Checking In On A Formerly Great Site

Back in 1999 and 2000, Phillies.com was the place to be to discuss Phillies baseball. While the team’s site was nothing great and its forum software was less than wonderful, the discussion itself was top-notch. There were many informed participants. The writing was good, the sniping was minimal, and the enjoyment was high.

MLB got involved in 2001. It mandated that all the team web sites be housed at MLB.com. Each site would undergo a re-design, thus removing the uniqueness each site had. In all this, the forum too was overtaken by MLB.

During the transition, the forum went away. When it came back, it didn’t work. It was disasterous. Up to the plate came MVPsoft as he launched the renegade site on his own server. It didn’t take too long for all the regulars from the Phillies discussion board to migrate over. There were some issues that cropped up and it took some time to settle down, but in the end, the forum at Phillies.com has never been a respectable site. PhilliesPhans.com became the place to discuss Phillies baseball on the ‘Net.

Things were so good in 2001 and 2002, that I confidently stated that that there was no better discussion site, regardless of the subject, anywhere. The posters were well-written and logical. There was very little sniping and the juvenile stuff just didn’t seem to come to this site.

Then things changed. During the summer of 2002, there began an infiltration of young and juvenile posters. By the time the season ended and there was little Phillies discussion going on, PhilliesPhans.com became an unvisitable site. By the time the 2003 season began, it was clear that there was a battle going on at the board. And as 2003 drew to a close, PhilliesPhans.com ceased to be a must-visit site. I popped in a handful of times every now and then, but it was clear that the site had permanently changed. I PMd Dave about the number of off-tpic threads. He stated that it was only because it was off-season and there was nothing else to discuss.

I can see 23 threads right now in my standard window. Scrolling to not show the announcement and sticky thread at the top of the forum, of those 23 threads, nine are labeled off topic, two others should be labeled off topic, a thread about Bonds (although the claim of the title is false), a thread about the best player ever, a thread about former Phillie Lenny Dykstra’s legal issues, a thread which examines how boring the Phillies are, two threads complaining about the team (in a juvenile sense), and two minor league threads.
It is not off season any longer. But it is also clear that PhilliesPhans.com is no longer the place to discuss Phillies baseball.

Also blogged on this date . . .

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2 Responses to “Checking In On A Formerly Great Site”

  1. By Bob on Dec 21, 2006

    Interestingly, I received an e-mail this evening from Dave. He has taken down his site. I haven’t been there in a little while, but apparently there has been more problems recently. It was so bad that he felt obliged to shut things down.

    It may come back, but it will be invitation-only. The off-topic area will be gone. I wonder if the political stuff will be verboten too.

  2. By Bob on Dec 22, 2006

    Wow! THe site is back up. Sure enough it is invitation-only, but he is demanding real name, address, and money.

    I don’t think so. The site was barely readable the last few years for free. Right now there are only 52 registered users. Some of those are the admins. Even granting that there are 50 users, Dave just collected $500. Sure, it’s for “charity”, but I do not like being forced to give. I choose to give to whom I desire.

    Throw the Renegades as another site that has essentially bitten the dust.

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