The death of the Buffalo Bills Message Board - how did it happen?

[Billsfansinceday1]

37 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

 

I was banned shortly after registering because my name 'Losing my Mind' led them to believe I was a trouble causer. I rarely post, but do a lot of reading. Getting banned for a name turned me off from the board.

That sounds very unusual but I can’t say it didn’t happen.  Usually, we sent a PM to members with a problematic user name asking them to change it.  Hard to imagine your name even raised an eyebrow.

[unbillievable]

If you take in all the responses, you can see that there was a mini war brewing, with the people crying for more freedom, while the administration pushed back by sending in their mods to rein in the children. The mods were getting it from both sides.

 

It's interesting that the response from the mod team was to say, "$%#@ it, I'm doing my own thing," after their leader fled to her blog.

Edited December 1, 2017 by unbillievable

[SinatraSinger]

I was a member of the BBMB since the late 90's.  I have always missed those days.  That was when the board was only a message board.   There was no frills or anything.  Just per conversation.  I was a mod in the early 2000's for a couple of years but then decided I didn't want to do that anymore.  I was always being told that I was letting to much go.  I was always the type of mod that would allow some heated discussion.  Personally I don't shy away from it for I saw no reason to make others shy away.   So I would let some minor infractions go.   The head mod didn't like that so I decided to stop being a mod.  Over the years I posted less and less but always used to puruse(SP?) the board.  I was very surprised when the board was shut down.  I'm hear now and still ostly just read with just a few posts here and there.

 

PS: I used to post under the user name of flea832 over at BBMB.

[Royale with Cheese]

5 minutes ago, SDS said:

 

Thank you for taking time out of your day to tell me/us this. I hope you feel better.

 

SDS...I love this site so don't listen to the other guy.  Much better than BBMB.

 

[Jauronimo]

1 minute ago, SinatraSinger said:

I was a member of the BBMB since the late 90's.  I have always missed those days.  That was when the board was only a message board.   There was no frills or anything.  Just per conversation.  I was a mod in the early 2000's for a couple of years but then decided I didn't want to do that anymore.  I was always being told that I was letting to much go.  I was always the type of mod that would allow some heated discussion.  Personally I don't shy away from it for I saw no reason to make others shy away.   So I would let some minor infractions go.   The head mod didn't like that so I decided to stop being a mod.  Over the years I posted less and less but always used to puruse(SP?) the board.  I was very surprised when the board was shut down.  I'm hear now and still ostly just read with just a few posts here and there.

 

PS: I used to post under the user name of flea832 over at BBMB.

Any relation to FleaMoulds here?

[SinatraSinger]

1 minute ago, Jauronimo said:

Any relation to FleaMoulds here?

None

[rjones71]

I received a lifetime ban by T&C for calling someone an "attention whore". Funny thing is, our priest used that expression at Mass just a day after I was banned. Go figure!!! This site is 1000% better.

[Jay_Fixit]

1 hour ago, teef said:

It was when I posted the nudes of myself...wasn't it?

It was the hairy chest with the shaved nipples that did it.

[Drunken Pygmy Goat]

17 hours ago, BuffaloRush said:

It's been quite some time since the Buffalo Bills Message Board was shut down.  In fact, that's how I landed here.  My question is - how did it all go down.  From my understanding the moderators were all volunteers and the head moderator was named Z-man.    How they became moderators and who made them moderators?  I have no idea.  I believe that Chris Brown oversaw the BBMB at one time but had very limited involvement with it. 

 

From what I can surmise, the board went down very shortly after Derek Boyko was hired.  So my guess is that he evaluated the website and decided the website had to go.  Clearly this was one area that Scott Berchtold must have not really paid much attention to.  

 

All I know is that one day, I went to log in and then there was a message that it was gone.

 

Here are my questions:

 

- Who was from the Bills organization was responsible for the BBMB?

- Who picked the moderators?

- Did anyone from the Bills even know or care that the BBMB existed?

- Who were the moderators exactly?

- How did the death of the BBMB occur and why was the decision made?

 -Who made the call and how were the moderators notified?

 

So many questions - but hopefully with the knowledge of this board we can get some answers.  I am really loving Two Bills Drive by the way.  Way better people and better conversation overall

 

I figured that with the Bills having new owners, and after Boyko was hired, that it was only a matter of time before it was shut down. The Sabres official site message board was suddenly shut down a few years ago. Transitioning into new NFL owners on top of being rather fresh as NHL owners probably delayed the process a bit, but i felt it was inevitable, especially when Boyko was hired.

 

The BBMB was probably a RB and company idea. It was created back when the internet (and interactions there) weren't quite as saturated as it is now with Facebook and Twitter, etc. MySpace probably didn't even exist yet. Interactions with other people across the internet came from message boards. Anyone with any niche could suddenly mingle with many others with the same interest at once, whenever they want.

 

Adding this feature to the Bills main site likely increased the amount of traffic to the site over time, increasing revenue. But 15+ years later, the internet is different, and people are much more openly vulgar and hateful towards others, and the players on the field are the focus of much of that as well. You could google something Bills related, and several threads from the BBMB would come up, many of them filled with misinformation and the hateful comments. If you're the "new Bills", you don't want anything like that associated with and representing your business. All those leaks and speculative reports that came out of Buffalo late last year was the straw that broke the camel's back IMO. The BBMB had already became a cesspool, and even though traffic may have still been higher for the site, it was just ugly all the way around. Besides, the we're very, very few informative, good "football" type threads, and too many beaten horses. And the traffic on team sites now comes more from video contact that is now more available and easily accessible than ever before. 

 

I know there are many "fugees" here and at least one former mod (I'll read through later to see what they have to say).

[Shaw66]

1 hour ago, Jay_Fixit said:

Hey buddy. So you can agree that T&C was the worst mod in the history of the internet right? Because I’d love for him to know it.

I was a mod and I sometimes communicated with T&C because I thought his take on applying the rules was stricter than it needed to be.   But I'll say this in his defense:  He had principles and he stood by them.   He had good reasons for why he saw it the way he did, and he stuck by his guns.   He may have been the hardest working mod I saw on that board for the 13 years I was there.   

 

It wasn't an easy job.   

[Shaw66]

1 hour ago, Drunken Pygmy Goat said:

 

I figured that with the Bills having new owners, and after Boyko was hired, that it was only a matter of time before it was shut down. The Sabres official site message board was suddenly shut down a few years ago. Transitioning into new NFL owners on top of being rather fresh as NHL owners probably delayed the process a bit, but i felt it was inevitable, especially when Boyko was hired.

 

The BBMB was probably a RB and company idea. It was created back when the internet (and interactions there) weren't quite as saturated as it is now with Facebook and Twitter, etc. MySpace probably didn't even exist yet. Interactions with other people across the internet came from message boards. Anyone with any niche could suddenly mingle with many others with the same interest at once, whenever they want.

 

Adding this feature to the Bills main site likely increased the amount of traffic to the site over time, increasing revenue. But 15+ years later, the internet is different, and people are much more openly vulgar and hateful towards others, and the players on the field are the focus of much of that as well. You could google something Bills related, and several threads from the BBMB would come up, many of them filled with misinformation and the hateful comments. If you're the "new Bills", you don't want anything like that associated with and representing your business. All those leaks and speculative reports that came out of Buffalo late last year was the straw that broke the camel's back IMO. The BBMB had already became a cesspool, and even though traffic may have still been higher for the site, it was just ugly all the way around. Besides, the we're very, very few informative, good "football" type threads, and too many beaten horses. And the traffic on team sites now comes more from video contact that is now more available and easily accessible than ever before. 

 

I know there are many "fugees" here and at least one former mod (I'll read through later to see what they have to say).

This is mostly speculation but I think a reasonably good take at what was going on at OBD.   

 

Simply put, the message board generated no revenue for the Bills.   The front office may or may not have liked what was said on the board, but I know for a fact that they paid attention to it generally only when a problem arose, like when someone who had been banned complained to OBD about it.   And when that happened, OBD always stood by the fan, which wasn't good for mod morale.   

 

I'll give you some other speculation.   I think there was a time last spring when someone, Russ or Terry probably, met with the publisher of the Buffalo News and told the News that it was time for them put a leash on Sully on the rest of those guys who were engaging more or less nonstop bashing of the Bills.   I suspect the Bills made it clear to the News that certain companies that advertised with the Bills and also in the News didn't like having the Bills, their advertising partner, bashed by the News; i'.e, clean it up or some of your advertisers will leave you.   The Bills and the NFL are more powerful, by a large measure, than the News.   

 

One reason I think this happened was that when Rex was being fired, Anthony Lynn had his famous press conference, all that, the News was ripping the Bills horribly.   "Dumpster fire" was a frequently used term.   I know for a fact that the Bills had plans at that time to deal with the News.  

 

The News did change.   Some people left, others came in, and the reporting has been more balanced since the spring.   

 

The fact that it was around the same time that the BBMB went down that makes think that OBD was paying more attention to the negative content about the news that was appearing in their market.   

 

[Billsfansinceday1]

19 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

This is mostly speculation but I think a reasonably good take at what was going on at OBD.   

 

Simply put, the message board generated no revenue for the Bills.   The front office may or may not have liked what was said on the board, but I know for a fact that they paid attention to it generally only when a problem arose, like when someone who had been banned complained to OBD about it.   And when that happened, OBD always stood by the fan, which wasn't good for mod morale.   

 

I'll give you some other speculation.   I think there was a time last spring when someone, Russ or Terry probably, met with the publisher of the Buffalo News and told the News that it was time for them put a leash on Sully on the rest of those guys who were engaging more or less nonstop bashing of the Bills.   I suspect the Bills made it clear to the News that certain companies that advertised with the Bills and also in the News didn't like having the Bills, their advertising partner, bashed by the News; i'.e, clean it up or some of your advertisers will leave you.   The Bills and the NFL are more powerful, by a large measure, than the News.   

 

One reason I think this happened was that when Rex was being fired, Anthony Lynn had his famous press conference, all that, the News was ripping the Bills horribly.   "Dumpster fire" was a frequently used term.   I know for a fact that the Bills had plans at that time to deal with the News.  

 

The News did change.   Some people left, others came in, and the reporting has been more balanced since the spring.   

 

The fact that it was around the same time that the BBMB went down that makes think that OBD was paying more attention to the negative content about the news that was appearing in their market.   

 

That sounds like some pretty insightful speculation, Shaw.  I have always enjoyed reading your analysis.

[CommonCents]

So some thin skinned folks at OBD entrusted a handful of power mongering posters (and their friends) to run a message board and after years of neglect they put out the "dumpster fire" for good.

 

Now for the on field the product! 

[Jay_Fixit]

He ruined a lot of people’s enjoyment due to his “principles.” 

 

He had his own COC. (Btw, he would have removed that last comment. For example).

 

Anyway, it’s in the past. 

 

[Shaw66]

57 minutes ago, Jay_Fixit said:

He ruined a lot of people’s enjoyment due to his “principles.” 

 

He had his own COC. (Btw, he would have removed that last comment. For example).

 

Anyway, it’s in the past. 

 

I won't argue with any of what you say. 

[Teddy KGB]

When do we smite the old mods for their war crimes ? 

[SoCal Deek]

Hey Shaw

 

If management didn't like what was being said on their Message Board they sure wouldn't like what's been being said in most Bills fans living rooms over the past almost two decades!

[BadLandsMeanie]

34 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

Hey Shaw

 

If management didn't like what was being said on their Message Board they sure wouldn't like what's been being said in most Bills fans living rooms over the past almost two decades!

The irony of it is, for many years the Bills and staff did not know what was being said. They lived in a sort of dream world bubble. Even if they read the boards, the real bad stuff was mostly in private messages.

 

And for a looong time, the people who took the fan rage more than anyone, were the people who ran the Bills board.

(The mods there were a mix of good and bad over the years as I see it)

 

They were the available target so they took real abuse even though they were not even employees.

 

And then as Shaw mentioned, the Bills office wouldn't let them or help them keep people out.  Even people who were making threats of physical violence against mods, posting their home addresses, places of work, making up lies about them, and so on. They had some scumbags working at One Bills.

 

Anyhoo, once Twitter and such came along the Bills got a shock .

 

Even the stuff that freaks out a player on Twitter nowadays is NOTHING compared to some of what used to happen on the board there on PMs.

 

Anyway I do wonder why the closed it so abruptly. The Jags for one example gave a good long notice before they closed thiers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 1, 2017 by BadLandsMeanie

[JMF2006]

Who cares? let it go.

[Shaw66]

1 minute ago, BadLandsMeanie said:

Anyway I do wonder why the closed it so abruptly. The Jags for one example gave a good long notice before they closed thiers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think they did it abruptly for a couple of reasons. 

 

First, if they'd given notice, they would have been getting phone calls and emails and stuff asking them to reconsider.   They didn't want to waste any time on it. 

 

Second, I think they figured it was easier to just do it and live through the cries of outrage.  They probably had a pretty good idea of how long the outcry would last, and then it would be over.   Like a week.   And there were only 2000 members, so what would you guess - 50 complained to the Bills.   Maybe 100.   No more.  I didn't bother, and I think most other people didn't bother, either.   So they got 50 irate emails and a few phone calls, then it was over.   

 

If they'd given notice first, they weren't going to change their minds, and then people would have been pissed that no one did anything about their complaints.   

 

SO they just pulled the plug.  

 

Is my life different today because of it?   No, because I started coming here more regularly.  I"d been a member for a while.  

 

And if this place pulled the plug?   Then I'd have no place to go and I wouldn't waste so much time.  

4 minutes ago, JMF2006 said:

Who cares? let it go.

I don't know if anyone cares.   But it's something to talk about while we're waiting for the game.  Better than some thread about whether McDermott should have started Peterman.