Sorry to hear about that. To be honest, I left it a few years ago when it was obvious an 'in' group that didn't want to interact with others. There was also quite a bit of flaming going on.

It's glory days were good though, with Derek even writing a regular article in ProHoops today or was it another title?? Then of course there were times like when the Black Pearl came on to the boards - man enough not to use an alias, to defend his handling of the last days of the Cannons. And when Jeff Van Gronigen, Bullets GM, would post as himself - a smart guy who, before the flamers got to him, always gave an insightful perspective.

Goodbye Ozhoops. You will be missed. Though I guess you're kind of like the Grandma that's had Dementia for 8 years & now I feel guilty for not having visited for about 5.

Sorry.. had another memory... good old Clint Dogg... enough said.

What did Cal do!... I never went on there, but that sounds interesting.

Was a great place to talk basketball for a lot of years.
Lately it turned into a great place to receive a thorough analysis of the technicalities of the way you phrase something, while the obvious intent of your post gets totally ignored.
Seeing out the season in the WNBL Tipping thread is the only reason I visit there anymore.

Lots of good memories though.

"Lately it turned into a great place to receive a thorough analysis of the technicalities of the way you phrase something, while the obvious intent of your post gets totally ignored."

Funny! Sadly some people on there were more concerned with the rules of the forum than just having a good chat about basketball. Twas once upon a time a great place to waste some time talking hoops.

Glory days were great. True basketball discussion by true fans. Like I said previously lunatics in charge of the asylum. RIP Ozhoops.
I have met Joe personally and a great guy who has a passion for the Kings nearly as passionate as LV does for the Tigers ;)
Drek's absence is sad also but life goes on.

Well, apparently there have been no new members since January LAST year. Kinda says it all.

I don't think the owner (Derek) has been taking new registrations for about s year now . I've asked for a login/account a few times over the last year and had no response whatsoever. Probably a good reason it's dying if there's now new blood.

It's just not what it used to be. The people running the forum just didn't want to evolve with the internet. So many rules and restrictions for no reason. It's unfortunate because there used to be a lot of good people who knew about basketball that contributed.

I miss CatChat.

It's still alive just ... sleepy.

Was thinking this just the other day.

I used to visit nearly as regularly as HoopsSA, but it always did have a petty infighting mob crowd aspect to it. This year I have visited about a once a fortnight, only to be shocked at how little is going on.

So where are all the Hoops posters? This site has become more balanced with more interstate posters, but it still has a decidedly SA (and somewhat WA) core membership (visitors welcome of course, so long as you don't disagree with us!). Where are all the Eastern staters? Is this just a sign of the apathy afflicting basketball?

I would say a lot of them are on twitter discussing hoops.

There are still a few semi-regular posters left, mostly Wildcats fans vs a handful of others where in the "good old days"(TM) it was mostly Kings fans vs a lot of others. Sadly, any genuine basketball discussion is rare lately & several long-time regulars seem to have that dementia that Young Gun mentioned.

I've been a regular on Ozhoops since about 2002, and it is indeed sad.

Forums in general have gone out of fashion. I remember back in the early 00's, I was a regular member of several forums including a moderator on the long lost "Tiger Talk" when I was working for the club. Most NBL teams had their own forums. But I mean more generally- bands, organisations of any sort had forums. Since Facebook and Twitter, forums are less relevant. That’s a shame in one sense, because forums have potential to be far more substantive than 140 characters. But, that’s the way the world has moved.

It died the day (Mod: Deleted) joined

(Mod: Please don't provoke them!)

One thing working to Twitter's favour is that many players and coaches are there and forums generally can't offer that. In the case of the NBL and Twitter, the refs boss, the execs, administrators, players and some coaches are all there and reasonably responsive. Same with media - you can get a public response from Boti or Roy Ward quickly.

As for Derek, I've always assumed that he's lacked the time to nurture the site. It's often hard to find time outside regular work and life to further a niche community, even when there's potential return from sponsorship and ads. I've had a load of plans for Hoops for years that I've never got around to. I actively moderate in the areas I follow, but there is always room for Hoops to get bigger and better, especially in encouraging those interstate to participate.

Once you have a decent community, sometimes it can just roll on for years without too much of your own effort, but you need new users coming in frequently and if OzHoops closed off registrations, that would've hurt. It's a limitation in one way for Hoops, but here a newcomer can generally come in and contribute from their first post without even registering unless they're on a particular IP class, etc. I imagine there'd be a lot of people who would never have started contributing otherwise.

I don't know if its success is measurable but I like how the Twitter account for this site puts out a "comment/discussion of the day" type thing. To me, thats a good way of embracing a newish social media format, hopefully leading to increased traffic.

I don't do it very regularly though. Should do it consistently.

Traffic here is a bit seasonal, but healthy enough. Towards the middle of the year is often healthy when SEABL, NBA finals, NBL off-season/pre-season and so on all combine.

I think so. It seems like a good way of getting Twitter-only people to respond to something....although no so many Camel haikus maybe!

The twitter thing is interesting, and I have no inclination to join that world. Hoops is now the pre eminent place to post your views and lets hope thank to Isaac it continues.
The likes of Joe, and so many more on Ozhoops were true fans of the NBL. I for one are lucky enough to have met a few handfuls.
The nuts continue to belittle and correct newbies and the Drek is MIA. The mods are way too pedantic. Unforunately the true basketball knowledge there is long lost. Drek should close it down and save his money and let's hope someone adds another forum to the bball community.
RIP Ozho's.

I used it a lot in the early 00's. Sad, really

I can't access the site tonight .... Maybe it's been taken offline.

Its weird.
It still seems active enough in terms of posts.
But you have a sole administrator who has stopped new memberships and hasn't been active for over two years.

You'd think that members there would wake up that something is wrong?

Dazz, the only reasoning i can think of is that the owner has had enough and wants it to die off. Strange though, you would think someone else would be happy to take over from him.

(I've deleted a few posts from here which aren't overly relevant to the discussion.)

Drek must still be paying the hosting bills and naming rights surely. Don't be involved and still pay the bills.

This forum is deffinetly more user friendly.

Really? I find the lack of clear subforums, multi-page threads, and the ability to track which posts have and haven't been read to be a pain.

koberulz, yes, they are clear flaws.

Would people prefer paging on long topics? I figure since a topic is almost all text, the initial load isn't terrible and people can just scroll.

Another issue is lack of ability to track when someone has replied to you.

I must say Isaac that on a mobile phone the long threads are painful to get to the bottom of quickly.

Would people prefer paging on long topics? I figure since a topic is almost all text, the initial load isn't terrible and people can just scroll.

I could just hit "End" on my keyboard to do that. Or drag the scroll bar all the way down.

The bigger issue is coming here after a game, and a thread that was 20 posts when I last read it is now 60.

Read my original topic post.
The (Mod: Deleted.) over there dragged the place into oblivion.
(Mod: Deleted.)
(Mod: Deleted.)

The abuse over there gets a bit much and why I've personally pulled away a bit... Lack of actual posters about games and topics that I'm interested in hasn't helped either...

No place is ever perfect, some things could be improved anywhere, but the only significant thing that I'd suggest here is like koberulez suggested, is catching up to long threads and the one bonus OzHos had over here as that it tracked what was new for a registered user on a thread by thread basis, I think that could really help here, especially for game threads or if I haven't been online for a day or so (not usually a problem during the week, as it's quite easy to not lose track in the Recent Posts column).

Otherwise, ever since all the 36ers and Wildcats fans started to get a bit diluted with more reasonable and better looking east coast fans, I've enjoyed coming here more often :D

Whats wrong with mentioning the culprits here?
Everyone agrees with the issues they have caused over there and its only fair that others are made aware of this I would have thought.

All that anyone needs do is lookup most hated on Ozhoops to know where some of the blames lies.

I don't see what's to be gained by naming & blaming people from that board, here on this board. Let those battles sort themselves out over there. Don't drag them over to here as well.

Sensible management here has already banned one of them ;)

Please stop referencing the people you don't want around on Hoops. I can't see how it achieves anything other than attracting them here to respond or antagonise you.

'what kinda place is this.' he said. 'that would have me as a member.'

Huge game on today between Breakers and Sixers and not one post/thread about it on there. Pretty much sums it up.

Someone said on ozho's "Pretend that you're a victim of irrational abuse by inventing a moral high ground from which to preach by saying that people are angry. I don't see any irrationality or anger, just cold, factual, justified contempt."
Paraphrasing the late great Graham Kennedy, no wonder the place is farrrrked.

Thanks.

I think this marks the death of 'The death of Ozhoops' thread...