Site Suggestions and Contributor Recruitment

by sroufe on Nov 22, 2010 9:56 AM PST

In an effort to upgrade the website and promote greater "member" interaction, this post is reserved for answering the following questions:

1 - What do you like best about VTF currently?
2 - What changes or improvements would you like to see at VTF?

We are also looking for additional contributors, especially those of you looking to write about Cougar baseball and basketball. If you are interested in writing for VTF, please contact us at vanquishthefoe at gmail dot com. Also, writing a FanPost or establishing your own niched Cougar blog is strongly encouraged.

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I just discovered VTF

And I noticed that there aren’t many posts except for game threads. One way to make it more interesting would be to do game previews-if at all possible. And doing posts after games too would help. A weekly review post covering all sports would also make it more interesting imo. But making sure to add opinions, links to media sources, etc would help.

Here’s just a few things I think could help. Also look at other blogs to see how they do things to get ideas.

by sabbi on Nov 22, 2010 10:59 AM PST reply actions

Yeah, a daily media round-up would be a good idea, and probably a way to attract more readers.

You just need to be consistent about doing it. Maybe even something like M-W-F would work, if daily is too much.

Just a couple examples (taken from other sites I frequent) are the Rockpiles from Purple Row (they vary depending on the author that day and how much time they have or how much news there is—sometimes their mostly a roundup of links, other times they focus on a specific topic) or the Buff Bites from the Ralphie Report (this is mostly links with some quotes, I think).

As for how to get more people to find the site and participate regularly, I’m not sure. I’m willing to be there are BYU fans on SB Nation who don’t even realize there is a BYU site. I don’t really have any great ideas on how to spread the word around SB Nation or elsewhere. But I don’t think we can really rely on people just happening upon it.

by holly96 on Nov 22, 2010 3:15 PM PST up reply actions

Maybe the SB Nation higher ups have some tips gleaned from other successful site launches?

by holly96 on Nov 22, 2010 3:16 PM PST up reply actions

I was on SB Nation for a while before I discovered this.

So I bet there are some other BYU fans out there that don’t know about it. Maybe we could post on other BYU blogs to see if we could get more people that way?

by sabbi on Nov 23, 2010 9:32 AM PST up reply actions

This site is slowly dying

We have about 10 people who consistantly post on this site. I hate cougarboard it is so negative in general and condesending to our opponents. It feeds the image that we think we are a holy than thou fan base. I hope you guys can make this succeed as you have good balanced content most of the time. Markell’s stuff is fantastic on football. The other guys not so great. I would bag the other sports besides Bball and football as there is a small net of people who care.

by McGrubber on Nov 22, 2010 12:52 PM PST reply actions

I think you must not have been around when VTF started.

It’s not dying. It has never gotten much more traffic than this.

by holly96 on Nov 22, 2010 3:07 PM PST up reply actions

A slow period

There was a while where the head writers got really busy and the site had sporadic posting and they reached out to me to find some help with BYU writers during the summer. I didnt have any at the time. It takes time to build up a site and to get writers who are consistent. It just takes time.

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by Jeremy Mauss on Nov 25, 2010 8:08 PM PST up reply actions

i like the former players' posts best

Love coming here since the posts are relevant and there are some insightful articles. Obviously, the former players are great when they post and Chad Lewis, Vai Sikahema as well as Criddle and Staff are the posts I love to read the most.

I know those guys basically gave all of their heart, soul and body to the game and now there are more important things they can do with their time, but I basically scour the internet trying to find their tidbits because those are the posts that mean the most to me.

There are some serious fans out their like Mitch Harper, Seasider, ataylor, Haddow, etc who also have good insight and “insider” type info.

I don’t mind the site being less frequented because it means there isn’t as much fluff as cougarboard.

by kiyoshige on Nov 22, 2010 5:12 PM PST reply actions

Mitch

He is actually helping out on my site Mountain West Connection and when he writes it is good stuff, but lately he has been less active. He would be a good addition since has done a good job for me and that BYU is leaving the MWC soon.

Mountain West Connection The best site for MWC sports!
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by Jeremy Mauss on Nov 25, 2010 8:06 PM PST up reply actions

The best thing about VTF is...

very few trolls. I can’t stand the grade school stuff that goes between posters on some other sites. VTF only gets cougar fans talking cougar sports.

The worst thing is not enough fans, but they’ll come if we keep having interesting articles and more people willing to talk instead of lurking only. I’ve loved the articles from Staffieri during the season. Other writers have also have been great. Also, some really nice fanposts from regular posters I look forward to.

by 52therim on Nov 22, 2010 5:13 PM PST reply actions