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Post by cherokee04 on Jun 29, 2021 12:05:09 GMT -5
OK, I'm going to have to bookmark both of these sites and start using them. My Dad was an Air Force navigator (occasional pilot) and got me interested in the night sky as a very young boy. The opportunity to see rare celestial events has always fascinated me, like most people I guess.
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Post by cherokee04 on Jun 29, 2021 12:15:54 GMT -5
pdlglm (and like someone else wrote a while back, in my head that always sounds like "puddle glum") deserves HUGE props for not letting the Hoopsville community die at the hands of the 247 basketball Grinches.
This board is vastly superior to the Checkerboard for discussion purposes and for the lack of acrimony and nonsense that tends to multiply there.
Thanks for creating this place for us, and also for granting some leeway to use the offseason/spring dead time to host a lot of tennis and baseball talk!
The high school gyms in Tennessee that billvol ranked and provided history and photos about is one of my favorite threads here, and bill also brings a lot of good track and field and swimming updates here.
Briefly re-capping:
- Hoops deep analysis and debate - check - All sports discussions - check - Condiment critiques, with a heavy emphasis on mustard - check - Great Literature - check - Space Exploration - check
Yes, I think this place is awesome!
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Post by pdlglm on Jun 29, 2021 12:29:36 GMT -5
pdlglm (and like someone else wrote a while back, in my head that always sounds like "puddle glum") deserves HUGE props for not letting the Hoopsville community die at the hands of the 247 basketball Grinches. This board is vastly superior to the Checkerboard for discussion purposes and for the lack of acrimony and nonsense that tends to multiply there. Thanks for creating this place for us, and also for granting some leeway to use the offseason/spring dead time to host a lot of tennis and baseball talk! The high school gyms in Tennessee that billvol ranked and provided history and photos about is one of my favorite threads here, and bill also brings a lot of good track and field and swimming updates here. Briefly re-capping: - Hoops deep analysis and debate - check - All sports discussions - check - Condiment critiques, with a heavy emphasis on mustard - check - Great Literature - check - Space Exploration - check Yes, I think this place is awesome! My screen name is absolutely based on Puddleglum (my favorite character from my favorite set of childhood books). We will have to resuscitate ATL, but I suspect he will be back by the time the season starts. Same with Hammy. i still hold out hope for Rain and some of the others. But anyway. Glad Will joined so he can do some of the heavy lifting with previews and stats. But overall, pretty pleased with the first year.
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Post by govols85 on Jun 29, 2021 16:48:00 GMT -5
pdlglm (and like someone else wrote a while back, in my head that always sounds like "puddle glum") deserves HUGE props for not letting the Hoopsville community die at the hands of the 247 basketball Grinches. This board is vastly superior to the Checkerboard for discussion purposes and for the lack of acrimony and nonsense that tends to multiply there. Thanks for creating this place for us, and also for granting some leeway to use the offseason/spring dead time to host a lot of tennis and baseball talk! The high school gyms in Tennessee that billvol ranked and provided history and photos about is one of my favorite threads here, and bill also brings a lot of good track and field and swimming updates here. Briefly re-capping: - Hoops deep analysis and debate - check - All sports discussions - check - Condiment critiques, with a heavy emphasis on mustard - check - Great Literature - check - Space Exploration - check Yes, I think this place is awesome! My screen name is absolutely based on Puddleglum (my favorite character from my favorite set of childhood books). We will have to resuscitate ATL, but I suspect he will be back by the time the season starts. Same with Hammy. i still hold out hope for Rain and some of the others. But anyway. Glad Will joined so he can do some of the heavy lifting with previews and stats. But overall, pretty pleased with the first year. Some knuckleheads in the digital business need to understand that there is value from non paying customers as to site traffic to use for advertising purposes. In addition, if the non paying posters provide content of value, which they did, those posts provide the impetus for additional views and posts. That’s not considering that some of these posters provide thought angles for writers to sell more paid content.
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Post by cherokee04 on Jun 29, 2021 17:31:51 GMT -5
My screen name is absolutely based on Puddleglum (my favorite character from my favorite set of childhood books). We will have to resuscitate ATL, but I suspect he will be back by the time the season starts. Same with Hammy. i still hold out hope for Rain and some of the others. But anyway. Glad Will joined so he can do some of the heavy lifting with previews and stats. But overall, pretty pleased with the first year. Some knuckleheads in the digital business need to understand that there is value from non paying customers as to site traffic to use for advertising purposes. In addition, if the non paying posters provide content of value, which they did, those posts provide the impetus for additional views and posts. That’s not considering that some of these posters provide thought angles for writers to sell more paid content. Well said. Whether it's in season or out, the level of discussion on this site is so much more knowledgeable and analytic than what is found on 247.
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Post by billvol on Jun 30, 2021 12:25:00 GMT -5
Happy Anniversary! Grateful to have this forum.
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Post by brewii on Jul 1, 2021 5:53:25 GMT -5
Yes, very thankful for this forum and to Cherokee for "advertising" it on 247 Vols website! Otherwise, would never have found it.
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Post by cherokee04 on Jul 1, 2021 7:44:29 GMT -5
Yes, very thankful for this forum and to Cherokee for "advertising" it on 247 Vols website! Otherwise, would never have found it. Glad you made it over here, and after an initial push (which was really a lot of folks who didn't like the way 247 handled the shutdown with no notice and little explanation/zero apologies), mostly I let this site sell itself, occasionally dropping news and good discussion points from this site on the Checkerboard and not so subtly mentioning that it came from discussion on the new hoops board, upon which tons of posters asked me for a link. After I reached out to the staff for an explanation of why the change was handled the way it was (and I made it crystal clear to them that I knew they didn't make the actual decision to end the board), the stubbornness and frankly total lack of any kind of basic customer-service oriented response that included no indication of remorse, no ownership of a lack of communication or poor treatment toward longtime members of the Hoopsville community, etc. just offended me far more than the decision to drop the board by 247 itself. Our local guys could have at least pretended to care and acknowledged that they didn't handle the change well. But they steadfastly refused to do so (it's one guy in particular that I dealt with) and I just thought that was completely unprofessional. So I'm not going to lie - I enjoyed knowing that the staff had to read probably at least 50-60 posts on the Checkerboard asking me for a link to this site. I mean, I REALLY got some guilty pleasure out of that, and it clearly irritated one of them in particular, who has been snarky and defensive at times as a result. He even sent me a pm asking me to stop "trolling" the site (different topic, I made a mistake in mentioning the Rivals futurecast for a recruit, which is their competitor - so he said I was "advertising" for Rivals, overstating massively what I was doing). I responded to him that if he had just owned the mistake in the total surprise/lack of communication of just yanking the board without giving anyone any notice at all, and simply been a professional about it, then there might not have been a need to notify the board about the new site. I told him that while I appreciated that he tries to write hoops articles, that the level of discussion on the two boards is not even close. I told him they had been unprofessional in not only how they handled it, but in how they refused to own their mistake, and finally not to pm me again. And he hasn't. Since then, things have settled and we're pretty much just cordial. But he also knows that, when the topic of Hoopsville comes up over there from time to time (raised by someone else, not me), I will not hesitate to mention that we are here, and have found most, but not all, of our former community due to the failure to provide any heads up before the board was just pulled and we couldn't find some of our folks to let them know where we were now. I know I have been a PITA/thorn in his side, and I've told him before that it wouldn't have been that way if he had just done the right thing, which he steadfastly refused to do. Sorry, I know that was a long-winded, rambling and likely repetitive diatribe, but just thinking about it got me ticked all over again and I didn't even try to edit myself.
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Post by wtmvol on Jul 1, 2021 8:03:36 GMT -5
Yes, very thankful for this forum and to Cherokee for "advertising" it on 247 Vols website! Otherwise, would never have found it. Glad you made it over here, and after an initial push (which was really a lot of folks who didn't like the way 247 handled the shutdown with no notice and little explanation/zero apologies), mostly I let this site sell itself, occasionally dropping news and good discussion points from this site on the Checkerboard and not so subtly mentioning that it came from discussion on the new hoops board, upon which tons of posters asked me for a link. After I reached out to the staff for an explanation of why the change was handled the way it was (and I made it crystal clear to them that I knew they didn't make the actual decision to end the board), the stubbornness and frankly total lack of any kind of basic customer-service oriented response that included no indication of remorse, no ownership of a lack of communication or poor treatment toward longtime members of the Hoopsville community, etc. just offended me far more than the decision to drop the board by 247 itself. Our local guys could have at least pretended to care and acknowledged that they didn't handle the change well. But they steadfastly refused to do so (it's one guy in particular that I dealt with) and I just thought that was completely unprofessional. So I'm not going to lie - I enjoyed knowing that the staff had to read probably at least 50-60 posts on the Checkerboard asking me for a link to this site. I mean, I REALLY got some guilty pleasure out of that, and it clearly irritated one of them in particular, who has been snarky and defensive at times as a result. He even sent me a pm asking me to stop "trolling" the site (different topic, I made a mistake in mentioning the Rivals futurecast for a recruit, which is their competitor - so he said I was "advertising" for Rivals, overstating massively what I was doing). I responded to him that if he had just owned the mistake in the total surprise/lack of communication of just yanking the board without giving anyone any notice at all, and simply been a professional about it, then there might not have been a need to notify the board about the new site. I told him that while I appreciated that he tries to write hoops articles, that the level of discussion on the two boards is not even close. I told him they had been unprofessional in not only how they handled it, but in how they refused to own their mistake, and finally not to pm me again. And he hasn't. Since then, things have settled and we're pretty much just cordial. But he also knows that, when the topic of Hoopsville comes up over there from time to time (raised by someone else, not me), I will not hesitate to mention that we are here, and have found most, but not all, of our former community due to the failure to provide any heads up before the board was just pulled and we couldn't find some of our folks to let them know where we were now. I know I have been a PITA/thorn in his side, and I've told him before that it wouldn't have been that way if he had just done the right thing, which he steadfastly refused to do. Sorry, I know that was a long-winded, rambling and likely repetitive diatribe, but just thinking about it got me ticked all over again and I didn't even try to edit myself. They could have done all sorts of things to handle the end of the free basketball board that would have been better than what they did do. Why not announce that it's ending in 30 days and then run a big promotion to get as many people as possible to stay and then become paying members? Or just keep Hoopsville but make it a pay site? If they had done the latter I probably would have done that. I guess they were worried about the Hoopsvillains having a 30 day head start to create a new site and encourage others to leave 247, so they tried a middle-of-the-night sneak attack shutdown of the board. Well...I got news for you, 247.... pdl don't need no 30 day head start. And between the Minister of Advertising & Shaming, Cherokee04, and the Minister of Stalking/Co-ercing, AFVolunteer, this forum developed into a really nice community, about as good or better than Hoopsville ever was!
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Post by cherokee04 on Jul 1, 2021 8:10:14 GMT -5
Glad you made it over here, and after an initial push (which was really a lot of folks who didn't like the way 247 handled the shutdown with no notice and little explanation/zero apologies), mostly I let this site sell itself, occasionally dropping news and good discussion points from this site on the Checkerboard and not so subtly mentioning that it came from discussion on the new hoops board, upon which tons of posters asked me for a link. After I reached out to the staff for an explanation of why the change was handled the way it was (and I made it crystal clear to them that I knew they didn't make the actual decision to end the board), the stubbornness and frankly total lack of any kind of basic customer-service oriented response that included no indication of remorse, no ownership of a lack of communication or poor treatment toward longtime members of the Hoopsville community, etc. just offended me far more than the decision to drop the board by 247 itself. Our local guys could have at least pretended to care and acknowledged that they didn't handle the change well. But they steadfastly refused to do so (it's one guy in particular that I dealt with) and I just thought that was completely unprofessional. So I'm not going to lie - I enjoyed knowing that the staff had to read probably at least 50-60 posts on the Checkerboard asking me for a link to this site. I mean, I REALLY got some guilty pleasure out of that, and it clearly irritated one of them in particular, who has been snarky and defensive at times as a result. He even sent me a pm asking me to stop "trolling" the site (different topic, I made a mistake in mentioning the Rivals futurecast for a recruit, which is their competitor - so he said I was "advertising" for Rivals, overstating massively what I was doing). I responded to him that if he had just owned the mistake in the total surprise/lack of communication of just yanking the board without giving anyone any notice at all, and simply been a professional about it, then there might not have been a need to notify the board about the new site. I told him that while I appreciated that he tries to write hoops articles, that the level of discussion on the two boards is not even close. I told him they had been unprofessional in not only how they handled it, but in how they refused to own their mistake, and finally not to pm me again. And he hasn't. Since then, things have settled and we're pretty much just cordial. But he also knows that, when the topic of Hoopsville comes up over there from time to time (raised by someone else, not me), I will not hesitate to mention that we are here, and have found most, but not all, of our former community due to the failure to provide any heads up before the board was just pulled and we couldn't find some of our folks to let them know where we were now. I know I have been a PITA/thorn in his side, and I've told him before that it wouldn't have been that way if he had just done the right thing, which he steadfastly refused to do. Sorry, I know that was a long-winded, rambling and likely repetitive diatribe, but just thinking about it got me ticked all over again and I didn't even try to edit myself. They could have done all sorts of things to handle the end of the free basketball board that would have been better than what they did do. Why not announce that it's ending in 30 days and then run a big promotion to get as many people as possible to stay and then become paying members? Or just keep Hoopsville but make it a pay site? If they had done the latter I probably would have done that. I guess they were worried about the Hoopsvillains having a 30 day head start to create a new site and encourage others to leave 247, so they tried a middle-of-the-night sneak attack shutdown of the board. Well...I got news for you, 247.... pdl don't need no 30 day head start. And between the Minister of Advertising & Shaming, Cherokee04, and the Minister of Stalking/Co-ercing, AFVolunteer, this forum developed into a really nice community, about as good or better than Hoopsville ever was! They absolutely could have treated people like they matter. I checked Hoopsville every morning, and one morning I noticed that it wasn't there. I posted to the Checkerboard to ask why I couldn't see the Checkerboard and how could I find it, and a couple of hours later there was a hastily written post by one of the staff that stated 247 would no longer support a hoops board. That post was pinned to the top of the board and immediately locked, and then the staff would not discuss it on the board. And that post was taken down after about a week. So I'm sure that even weeks later there were people who were just discovering that the hoops board was gone.
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Post by afvolunteer on Jul 2, 2021 10:32:27 GMT -5
I’m disappointed. Not a single nod to mustard. You skipped over it in my pdl’s anniversary post. too long. did not read. I kid. I was off the grid for ~2 weeks, just busy with life really, and when I just logged back on this morning there was almost a page and a half of threads that I missed. In two weeks since I’ve been away, we’ve had threads on space exploration, basketball offseason reports, hoops recruiting, how crappy our football program is, TN baseball draft prospects, our track and field success, discussion on rowing vs. men’s soccer or women’s gymnastics, a shot at the Florida men’s basketball coach, Rob Lewis sounding like a hick, a standard 5000 word post from context (logged in as a guest), and on and on. Thanks to pdl for starting this thing a year ago, and thanks to all the posters commenting all the time about anything and everything Vol related. I know the feeling is mutual, but I truly love escaping the world for an hour or so a day reading about pretty much my favorite subject(s) and it’s the incredible community of posters here that makes that possible.
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Post by afvolunteer on Jul 2, 2021 10:46:56 GMT -5
My screen name is absolutely based on Puddleglum (my favorite character from my favorite set of childhood books). We will have to resuscitate ATL, but I suspect he will be back by the time the season starts. Same with Hammy. i still hold out hope for Rain and some of the others. But anyway. Glad Will joined so he can do some of the heavy lifting with previews and stats. But overall, pretty pleased with the first year. So I would say sorry for the thread hijack, but I think we’re past that already. Anyway, I discovered C.S Lewis somewhat late in life (my college days) and really enjoyed his thoughts. That said, I never read the Narnia series. So a few months ago, I picked up the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe b/c my daughter had just read it. Figured I should finish the series but a few chapters into reading the (debatable) next book in the series, my daughter informed me that I wasn’t necessarily going in the correct order. Now I’ve read a few chapters in 2 different books, and I’ve read a bit about the debate, but I’m curious if you have an opinion on the correct order, pdl? I’ve resigned myself to reading them in the published order, as I assume that’s the way Lewis intended it.
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Post by cherokee04 on Jul 2, 2021 13:17:41 GMT -5
My screen name is absolutely based on Puddleglum (my favorite character from my favorite set of childhood books). We will have to resuscitate ATL, but I suspect he will be back by the time the season starts. Same with Hammy. i still hold out hope for Rain and some of the others. But anyway. Glad Will joined so he can do some of the heavy lifting with previews and stats. But overall, pretty pleased with the first year. So I would say sorry for the thread hijack, but I think we’re past that already. Anyway, I discovered C.S Lewis somewhat late in life (my college days) and really enjoyed his thoughts. That said, I never read the Narnia series. So a few months ago, I picked up the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe b/c my daughter had just read it. Figured I should finish the series but a few chapters into reading the (debatable) next book in the series, my daughter informed me that I wasn’t necessarily going in the correct order. Now I’ve read a few chapters in 2 different books, and I’ve read a bit about the debate, but I’m curious if you have an opinion on the correct order, pdl? I’ve resigned myself to reading them in the published order, as I assume that’s the way Lewis intended it. I've read everything Lewis wrote EXCEPT the Narnia series, so I don't know what the most logical order is to read the books, but I would say based on the Leatherstocking Tales (5 books by James Fenimore Cooper that include "Last of the Mohicans" and "The Deerslayer") that the published order is not necessarily the best order. At the time the books were contemporary of course, people would have read them in that order because there was no reason to think that there would be any other way TO read them. But in the Cooper series, that would not be my preferred order - I read them according to the chronological order of the series because that is what makes the most logical sense to me as it seems how the overall story would unfold.
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Post by afvolunteer on Jul 2, 2021 14:52:19 GMT -5
That makes sense but I’ve seen references that in the Narnia series, sometimes Lewis makes reference to things that, if you read in chronological order, wouldn’t necessarily make sense b/c you don’t know about it yet. Like it said, it’s clear that folks have varying opinions on it…I’m sure just like if you asked someone how to watch the Star Wars movies, people will have varied opinions.
Remembering again that pdl is himself such a huge fan, I was just curious what his take was.
I think Lewis himself sort of hinted that he recommended they be read in chronological order though (as you suggested), and not necessarily the published order.
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Post by cherokee04 on Jul 2, 2021 14:59:28 GMT -5
That makes sense but I’ve seen references that in the Narnia series, sometimes Lewis makes reference to things that, if you read in chronological order, wouldn’t necessarily make sense b/c you don’t know about it yet. Like it said, it’s clear that folks have varying opinions on it…I’m sure just like if you asked someone how to watch the Star Wars movies, people will have varied opinions. Remembering again that pdl is himself such a huge fan, I was just curious what his take was. I think Lewis himself sort of hinted that he recommended they be read in chronological order though (as you suggested), and not necessarily the published order. And for Narnia it may well be that the chronological order is NOT the best way, so I want to be clear to emphasize that I was only speaking based on the other series. I do find it interesting though that Lewis would hint that the stories be read in that order. If that's the case, why not publish them that way? Maybe he didn't have the overall plan mapped out in his head fully until after he had published some of them? Who knows. Interesting question though. Would you say they are still interesting enough reading for adults who aren't reading them to kids? I mean, yes I have a general knowledge of the overall story and the Christian symbolism and references, but do you think they are also entertaining/interesting for adults?
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