About the new board name (cougarstadium.com)

[Jarid in Cedar]

Re: About the new board name (cougarstadium.com)

If you are talking about potential new posters, then I think finding evidence of a large volume that stayed away would be a futile exercise in attempting to prove a negative. As for existing posters leaving, yes there is anecdotal evidence. And I also mentioned the steady decline since 2009 in board activity (posts per month).

Also, I don't know if I would characterize it as the "Ute portion pushing someone away". I am sure that the "BYU" portion has pushed away a few Ute fans. The fundamental question is: is it best in the long-term to continue to officially feature two schools or pick one?

Which is why i asked if there was any anecdotal stories; posters x,y,and z from cougarboard won't come here because of it is more welcoming to Ute fans.

As far as some people posting here less, the ones I know who have left, have left for issues that have nothing to do with changes in the rivalry. The causes have been more complex.

[Sullyute]

Re: About the new board name (cougarstadium.com)

Edit: double post

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[Sullyute]

Re: About the new board name (cougarstadium.com)

With that being said if you are catering to the BYU fan base and you continue to allow the second-guessing of the lords anointed I suspect you will not grow the board as you hope.

I think that CJ has just pointed out the elephant in the room.

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[SteelBlue]

Well said. I also would like to hear from EC members who are willing to come forward and say they strongly support the change and think it is a good idea. Those folks have been kind of scarce here so far.

I support the change and believe that time will prove it to have been a good move. I too believe that maintaining a dual fan base board will make increasingly less sense. While the change seems harsh and sudden now, I think it is a solid decision long term.

There are a few people who hung some wallpaper, painted some rooms and probably built some of the walls. I understand why they are upset.

Well said. Each of us realized that the decision would upset many of our friends. One of my best friends "in real life" is a Ute on this board, and i know he isn't pleased. I believe that the majority of those upset will eventually believe that this wasn't personal, and that they will still find a lot of enjoyment participating here. I certainly don't begrudge any of you the anger or disappointment being expressed.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Re: About the new board name (cougarstadium.com)

I support the change and believe that time will prove it to have been a good move. I too believe that maintaining a dual fan base board will make increasingly less sense. While the change seems harsh and sudden now, I think it is a solid decision long term.



Well said. Each of us realized that the decision would upset many of our friends. One of my best friends "in real life" is a Ute on this board, and i know he isn't pleased. I believe that the majority of those upset will eventually believe that this wasn't personal, and that they will still find a lot of enjoyment participating here. I certainly don't begrudge any of you the anger or disappointment being expressed.

I don't know that anyone thinks it is personal. To me it was more like going to your favorite Chinese restaurant only to find out that it is now has a Mexican menu. The walls are the same, but it is intrinsically different.

[SoCalCoug]

I'm just having a hard time understanding why changing the identity of this site to something that automatically characterizes a large portion of the community as outsiders is a good thing.

[clackamascoug]

This is not a sports board. This is a LDS Board that talks about football and sports a lot.

Non Sports Posts = 564,693

Sports Posts = 330,962

Should the name reflect the majority of the threads and postings, or should it reflect a vision of 2009?

With 895,655 votes counted, 63% agree that the old CUF was a place for friends to gather and talk about religion, pulled pork, TV, and sports, but mostly things other than sports. 63% in any poll would be a landslide.

[clackamascoug]

Jacob 5, 3-7

3 For behold, thus saith the Lord, I will liken thee, O house of Israel, like unto a tame olive tree, which a man took and nourished in his vineyard; and it grew, and waxed old, and began to decay.

4 And it came to pass that the master of the vineyard went forth, and he saw that his olive tree began to decay; and he said: I will prune it, and dig about it, and nourish it, that perhaps it may shoot forth young and tender branches, and it perish not.

5 And it came to pass that he pruned it, and digged about it, and nourished it according to his word.

6 And it came to pass that the master of the vinyard saw the decay, and decided a rebranding of the vinyard would ease his soul; and he said: a good cleansing would be good for the vinyard, and pruning back those decaying branches so young healty branches can grow in their stead.

7 And it soon came to pass that the master of the vinyard noticed that the new braches never grew, and the old branches had died, and the master of the vinyard was left a lone man. By himself, with a formerly faithful executive commitee who spent most of their online time elsewhere, at LDSSports.com

[Jarid in Cedar]

Re: About the new board name (cougarstadium.com)

As I have stayed awake tonight (working, duh), I think the undercurrent of this change is as simple as a site owner/operator being a BYU fan, who didn't like Utah sports, wondering why he runs a message board with the name Ute in it. Wondering why he puts in the time and effort to appear to support something he doesn't like. It would be like me hanging a BYU sign in my front window. No offense, but it isn't happening outside of losing a bet. JL wants to be the owner of a BYU message board, not a BYU-Utah message board. Pure and simple.

This would make sense to most of those who are trying to figure it out. Discussions of diminished rivalry, health of the board, future market share, don't make much sense, which is why the explanations have many people scratching their heads.

[chrisrenrut]

Which is why i asked if there was any anecdotal stories; posters x,y,and z from cougarboard won't come here because of it is more welcoming to Ute fans.

X = MVHSDynasty
Y = Whistlepig
Z = MantiCougar

(I haven't been to CB in a long time, I think those are the posters that were the biggest Ute haters.)

So much drama over a name change. But the name change kind of indicates a change of purpose, or at least the revelation that the perceived purpose of the board was misunderstood. I always felt that Ute fans were basically tolerated here when it came to sports talk, so it doesn't surprise or offend me. I can see that happening more with the two teams going down their separate paths. It saddens me a bit, I enjoy the rivalry, and even find myself following the Cougars more now with less antipathy than when were in the same conference.

I think the bigger challenge to attracting new users and increased activity on the board is the entrenched relationships, inside jokes, past history, and member backstory that permeates the board. This is not a complaint, it's a great thing. But it is hard to feel comfortable in as a newcomer, more so than the other more rapid-fire, more shallow boards of the respective fanbases.

[YOhio]

FTR, I hated the name from Day 1. This is my first ever post here. My position hasn't changed.

Thanks Gidget. I appreciate the hand of fellowship, though I must admit I feel a little dirty posting over here. It's like I'm choosing pelagius, creekster and myboynoah over Mike Waters. Disgusting! Now that SU has made his mark here, I feel more comfortable.

Also, what's up with the name? CougarUtes? All I know is that if I was gonna go all Strangite on Mike Waters, I wouldn't have taken the ecumenical approach afterwards. Did you see that game? There were more greaseballs at RES than in the final rumble scene in Outsiders. I loved that Utes had to come to a Cougar forum to find decent company. Now that's all been lost.

[Moliere]

FTR, I hated the name from Day 1. This is my first ever post here. My position hasn't changed.

I can empathize. Here's a portion of my thread in Ellis Island:

What don't I like about CUF?
I don’t know. I’ve only checked it out for a couple days. Maybe I don’t like the abbreviation CUF. Sounds kind of vulgar in a backwards sort of way and I’m not a big fan of vulgarity.

[jay santos]

FTR, I hated the name from Day 1. This is my first ever post here. My position hasn't changed.

This was my take on the name and my first post here. Interesting thread looking back at it. I admit I was wrong or misinformed on some issues. I especially like LA Ute's empathetic reply to my angst over the name change, lol.

http://www.cougarstadium.com/showthread.php?t=68

[pellegrino]

There are a few people who hung some wallpaper, painted some rooms and probably built some of the walls. I understand why they are upset.

this. while we don't deal with the administration of the site, we're not exactly guests either.

[Surfah]

Well said. I also would like to hear from EC members who are willing to come forward and say they strongly support the change and think it is a good idea. Those folks have been kind of scarce here so far.

I wholeheartedly endorse the change. I understand that for many of you JL's explanation isn't sufficient or reasonable enough. I have had many of you ask me off the board what really happened. Nothing happened. The discourse and decision happened just as JL described.

Personally, this was an easy decision. I like many of you Utes. I consider some of you really good friends. And I do feel terrible that most of you are upset (I understand why). But for those that think the dynamic isn't different since we both left the MWC and dismiss it as reason enough, I think you're deluding yourselves.

Brian shared his thoughts about the rivalry once and I have always admired him for it. Mostly because I agreed with him. I have never understood the fan who wanted their rival to do well except when we played them. Like Brian, I want my rival to lose every single game they play. I hate Utah. So much so that I used to care and follow Utah like I follow BYU. I cared about Utah recruits. I cared about Utah coaching hires. Granted I never Twitter bashed recruits or filed FOIA requests, but it was a healthy, er unhealthy obsession for years. Now though, I couldn't give a shit what Utah does. I still want you guys to lose every game you ever play. I am not sure that will ever change. But I don't care about your recruiting class. I don't care about your schedule. I don't care about your coaching hires. And when that happened I knew that things had fundamentally changed. So a board that catered to both with diminishing interaction between the two no longer had any appeal for me.

That's the sport side.

On the other side, I welcomed the change for what CJ said. This board, for me, has always been primarily a sports discussion board. Everything else is kind of ancillary. They're places to hang out when there is no sports news to discuss. I understand that this is the complete opposite for a majority of our posters. I would not mind at all if this board became more sports centric, but that is just me.

However, I doubt that any name change will facilitate that. Nor do I really expect it to. In fact, I don't think it will change much at all. As HFN noted, the core group of Ute posters here were/are active participants of CougarBoard and CougarGuard. Lets be honest, despite the CUF name, this was and is a predominantly BYU themed board. I fully believe that this site would not be much different today if it were named CougarStadium from the outset.