Help us improve BGO

[Boone]

We will very likely be updating our forum software after the draft. This will mean troubleshooting a lot of our 3rd party 'add ons' and modifications. There will probably be some minor changes because add ons/modifications are broken by the upgrade and we can't find a suitable replacement. There will probably be some new add ons/modifications because we are on the latest and greatest version of Xenforo (our forum software). But it will be a good time for suggestions and possible improvements to be made.

If there are features you experienced elsewhere or bells and whistles you wish we had, now would be a great time to chime in and as always, we will see what we can do if we think the suggestion is worthwhile and workable.

We would love to get feedback on what you like about the site, what you wish were different, and what features you would like in the future.

 

[Ashburn Dave]

Do we have any contacts with the Commanders PR department? If we do, has anyone asked them to link our site to their fan zone page?

 

[Boone]

I suppose in theory it ‘wouldn’t hurt to ask’ but I can’t imagine they would be open to giving us free promotion on the official site. They clearly made the decision to wash their hands of fan forums and I doubt seriously they want to go anywhere near appearing to sponsor or promote one again.

 

[Ashburn Dave]

I thought that they dropped ES because of all their political talk on that site.

 

[burgold]

Now, this is just a guess, but it could have also been that they found the moderators and people they had to communicate with difficult to work with on ES. Too much bother for too little return.

 

[Boone]

I think they dropped ES because it was an embarassment (both in terms of looking more like a political website and the heavy-handed moderation which I know they got a steady stream of complaints about). I don't think the NFL is in favor of this idea at the present time. Here is what AI said when I asked about how many official NFL sites have official fan forums associated with them.

Virtually zero NFL teams host an official, active fan message board or forum directly on their primary team sites anymore (with most shifting community engagement to mainstream social media platforms or external independent sites). The NFL has not publicly issued a formal, league-wide mandate prohibiting sponsored fan forums, but centralized digital standardization and liability concerns have led teams to abandon onsite hosting.

Official Fan Forums and League Stance

Current Status on Team Websites

• • Onsite Message Boards: Almost all franchises have phased out traditional community forums hosted on their .com domains.
  • Shift to Social Media: Teams direct fan interaction toward mainstream platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit rather than maintaining independent, moderated forums.
  • External Communities: Independent fan sites (such as SB Nation blogs or legacy independent message boards) continue to serve as primary text-based forum hubs rather than official team-hosted properties.

The NFL's Communication and Digital Strategy

• • Centralized Guidelines: The league maintains strict digital and brand guidelines for all 32 club websites via NFL.com infrastructure partnerships, favoring controlled content over open user generation.
  • Moderation and Liability: Franchises avoid hosting traditional forums due to the high moderation overhead, PR risks, and legal liabilities tied to unvetted user-generated comments.
  • Lack of Public Mandate: There is no prominent public record of the NFL issuing a specific edict explicitly forbidding teams from hosting sponsored or official fan forums; rather, the evolution of digital marketing made them obsolete.

 

[Ashburn Dave]

Is there an easy button for guests to becoming members? It feels like a shame to let 3,145 guest leave without trying to get them to sign up.

 

[Boone]

Hey Dave,
We used to have a pop-up configured inviting non-registered or non-logged in visitors to join. I am looking to see if that is still functioning? There is a 'Register' button always visible to visiting guests. We are going to be doing a MAJOR site upgrade next offseason and this is definitely something I will make sure is improved upon. Thanks for the thought/nudge...

 

[Boone]

Yeah, I created a notice with links to the registration page that pops up for visitors. It's still working.

We also have an add-on where we can limit a visitor to a number of visits (say 5 as an example) before they have to register if they want to continue reading. We turn that on and off occasionally. Maybe it's time to turn it on again, lol...