Oh I have advised all the stars on their life you’d be surprised with the stories I know, you are in safe hands with anything.
Great! Well I’ll be sure to open up and reveal all, to make most of it. I’m thinking about my first Dear Barry letter as we speak.
Can I just double check before I ask your advice about my escapades last night - there won’t be any moral judging like Hypo does, will there?
I never judge, I could tell tales about Bazza in Mississippi with a vileda super mop, a dry rubber glove and a selection of vhs Les Dennis videos…
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I understand that a hard copy is a difficult thing to do, but my main thinking behind this, is to grown the membership on Sotonian.com. I know several members that have joined, but have not taken part yet as in their words ‘there are not enough people on here’.
The forum has had 1 member join in a week, the most I have seen logged on at once is 11, but normally there are 5/6… At the moment 5 including me. We are not getting to the masses on Facebook and people of the ‘other place’ are not jumping ship. My main reason for the hard copy was that we reach the masses at SMS. The other of course is to leaflet around the ground and pubs before matches? Or are the owners of this forum not interested in growing the members. Personally, I think a forum works better when more people are taking part in discussion?
Anyway, I have said my piece, just let me know if I can help in anyway at all. I have a pretty good record of growing the ‘likes’ with my own businesses on Facebook, 1,000 + in 2 weeks.
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Originally posted by @Sfcsim
I understand that a hard copy is a difficult thing to do, but my main thinking behind this, is to grown the membership on Sotonian.com. I know several members that have joined, but have not taken part yet as in their words ‘there are not enough people on here’.
The forum has had 1 member join in a week, the most I have seen logged on at once is 11, but normally there are 5/6… At the moment 5 including me. We are not getting to the masses on Facebook and people of the ‘other place’ are not jumping ship. My main reason for the hard copy was that we reach the masses at SMS. The other of course is to leaflet around the ground and pubs before matches? Or are the owners of this forum not interested in growing the members. Personally, I think a forum works better when more people are taking part in discussion?
Anyway, I have said my piece, just let me know if I can help in anyway at all. I have a pretty good record of growing the ‘likes’ with my own businesses on Facebook, 1,000 + in 2 weeks.
Just because someone knows about us, doesn’t mean they’re going to sign up. And believe me, we are getting the Sotonians logo out there. The “This Is Anfield” skit I did was retweeted 42 times. God knows how many people saw it. Fair play, we’re not really comparing apples with oranges. A cheeky image is not a fanzine. It doesn’t necessarily let anyone know what we are, what sort of site we are and why we’re here. I perhaps need to do a bit better than this.
I’m not sure why there are questions being raised about membership strategy. I don’t agree with your assessment of signup rates (we’ve got over 110 in around seven weeks) and I’m not going to approve new accounts just to make the site look good if those accounts look unlikely to contribute anything worthwhile. If people genuinely are staying away because of numbers, let them stay away. I’m not sure I want anyone that shallow posting here anyway. I’d rather have quality over quantity, and pound for pound, I think we’re right up there.
I think you are taking my post in completely the wrong way. I am just trying to help. I am not questioning your strategy as I did not even know what the strategy is? Obviously if someone signs up from Nigeria, then you will not agree. I had this all the time with my Royston Forum that I had, which was ruined by street bloody life!
I was just pointing out that people in general like to have more people taking part in discussion and you are right, it is not the b all and end all of a forum.
I also fully agree that the place has a very nice feel about it, the reason I left the other side. Also they have some really wrong sorts in there, which also supports your point on, having the right people, but how you know what some are like (a part from counties that do not fit the Sotonian set up) before they have posted, is a mystery to me.
I have no doubt that this site will be a huge success and I was just putting ideas across, not meaning to offend.
Originally posted by @Sfcsim
I think you are taking my post in completely the wrong way. I am just trying to help. I am not questioning your strategy as I did not even know what the strategy is? Obviously if someone signs up from Nigeria, then you will not agree. I had this all the time with my Royston Forum that I had, which was ruined by street bloody life!
I was just pointing out that people in general like to have more people taking part in discussion and you are right, it is not the b all and end all of a forum.
I also fully agree that the place has a very nice feel about it, the reason I left the other side. Also they have some really wrong sorts in there, which also supports your point on, having the right people, but how you know what some are like (a part from counties that do not fit the Sotonian set up) before they have posted, is a mystery to me.
I have no doubt that this site will be a huge success and I was just putting ideas across, not meaning to offend.
My main reason for wanting to do a publication is to reach people that’ll never sign up for this site. There are plenty of them. During my SaintsWeb posting days, I used to ask people whether they posted there or even knew about it. 9/10 would say no to both questions, and that’s the largest site going. Consider how many Saints fans we know our own age, then consider how many of them are posting on an online forum. From our school, it’s just you and I. There is a natural limit to the amount of people that are going to be interested in signing up for a discussion forum. Not everyone feels comfy contributing, and some people won’t have written anything substantive for years. We tend to forget that.
In terms of how I know what certain posters are like, anyone that looks completely dodgy gets deleted. This is normally painfully obvious from inconsistent sign-up details and/or the email address that someone is using. Anyone that doesn’t fit that profile is normally approved without question. Anyone in between will get an email asking if they’ve signed up for Sotonians. If they don’t reply, the account is deleted.
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A point well put. As I pointed out many times on saintsweb, they do not have anywhere near the same opinions of people I go to SMS and away games with. Yes Saints fans, but it just seemed a different or parallel universe, where we had a different breed of Southampton fan to the majority that go to Saints games. Hence the DR.Who? User name.
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I know it was a different time, but most of the posters on the Ugly Inside at its height in 2001-2003, were season ticket holders at The Dell & SMS, but of course this was around the other way. The Ugly Inside was distributed before games in pubs and outside The Dell & SMS, at the height of fanzines (hard copies). The loyal following made it onto the original ugly inside site, before changing to a templated forum! At this point it lost at lot of its original following.
I misunderstood, I thought you wanted the forum to have the voice and a majority of people that go to Saints games and SMS. Thinking along the lines of the original Ugly Inside, with was a fanzine for the fans and the biggest at it time.
As I pointed out, this forum is more than just about Southampton FC, but it is the major part of it.
I will happily help out if required, so please bear me in mind, if you need help, or just to spend the word. Personaly I think the forum is a breath of fresh air and I really enjoy it in here. 
The main thing that unifies the forum is Southampton fans, although you’re right, the scope is a wee bit wider, and the membership reflects that. intiniki doesn’t give a shit about football, but she’s good enough to pop in and say hello every now and then.
Returning to the topic of a publication, a good first step would be getting a PDF document out on the web. If we can develop the skills to produce that on a regular basis, then print isn’t far away. PDF is at heart, a paper-based format. I tend to, and the industry tends to, believe that print has had its day - in line with what bletch was saying earlier. There are also questions like environmental responsibility to consider, along with the ramifications of what would then be a business enterprise.
Before we consider any of that, let’s see if we can get an issue together. It’s close season, so a collaborative pre-season preview might be in order. Walk before we can run, etc.
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It’s quite true. I don’t give a shit about football.
If there is a fanzine (I only ever see these in really arty places in London these days) what’s the logistics of it? Leave them in the local pubs, start being like a chugger at matches giving them out? Just intrigued.
Yes, they were sold in The Bedford pub at Bedford Place, sold outside the ground by supporters/writers/editors. It was even sold in HMV in the late 80’s early 90’s. There were a few other places it was sold as well around the town. Very football based, but this one would not need to be, more Southampton in general.