PonyFans.com

If you have been a visitor/poster on PFs for any length of time you know the traffic on here is at an all-time low. IMO, a couple of reasons are very obvious and maybe one reason not so obvious.

The true football/basketball discussions are mostly gone because there are a handful of posters who post on every subject and derail most threads (everyone knows who they are). Second, Scout is doing such a fantastic job with their coverage that I know a lot of former PF regulars now only visit Scout and have completely stopped coming to PFs. BTW, Scout's traffic is now about 5x the PFs traffic base on when I look at the current visitors.

I think PFs needs to attract more students to the site. I'm not sure if we have any current students who are regular posters?? I'd be nice to get a few flyers on campus promoting the site. That would cost next to nothing. Maybe a small ad in the weekly campus.

Anyway, just a few thoughts because this board is dying a slow death, and as someone who has been on here from the beginning I'd hate to see that happen.

Good thoughts LA. I think part of it too is closed practices and fewer people getting a look at what goes on. I have to say though that the feature stories done here by ponyfans are second to none. The Trumain Carroll in depth interview and story was better than anything I have ever seen on the pay sites, no doubt.

Very slow considering how close we are to the season opener.

Hoop Fan wrote:Good thoughts LA. I think part of it too is closed practices and fewer people getting a look at what goes on. I have to say though that the feature stories done here by ponyfans are second to none. The Trumain Carroll in depth interview and story was better than anything I have ever seen on the pay sites, no doubt.

Thanks — stories like that are really enjoyable to do. Glad you like them.

It's true that limited access has affected coverage of the team, so we do have to find more feature-ish stories. Once the season starts, however, traffic should pick back up, because people can share thoughts/comments/observations about the games. (I wasn't able to be at yesterday's scrimmage, but JasonB was there and sent me his notes — they'll be posted shortly. I'll be at next week's, and will have my usual report.) Preseason camp is the time when coverage is really limited. Until the first game, if you want to help spark traffic — which always is appreciated, at any time of year — feel free to start threads related to the team, the upcoming season, etc. Once the games start, we'll be able to ask more specific questions and get more answers.

Hoop,
I agree on the feature stories. Also, I believe PonyPride and Smoopower do a good job. I know this doesn't pay the bills for them and they do it because they love SMU.

I think it sad that we are only three weeks until the season kicks off and there are 28 people on the site (just looked). Scout currently has 238 visitors.

BTW HF, lets meetup during one of the games for a beverage and catch up. It's been a long time.

LA, maybe don't complain about what other people post when you start a thread discussing lack of traffic.

LA, I don't know but on scout I'd guess that's a total member who stay logged in count. Anyway let's try the Liberty game to say hello. I will probably be less festive and damn jittery before the tcu game. need to beat the frogs.

Sounds good. I know these are fun times for you and your family.

The Big 12 doesn't like slow traffic on boards of prospective schools.

1) Morris limits access to practice, so there are less daily stories.
2) Morris has installed a lot more rules about press coverage than in the past. PP follows the rules and doesn't post what he hears about in back channels. Scout does.
3) PP would never make arrangements with certain users to only post on his site.

Sometimes there are competitive disadvantages to playing nice and valuing your relationship with your alma mater.

Whatever happened to Mustangmaniacs.com? That kind of started this whole thing.

When I was on campus a handful of years ago I felt like few students even knew about PF. I only ever met one other guy. Either they read and don't participate or they're just unaware. Not sure how to market it to them but it would be good to get more blood.

As business goes - It is a heartbeat of competition. When the season starts - there will be more readers.

I don't have time to camp on computer from my 10th story office.

Now, how old is this site?

MM crashed and PF took off.

If you count the Russian spammers everything is ok.

JasonB wrote:1) Morris limits access to practice, so there are less daily stories.
2) Morris has installed a lot more rules about press coverage than in the past. PP follows the rules and doesn't post what he hears about in back channels. Scout does.
3) PP would never make arrangements with certain users to only post on his site.

Sometimes there are competitive disadvantages to playing nice and valuing your relationship with your alma mater.

Throwing some shade, huh? Lol