- Joined
- Oct 8, 2002
- Messages
- 29,156
- Reaction score
- 9,498
- Points
- 113
Thank you to all the long time members here and all of the new members that have signed up this year. This was a banner year for PatriotsPlanet. We noticed things really starting to pick up last offseason, then with the cross promotion we did with all of the rival boards this year, the exposure on The Cold Hard Football Facts and other sites, the opening of our new homepage, and finally joining the Fan 2 Fan Alliance, activity here has been fantastic.
We could see it picking up a little each and every week. Now, I am not one to get upset with posting links to other boards. I think boards that do get upset by that are too uptight and silly. I know when I was just a lurker, I would spend time at all of the busy Patriots boards. But, an interesting thing happened in the week leading up to the Colts game. I was surfing around and taking a look at all of the other Patriots boards, especially the two busiest ones, KFFL and PatsFans. What surprised me was PatriotsPlanet was holding its own in terms of active users when I happened to compare them at that time. In fact, we were virtually tied with what has always been the busiest Patriots board, KFFL (and before that Mouth-Off).
Over the next few weeks, out of curiosity and a random time each day, I would visit the other Patriots boards just to compare current activity. Leading up to the Steelers game, a surprising thing started to happen. We consistently were beating PatsFans, but more surprisingly, we started to not only be even with KFFL, but started beating them too, making us the busiest Patriots message board on the Internet. We also had our 1000th registered member here. On the Thursday before the Steelers game, we broke our record of most users online at one time with 141. One thing that is amazing about all of this is we did it without even showing up on Google's front page (or 2nd page for that matter) when you do a search for Patriots message boards.
Now, I don't point this out to boast. We are not really in competition with these other boards. There are no revenues at stake for us. This board has come such a long way from its humble beginnings, and it is thanks to YOU, all of the great members here that we are where we are. It is not the Administrators or the Moderators that make a board great, it is the membership. PatriotsPlanet is a little different in style from the other boards. KFFL has some great Xs and Os posters. We do as well, but we also have a style that is more laid-back than other Patriots boards. More of a tailgating or a bar atmosphere, where you get together with other football fans (mostly Patriots fans) and not only talk about football, but anything else of interest. It has been a real treat to see the new members this year that "get it." Those that finally dropped their lurking, or finally found us, that are happy to call PatriotsPlanet home, and intuitively understand what kind of board this is. We have even added some quality permanent trolls who seem happy to be here and "get it."
I hope you’ll stick around all offseason. Of course, we have free agency coming up. Who are going to be the new coordinators, what is going to happen to Ty Law, and the draft. But there are always other things to talk about in the offseason, and if you see something, even if its not football related, that you think others would be interested in, feel free to post it. Just remember, not everything you post will be a success, so don't get discouraged if you do not get a lot of responses. But we can usually find some fun stuff to talk about. We can all make the offseason go by a little faster.
Anyway, thank you for making this a great community to be a part of, and a big thank you to FallingAlice who got this train rolling (and of course Austin and Phobia from Chiefsplanet). I am looking forward to many good times here at PatriotsPlanet going forward.
We could see it picking up a little each and every week. Now, I am not one to get upset with posting links to other boards. I think boards that do get upset by that are too uptight and silly. I know when I was just a lurker, I would spend time at all of the busy Patriots boards. But, an interesting thing happened in the week leading up to the Colts game. I was surfing around and taking a look at all of the other Patriots boards, especially the two busiest ones, KFFL and PatsFans. What surprised me was PatriotsPlanet was holding its own in terms of active users when I happened to compare them at that time. In fact, we were virtually tied with what has always been the busiest Patriots board, KFFL (and before that Mouth-Off).
Over the next few weeks, out of curiosity and a random time each day, I would visit the other Patriots boards just to compare current activity. Leading up to the Steelers game, a surprising thing started to happen. We consistently were beating PatsFans, but more surprisingly, we started to not only be even with KFFL, but started beating them too, making us the busiest Patriots message board on the Internet. We also had our 1000th registered member here. On the Thursday before the Steelers game, we broke our record of most users online at one time with 141. One thing that is amazing about all of this is we did it without even showing up on Google's front page (or 2nd page for that matter) when you do a search for Patriots message boards.
Now, I don't point this out to boast. We are not really in competition with these other boards. There are no revenues at stake for us. This board has come such a long way from its humble beginnings, and it is thanks to YOU, all of the great members here that we are where we are. It is not the Administrators or the Moderators that make a board great, it is the membership. PatriotsPlanet is a little different in style from the other boards. KFFL has some great Xs and Os posters. We do as well, but we also have a style that is more laid-back than other Patriots boards. More of a tailgating or a bar atmosphere, where you get together with other football fans (mostly Patriots fans) and not only talk about football, but anything else of interest. It has been a real treat to see the new members this year that "get it." Those that finally dropped their lurking, or finally found us, that are happy to call PatriotsPlanet home, and intuitively understand what kind of board this is. We have even added some quality permanent trolls who seem happy to be here and "get it."
I hope you’ll stick around all offseason. Of course, we have free agency coming up. Who are going to be the new coordinators, what is going to happen to Ty Law, and the draft. But there are always other things to talk about in the offseason, and if you see something, even if its not football related, that you think others would be interested in, feel free to post it. Just remember, not everything you post will be a success, so don't get discouraged if you do not get a lot of responses. But we can usually find some fun stuff to talk about. We can all make the offseason go by a little faster.
Anyway, thank you for making this a great community to be a part of, and a big thank you to FallingAlice who got this train rolling (and of course Austin and Phobia from Chiefsplanet). I am looking forward to many good times here at PatriotsPlanet going forward.