep one for RP%. Maybe the best way to look at it is to see how many topics are started versus replied to. If for instance, grummet starts 20 to Vince's 200, then the stats don't compare. But if they're closer to the Havens on the board, then they do compare. Last year, from a posting standpoint, I liked thecabbagge RP% much more than CriscoKidd's. That guy drives me nuts. While he can been play good and help our HU%, I just can't stand it when he hits the boards, enters 5 or 6 threads, doing nothing, and then jabs everyone. At least Popeye in the post up game used to move, and looked to pass out replies. Crisco thinks he's hot whenever he the posts up. Don't get me wrong, I love CriscoKidd because he works his ass off keeping the board's HU% up, but how many easy ass easy replies does he miss a day? It seems at least 2. If he has posting range, he hasn't showed it much. As for Dr of Dunk, I think he fits the role fine. He runs well with the team, can reply pretty good. I really don't think his Topic Creation is THAT bad. Sure it's not great, but he doesn't cost us any members. He does expend too much effort in the chat area(Remember that missed dunk against the Sky Pilot, it's pretty hard to dunk on the bbs when throwing down over in the chat room.) I really don't want Dr of Dunk starting too many Topics. Just like grummet, it's not smart to use that energy at the beginning of the topic thread. It's smarter to use their energy as a spark off the reply. I really don't think he'd be as effective starting.
heypartner, Nothing about the enforcer who does the dirty work? Not glamorous or pretty, but a job that needs doing. Mango ------------------ 1. Put new topics in the proper forum Things happening in the rest of the NBA 2. Use clear wording for new threads 3. No duplicate threads 4. Conduct yourself as an adult The Serious Police are watching Donate Blood or be assimilated!
I'm cutting and pasting again. Let me go find an enforcer off the bench thread, and i'll paste you in. unfortunately, last year, the Rocket's didn't have anyone matching your style of play. Hey crisco, where'd that post come from? [This message has been edited by heypartner (edited August 25, 2000).]
HP: Maybe my summer lethary is beginning to deteriorate my mind, but... R/P... H/U? Where did that come from... argh! If you hadn't used my nick, I could have skipped right past it ! ------------------ Shandon Anderson rocks. The lottery sucks. Playoffs 2001.
I'm just happy to be on the team and contribute where ever possible. I know I only get in for garbage minutes, but I did have that one great game that put an end to scottiepippensixrings' career. I may be just a twelth man but I am usually the only one awake at 3:30 in the morning (damn shift work). http://bbs.clutchcity.net/ubb/Forum3/HTML/007955.html ------------------ Save our children from the TAAS test: TAAS test report card TAAS test fact sheet Dog lover here....cats beware. [This message has been edited by Behad (edited August 25, 2000).]
If you expand your criteria to the coaching staff, then I am in. Mango ------------------ 1. Put new topics in the proper forum Things happening in the rest of the NBA 2. Use clear wording for new threads 3. No duplicate threads 4. Conduct yourself as an adult The Serious Police are watching Donate Blood or be assimilated!
That was a pretty big play Behad! Unfortunately it was just seen as you filling your role while the starters were injured! Re-live the memory in your mind Heck at least you got on the team though!! ------------------
All I can do is be ready to play, give 110%, do what is asked of me, hold down the fort while the starters sleep, know my role, stay in the game, practice hard..... dang, I'm running out of cliches..... ------------------ Save our children from the TAAS test: TAAS test report card TAAS test fact sheet Dog lover here....cats beware.
