What are some ways which we can improve the Tennisrulz forums (to get more members)?

[Sean.J.S.]

There are so many little members here, which is such as shame because I really enjoy these boards.

What are some things we can do to attract more members?

Here are some ideas...

1. Create a better ATP section, including ATP player's forums. Yes I know I am pretty much the only ATP fan on these boards, but if we want more members, I think this would be a great idea.

2. Make changes to the WTA player's forums - organize it better. This needs to be done by changing the players which have forums, changing the organization of it in general and maybe have headings such as "Australian Players", "Russian Players", etc, so we can have more player's forums.

3. Tell people on other forums to come over to the Tennisrulz boards.

4. Have better moderation - especially in "Tennis Talk" and "Non-Tennis". Having spam everywhere isn't very attractive to people who are considering signing up. It's not the most important thing, but it is a good idea.

5. Possibly create an organized Video forum, with sub-forums of the players, or the date of the matches. We can also create a Games forum.

6. Possibly have monthly competitions on the boards, which the winner will win prizes.

Let me know if you have any ideas of how we can get more members!

[PierreC]

Love this thread, will come back later today to post mine...thanks Sean

[Davenport]

Yeah, great thread. We've needed this discussion.

1. I really don't like this idea, but I'm willing to give it a try.

2. Definitely!

3. I'm already doing that on every site I ever visit. :D So far I'm getting really good feedback.

4. But, I just went through those forums the other day and deleted all of the spam. Tons comes every day. There will be no stopping that, unless we manually check every user. (Lots of work!) Also, we need to take power from some moderators that have neglected to come here in a while. New moderators should be announced, and when the site grows, a few more. I think the staff need to have long discussions on who the mods should be. It's a big discussion!

5. WTAWorld will just love that. :D But yeah, it should be done.

6. Again, great idea.

Now my own ideas:
7 Pierre or I should restrict threads so that only registered users can view them. That way more casual visiters will be tempted to join. It's what happened to me on many other sites and I've joined almost every time. There's no doubt that this would bring in many new members! Since they are already logged in while reading the pages, the newbies will be tempted to post when they see an interesting detail or a comment they disagree with.

8 A new logo and color scheme. Obviously it will appeal to the eye(s)...

9Larger avs and sigs should be allowed.

10Good and bad rep points would be a lot of fun!

11 Virtual betting? I brought this up on another site years ago...

Anything else?

[Sean.J.S.]

Great ideas Dav. Please tell me if you can think of any more. The more the better. :)

[Sean.J.S.]

Some more ideas...

12. Have a wider range of smileys, like WTAWorld.

13. Create a "Chat Threads" section

14. See what people are unhappy about on WTAWorld and MTF and see if we can incorporate these things onto the Tennisrulz forums.

[Davenport]

Those are really, really good..especially the smilies. :D

Tati has one of the biggest forums on wtaworld and I'm really advertising this site. I can only post there when my computer allows me (WTF, I know) and I only have 20 posts there, but I have quite a few friends, so maybe they'll follow me here...

[Sean.J.S.]

Great! I'll advertise on MTF, I own a Chat thread there and know heaps of people. :)

Continue to add to the list, if you can think of more ideas.

[Davenport]

I'm attracting people from AnnaK's site too..

Yeah, I definitely will. The site will hopefully benefit greatly!

[Sean.J.S.]

Great! I'll advertise on MTF, I own a Chat thread there and know heaps of people. :)

Now I think about it, I won't do this as all of my friends on MTF are ATP fans and pretty match hate WTA tennis. But I will advertise once we get an ATP section...

[Sean.J.S.]

8 A new logo and color scheme. Obviously it will appeal to the eye(s)...

Do you mean new skins?

[Sean.J.S.]

15. Have different skins (if that wasn't what you meant by "colour scheme" - Dav)

16. Have multiquote available.

17. Minor: Get the clock time correct (when you post, it says what time the post was and it is out by 20 minutes or something)

[Sean.J.S.]

18. Not really a suggestion to get more members, but something we need to do when we do get more members: Be kind and funny to the new members, ask them about themselves (age, where they live etc.) and say to them "ask me if you need any help with anything on these forums".

19. Have an introductions sub-forum (I think there is already a thread, but a sub-forum would be great - inside Non-Tennis)

Also, we need to take power from some moderators that have neglected to come here in a while. New moderators should be announced, and when the site grows, a few more. I think the staff need to have long discussions on who the mods should be. It's a big discussion!

Hmm. I wouldn't mind helping out and being a moderator - I already do a lot for this board (such as starting this thread). But if you think I am too young/immature or something then that's ok as well. :)

Larger avs and sigs should be allowed.

This would be great, as after the upgrades on both WTAWorld and MTF, the avatar size has become really small, unless you are a premium member (which costs money).

[Davenport]

Yeah, I mean skins and also the picture above the forums.

[PierreC]

this is a pot of gold really...I'm looking into many of these suggestions. Just so you guys know, I'm out for Africa on July 11th, and while I have loved travelling and all, it has taken a toll on me in many ways. So when I come back, being at home for 12 straight months (except US Open and small weekend trips) will help a lot. Anyway, this discussion is VERY helpful. Will keep reading and bring my own comments asap

[Sean.J.S.]

Enjoy your holiday, Pierre. :)

[Davenport]

Have fun, Pierre. I am also leaving on Friday and will be gone for a bit. I will try to check in (from Florida), but I'm not promising anything. Pierre, do we need someone to watch the boards while we're gone?

[Davenport]

Well, just thought of one other idea:
20 More PM inbox/outbox room. On Kournikova.com I have room for 1,000, here 50....

[Sean.J.S.]

^ Good idea. On MTF and WTA World non-premium members can only have 100, so I think we should have at least 500.

Note: A good idea to get more members over here is to improve things which people dislike on MTF and WTAWorld. ;)

[Davenport]

Which are a lot of things. :D

[Sean.J.S.]

True, but the more the better. :)

[Sean.J.S.]

21. Allow images in signatures. :)

[Davenport]

Yeah!!! :D

[Sean.J.S.]

I got that idea after what you said under the "Technical Problems" subforum. :)

[Davenport]

I thought so, haha. I really need it. The link looks awful.

[Frank Riley]

How about Pierre paying attention to his staff when one of them provides a media reporter/photographer and gets a media press pass to an event. The event is next week we have not posted anything about the event and I have no way of posting news or a summary. Nice to know I can count on this site and Pierre when I stick my nick out and do something for the site. Maybe I need to just move on to a site that seems to care. Ya I am pissed.

[Sean.J.S.]

Which event, Frank? :confused:

[Sean.J.S.]

How about Pierre paying attention to his staff when one of them provides a media reporter/photographer and gets a media press pass to an event. The event is next week we have not posted anything about the event and I have no way of posting news or a summary. Nice to know I can count on this site and Pierre when I stick my nick out and do something for the site. Maybe I need to just move on to a site that seems to care. Ya I am pissed.

22. Better organization?

[Frank Riley]

The event that starts this weekend in Cynci City. And I have no way to report on it or submit a preview what the fuck is all I can say.

[Sean.J.S.]

Go to WTAworld then. I probably wouldn't post here anywhere near as much if I had a proper account on WTAworld...

[ThreeDT]

Well, I have experience in website design so thought I would leave my suggestions:


If the boards are not running phpBB software infrastructure, and if it’s possible, change/upgrade as soon as possible as it will become a lot easier to dispose of the spam messages with the add-ons it supports.:confused:
Definitely look into changing the sub-player forums’ structure. Maybe not getting rid of them completely like I have suggested before, but they certainly need to be changed to something other than ‘good looking female tennis players’.:p It’s not going to attract many mature-minded new members currently.
Ever heard of “Live Chats”? It’s where someone famous comes onto the board into a special thread and answers questions and generally chats to the members LIVE. Keep refreshing the page/s to keep up with conversation and if you post a message early enough the special guest will reply to it for all to see. I’ll drop some names for example, Jelena Dokic, Matthew Cronin, Aleksandra Wozniak, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Monica Seles, Billie Jean King, Larry Scott, I think you get the picture!:) I would chat to any of them and I’m sure some new members would too coupled with some clever advertising.
Start imposing some bans on trouble maker member.:mad: First give it a 2 weeks suspension and see what happens when he come back. If it keep causing trouble then that’s 6 months suspension! 3 strikes and, that’s LIFE!
Better blogs - again, phpBB.Possibly the most important thing (or the biggest problem), I think this website is yet to upgrade to what is standard for most message boards today – phpBB. It will provide possibilities which are endless for the site including most things that have been mentioned already.

[Davenport]

I ban quite a bit actually. Lately, there's been no one to ban. I allowed some users back and they have been fine since.

Also, the forums are decided by the popularity of the player's threads. Why make a forum for other players if no one will post in them?

I like the rest of the ideas though.

[Sean.J.S.]

Great ideas, James. :)

Also, the forums are decided by the popularity of the player's threads. Why make a forum for other players if no one will post in them?

We don't know that nobody will post in a player's forum, until we create it. The fact that players such as Henin, Mauresmo, Jankovic and Ivanovic etc. don't have a forum may stop some people from creating an account.

New people (without an account) won't even look at the player's threads - only the forums. They would be put off at the fact that their players don't have a forum and won't create an account.

[Davenport]

I thought about that too, but those players have threads. They have the chance to become forums, but have no fans here. Or virtually none...

[ThreeDT]

Couldn’t the same be said for every tennis player in the top 1000 ranks of WTA? Why is that? Probably because of lack of consistency, conflicting morals/cultures and unattractive prioritization of the player forums to MOST prospective new members.

I think it’s probably one of the main reasons for the growing lack of activity on these boards (among real members, not robots). I mean, numbers are down. Of the average 100 members currently online how many are actually human?

Example: What's the differnece between Tatiana Golovin's Forum and Svetlana Kuznetsova's?

[Sean.J.S.]

James I don't get what you're trying to say. :confused:

[ThreeDT]

All I am saying is, where is Nadia Petrova's Player Forum!? and please don't tell me she's got no fans because that simply isn't true... oh, but she's got a player thread! WOW I can goto the tennis talk section and make another one too.

Petrova's fans are not here (she's not the only one either), and it's no wonder why they're not. Tennisrulz don't care about those other players.

[Davenport]

What I'm trying to say is that those players and their threads have the options to become forums, but members rarely/never post there.

Nadia does have fans, of course, but not many virtual fans! Look at WTAWorld's section for her!

But I do think the system should change, yes. Do you suggest a WTAWorld-esq. style?

[Sean.J.S.]

What I'm trying to say is that those players and their threads have the options to become forums, but members rarely/never post there.

But as I said earlier, they don't post there because they look to see if their favourite player has a sub-forum, and if they don't, they will leave and not sign up. They won't even bother looking to see if they have a thread under "Clijsters, Petkovic & more."

And therefore we get a false illusion that those particular player's would not have a successful sub-forum just because their thread isn't successful.

[Davenport]

But as I said earlier, they don't post there because they look to see if their favourite player has a sub-forum, and if they don't, they will leave and not sign up. They won't even bother looking to see if they have a thread under "Clijsters, Petkovic & more."

And therefore we get a false illusion that those particular player's would not have a successful sub-forum just because their thread isn't successful.
That is very true. Probably the case.

[Frank Riley]

How about getting an effective staff team because I do not see one and I see no communications going on at all. What has become of the site and the dream?

[Davenport]

I think the staff has been mentioned four times, Frank. We need more mods and to get rid of others.

[Sean.J.S.]

How about getting an effective staff team because I do not see one and I see no communications going on at all. What has become of the site and the dream?

What dream? :confused:

[Davenport]

What dream? :confused:
I'm guessing the dream of having a hugely popular site.

[Sean.J.S.]

^ Ok. We need to do something relatively soon about this site, over the next few months I think...

[Davenport]

Very soon...WTAworld is getting big(ger) and fast. Soon there will be no WTA fans left, haha.

[Sean.J.S.]

Do something about it now then...

[Davenport]

Well, I can't. Pierre is the admin.

[Sean.J.S.]

Ok, but my fear is that we will just forget about this ideas and this will become a dead thread, nothing will happen to improve this forum and no members will come...

[Frank Riley]

I agree and I will keep saying I want something better until we get something better. Pierre knows exactly what I want, it is about time he did something about it.

[Sean.J.S.]

Bump. Let's get starting with the board changes. It's now or never.

Let's start with a better ATP section. :)

[PierreC]

Ok, I'm on board now, am back and not leaving for any trips, this will become a very alive topic, believe me (or let me prove you wrong if you don't which is fine as well:))

[Sean.J.S.]

Ok. So, shall we discuss what we will do to the ATP section?

[Davenport]

All right, I'm back. We should get to work.

[PierreC]

Indeed, I'm open to discussions on here, in private with mods, and by email/pm with you Davenport, we've got lots to work on:)

[PierreC]

great to have you back Davenport:)

[Davenport]

Thank you. :)

Sorry again for my lack of posts but I was really, really busy. School is a huge priority so I, of course, have to apply myself. But I'm ready to work now. :)

[Sean.J.S.]

Welcome back Dav. :)

[Sean.J.S.]

Ok...I think we should start by deciding the player's forums which we want (for ATP).

How many are we allowed, Pierre (for ATP)?

[PierreC]

Do you think we all agree that we should have some?? Is that pretty much a given?

[Davenport]

Thanks, Sean. :)

Well I never liked the idea of having more than the ATP forum we have now, but it's definitely worth a try. Right now we're only bringing in WTA fans, so maybe this change will help.

[Sean.J.S.]

Yeah, it's definitely a good idea...(maybe I am being biased because it's my idea but oh well :p) And it's not like we are taking away the WTA section and making this an ATP tennis messageboard.

Well it's up to you. It's your website so if you don't want to have an ATP section then that is ok. But realistically, it will get us a LOT more members.

So how many ATP player forums are we allowed, Pierre?

[PierreC]

How about we had 5 to start? And yeah I think it could be a good idea, over the years Tennisrulz has gone from about 0% visitors on ATP sections to close to 40% I'd say...

[Davenport]

If we were to make the forums, we should still keep tennisrulz.com and the forum primarily WTA, like the tournament forums.

And for the five, who would you guys think?
-Roger Federer
-Rafael Nadal
Those two are a given
Then Safin, Gasquet, and because he has a lot of fans: Roddick.

It's hard for me to pick them, so what do you guys think?

[PierreC]

Federer and Nadal for sure, Roddick I guess is a given, I like the two others but am open to suggestions like Safin Djokovic, Murray, Gasquet etc... and then we'd have for sure other players like on WTA, do you agree?

[Sean.J.S.]

Well here are my picks for the player forums (if we have five to start off)

Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Roddick and Safin and we also can have "Other Players" (as Pierre suggested) where we can just create threads of other players. :) Is that ok?

[Davenport]

Oh yeah, I forgot Djokovic.

Well, that all sounds good to me. :)

[PierreC]

ok, I will try to add the section today or tomorrow, that was one quick and easy step! By the way, today I'll also try to order enlargements of photos for the winners of the last contest, I feel terrible it's been so long but better late than never right?

[Davenport]

You're fine, Pierre. :p

[PierreC]

Ok, trying to add the ATP players section, running into a few technical problems, should be resolved today...:) Thanks Dav!

[Sean.J.S.]

Thanks very much Pierre! I would also suggest that you rename "Players forums" to "WTA Players"...because I think that is where we should have the WTA players, and you already had "ATP Players" below. :)

[PierreC]

indeed, will do tomorrow when I add Nadal! Thanks for the suggestion

[Sean.J.S.]

Awesome. :)

[Sean.J.S.]

Are the Roddick and Safin forums still coming?

[PierreC]

yep..:) Just added Andy forum!

[Sean.J.S.]

Awesome. :) Thanks very much. :D

[PierreC]

Safin should be up by tomorrow!!

[Sean.J.S.]

Ok. And then maybe we can make a few changes to the WTA players section?

[PierreC]

Yes, first thing I was thinking is putting Gullickson sisters back into other players category?

[Davenport]

Todd might be a littler unhappy, but I'm really all for that. They should be replaced by Ivanovic, IMO.

[Sean.J.S.]

Yep, Myskina and Molik should go to the "Clijsters, Domachowska, Petkovic and more" which IMO should simply be renamed to "Other Players" seeing as Clijsters is retired and I can't remember seeing a Domachowska or a Petkovic thread. :)

[Sean.J.S.]

Yeah and we need to decide who should get a subforum as well...definitely Ivanovic...and who else? Maybe Jankovic, Vaidisova or Henin? After all, she is the No.1 and she does actually have quite a lot of supporters on WTAw...

[Davenport]

Yeah, that all sounds good, Sean.

Even though I really don't like her, Serena needs a forum...Venus too.

[PierreC]

ok Carly and Chelsey are back in the sub-section, did not add anyone yet (wanted to have 1 less), will probably take down Molik next)

[Sean.J.S.]

Yeah, Serena and Venus should get forums as well...

[Sean.J.S.]

Also, create "Other Players" under the "ATP Players" so we can create threads of other ATP players.

[Sean.J.S.]

Can Lucie somehow get a forum? I will keep it updated a lot. :p

[PierreC]

I could see that happening soon... I'm personally a big fan of Lucie:)

[Sean.J.S.]

Hooray. :D

I don't really think Nadia deserves a forum at the moment though...not enough fans lol.

[PierreC]

ok other players added, next up will be replacing Molik/Myskina, do we all agree on Ivanovic? She is quite a star, but let me know

[Frank Riley]

I have to say it again, when will we slide Dokic lower? Its time to move on. Very sorry to see Myskina go so fast as well. I think Myskina was the one I liked the most.

[Frank Riley]

My suggestions:
We add the following to the main section:
Vaidisova, Tchakvetadze, Ivanovic, Jankovic.
We dump the following to lower sections for all players:
Harkleroad, Pierce, Dokic, Molik.
Keep in mind Dokic fans can still post about her in a lower section.

I also suggest we make sections for Henin and the Williams sisters to attract other members.

Just my thoughts!

I have to say the mens sections look great and add a lot of interest to the board so we need to give Pierre credit for doing that. We need to move into the future and be able to let players go as their careers vanish in the sport. Keep in mind tennis players come and go all the time it is normal. Also, we need to look at tennis players for their skill and not always for their looks.

[PierreC]

we'll go gradually, thanks for the good words Frank, we'll see... for now Jelena is the main section, so can't see that happening but you never know...I agree on players that need to be added and mostly those who need to be taken out, thanks again to everyone for their involvement in this thread.

[PierreC]

Molik forum has been moved to "Other players"

[Sean.J.S.]

Please don't move Pierce to Other Players. :( I promise I'll keep it alive when she makes her comeback. ;) And don't even think about moving Dokic! :eek:

And yes again, it's good to have the Williams sisters and Henin having a forum...

[Sean.J.S.]

And yes I agree that Molik should be replaced with Ivanovic...:)

[Frank Riley]

Keep in mind that even if a player is moved to the lower sections if they come back and they start playing and become exciting again we could move them back to the top into the main section.

[Sean.J.S.]

Yeah but she's returning in a few months so what's the point...

And by the way, thanks for the ATP Section, Pierre. :)

[Sean.J.S.]

Also...I really don't think Camerin, Strycova, Martinez and Krasnoroutskaya should be in the "Other Players"...we should replace them (or at least two of them) with more active players...

And can we please have an Ivanovic forum, Pierre? :)

[PierreC]

should have Ivanovic forum on by tomorrow:)

[Sean.J.S.]

Ok thanks. :)

[Frank Riley]

Pierre time to get going on a restructuring of the board, like you don't already have enough work but I agree there are players that are inactive that can be moved.

[PierreC]

Ivanovic is now up:)

[Frank Riley]

Cool.

[Sean.J.S.]

Ty Pierre. :)

[PierreC]

next step, hopefully this weekend, is a software upgrade, which will help with a few things like spam I think. Slowly but surely things are improving:)

[Sean.J.S.]

Awesome. :D By the way, I'm going to Wimbledon next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :):):)

[Sean.J.S.]

PierreC you should include a section for junior players on tennisrulz, help us get to know these players

Good idea. :)

[Frank Riley]

I was hoping for a way to write articles about off court rumors and things going on with the players that might be of a little gossip type news, whos seeing who, who is in trouble, who is great and who is not so great at the moment, what happened to this player, who is on drugs, who is nuts and so on. There is always news of this type and I follow it and people want to read about it but I do not have a place to put it.
As for members on the board we have a communications issue that needs to be corrected and it starts from the top down. I have ideas but with out communications I see no way to help this problem. Currently, the membership is gone and the board is floating with only one or two members even posting. I have asked before and never seem to get anything done.
ONE LAST ISSUE AND I HAVE SAID IT BEFORE! I am going to say this directly, I see no reason why I should write articles for this site when I have no way of posting those stories because Pierre controls that posting and does not let members do it. The problem is it can take days to get Pierre's attention and by then the story or article you write is worthless and old news. Pierre if you wonder why I no longer bother sending you stories or information its because it does not get posted, or it gets posted many days later and in most cases I do not get credit for the news anyway. So I say to myself why bother at all. Does no one care, does Pierre care, as I see it NO!

[Sean.J.S.]

Pierre, it would also be cool to have flags next to each username, of the country which they are from, like MTF and WTAworld...

And have you done this software upgrade yet?

[Sean.J.S.]

Also, Hingis should be moved to "Other Players" seeing as she has retired, and she should be replaced in the main section by...Lucie Safarova! :) If that's ok...

[Frank Riley]

Chakvetadze is who I want to see on the main board.

[Sean.J.S.]

Game on, mole. :cool:

[PierreC]

The upgrade of software should come this weekend or perhaps tonight, will see. Then on to other ideas:)

[Frank Riley]

Is that going to require the site to go down? Another long night for poor Pierre.

[Sean.J.S.]

^^ Thanks Pierre. :) Things are really improving on this board...

[PierreC]

Hahaha, yeah it might be another tough night. I did purchase the upgrade, just need to set a time for me to actually do it:) Will keep you all posted, can't wait to get to other steps (upgrades is far from my favourite!)

[Sean.J.S.]

...

[PierreC]

...?:)

I tried a quick upgrade which didn't work, will work on it perhaps tonight... hopefully I'll have better luck!

[Frank Riley]

Everyone needs to record their start dates and number of Post before Pierre destroys those records when he stays up all night trying this.

[PierreC]

hahhaa thanks for the vote of confidence:)

[Sean.J.S.]

Oh ok. Good luck with the upgrade. :)

[Sean.J.S.]

Pierre I am having trouble posting under some threads, such as Irena Pavlovic's thread under "Other Players". It won't work! Can you fix this? I'm assuming it is part of the upgrade problem...

Thanks. :)

[PierreC]

what kind of problem are you getting?

[Sean.J.S.]

I posted it here: http://tennisrulz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7692

Basically, it happens in some threads (this started a few days ago)...I think it's only under "Other Players".

[PierreC]

sorry for the delays, I'm hoping to work on the upgrade this weekend..!

[Sean.J.S.]

No problem...

[Sean.J.S.]

Is it done yet? If you are having trouble...can you please change the avatar size? I think it should be the size that premium members get on MTF and WTAworld...except for all users, without paying to become a premium member...the size of those avatars are 144x168px.

Thanks. :)

[Sean.J.S.]

Pierre?

[PierreC]

sorry Sean, will look into this asap:)

[Sean.J.S.]

Thanks. :)

[PierreC]

this should work now:)

[Sean.J.S.]

Thanks sooooo much, Pierre! :D Big avatars look so much cooler. :)

[PierreC]

indeed...that Jelena pic looks great!!

[Sean.J.S.]

Yes, it does. :) Have you done the software upgrade yet?

I think our next step should be to have different coloured skins to choose from...

[Davenport]

Just to add to our long list of ideas:

Sig pics? I may have said this already but I'm too tired to go look for it. :D

Thanks for all of the work you're doing, Pierre. :)

[Frank Riley]

It has been so long Davenport where you been?

[Sean.J.S.]

Yes Dav, I would like sig pics also. :)

[Davenport]

It has been so long Davenport where you been?
Well, I got really busy with my classes as they are very demanding. Then illness and nonstop chaos from the holidays followed making things even harder for me. If that wasn't bad enough, I got a much worse illness in the last week and other small issues made things much harder so it hasn't been the easiest of times, but things are looking up now. :)

[Sean.J.S.]

I'm sorry to hear that, Dav. I hope you are better now. :)

[Sean.J.S.]

Why am I the only one who changed their avatars so they're bigger? :confused:

[PierreC]

off-season I'd say...but 2008 will bring lots of bigger things. By the way, I'm back and ready for 2008, lots coming:)

[Sean.J.S.]

Great. :) I can't wait! Sorry to add to the big list, but I think one of the most important things to do next is get more (and better) smilies.

[PierreC]

don't hesitate to add things to the list, I'll probably be adding a few of them at once, so the more, the better:)

[Sean.J.S.]

Great. :)

[Sean.J.S.]

Are we going to make any other changes? This is going pretty slow no offence.

Did you ever even do the software upgrade?

[Sean.J.S.]

Hello...?

[Davenport]

I think Pierre understands that you want a change.

[Sean.J.S.]

Really? Well in that case he should actually make some changes.

[Davenport]

I agree, but you have to understand that Pierre is very busy with other things outside of this forum, as am I. I'll speak for myself in saying that I have recently gotten so involved in many things that consume all of my time and that's why I was gone for a month and probably why Pierre has not updated. It's not an excuse when you are in charge of a forum, but it is the God's honest truth and if you don't believe me or accept the fact that my life is hectic, than fine, but it is what it is. I'm sorry for my absence, but do you have to keep attacking me (in the other thread)? I did so much for this site when I was here and I leave for a month and suddenly I'm not one to trust and not deserving of my position as mod?

[Frank Riley]

Here is the truth Pierre only spends an hour per day doing the site, how much time does that give him to actually do anything, I have been here for about 7 years, have I notice changes, to be honest there was years ago but in the past 3 years, not really. For the site to grow and be respected a lot more needs to be done and we need members. Facts are facts and we can not blame Davenport because the truth is Pierre holds all the cards here.

[PierreC]

I agree, point taken and deserved... am back and hopefully can get things moving

[Sean.J.S.]

That's good to hear...

[Frank Riley]

It takes hard work Pierre but you do have some good people here and we have talked about this a 1000 times. You need to make it easier for people to write for you and get the stories posted. I have so many times come up with stories and written things only to have them wasted because you did not get them on time or just did not check messages or the mail. So why bother unless I can be sure it gets posted. You also have a great guy in me that can get you press passes with a history of getting passes for people. Currently Davenport could get one and he sounds interested but I would have to get him the credential and then what, how can I be sure you will get his stories posted. In the past I sent a guy to an event and none of that was posted until a week after the event ended, Just to let you know the events check each credential and the stories they are writing and posting each and everyday. How do I know. I was in the press office in San Diego watching them do just that each day at the Acura event. They read every story being posted. Its all about getting people to buy tickets, if you can not do something for them then why be there at all. You have only a hand full of members at this point and they are sharp and good people give them something important to do on the site and stop doing it all yourself, there are ways to give staff the ability to write directly on the site and get things done. Pierre to much talk and no action.

Do I have to hold my breath this time, I hope not because I might die before something actually gets done around here. And you might wonder why I stopped writing for the site? Get it together if you want it to be something.

[Sean.J.S.]

**Sigh** Yes it's true, Frank. Pierre needs to get a move on.

Even simple things, such as moving the tournaments along as the weeks go by, is a joke. Dubai is under "upcoming events" yet it finished almost a week ago.

If Pierre is too busy, then sorry, he is not eligible to run a forum, simple as that. If that is the case, then Dav should get administrator rights or something so he can do something. At least he is showing some sort of interest...

[PierreC]

I agree on most points and will shortly present a plan, in the meantime please give up a bit of a break guys. I plan on taking a full day off from work to work on the programming aspect of it, mainly to give you guys the possibility to publish articles without my intervention, as Frank has (rightfully) been asking for. I agree, it is well overdue, and I appreciate the patience and comments very very much, I mean it. Now just keep this thread alive, I'll do my best for you to start seeing changes lately. I'm catching up right now (have been for a week), but the effects are not visible yet...

[Frank Riley]

Okay Pierre I will give you a break on this to give you time to do it. Here is a good example of breaking news we have not covered:

Anna Kournikova dumped in Sacramento
by Frank Riley
The Sacramento Capitals a WTT team in Sacramento, California has just dumped Anna Kournikova in a trade deal with Saint Louis. It is more than likely that Kournikova with a rather poor performance and never being able to play singles just did not help the Capitals cause to be the #1 team in World Team Tennis, it is also common knowledge that Kournikova was no longer a draw for Sacramento tennis fans as she is not the interesting athlete she once was. My observations of Kournikova at the Capitals events the past few years brings the following observations, she is way to thin and that makes her hard to watch, second for a celebrity she pretty much was almost awkwardly unnoticed and not a factor for the Capitals, she was not exciting and the seats were not full, all signs that in truth the current Anna Kournikova is not a shinning star in Sacramento.

[Sean.J.S.]

Sooo...let's get a move on! Start by creating some more skins. I hate this fugly green one!

[Frank Riley]

Well the green was hot stuff when it was changed to it but I do agree 100% lets get moving, PIERRE.............???

[Sean.J.S.]

Meh I've always thought it looks rank!

[Frank Riley]

Then I suggest you come up with a better color and get after Pierre, I think the original Idea was that tennis courts have green on them, but in truth today more of them are blue, I think in the USA most hard courts are green. I play on green but here is the deal, Pierre is a young man that started all this when he was in school, and he worked very hard on it. The last few years Pierre has been in the work force so his time is limited, so he does not have the time like he did before. He needs so badly to release some of the controls of the site over to those he trust so we can help him. Overall the site is very large with news pages for most players and someone has to update those as well. So I have to say Pierre works hard but on the other hand there needs to be a solution.

[PierreC]

absolutely. A new design is in the plans but maybe not just yet. Other steps will be higher priorities such as giving more control yes, and upgrads, etc... I'm actually doing my "to do" list right now so this thread will be really useful.

[Sean.J.S.]

Ok no problem. And I don't mean that we completely abolish these green skin. We can have a choice of which one we want...maybe we can add two new skin colours (so three in total)?

[PierreC]

good idea yeah, the default might not be green anymore though...!

[PierreC]

by the way, I just completed a first upgrade of the forum software, next one will hopefully be done within the week, which would mean it would be up-to-date. That was step #1..!

[Sean.J.S.]

good idea yeah, the default might not be green anymore though...!

Awesome!

by the way, I just completed a first upgrade of the forum software, next one will hopefully be done within the week, which would mean it would be up-to-date. That was step #1..!

Cool! It looks nice. Keep it up, really! Don't stop! :D

[Frank Riley]

Pierre keep us posted on what is going on so we can help if we can.

[Sean.J.S.]

I agree.

Could we also make the avatar size bigger? I don't mean in terms of the actual size when you look at it, but when I try to steal some avies from WTAworld it says that those are 40KB or something whereas the limit is 10KB for here or something? Can you somehow bring it up to 50 or 60KB?

Thanks!

[Sean.J.S.]

Two more ideas...

1. Flags to the left of our usernames would be cool (the country which we're from).
2. Maybe below where it says "Location:" below our avatar, it could have "Favourite Tennis Player:". Just an idea which WTAworld or MTF doesn't have which could be interesting.

[PierreC]

will look into those this weekend, thanks so much!

[Davenport]

I like those ideas, all good ones.

[Sean.J.S.]

Oh and don't forget signature pics. Dav and I really want that! :p

Sorry to keep bombarding you with ideas, Pierre!

[Sean.J.S.]

Hmm...under "General Talk" there is "ATP Tennis" but now that we've created some ATP Player's forums...maybe this should be deleted/moved? I can't think where though...or maybe a better idea could be to rename is to "ATP General Discussion" and rename "Tennis Talk" to "WTA General Discussion"...something like that.

Of course you don't have to agree with me, it's just a suggestion. After all, this is your forum, Pierre.

[Frank Riley]

Okay all good ideas, but stop kissing Pierre's butt, he needs to get on the ball working on this and how can he work if his ass is getting kissed all the time. Get to it Pierre:p

[PierreC]

hahaahah yeah, like the ideas. I'm going to be working on that tonight as well as a little work on giving you the ability to publish yourselves on Tennisrulz (which is a bit more complex), will keep you posted

[PierreC]

Hmm...under "General Talk" there is "ATP Tennis" but now that we've created some ATP Player's forums...maybe this should be deleted/moved? I can't think where though...or maybe a better idea could be to rename is to "ATP General Discussion" and rename "Tennis Talk" to "WTA General Discussion"...something like that.

Of course you don't have to agree with me, it's just a suggestion. After all, this is your forum, Pierre.

done!

[PierreC]

by the way guys, the software is now "up to date", which will help me tons in terms of improving stuff...will keep you posted

[PierreC]

by the way, still have loads to do but I just did some prety big upgrades to avatar sizes and signature length... let me know your thoughts...

[Frank Riley]

Go Pierre GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

[Sean.J.S.]

Wow! Keep it up Pierre!

During the holidays (which start in a weeks time) I'm going to try and make avatars for all the players who have forums...ATP and WTA. I'm aware that nobody will use them but it can't do any harm I guess.

PS. Frank your avvy is huge. xD

[Sean.J.S.]

Pierre can you make the siggy pic size bigger? Just looking at a forum which I used to post on (to compare signature sizes), they have 800 by 400 pixels...500 by 100 pixels is really small, no offence!

Also, editing a title in a thread doesn't really work...can you fix that? When you actually go into the thread it's changed but when you are just in the subforum and searching through the threads, the title doesn't change...

Thanks!

[Sean.J.S.]

Just another two ideas...

1. The link to the Forum on the www.tennisrulz.com page could be a little more obvious as I'm sure lots of people go to that page but don't search hard enough for that tiny link which says "Forum". Any ideas what to do about it?

2. It's annoying having to press that button for the quick reply. It would be cooler if it was just automatically able to type in!

[Davenport]

Things are looking great, Pierre!

Can you send me a PM explaining a few features, please?

Thanks! :)

[Sean.J.S.]

By the way the pop-ups whenever you go to www.tennisrulz.com/forum are quite annoying...can you get rid of these, Pierre?

[Sean.J.S.]

1. I also like it how on WTAworld and MTF they have the "Livescoring" thing where everybody can post live scores...experience heart attacks with each other, etc. :D
Except I hate it how with them, they have all the matches in one thread. It would be cool if under each tournament...eg. "Wimbledon", then we can click on a subforum into that which is "Livescoring" which we create threads for each match in the tournament.
It'll be cool once we have more members. May as well start it now! :p
Btw I know the members aren't exactly flowing at the moment but once we fix everything up, then we can start advertising, etc. We're still only 2% of the way there at the moment...

2. I also like it how on WTAworld and MTF, under your username (for me it says "Senior Member") you can type some sort of message, I'm assuming done from the User CP.
Thanks!

[Sean.J.S.]

I just created a "Test Account" on this forum to see if there were any problems with registration. Anyway, I got to the part where it says "You will be sent an email to get your account activated" (or whatever) and then my email never came. I decided to log in and see if it worked anyway, and it did. But still, if this happens to everyone, people will think the registration didn't work as they didn't receive the email, and will move on to some other forum...

It's common knowledge that there are some registration problems with this forum. I myself and severe trouble actually registering my account, and it kicked me off all the time whenever I moved to another player's forum (or whatever).

These problems need to be fixed immediately. We can't get more members if members can't register!

And Pierrre, where are you, you've disappeared again! There's work to do!

[PierreC]

Hey guys, thanks for the issues... listen to what happened to me;( Left for Chicago/Bloomington (IL) last Tuesday... brought my laptop as I always do and was able to log on Wednesday I think... then my computer came to an end, looks like it's dead (although I'll take more of a look tonight), anyway, I have a desktop at home so it won't affect me anymore but that is what was going on with me.... i'm back now. Sean, will reply to your PM today or tomorrow to try to schedule something.

[PierreC]

ok, I just went through the whole thread, took notes and will try to set all of the suggestions under different categories. My first move is to promote Sean as a mod as your help has been incredible. Which sections would you like to move?

Once I get the suggestions into various categories, I'll post those to discuss priorities, etc. Guessing it'll be tomoprrow.

As for players, would you agree with having NO players in the main forum, but rather links to categories such as Europeans, USA, Asia, etc. This would perhaps give more flexibility in having a lot more forums.. I'm very open to your thoughts on this though... let me know your thoughts.

[Sean.J.S.]

A mod? Wow...that's not the reason why I did all of this work by the way, so sorry if it seemed like that's what I was trying to do.

As of tomorrow (although I might be able to do a post or two tomorrow morning) I will be going away for a week, but then when I come back I have a few more days left before I return to school after my school holidays. Then after that my free time will be much less limited but I'll still try and post as much as possible.

Yes I agree, that was actually one of my next ideas (about European players, etc). How many player forums should we have though? It'd look a little silly having like 50 player forums when nobody posts in them but I suppose we need to start off like that to get members, if you know what I mean.

Once we fix up these problems then it's time to advertize, etc.

And by the way I understand that people are busy so I understand that you've had trouble spending time on this board lately. Sorry if I was a bit pushy in the past.

[Sean.J.S.]

Just one more idea before I leave for the day, I hate it how on WTAworld how the scoring posts are on GM. It'd be nice if somehow there was a subforum where we could just post match scores and the "WTA General Discussion" can be about other stuff.

We just need to think where to put it and what exactly it should be called.

[PierreC]

2 quick changes:

PM space increased to 1000
IMG (up to 5) now allowed in signature

[PierreC]

I've now put all suggestions into categories, would now need to assign priorities and see how you guys can help me get these done asap. Would you suggest:

-Having a discussion by email to increase speed
-Setting up a new thread for the solutions, etc
-Keeping it up in this topic
-Using the staff forum

Let me know your thoughts!

Pierre

[Sean.J.S.]

I'm going away on holiday for a week...will be back then with my ideas.

[PierreC]

sounds good, have great holidays!

[Frank Riley]

Lets just hope that Sean does not post so much that all these great ideas are lost in the vast numbers of post on the board. I can't keep up with them so I know it is killing Pierre. Good luck Pierre.

[PierreC]

hahaa luckily, I've transferred them all to an excel file, trying to sort everything out, get priorities, etc. Frank, I'm pretty sure I know yours (being able to post on Trulz) and I'm working on that. I hope you have started to see "some" changes and that it is giving hope.

By the way, I'm now working on the registration process, indeed it does not send out confirmation emails as it should. I am testing and trying to fix this today. Will give out a status later on.

[Davenport]

I'm really excited for the update. :)

[PierreC]

just a quick one...my server admin is looking into the issue as well, might be a config issue

[Frank Riley]

Always good to see progress and yes you are right about what I am waiting for Pierre.

[PierreC]

Ok, looks like registration is now fixed, one thing crossed from the list. I will also try to send an email to those who are not "fully registered" to let them know I can assist them in completing their registration.

[PierreC]

By the way, click is no longer necessary for quick reply, that had been requested

[PierreC]

reputations now work as well

[PierreC]

I just sent an email to the users awaiting confirmation...it might bring a few new members and maybe spammers too...it will be interesting to see:)

[Sean.J.S.]

I'm back from my holiday. Thanks for fixing that registration problem...that was very serious.

I'm still having that avatar problem...I can't change it. I don't know if anybody else is having the same problem? Maybe it's cause I change my avatars too often! Lol.

Reputation points don't work for me...I can't see the thing to click on to give the reputation. Also, the IMG codes don't work for me in my signature...can you fix this or am I doing something wrong?

Sorry I kept posting but I want to make sure I'm writing down all my ideas before I forget!

Frank, what are you waiting for? I don't understand. Can somebody fill me in?

Thanks for the new changes, btw! Multiquote is very useful.

I still feel it is necessary to have a meeting between the four of us (and anybody else who wishes to join) off the board, through email or something (if that is ok with everybody) to speed it up as you mentioned, Pierre. MSN could be very useful, does everybody here have it? My address is sean_js_93@hotmail.com if anybody does.

[Sean.J.S.]

I just created another test account and the email still doesn't come.

I did the same thing on WTAworld and the email comes immediately.

[PierreC]

I'm back from my holiday. Thanks for fixing that registration problem...that was very serious.

I'm still having that avatar problem...I can't change it. I don't know if anybody else is having the same problem? Maybe it's cause I change my avatars too often! Lol.

Reputation points don't work for me...I can't see the thing to click on to give the reputation. Also, the IMG codes don't work for me in my signature...can you fix this or am I doing something wrong?

Sorry I kept posting but I want to make sure I'm writing down all my ideas before I forget!

Frank, what are you waiting for? I don't understand. Can somebody fill me in?

Thanks for the new changes, btw! Multiquote is very useful.

I still feel it is necessary to have a meeting between the four of us (and anybody else who wishes to join) off the board, through email or something (if that is ok with everybody) to speed it up as you mentioned, Pierre. MSN could be very useful, does everybody here have it? My address is sean_js_93@hotmail.com if anybody does.

Ok, thanks for testing registration, I had tried as well and it worked. What email were you using to try? Could you try on another one? Like if you had yahoo, try with gmail, or hotmail, etc. I'll try tonight as well.

Will look into Avatar problem, what exactly happens?

Do you see reputation icons just beneath my avatar?

You tried with BBCode? Strange...

Don,t be sorry, really:)

We can discuss Frank and other issues when we do this live chat. Ideally for me it would be a week-night, I'm guessing a morning for you Sean. Dav and Frank are in similar time zones as i am. Maybe middle of next week?

[Sean.J.S.]

I tried hotmail and it didn't work.

My avatar problem...well in my User CP it's supposed to say "Edit Avatar" but now, for some reason, that button has disappeared?

I see your reputation but I don't see the button which I'm supposed to click to rep you. I see it for my username, but nobody else's. I got a rep from somebody saying "OMG, I can rep you" but I don't know who it was! Can you make it so we can see who repped us? Also, when somebody does rep you, isn't the bar supposed to zoom up so there's 11 green dots. See below.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c361/sean123123/repbar.jpg

I tried with IMG Code...how do I do it with BBCode?

Sorry if I'm being a bit annoying...maybe my computer is just screwed up!

Hmm...next week I have to go back to school. Any morning this week would be fine for me, or Monday (my time, remember, so that'd be Sunday night for you) as I don't have school that day...is that all right?

BTW can you reply to my PM? I need to know the exact time zone as well as the other thing...

[PierreC]

was it in your hotmail junk mail by any chance?

Can you take a look now for the avatar? Might work now.

Reputations should be visible (I see yours) and you should be able to see who gave you some (I did! haha)

When I go to edit my signature, I have an option (just below the text) to upload images, do you have that?

Sunday night for me would be ok, how about Davenport and Frank?

[Sean.J.S.]

Wow...just noticed the "Moderator" under my name. Very scarey. :D Thanks! I also think that Frank deserves to help out as he's been here for a long time, over 5K posts, etc.

Anyway, I am now able to give reputations but only since I became a mod. Frank (or other non-mods), can you give reps? And by the way, it still doesn't say the person who gave me my reps...and my bar hasn't gone up...and technically I shouldn't be able to give you reps because you disabled it.

The avatar thing works now, thanks. No idea what happened. As I said, it's probably my fault (my computer's, I mean) not yours as it didn't happen to anybody else.

Sig pics work, but can they please be 800 (length) by 400 (height) pixels? That's be really awesome.

I'll check the registration thing in a minute or later on.

Again, sorry if I sound very demanding! I know I'm annoying. Haha.

P.S. I replied to your PM.

[PierreC]

Frank will be involved for sure, we can discuss exactly how shortly.

That's odd about reputations, can you give me some, I'll try to see for myself:)

Retry sig pics please:)

Thanks, let me know!:)

Ok awesome!!

[Davenport]

Oh Sean, I gave you that rep. :D

I replied to the PM as well.

Thanks for all of this, Pierre!!

[PierreC]

I was able to see the rep you gave me Sean by going to my user CP

[Davenport]

Thanks for all of the reps, guys. :rolleyes:

:D

[Sean.J.S.]

Dav, can you see who gave you your reps? Oh and thanks for the rep, btw! :D

Here is what I see in my User CP. It doesn't say who gave me my reps.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c361/sean123123/untitled.jpg

BTW, my inbox capacity is still just 50 messages, not 1000...is this the same for everybody else?

Sig pics are great, thanks!

[Sean.J.S.]

Just created another test account and there are still problems with registration...the email never comes.

[Davenport]

I have 1000 PMs but I think that's because of my SM position.

I can see the names of those who gave me reps. I'm not too sure why everyone else can't.

[PierreC]

Dav, can you see who gave you your reps? Oh and thanks for the rep, btw! :D

Here is what I see in my User CP. It doesn't say who gave me my reps.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c361/sean123123/untitled.jpg

BTW, my inbox capacity is still just 50 messages, not 1000...is this the same for everybody else?

Sig pics are great, thanks!

Can you check Sean, should work. By the way, guys I'm still a little late on my PM's, should reply later today

[PierreC]

By the way, if you add your country and favourite player to your user profile, it will show up as it does on mine...:)

[Sean.J.S.]

Wow! Thanks, Pierre. This is amazing, really! :D

My reps now show who did them, thanks. But now you need to make it so that the green bar is full when you get a rep, or red, if you get a bad rep.

[Sean.J.S.]

BTW, can all posters change the title under their username, or is it just Moderators?

[PierreC]

By the way, I just tried a test account and received the confirmation email... not sure why it's not working on your end?

[PierreC]

BTW, can all posters change the title under their username, or is it just Moderators?

Everyone now:)

[Sjudit84]

Wow, this is a cool thing, I will do the country and player thing later also!
Thanks!

[Sean.J.S.]

Pierre, I think that flags and "Favourite Players" should be made so that when you register, it comes up as an option right away, rather than creating account and then not doing it until you go into User CP.

[PierreC]

I'm pretty sure that's how it is already?

[Sean.J.S.]

It's not for me...maybe somebody esle should check? I've learnt that Dav isn't the only one with a munted computer recently! :p

[Davenport]

:D

He knows mine well.

[PierreC]

HAHAHAAH yeah a few strange things, but oh well, at least we all agree things are improving right?:)

[PierreC]

just did another upgrade to the forum software, am now up to date, hopefully that will help a bit with spam:)

[Sean.J.S.]

Yes, things are definitely improving. Great work! We've come a long way, but we've still got a lot more to do.

Dav (or somebody else), can you try a test registration and see if you get an email, and also when you register see if you can choose your flag and favourite player? Thanks.

Just another idea before I forget, being able to embed YouTube videos using YouTube tags would be great, to use both in regular posts and signatures.

And Moderator/Administrator Badges (like on WTAw) would be cool, so that we can edit our thingy undernearth our username, yet still be recognised as moderators or whatever.

[Sjudit84]

Yeah, the Youtube thing would be cool!

[Frank Riley]

Good to see Pierre getting things moving again and the site getting more active. Thanks Pierre:)

[PierreC]

do you have examples of forums that have this feature for Youtube?

[Sean.J.S.]

I've seen it both on WTAw and MTF.

[PierreC]

testing 1.2.3:)
T_plI2nu2cU

[PierreC]

by the way, I just added some smiley's too:biggrinjester:

[Sean.J.S.]

Wow. Thanks heaaaaaaaaps. YouTube tags are very handy...and the smileys are awesome!

[Davenport]

Smileys are amazing. :D

[Sjudit84]

Hey, cool that you can now put in Youtube vids!

Btw, I don't like the bangs at allll!!!! And why does Maria dress up like a 30 yo woman in the 1980-s?:D

[Sjudit84]

Hey maybe it is just me, but I cannot find the Youtube video paste-in when I want to put in a link...:S

Where is it???

[Sean.J.S.]

Judit, find the link of the YouTube video which you want, find the bit after the "=" sign in the link, copy and paste it here. Then put around it.

Should work. Did for me anyway!

[Sjudit84]

Emmm, sorry but could you explain that to me again bcs I don't really understand it...you mean in the link for the vid,I should only paste in what is after the "=" sign? And what does 'put around it' mean???Sorry.... :S

[PierreC]

It's because he's not able to post the actual code... (yt)xxxx(/yt)

Basically use this, replace the xxxx by the number and the paranthesis by the [ and the ]

[Sean.J.S.]

Oh whoops, sorry. I forgot to mention the YouTube tags around it. My bad!

[PierreC]

I think it's possible to add smiley's in the quick reply, that,d be good right?:)

[Sean.J.S.]

You mean, have the box thing? Yeah, good idea!

[PierreC]

popups have been taken off now!

[Sean.J.S.]

Great! They were always annoying and discouraging, thanks!