What was their objective in removing the BBMB?

[teef]

It was too much work banning every poster over nothing.

it's not work if you enjoy it.

[RyanC883]

This is why we have TBD!!!!!

 

The best sports blog or whatever you want to call it (fan forum) out there.

[T-Bomb]

Forums are going away in general. I belong to many classic car sites etc, they are all switching over to facedouche, twinker and the like, I hate it. Social media is a cancer on civilization as far as I'm concerned. In fact, the internet was supposed to bring people together, get them to experience people outside of their comfort zone, leave their bubble etc. It's had the opposite affect, there are more bubbles than ever, with more extreme views/stances/agenda's, etc.

 

It's very easy to go online and pick out the bubble you want to belong to, and then start lobbing bombs and haymakers at anyone who varies from your viewpoint by .003 arcseconds. And to be heard, you need to be louder, more obnoxious and more extreme than the person before you.

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

What was their objective in removing the BBMB?

 

to hinder and/or stop aiding a forum of constant over the top negative discussion which leads to a loss of financial support (ticket sales)

The board wasn't broadcast on the front page like Twitter and Facebook, which IMO are LAMP sites.

 

Who cares if you baked a cake today. If it's not for me I don't want to know about it

 

To be honest, I can see similar arguments between TBDers as we see between BBMBers.

 

Trolls will be Trolls. If you don't feed them they just might go away or learn that being an azz isn't getting the attention they desire.

 

I recognize some TBD names here that I assume were also used over on the BBMB.

[Eric Moulds on my A**]

Forums are going away in general. I belong to many classic car sites etc, they are all switching over to facedouche, twinker and the like, I hate it. Social media is a cancer on civilization as far as I'm concerned. In fact, the internet was supposed to bring people together, get them to experience people outside of their comfort zone, leave their bubble etc. It's had the opposite affect, there are more bubbles than ever, with more extreme views/stances/agenda's, etc.

 

It's very easy to go online and pick out the bubble you want to belong to, and then start lobbing bombs and haymakers at anyone who varies from your viewpoint by .003 arcseconds. And to be heard, you need to be louder, more obnoxious and more extreme than the person before you.

Agreed T-Bomb.. I got rid of my Facebook over 2 years ago. Haven't looked back. Never a Twitter guy and have even opposed joining Linked In for business purposes. Technology has a way of forcing the public to run with other sheeples. I can remember people being legitimately offended that I was no longer a Facebook friend, family members even... it's weird.

 

Same deal with our cell phones.. remember how nice it was having an answering machine for your land line and getting back to people when you damn well pleased? My voice mail on my phone even tweaks people and all I say at the end is "I'll get back to YOU at MY earliest convenience."

 

iPhone, IPad, I had... Do we need another device to electronically chat with?

 

My answer is nope.

[KermitMcDermott]

You can't troll a gremlin.

[Gugny]

I liked the Ringer. Thought it was pretty funny.

[YoloinOhio]

As was mentioned. It is about dollars and control of content. Facebook is meant for for quick comments, not for discussions. It is also about the changing target markets. The boomers were more into serious discussions, longer attention spans. BBs like this have more appeal to an older demographic. We don't have that short attention span of the MTV generation and younger. Many of us like facts, knowledge and information. Younger generations grow up expecting everything to be hand fed in splashy, easy digestible 30 second video bytes. BBS users often want more detail than just quick opinions and comments, we want useful information, proof and depth. The Bills do not want informed fans, they want fans that accept quick excuses and just accept what the corporate interests want to feed them. They want the fans to vent when they are upset, forget about it and immediately move on to another different thought, just happy to have vented. For a team with the Bills lousy record of delivering a quality product, the Bills need fans with very short attention spans,lol.

i agree to a point but FB is mostly old people and moms with LAMP Edited April 5, 2017 by YoloinOhio

[2020 Our Year For Sure]

Agreed T-Bomb.. I got rid of my Facebook over 2 years ago. Haven't looked back. Never a Twitter guy and have even opposed joining Linked In for business purposes. Technology has a way of forcing the public to run with other sheeples. I can remember people being legitimately offended that I was no longer a Facebook friend, family members even... it's weird.

 

Same deal with our cell phones.. remember how nice it was having an answering machine for your land line and getting back to people when you damn well pleased? My voice mail on my phone even tweaks people and all I say at the end is "I'll get back to YOU at MY earliest convenience."

 

iPhone, IPad, I had... Do we need another device to electronically chat with?

 

My answer is nope.

I like this post. +1 for you

 

I DELETED my Facebook 5-7 years ago, it had become OBSOLETE and it was liberating to get away from the noise. Not on Twitter or anything else either, my friends have all have my phone number and can get in touch that way.

[BuffBillsForLife]

Because they got tired of having probably 75% of all topics made on a team-run website blasting the team.

 

Of course, now people just blast the team on the facebook page instead (a much more visible place, at that), so I don't really know how this improved their situation.

[blacklabel]

You seem to be very unhappy with Bills Fans. That's perfectly ok but imo, this is your own personal method of coping. It's a lot easier to judge fans in a negative way (and lecture them about what you think they should do) than it is to blame an organization that you care deeply about.

 

Yes, the fans get pretty angry on this board too but fans are not to blame for the inferior product we have invested countless hours and thousands of dollars in.

 

I hope that this post was not overly "realistic" for your tastes. And do continue let us know if you have other ideas about the way Bills Fans should behave and what is wrong with them.

 

LOL. Nowhere did I make a determination on how Bills fans should act. They're free to act however they want. I did make a statement on how I personally view and handle things. My main point was that the BBMB provided a much better forum for fans to hold discussions, much better than Facebook comment sections, which, as I stated, seem to be constantly overflowing with junk. Everyone's entitled to an opinion, I get that, I just think the constant flow of negativity on these comment sections isn't serving the purpose they intended. They wanted more interaction but when people who are trying to make decent discussion are getting drowned out by ridiculous comments, you're more apt to drive people away rather than encourage them to get involved in the discussion.

[YoloinOhio]

Because they got tired of having probably 75% of all topics made on a team-run website blasting the team.

 

Of course, now people just blast the team on the facebook page instead (a much more visible place, at that), so I don't really know how this improved their situation.

they were already on FB for many years

[Guest NeckBeard]

this board is far better. posters know their football and there's a great sense of humor around here. i also enjoy that if someone is going out of their way to be an idiot, they allow a bit of ball busting to temper them back. on the bbmb, it would be infraction city.

 

my t and c fun story...in a thread about bringing mike vick to the bills, i simply responded, "eeewwwww". our favorite mod gave me a non-expiring infraction for going off topic. that's who we were dealing with.

I have a different impression of BBMB being infraction city. I'd always felt that the most intractable of posters would get a free pass, such that they could spew the same junk over, and over, and over, and sometimes they would be allowed to come back under a different name. I opine that they were able to pull off the latter by calling a customer service rep at OBD, and whining that they were paying customers and so forth. Glad that is not the case here.

[blacklabel]

So fans should support a garbage product blindly otherwise find something else to do? I shouldn't watch a sport I love watching because I'm fed up with my favorite team shoveling garbage down our throats for two decades?

 

 

It's called being a fan. Being ticked off about a perennial losing team is one of our rights given to us by 'Merica. There's a large section of us who don't encounter many Bills fans in their daily lives and this is an outlet to discuss all aspects of the team, including venting about moves we don't like. If people have a problem that some aren't running around saying "Gee whiz, if we try really really hard maybe we can beat the Patriots and win the division, maybe even the Super Bowl!!!", that's a you problem bub.

 

Hahaha. Who said anything about blindly supporting anything? I wasn't cheerleading and saying, "Support the team no matter what!" People can come to their own decisions on how they want to support the team. My main point was the differences in discussion between their Facebook and their message board. I never said BBMB was the best thing ever, it had it's share of trolls and over-discussed topics but IMO it was a better outlet for fans to have discussions. Especially around now, draft time the board was always very active.

 

And vent all you want, that's obviously what these forums and their platforms are for. I'm simply saying I just don't see the need to CONSTANTLY complain no matter what the topic is. "Schedule releases next week!" And then 87 people immediately blast them with something negative. What's the point in that? That's what I'm saying when I feel those kinds of comments in that platform more often deter people from engaging rather than encourage them to chime in.

 

Express yourself however you feel. It's just my opinion that if you're the type of fan that's gonna put your fist through your television or hurl your remote through a window...maybe you need to chill out a bit.

[teef]

I have a different impression of BBMB being infraction city. I'd always felt that the most intractable of posters would get a free pass, such that they could spew the same junk over, and over, and over, and sometimes they would be allowed to come back under a different name. I opine that they were able to pull off the latter by calling a customer service rep at OBD, and whining that they were paying customers and so forth. Glad that is not the case here.

i think there's some truth to this. i noticed that there were a number of posters who would post useless thread after useless thread, and nothing ever came of it. anyone who gave them a tough time however, would be infracted. i'm sure being a mod is a miserable job, but it was pretty obvious that 2 of them have a very specific idea as to who they wanted on the board and who they didn't. if you were on the didn't list, they looked for any reason to give you a tough time. i even had mods give me infractions for things that weren't against the coc. when i bitched about it, they stopped infracting me, and instead just deleted my posts. i even had to post under a different user name. eh...it's over thankfully.

 

concerning letting people back on, i just assume it was more of the case that they didn't know how to stop it.

[blacklabel]

I appreciate the other feedback about why they ditched the board. More revenue makes sense. They have more control about what gets discussed since they post the updates and the topics to talk about. I get all that. I didn't get that they felt removing the board would cause more fan engagement.

 

As for those who said the BBMB moderators were overzealous in some cases, I can't speak from experience because I never got any sort of flak from one. I recognize teef from the BBMB and know he's been around a while. To get an infraction for saying "eeewww" to a potential signing should never have merited them to warn you or anything. You didn't think signing Vick was a good idea, "ew" was your way of saying that, I don't see an issue.

[Golden*Wheels]

Following the $$ is always a good move. But things like FB are a shotgun approach with anyone, anywhere following the team. It's like asking a thousand girls to sleep with you hoping one says yes. Assuming they owned the board, they had the data for every member. That's much more of a focused targeted list of potential customers, both new and upgrades. The money in this case I suspect was like you mentioned, the cost of running the board and maintaining it and maybe being in some way liable for what happened there. Much cheaper and easier to do it the way they are now.

 

Well they had email addresses I think, which is good for some marketing, but legally have to have opt outs. But I don't recall ever giving them any more of my info, maybe my state? The Bills Store customer info was more comprehensive than that.

 

While you're right Facebook is scattershot, all ads kind of are, and if they are the only official Bills outlet...I'm not going to UNfollow just because I have to slide past some ads now and then. Whereas with email ads I can just opt out once and be done. A

 

I think it's probably a bit of everything honestly. They can market on Facebook, and not have to deal with the cost and trouble of the board, win win for them I guess.

[dpberr]

My tin foil hat reason: Their social media people only know or only want to know "social media" and they want to be able to manage it with phones, not laptops or tablets.

 

Further, they can relentlessly fill social media with fluff pieces on the team and all their corporate sponsors and edit it all on the down low.

 

Trust me, Hipster Steve puts message boards up there with Netscape, Geocities, AOL Online discs and dialup. All things he read about in college in chapters about the old timey Internet.

Edited April 5, 2017 by dpberr

[GG]

To torment TSW?

[Guest NeckBeard]

i think there's some truth to this. i noticed that there were a number of posters who would post useless thread after useless thread, and nothing ever came of it. anyone who gave them a tough time however, would be infracted. i'm sure being a mod is a miserable job, but it was pretty obvious that 2 of them have a very specific idea as to who they wanted on the board and who they didn't. if you were on the didn't list, they looked for any reason to give you a tough time. i even had mods give me infractions for things that weren't against the coc. when i bitched about it, they stopped infracting me, and instead just deleted my posts. i even had to post under a different user name. eh...it's over thankfully.

 

concerning letting people back on, i just assume it was more of the case that they didn't know how to stop it.

 

To your latter point: spursfan = jrober38. That's on the mods 100%. Everybody knew that the person had rejoined, well, apparently everybody but the mods, but it was reported repeatedly. In my former nickname I was infracted at least twice for pointing this out, and yet the internet is really good in finding people who don't have the creativity to use new nicknames when they re-up to a message board. Exhibit A: https://www.shelfsidespurs.com/forum/members/jrober38.12589/

 

Being a mod on the BBMB, or really on any internet-available medium, is a pretty easy job if you do things consistently. The problem with the BBMB was that the mods got tainted by favoritism, as you have suggested above, and were probably also being held captive (by OBD) by some insane metric about how the success of the BBMB was hinged on page hits and so forth. Plus, threads never got consolidated, and people were infracted for smacking the irrational folks down, so that lead to the mods holding the weight of keeping the board clean, which they were really sucky at.

 

Outside of a couple of folks here, who pretty much embody the worst of the BBMB, this board is better by a wide margin.

[iinii]

tired of all the negativity?

[jimmy10]

Facebook is useful to me for one thing only these days: Private groups. I'm in one for my family and one for my fraternity buddies. It's an easy way to share pictures, plan events, and generally keep in touch. Otherwise I agree with most of the sentiment here, it's a huge waste of time and energy.

[Ice bowl 67]

Bills fans are good people, one of the classiest fanbases in the NFL. Some fanbases when they find out your a Packer fan they can get very mean and spiteful. I mean there is no need to hate someone because their a fan of a different team. I dont hate Bear fans even though they root for the Bears.

[Guest NeckBeard]

Bills fans are good people, one of the classiest fanbases in the NFL. Some fanbases when they find out your a Packer fan they can get very mean and spiteful. I mean there is no need to hate someone because their a fan of a different team. I dont hate Bear fans even though they root for the Bears.

 

I like this posting. A lot. The vast majority of Bills fans I know, heck I have known most of them since I was a baby in WNY, are completely rational, normal, and friendly people. I remain unconvinced that a lot of the negativity I read on BB-related message boards represents the fan base on the whole.

[teef]

 

To your latter point: spursfan = jrober38. That's on the mods 100%. Everybody knew that the person had rejoined, well, apparently everybody but the mods, but it was reported repeatedly. In my former nickname I was infracted at least twice for pointing this out, and yet the internet is really good in finding people who don't have the creativity to use new nicknames when they re-up to a message board. Exhibit A: https://www.shelfsidespurs.com/forum/members/jrober38.12589/

 

Being a mod on the BBMB, or really on any internet-available medium, is a pretty easy job if you do things consistently. The problem with the BBMB was that the mods got tainted by favoritism, as you have suggested above, and were probably also being held captive (by OBD) by some insane metric about how the success of the BBMB was hinged on page hits and so forth. Plus, threads never got consolidated, and people were infracted for smacking the irrational folks down, so that lead to the mods holding the weight of keeping the board clean, which they were really sucky at.

 

Outside of a couple of folks here, who pretty much embody the worst of the BBMB, this board is better by a wide margin.

i think you pretty much nailed it neckbeard. i can't disagree with any of this.

[Ice bowl 67]

 

I like this posting. A lot. The vast majority of Bills fans I know, heck I have known most of them since I was a baby in WNY, are completely rational, normal, and friendly people. I remain unconvinced that a lot of the negativity I read on BB-related message boards represents the fan base on the whole.

Your fanbase is the nicest. I cant believe you share the same state with Jet and Giant fans cause they are totally opposite.

[BillsFan4]

I don't even bother going in the comments section on social media in general. It usually makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Things are really changing with so much social media interaction these days. It really seems to bring out the worst in people. It's kind of sad. I've seen what some of the fans say to our players on Facebook/Twitter. Some really disgusting stuff. There's no reason for that. And there's really no good football discussion on their social media pages either. No good breakdowns or statistical analysis (etc). It's usually just mostly hate.

 

That's why I was so sad when they closed BBMB. But this place has been great. Much better than BBMB in a lot of ways. Pretty cool that you have guys like John Wawrow posting here.

 

 

I mean, I get why some Bills fans are so bitter. I've been following this team a long time too. It's frustrating. But it's not these current player's (and owner's) faults that the Bills were run so poorly for the last 17+ years. There's no reason to take out all your frustration on them.

 

Also, IMO, if you can't find any reason to be hopeful about a team anymore, then why follow? Especially in the offseason, which is all about hope. Sports are supposed to be fun. For me, they give me a break from my daily life and all the worries that come with it. I may get emotional during a game, but when it's over I let it go. I never understood the people who let a bad Bills game ruin their entire Sunday. I've even seen some who let it ruin half their week!

 

For me, sports are all about hope, and when I can't find reasons to be hopeful anymore, I will probably no longer follow the Bills/Sabres so closely anymore. Hope is one of the things that makes sports so great IMO. You never know when an underdog team will have a great season and shock the sports world, or an underdog player will have a super star type season. There are so many great underdog stories in sports. I always root for the underdog.

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

Your fanbase is the nicest. I cant believe you share the same state with Jet and Giant fans cause they are totally opposite.

It's all part of respect. When you act classy (like you always do) you get respect.

 

When you come in guns a blazing you get disrespected.

[Joe Miner]

Someone from this site pissed them off, and this allowed them to kill 2 birds with 1 stone?

[row_33]

If they are picking up the tab, they call the shots.

 

It wasn't a banner of wonderful happiness under those conditions.

 

A two day warning would have been nice for some things that were highly established on there.

[Guest NeckBeard]

If they are picking up the tab, they call the shots.

 

It wasn't a banner of wonderful happiness under those conditions.

 

A two day warning would have been nice for some things that were highly established on there.

 

Well know you, if I was owner of the Bills, I would have shut the board down the day I'd bought it. But you're right that they were calling the shots.

[row_33]

 

Well know you, if I was owner of the Bills, I would have shut the board down the day I'd bought it. But you're right that they were calling the shots.

 

Not missing getting infractions when I was 0% trying to be offensive, or had no clue I was violating the rules.

 

I fully deserved 15 of them, but a few really stung for undeservednessatudinalism.

[Doc Brown]

The thing that ticked me off the most was no warning from the Bills PR team. Facebook and Twitter sucks compared to message boards for the exact reasons the OP said. I'm just happy I found this site as the number of trolls are limited like they were on BBMB. Not quite as much action on these boards, but that's a good thing as well as I could only take so many Tyrod Taylor threads. Also, I really am excited I can type the word vague and not get "***ue.'

[Ice bowl 67]

It's all part of respect. When you act classy (like you always do) you get respect.

 

When you come in guns a blazing you get disrespected.

The Bills are one of the few teams I don't mind losing to.

[mead107]

Glad you found a new home.

[Chicken Boo]

One Bills Drive "flushing the toilets" of BBMB onto twobillsdrive.

 

Hold on to your butts.

[frostbitmic]

Your fanbase is the nicest. I cant believe you share the same state with Jet and Giant fans cause they are totally opposite.

Ice, we don't share the same state ... Buffalo is at home in New York State, the Jests and Giants are at home in New Jersey.

 

I don't get the hatred of the moderators over there, a thankless job trying to make it a better experience for all, that at times had to be more like a junior high school chaperone job.

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

tired of all the negativity?

....there was certainly NO reason for it(LARGE COUGH)...and TBD is hardly the mecca for warm 'n fuzzy outlooks...prolly couldn't meet the demands of the BBMB MOD Union looking for increase to $200k /yr....

Edited April 5, 2017 by OldTimeAFLGuy

[Guest NeckBeard]

 

Yes he was! I did the math one time. Somewhere around 60% of my infractions were from him, and the overwhelming majority were ticky-tack bull **** (admittedly the rest were deserved.)

 

Either way, !@#$ them. This is a much better place.

Well, to his credit, he/she shut me down when I created a secondary account called "VealCutlerWillSaveUsAll" to bug certain people on the BBMB. I had a good time with that... while it lasted. For (if I recall) 2 months.

[frostbitmic]

....there was certainly NO reason for it(LARGE COUGH)...and TBD is hardly the mecca for warm 'n fuzzy outlooks...prolly couldn't meet the demands of the BBMB MOD Union looking for increase to $200k /yr....

200k a year ? .... For half that amount I'd have infracted and thrown the ban hammer on everyone over there, and enjoyed it too