Mass Dispatch 25.0: New Look, New Forums/Titles

[Howard Mass]

Mass Dispatch 25.0

In this week's edition of Mass Dispatch...............

The Mass Matter Focus on our new look and Weeks 15 AND 16 of “Beat The Commish”

Ask Howard has strike questions and a concern about a Forum's Moderators not being around.

We then roll out our User, Thread and Moderator of The Week

“Inside The Administrator's Offices discusses adding and merging forums along with special ranks for Users.

Let's get right to The Mass Matter.................

The Mass Matter: Our New Look and “Beat The Commish” Week 15


Our New Look

A few weeks ago, I mentioned changes were coming to RealGM and they are now here.

We have had several redesigns to the site and our Forums in our 14 (My goodness I'm getting old) years. I even remember in the early days when my Orlando Magic Column was not visible anywhere on the site and I had to link people to it.

Now, usually when a redesign is done, many people are iffy or flat out do not like it at first.

Since we launched the new look, some have sent me private messages, tweets and E-Mails with their displeasure.

Whenever you have an update, there is always going to be some kinks and last night, dream34 stayed up most of the night after working all day to fix everything. He did an outstanding and we will continue to fix kinks that we see in the coming days and weeks. We also could make some adjustments so if you do not like something, it could change.

I'm just glad we did not move the profile section in each post to the right like was debated from the left to the right.

This is a work in progress and am still adjusting a bit myself. I ask everyone to give this some time and if you have any comments or feedback, please post them here


viewtopic.php?f=415&t=1362263

This way we can make the adjustment and possibly change things that you do not like.

We are working very hard behind the scenes to make all of the necessary adjustments.
For now, the best thing to do is to have a great holiday with your families.



“Beat The Commish” Week 15 AND 16

It was a bad week for The Commish in Week 15 but then a great week in Week 16

With 16 weeks in the books, The Users lead The Moderators in the season series 8-7-1 with one week in the regular season to go before the Playoffs.

Here is who “Beat The Commish” each of the last two weeks.

Week 15

Users

The Regime: 14-2
DK-All Day: 13-3
Greatness: 13-3
Hopping4Wiggins: 13-3
RIPskaterdude: 13-3
Slot Machine: 13-3
DEEP3CL: 12-4
ElectricMayhem: 12-4
hermes: 12-4
NyCeEvO: 12-4
WVU: 12-4
EArl: 10-6

Moderators

bondom34: 13-3
dream34: 13-3
Geoffrey P.: 13-3
kdawg32086: 12-4
studcrackers: 10-6

Week 16

NO ONE “Beat The Commish”

After a bad week, my 12-4 beat everyone. No one even tied me.

While I still trail a bunch of your overall standings, it is nice to get that victory.

Speaking of the overall standings, they are updated

viewtopic.php?f=437&t=1344849

WVU is leading the pack for The Users with a mark of 163-76-1 and Geoffrey P. and dream34 lead the way for The Moderators with identical 165-74-1 records.

The Regular Season User Title is still close with WVU only having a slight lead but this week will decide who wins The Moderator Regular Season Title.

I will unveil a Playoff Format Next Wednesday.

For now, please make your Week 17 Picks and please note that since there is no Monday night game, The Sunday Night game will be the one with the total points tiebreaker.


viewtopic.php?f=437&t=1362781



Ask Howard


Have a question about RealGM, The Forums, An Issue you would like me to address publicly or something in general, just post it in the Ask Howard Thread of The Mass Dispatch Forum or you could send me a PM and I just might answer it in my next column.

A User Whose Username I am Choosing Not To Reveal Asks: I thought I'd message and let you know of an observation I had concerning the ********* board. We have a couple moderators who rarely ever visit the boards. I'm not sure of what a moderator is responsible for on the boards, but I'd expect they would be required to be present to moderate at some point. I checked their last visit date and it doesn't have a date there. I'm guessing there is some cut off time that eliminates dates prior to a certain time period between posts, but I just found it odd that they hadn't posted in so long.

Having said all that, I guess I have some expectations about moderators and one of them would be some type of interaction with the board they moderate. It would be nice to have mods who communicate with their board. I look at them as leadership figures and role models for the posters on our board.

Regardless, I think it might be appropriate to appoint a couple moderators in their place who actively contribute. It would be nice to see some new names in blue at the top of our board.

Thanks for your time.

Howard's Response: This is an excellent question.

I expect Moderators to be active not just in terms of moderating but posting as well.

There are some Moderators who I have agreements with to be active only sparingly.

However, sometimes Moderators suddenly do become inactive at least in terms of posting.

This could be due to a number of issues including burnout as some Moderators need to have time away every now and then, a changing work schedule or needing more family time.

It happens but most of the time it comes down to a Moderator not admitting they have less time because they don't want to step away. This has happened to me too during my tenure at RealGm.

When I went away to college, I had to cut back but did not want to admit to our President and CEO Ryan Hoak as I did not want to let him down.. He knew better though and took me off of some things and truly am grateful to him for doing that. My college experiences was better for it.

While The Moderators should come to me when time gets tighter, at the end of the day, it is on me and plan to spend some of the holidays double checking to make sure each forum has enough Moderators.

Thank you for that wonderful feedback. It is much appreciated.

A Few Users Asked me via PM: Do I have a strike?

Howard's Response: Details are in the previous edition of Mass Dispatch

viewtopic.php?f=243&t=1360194

and you could also ask right here

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1360522



Mass Dispatch User, Thread and Moderator of the Week

It is time for our Weekly Awards. If you would like to nominate a User, Thread or Moderator for an Award, just make a post on The Mass Dispatch Forum or send me a PM.

Mass Dispatch User of The Week

KF10

memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=49138

When Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Malone was unexpectedly fired last week, KF10 who is a Kings fan made great contributions to both The Sacramento Kings and General NBA Board threads on the subject.

He is someone who I consider to be one of our best Users on RealGM and wanted to recognize for his contributions to both threads and the other RealGM forums that he posts on.

Congratulations to our RealGM User of The Week KF10!

Mass Dispatch Thread of The Week

Our Boston Celtics Forum's “Rajon Rondo Traded To The Mavericks Thread”

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1361509

While Mike Malone's firing was a shock last week, The Rajon Rondo deal was the talk of the league.

Before this, I had Dallas as my sleeper to win The Western Conference and this trade raised their stock out West.

The Boston Celtics were very mixed about this deal and many were expecting more of a return than a first round pick and some rotation places.

This trade shows how valuable first round picks are becoming in this league.

The thread is 44 pages long and has wonderful observations on the deal from our large Boston Celtics Community.

If you need something to read through the holidays, this would be a wonderful read.

Congratulations to our Boston Celtics Forum!


Mass Dispatch Moderator Of The Week

Boston Celtics Moderator Sully00

In the above thread, Sully00 made some wonderful contributions.

He is also a veteran Moderator who is part of our team of wonderful Boston Celtics Moderators.

Not only he give great contributions to the thread but he is an enforcer on the forum when needed so no one trolls or derails discussion on the forum.

I am happy to have him on the team.


Congratulations to our Moderator of The Week Boston Celtics Moderator Sully00!


General Off-Topic Board User Of The Month

Next Wednesday, The General Off-Topic Board User of The Month will be unveiled. Will hermes win it for a 4th straight month or will we have a new “King of The GOTB”?

We will find out next Wednesday.


Inside The Administrator's Office

I am always to enhance the experience for all of you on our Forums.

Most of the time it is policy that is not liked by all or a new design that everything is still getting used too.

With the New Year fast approaching, I would like to give everyone a chance to weigh in on the addition of a new forum to the boards.

Now, some are going to jump on this and say “Why open new Forums when some MLB, NFL and NHL Forums are not performing”?

While this is true, we have had success with our Soccer expansion, we have solid new fan bases on our San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys Forums and a very good Boxing and MMA Forum.

I still do hope to get the second phase of the navigation in place which should help traffic on some more forums.

Regardless, I would love to kick start the new year by giving a Forum a SubForum or creating a new forum here on RealGM. It is also possible that some forums will be merged although I am keeping details close to vest as I am discussing this behind the scenes with some Moderators.

What I am looking for is some Users to give some suggestions for a new forum (College team, Other Sport etc. or a sub forum (Ex: Off-Topic Board or something for a current forum).

On another note, I am planning to start awarding special titles to Users.

I am still contemplating which ones to add but if anyone knows of a User worthy of a special title, feel free to post it in this thread or shoot me a PM like most of you do.

All suggestions are welcome and am interested if anyone suggests any ideas. I look forward to your feedback.

On a final note, there was no Mass Dispatch last week because I only wanted to do one for two with the holiday week and choose mid-week to get two weeks of “Beat The Commish” in.

The next edition of Mass Dispatch will be published on New Year's Eve.

Contact Mass Dispatch

If anyone has a question, feedback, feel a user, thread or Moderator should be recognized or something they would like to see in Mass Dispatch, please post it on The Mass Dispatch Forum or send me a PM. You could even send me a note on Twitter @homassrealgm

[Sofia]

*or Queen of OTB, Howie

[EArl]

Props to dream for working hard on the site. Especially with fixing the view my post part which is a lifesaver to get around the forums.

[rtblues]

Site is faster, more responsive since the de-design and changes. Kudos!

[bondom34]

Congrats Sully and KF10!

As well, random thought for a subforum and I don't know if the traffic would be there, but maybe conference threads for college sports?

[Wolfay]

KF10!

[phoolishly_insane]

Where's the wiretap gone?

[Dry_Fish]

I kind of like this lay out after initially not

Appreciate the hard work behind the scene

[Gremz]

What else do you appreciate Dry_Fish?

[KF10]

Thank you Howard Mass for the recognition!

[jcsunsfan]

Still cannot get this site to work with tapatalk since the change.

[penbeast0]

*or Queen of OTB, Howie

I thought most of our users were female. Doesn't everyone use a picture of themselves as their avatar? (I do!)

[Revived]

I just wanna say while I have criticized the new looks redesigning of the forum, it has its positives also. I wanna give a shout out to those who put in the hard work in making it happen and to those who have been fixing problems as soon as posters bring it up in that feedback thread.

Good stuff, a very responsive team they have here on RealGM.

[Darius Miles Davis]

Any chance of Tapatalk compatibility coming back?

[LittleOzzy]

You know how I feel about this already, but I thought I would just throw the idea out there again.

Major League Soccer should have sub forums for each team. I'll gladly moderate them all and keep them active. The soccer forum is worth expanding, and I think MLS Soccer is the way to do that.

The General Board is very active, and will continue to be with soccer from around the world, but MLS should be expanded as this is primarily a North American forum.

The General Soccer Board
Wiretap Headlines Discussion
Articles Discussion
Polls Discussion
Chicago Fire
Colorado Rapids
Columbus Crew
D.C. United
FC Dallas
Houston Dynamo
LA Galaxy
Montreal Impact
New England Revolution
New York City FC
New York Red Bulls
Orlando City SC
Philadelphia Union
Portland Timbers
Real Salt Lake
San Jose Earthquakes
Seattle Sounders FC
Sporting Kansas City
Toronto FC
Vancouver Whitecaps FC

Plus Atlanta, L.A. and Miami in the future. How can you go wrong when the above teams link directly to our already existing NBA fan base.

[Driguez]

So, is Tapatalk ever going to work again? I have to be honest, I have not been as active as before due to Tapa not working.

[Driguez]

So, is Tapatalk ever going to work again? I have to be honest, I have not been as active as before due to Tapa not working.

Nevermind it's working (Android)

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