WNBA forum visibility

[hermes]

on the drop-down basketball menu (on desktop), the wnba forum doesn't appear in the list. could it be added?

can the wnba logos be added to the favorite team logos list?

thanks

[Cassius]

Good suggestion

[hermes]

.

just making sure this doesn't fall through the cracks

[lobosloboslobos]

I don't understand why the WNBA is being relegated to its own forum. It seems to me be a mistake to not permit discussion of the WNBA or women's basketball on the General Board for several reasons.

Firstly, the GB regularly allows discussions of olympic basketball, european basketball, chinese basketball, ncaa basketball, g-league basketball and almost any other kind of basketball except the WNBA. Why is this OK? It seems like the GB is actually just for men's basketball, and not a general board for discussing basketball at all. So if that is what it is it should be named that.

Beyond this however, there is the much more important fact that this is precisely the time to allow WNBA discussions on the GB, when the sport is growing by leaps and bounds and attracting the interest of more and more basketball fans and RealGm and posters. Millions of people are embracing the women's game, and recognizing it is an exciting brand of basketball, and not some kind of lousy uninteresting game. But that growth has not fully taken root and still needs tons of nurturing. Let the GB reflect and contribute to that growing interest, let there be threads about the WNBA and its players as there are about players in so many other leagues. The media is full of those discussions and for good reason. why are they marginalized here?

You might think that you are honouring the WNBA by closing threads on the GB and encouraging people to go to the WNBA forum but that is not true. Instead you end up ghettoizing the WNBA, since very few posters will go out of their way to visit that forum. Whereas if you let WNBA threads onto the GB, by reading them, seeing highlights and discussiosn and interesting stories posted, many RealGM fans who are still not sold on the fact women's ball can be exciting will gradually become more interested in it.

There is no chance that the WNBA will crowd out the men's game on the GB, and if it ever gets to the point where that is remotely approaching then that will be the time to drive everybody to the WNBA forum. Not now. In fact, quite ridiculously, the WNBA forum isn't even in the menu. how does that make sense?

I'd like to hear what the admins and GB mods have to say about the WNBA and RealGM's relationship to it. Because at the moment the current strategy is not only not helping to grow the game but it's actually blocking it's growth, on realgm at least. I'm not trying to say this is intentional, but i do think it would make sense to get serious about trying to be part of the WNBA's growth. For one thing it could be a significant new market for RealGM. But also because it's the right thing to do. And lastly because it's happening with or without you (more viewers watched the NCAA women's title game than the men's last year), so why not let your users be an active part of it?

Here's one practical suggestion if you don't want to allow WNBA threads on the GB. What about adding and stickying a 'Latest WNBA threads" thread on the GB that would list say the weekly top 5 threads on the WNBA board, with links. That would be a great way to drive interest, traffic and discussion.

Anyway, my 2c.

[Jasen777]

on the drop-down basketball menu (on desktop), the wnba forum doesn't appear in the list. could it be added?

Was about to make this suggestion myself.

[cupcakesnake]

It's all on the docket. Mods can't control site admin at this level, but I've sent this feedback to Howard in the past and he's said it's in the works.

[cupcakesnake]

I don't understand why the WNBA is being relegated to its own forum. It seems to me be a mistake to not permit discussion of the WNBA or women's basketball on the General Board for several reasons.

Firstly, the GB regularly allows discussions of olympic basketball, european basketball, chinese basketball, ncaa basketball, g-league basketball and almost any other kind of basketball except the WNBA. Why is this OK? It seems like the GB is actually just for men's basketball, and not a general board for discussing basketball at all. So if that is what it is it should be named that.

Beyond this however, there is the much more important fact that this is precisely the time to allow WNBA discussions on the GB, when the sport is growing by leaps and bounds and attracting the interest of more and more basketball fans and RealGm and posters. Millions of people are embracing the women's game, and recognizing it is an exciting brand of basketball, and not some kind of lousy uninteresting game. But that growth has not fully taken root and still needs tons of nurturing. Let the GB reflect and contribute to that growing interest, let there be threads about the WNBA and its players as there are about players in so many other leagues. The media is full of those discussions and for good reason. why are they marginalized here?

You might think that you are honouring the WNBA by closing threads on the GB and encouraging people to go to the WNBA forum but that is not true. Instead you end up ghettoizing the WNBA, since very few posters will go out of their way to visit that forum. Whereas if you let WNBA threads onto the GB, by reading them, seeing highlights and discussiosn and interesting stories posted, many RealGM fans who are still not sold on the fact women's ball can be exciting will gradually become more interested in it.

There is no chance that the WNBA will crowd out the men's game on the GB, and if it ever gets to the point where that is remotely approaching then that will be the time to drive everybody to the WNBA forum. Not now. In fact, quite ridiculously, the WNBA forum isn't even in the menu. how does that make sense?

I'd like to hear what the admins and GB mods have to say about the WNBA and RealGM's relationship to it. Because at the moment the current strategy is not only not helping to grow the game but it's actually blocking it's growth, on realgm at least. I'm not trying to say this is intentional, but i do think it would make sense to get serious about trying to be part of the WNBA's growth. For one thing it could be a significant new market for RealGM. But also because it's the right thing to do. And lastly because it's happening with or without you (more viewers watched the NCAA women's title game than the men's last year), so why not let your users be an active part of it?

Here's one practical suggestion if you don't want to allow WNBA threads on the GB. What about adding and stickying a 'Latest WNBA threads" thread on the GB that would list say the weekly top 5 threads on the WNBA board, with links. That would be a great way to drive interest, traffic and discussion.

Anyway, my 2c.

I think these are all valid concerns and good insights.

All of this was discussed when we first started talking about a WNBA board several years ago. At that time, WNBA topics were a big problem on the General Board. There were a handful of WNBA fans, but for whatever reasons, WNBA topics would attract a ton of trolls. 90% of WNBA topics would get locked because of misogyny or at the very least too many people showing up only wanting to be like "why should I care about the WNBA?". For the few of us who legitimately wanted to discuss the league in terms of storylines and basketball, it was immensely frustrating. The need for a WNBA board (or some kind of women's basketball board) was clear.

Now some of the arguments you're making for keeping W topics on the General Board, are arguments you could make for every other board. On the General Board, we get Player Comparison topics, college topics, international basketball, current affairs topics etc. There is a large segment of the user base that only uses the General Board, because it has the most traffic and people want the discussion to involve all those people. For General Board mods such as myself, it can be a bit of an exhaustive task to know when to send OT topics to other boards. A topic may be current affairs in nature, but not fit into the culture of that board (or they already have a topic on that subject open). We try to strike a balance of not stifling conversation, but also not allowing the General Board to overrun or become the only board that gets used. It's same a team board stuff. We try not to let any one team have too many topics on the GB, but also acknowledge not every team board has the same level of activity and community. It would be pretty cruel if I constantly punted New Orleans Pelicans chatter to their team board, but for Raptors/Celtics/Knicks, team-ccentic moved topics will get even better traction on their team board.

Individual boards have their own cultures and communities and take time to build. The WNBA board is new, but has already seen its user base and activity more than quadruple in year 2. If you're a GB board user primarily, maybe it's annoying to go to the WNBA board, but that's still what mods are encouraging right now to grow that community. Speaking as a GB and WNBA mod, the moderator rules and requirements are different. We're not going to move every WNBA topic to the WNBA board, but any GB mod is well within reason to make that call when they see it.

I don't think you're correct about us "ghettoizing" or "blocking its growth". Last year, our season discussion thread went 12 pages deep the whole season (the playoffs got another 20 pages, and the finals thread got 20 pages). This year the season discussion thread is at 64 pages only halfway through the season. We're growing a community. We could get more activity on the General Board, but it's highly debatable that that's better for the growth of WNBA discussion in the long term. You can get cheap, fast WNBA discussion on reddit or twitter. Realgm has always been about quality discussion rather than quantity of posts/clicks. To me, having a designated board to grow WNBA community is a lot better than having the occasional high-activity thread on the GB. Also there is probably room for both. I'll mention some of your points to the GB mods and ask they have a longer leash with letting WNBA topics stay on the GB when it makes sense.

Despite the current name "General Board", the site admin has been consistent in its desire for it be the "General NBA Board" in terms of the activity they want to see there. This matters mostly due to the GB being on the frontpage of realgm's NBA page and how its users navigate the site.

Hopefully, the site navigation stuff will be resolved soon, and more users find it easy to use that board as the primary place for discussing that league.

[lobosloboslobos]

Thanks for the response. I get what you're saying. The misogyny and general condescension was always a huge pain. It does seem there's a been a sea change though all of a sudden. I'm not sure the whole 'can't watch they suck' dismissive pile-on would happen in the same way now. Or at least it would be a lot more balanced by appreciative and informed posts.

I don't think you're correct about us "ghettoizing" or "blocking its growth". Last year, our season discussion thread went 12 pages deep the whole season (the playoffs got another 20 pages, and the finals thread got 20 pages). This year the season discussion thread is at 64 pages only halfway through the season. We're growing a community. We could get more activity on the General Board, but it's highly debatable that that's better for the growth of WNBA discussion in the long term. You can get cheap, fast WNBA discussion on reddit or twitter. Realgm has always been about quality discussion rather than quantity of posts/clicks. To me, having a designated board to grow WNBA community is a lot better than having the occasional high-activity thread on the GB. Also there is probably room for both. I'll mention some of your points to the GB mods and ask they have a longer leash with letting WNBA topics stay on the GB when it makes sense.

Good stuff on growing a community. Though yeah, to help get people there it does seem like some overlap could have value for a while...

[cupcakesnake]

Thanks for the response. I get what you're saying. The misogyny and general condescension was always a huge pain. It does seem there's a been a sea change though all of a sudden. I'm not sure the whole 'can't watch they suck' dismissive pile-on would happen in the same way now. Or at least it would be a lot more balanced by appreciative and informed posts.

I don't think you're correct about us "ghettoizing" or "blocking its growth". Last year, our season discussion thread went 12 pages deep the whole season (the playoffs got another 20 pages, and the finals thread got 20 pages). This year the season discussion thread is at 64 pages only halfway through the season. We're growing a community. We could get more activity on the General Board, but it's highly debatable that that's better for the growth of WNBA discussion in the long term. You can get cheap, fast WNBA discussion on reddit or twitter. Realgm has always been about quality discussion rather than quantity of posts/clicks. To me, having a designated board to grow WNBA community is a lot better than having the occasional high-activity thread on the GB. Also there is probably room for both. I'll mention some of your points to the GB mods and ask they have a longer leash with letting WNBA topics stay on the GB when it makes sense.

Good stuff on growing a community. Though yeah, to help get people there it does seem like some overlap could have value for a while...

I also find it funny we finally got the WNBA board off the ground only 1 season before there was a significant culture shift amongst the broader audience and how they talk about the WNBA. The insane surge in women's college snuck up on most of us, and then finally intersected with the W when Clark and Rees entered the draft. It's no longer as "cool" to take the same kind of shots at women's basketball, because it's objectively a lot more popular now and everyone knows that. The numbers we've all heard attached to Clark's popularity is staggering, so it kind of wiped out a whole genre of joke, haha.

A couple years ago it felt urgent to find a safer home for Women's basketball discussion on realgm that wasn't the general board. There's some irony or at least coincidence at play here with a culture shift happening only one season later! All in all though, it's been great to watch the interest in women's basketball increase both on realgm and beyond.

[hermes]

any updates on this?