What do fans of other clubs do?

[51Magpie]

Rather than risk sending the Go/Leave poll down a rabbit-hole, I'm starting a related new thread.

Where did everyone else go, I wonder?

I just looked at collection of other MAD forums to see if there were any similar threads about potentially ditching MAD because of glitches. I didn't make a list but from memory they included Brighton, Southampton, Millwall, Swindon, Pompey, and Barnsley. The last was the only active one I found. Most were dead or dying with maybe one or two threads this year. Swansea's forum has nothing but a separate post for every match, and each gets less than ten posts. Wrexham's has virtually nothing doing, which explains why WillyWotsit and BenFostersGloves are always on here.

What I didn't find was any debate about jumping ship. We shouldn't kid ourselves... Notts can't be the only club with a substantial cadre of fans wanting to spend a lot of time together online. So where is everyone?

Before I looked I thought maybe FootyMad was having such success that it couldn't keep up with the bandwidth demands. Having looked around, I now think that maybe they've throttled back on bandwidth because their portfolio isn't getting enough traffic to generate the revenue needed to make their offering palatable. It looks like all the lifeboats have gone, and we're the chamber orchestra going down with the ship.

I really do wonder where other clubs fans forums are. They must be out there somewhere, if not on Footy Mad.

PS No surprise. Having written the above, I've had to wait a half-hour for MAD to wake up and accept it.

[jackal2]

The thought had crossed my mind that maybe MAD is downsizing and/or withering itself on the vine.

If the owners are doing any sort of maintenance and monitoring then they must be aware of the current problems, but if that's the case then the longer it goes on, the more it points towards deliberate disengagement or neglect rather than a temporary technical glitch.

If I was them and I very much wanted to keep my customers, I think I'd put a sticky thread on each forum explaining that they're "onto the problem" and normal service will be resumed soon.

[OchPie]

I've made a habit of dipping into the forums of other teams just to read what they predict for scores, and who they rate from our team after the game. Most L2 clubs have at least one accessible forum (I haven't signed up to any except RP last season, I'm not that committed, so I don't read those that require registration to browse).

I don't remember any others being on footymad. Wrexham have Red Passion, Stockport are on boards.net, we all know about Stagsnet, Bradford have Bantam Talk (looks privately hosted), Swindon have The Town End (ditto). These are the teams with the biggest (claimed) attendances. Only we are on footymad (and there's also PON which I don't usually read but I know some people are on.)

[griff]

League 1 pretty much the same:

Barnsley
https://barnsleyfc.org.uk/forums/bulletin-board.130/
https://boards.footymad.net/forumdisplay.php?f=2442

Blackpool
https://avftt.co.uk/index.php?forums/avftt-forum.2/

Bolton
https://www.wanderersways.com/forum/...-terrace-talk/
https://the-wanderer.co.uk/viewforum...a06963a8a5cbf3

Bristol Rovers
https://gaschat.co.uk/board/1/gas-works
https://gasheads.org/board/2/gas-guzzler

Burton
https://burtonbrewers.proboards.com/...3/brewers-talk

Cambridge
https://cambridgeunitedfc.proboards....mbridge-united

Carlisle
This one. Also:
https://thebuzzisback.boards.net/boa...ord-on-warwick

Charlton
https://intothevalley.proboards.com/board/2/valley
https://forum.charltonlife.com/categ...neral-charlton

Cheltenham
https://www.robinsnestforum.co.uk/vi...9a70f2437dfd07

Derby
https://dcfcfans.uk/forum/4-derby-county-forum/
(Choose sub-board)

Exeter
https://www.exeweb.com/forums/forums...ell-street.17/

Fleetwood
None.

Leyton Orient
https://lofcforum.boards.net/board/1/orient

Lincoln
https://forums.V*italfootball.co...s/100-imps.70/

Northampton
http://www.smfserver.com/forums/theh....php?board=2.0

Oxford
https://yellowsforum.co.uk/forums/oufc-matches.2/
http://www.rageonline.co.uk/phpbb3/v...50038085f53323

Peterborough
https://londonroad.net/Forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=6

Portsmouth
https://thepompeychimes.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=2
https://forum.truebluearmy.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=2

Port Vale
https://www.onevalefan.co.uk/forum/f...-vale-present/

Reading
https://hobnob.royals.org/forum/view...d09257cc6bb56d

Shrewsbury
https://blueandamber.proboards.com/b...n-messageboard

Stevenage
https://forums.footballwebpages.co.uk/borochat

Wigan
https://forums.*************.co.uk/f...tics-speyk.76/
https://www.cockneylatic.co.uk/messa...ic-main-forum/

Wycombe
https://gasroom.org
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[hissingdwarf]

After a little technical digging into the mad parent company and more specifically the software that this board is used for…it seems that the parent software has had numerous significant updates and changes which, to put it bluntly, haven’t been applied by DSG who ‘own’ mad.
Admittedly at the time of significant updates, they caused various users issues, but as with all things updated, they ironed out the kinks and is heading towards stability.

This reflects more on DSG tbh. Their lack of updating the software for the boards, imo, points to them not taking any active interest as such in the mad boards anymore.
I would guess their assumption is that most people now rely on social media such as Facebook, Twitter etc… but that is a total guess in the dark!

[1955pie]

This has caused me to have a bit of a look round.
V*ital Notts is accessible now.
Just been on and had a look. No one has been on for a while. Noticed Elite and Swale and Banjo and Observer were doing similar last year.
Site seems OK and looks OK. Actively used by Spurs, Bournemouth, Lincoln and others.

I don't know who hosts it or if there is any bad history here.

What would be the problems?

Cant paste the link here because Mad asterisks out anything to do with the site name. Rivalry???
https://forums.*************.co.uk/f...y-matters.140/
Replace the stars with v i t a l f o o t b a l l
Got it?

[1955pie]

https://forums. v i t a l f o o t b a l l .co.uk/forums/

[LincsPie]

Just had a look at the v I t a l one and must admit prefer it visually to the other new one and other clubs fans seem to be using it. Similar in appearance to this one.

[SwalePie]

Just had a look at the v I t a l one and must admit prefer it visually to the other new one and other clubs fans seem to be using it. Similar in appearance to this one.

I agree regarding the layout, ease-of-use etc.

[uysapie]

I agree regarding the layout, ease-of-use etc.

Served us well during the mad red's turn as a moderator without problems