Dwindling HB Discussion Participation

[GIMNEPIWO]

Hinky ... You seem a bit thin skinned when recently you posted :

by Hinky » Sun Mar 11, 2018 9:41 am

Schmick wrote:
Not impressive seeing 180 pound woman hit a ball over a 210 foot fence with a drop 10 bat.
My son was doing that at 10 when he was 70 pounds


:lol: how pathetic are you that with all the video available you can watch numerous softball pitchers striking out pro baseball players you remain clueless
what a dipschmick!
Hinky

Now, in your defense; it seems that Schmick was, is or acted like a Troll ... Or, maybe he was just inexperienced and you pissed in his sandbox ... That being said; some of the banter on this site has always been a mix of some serious, some fun, some irony, some nasty and some brutal honesty ... All of which attracted me to the site ... No one called you out on calling the Schmick pathetic, clueless and a Dip Schmick (pretty funny).
I agree with the above responses from Spazdad and Jonriv as to the perceived attrition and causes on Heybucket ...Also, I am quite sure in the past we have all thrown jabs at each other with no or little offense taken ... There are some threads on this site that have become classics by the influx of humor, sarcasm or side roads.

[Hinky]

Hinky ... You seem a bit thin skinned when recently you posted :

by Hinky » Sun Mar 11, 2018 9:41 am

Schmick wrote:
Not impressive seeing 180 pound woman hit a ball over a 210 foot fence with a drop 10 bat.
My son was doing that at 10 when he was 70 pounds


:lol: how pathetic are you that with all the video available you can watch numerous softball pitchers striking out pro baseball players you remain clueless
what a dipschmick!
Hinky

Now, in your defense; it seems that Schmick was, is or acted like a Troll ... Or, maybe he was just inexperienced and you pissed in his sandbox ... That being said; some of the banter on this site has always been a mix of some serious, some fun, some irony, some nasty and some brutal honesty ... All of which attracted me to the site ... No one called you out on calling the Schmick pathetic, clueless and a Dip Schmick (pretty funny).
I agree with the above responses from Spazdad and Jonriv as to the perceived attrition and causes on Heybucket ...Also, I am quite sure in the past we have all thrown jabs at each other with no or little offense taken ... There are some threads on this site that have become classics by the influx of humor, sarcasm or side roads.

* great example able to add feedback with jabs-
* great example see how when people offer feedback you pick on them and not on the discussion...

absolutely fine with me if you don't agree with the way people treated in the discussions forums on heyB as part of the attrition.
another reason
possibly due to other softball
websites people are using.
there are certainly at least as many or more people involved in the softball community in the past 5 to 8 years.
Just not in the discussion forums on heyB.

[Under the Radar]

I also think part of the drop off is due to copy cat web sites. Almost every state now has their own version of HB.

There use to be a lot of back & forth with Texas teams and GA teams,

Anyone remember when the Comets were talking trash about how they were going to Rip up 12u USA/ASA Nationals in Normal IL.. When we were there they played Jessie's So Cal Jinx team in a practice game and there was about 300 fans all watching So Cal Jinx handle them. I think Power Surge won the entire event that year beating the Jinx in the final.
That was fun,.....

[stonehurler]

No disrespect intended jonriv, I am sure there was a time that this site was very informative. Like I said I am new and recent activity seems more like good old boys bantering. I will keep an open mind as I continue to follow.

[jonriv]

Perhaps you should add to the discussion.

Umpire/rule questions get a great response

Perhaps ask some questions you have asked your daughter’s coaches to see if the response is the same?

Maybe throw out something great you have seen?

[Battle]

The decline started when Skarp left for a while. I'm sorry but it's true. I BLAME SKARP...DAMN IT!

[jonriv]

The decline started when Skarp left for a while. I'm sorry but it's true. I BLAME SKARP...DAMN IT!

YES-that's what we need- a SCAPEGOAT!!!!!!!!!!!

SKARP did this!!!!!!!

He also raised interest rates today!!!!!!!

Everything wrong is SKARP'S fault!!!!!!!!!

[GIMNEPIWO]

The decline started when Skarp left for a while. I'm sorry but it's true. I BLAME SKARP...DAMN IT!

YES-that's what we need- a SCAPEGOAT!!!!!!!!!!!

SKARP did this!!!!!!!

He also raised interest rates today!!!!!!!

Everything wrong is SKARP'S fault!!!!!!!!!

That would be a SKARPGOAT ...

[dusty]

I noticed this thread while lurking last week and made a note to get back to it and throw in my .02 as someone who came in the early days and left. I left not just this website but all the softball sites about 5 years ago because I was mentally checking out from softball as I expected both of my dd's to quit after HS but my youngest surprised me by deciding she wanted to go through the recruiting process after her sophomore year and I began scrambling to make up lost ground. I think most who leave do so because they're dd's grew up and stopped playing more so than "sandbox pissing" because that happens on all the softball forums. This place just didn't get enough new posters to replace the retired ones.

The other websites out there are definitely more active but I don't think that necessarily makes them better. UCS is certainly more active naturally due to the fan interest in college softball but to me it starts to feel like a lot of empty calories after awhile. DFP has more activity from the younger rec/tb crowd but lost most of their most knowledgeable posters and has one or two too many water cooler heroes (particularly a mod). At least this place has remained undermoderated which I find a whole lot more preferable to overmoderated ones.

I see that since I lurked here last week Jonriv has taken it to task to start up a bunch of threads to stimulate some conversation. The thing is, these are all the type of things that are talked about on every other softball forum that currently have a small army of active posters participating. I remember starting a "when to go to travelball" thread here back in the day that went 3-5 pages and I don't think the current one will make it to page 2.

I'm not saying those kind of topics shouldn't be discussed here, and I admit I sucked at baseball so the X's & O's stuff tends to bore me, but it needs more of the kind of topics that made this place must-read in the past. Good and bad coaching/player/parent behavior, funny s**t that happened at nationals in years past both on and off the field, and of course this needs to always be the place where mess'n with Texas is strongly encouraged.

[Hinky]

I noticed this thread while lurking last week and made a note to get back to it and throw in my .02 as someone who came in the early days and left. I left not just this website but all the softball sites about 5 years ago because I was mentally checking out from softball as I expected both of my dd's to quit after HS but my youngest surprised me by deciding she wanted to go through the recruiting process after her sophomore year and I began scrambling to make up lost ground. I think most who leave do so because they're dd's grew up and stopped playing more so than "sandbox pissing" because that happens on all the softball forums. This place just didn't get enough new posters to replace the retired ones.

The other websites out there are definitely more active but I don't think that necessarily makes them better. UCS is certainly more active naturally due to the fan interest in college softball but to me it starts to feel like a lot of empty calories after awhile. DFP has more activity from the younger rec/tb crowd but lost most of their most knowledgeable posters and has one or two too many water cooler heroes (particularly a mod). At least this place has remained undermoderated which I find a whole lot more preferable to overmoderated ones.

I see that since I lurked here last week Jonriv has taken it to task to start up a bunch of threads to stimulate some conversation. The thing is, these are all the type of things that are talked about on every other softball forum that currently have a small army of active posters participating. I remember starting a "when to go to travelball" thread here back in the day that went 3-5 pages and I don't think the current one will make it to page 2.

I'm not saying those kind of topics shouldn't be discussed here, and I admit I sucked at baseball so the X's & O's stuff tends to bore me, but it needs more of the kind of topics that made this place must-read in the past. Good and bad coaching/player/parent behavior, funny s**t that happened at nationals in years past both on and off the field, and of course this needs to always be the place where mess'n with Texas is strongly encouraged.

so now we have feedback from someone who left and came back. noticed Jonriv 'stimulating' HB. only to find it is the same discussions found on other websites who have small armies participating. what you like are stories of people.
Hmmm? so if those same topics that bring armies of people to other websites are also on heybucket how come those people aren't coming to heybucket?

Noticed there are quite a few users on heybucket
in tryouts and instructors forums I don't see hardly any of those users additionally in discussion forums. maybe that's because their post username is there team/organization or name?
any thoughts on getting those people in tryouts and instructors over to discussions forum? Maybe post a little reminder in those forums to let them know discussion forum is active?!
"like those commercial breaks we get from heybuckethelper the gluv"