See the problem with the new media is that people who think they control a segment (ie jjhuddle) begin to think they control the people and can extort payment for their monopoly on that segment. They forget that anyone, anywhere, anytime can create another 'townhall' at virtually no costs...

Example.. we could create a web forum bbs for ZEROR dollars tonight and call it ExtraFreeHuddle.com and if the conversation is good and people like the community.. so be it.

JJHuddle made a MAJOR screw up in trying to hijack us at playoff time into forking over $12.

You don't carry the monopoly on the market.. don't exploit the users of your content for your bottem line. That is why radio /tv and / cable stations generate their revenue from the people that want to reach THAT audience.. note vice versa!

Unless JJHudddle does some serious re-evalution of their revenue stream they will have ZERO audience (except the bleacher seats.. and istn't that were everyone is posting now?)

To prove their biz model wrong, I encourage everyone to even stop posting on the free section.

Here's where JJ's screwed up. They began charging for the message board but left the news articles and everything else free. It should've been the other way around. It's like a newspaper, you pay to get a subscription to the news. That's where they should've began charging. Pay a small fee to get articles and game reports and features, and leave the message board free to the public. I don't think there wouldve been near the backlash had they done that and I think they still would've gotten, maybe not as much, but a lot of customers.

Look at the business model that way, their paying their reporters obviously so, but it's free to access their work. Money going out, none coming in. Had they charged the fee there, you know have money going out and money coming back in for the same material. Now i don't know what it costs to keep a message board, especially one with the traffic that it had, up and running, but the advertising banners should be able to cover it one would think. It just seems backwards. Pay to access free material, but free to access paid for material.

GoChiefs wrote:

sportsmom wrote: It took me a while to get here but I am glad I made the move. I, too, was a lifetime member (joined around 2003?) and had lost interest in the huddle while the content deteriorated from sports talk to trash. Thanks for having me here!

Welcome! Make sure you spread the word to the other Louisville followers! Hogleg isn't over here that I know of. LOL

Thank you. I will help spread the word. LOL! I do think Hogleg has more posts on Louisville threads than I do!

Dave33 wrote: JJHuddle made a MAJOR screw up in trying to hijack us at playoff time into forking over $12.

You don't carry the monopoly on the market.. don't exploit the users of your content for your bottem line. That is why radio /tv and / cable stations generate their revenue from the people that want to reach THAT audience.. note vice versa!

Unless JJHudddle does some serious re-evalution of their revenue stream they will have ZERO audience (except the bleacher seats.. and istn't that were everyone is posting now?)

To prove their biz model wrong, I encourage everyone to even stop posting on the free section.

I have to disagree about not posting on the Free Pages. I think everyone should post on that thread. Basically the Bleacher Seats is a throwback to the original days of JJ Huddle. When there was only one or two boards and they were a jumbled mess of topics. Then they expanded and seperated the sports from the general topics and then they split those up even further (individual sports, area football pages, politics seperated from Info, etc.) It was how the site evolved.

Now they have taken a step backward by making the bleacher seats and they have lost membership because it is so confusing to use it now. In fact by leaving the Bleacher Seats as a free page, they have actually hurt their cause even more. I am still trying to figure out why they even left a free forum page because it simply undercuts their ability to force people to join as it leaves a free option for those of us who think it is extortion.

I will continue to post on the free pages basically to flip the bird to JJ and the other yahoos over there for their extortion tactics. I won't pay your dumb fee but I will continue to post... so there.


As far as charging for the articles, that wouldn't line their greedy pockets enough. There was a poll right around the time that the site went pay that asked whether people read the articles or not. I believe the last results that I saw was 75% of the people said that they did not read the articles, only the message boards. The articles over there are meaningless....just a bunch of not good enough journalists trying to show how little they know about sports and why they can't get a real reporting job.

As you should know, JJ sold that to Bucknuts awhile back. Tis decision they made recently I can almost assure you JJ himself had no input on their decision. Take your frustration out on Matt Natoli and the ppl from Bucknuts. JJ is simply a paid liason with them now.

september63 wrote: As you should know, JJ sold that to Bucknuts awhile back. Tis decision they made recently I can almost assure you JJ himself had no input on their decision. Take your frustration out on Matt Natoli and the ppl from Bucknuts. JJ is simply a paid liason with them now.

Couldn't agree with you more..I also believe JJ had absolutely nothing to do with this.

Full_count wrote: I am still trying to figure out why they even left a free forum page because it simply undercuts their ability to force people to join as it leaves a free option for those of us who think it is extortion.

Yet another STUPID decision by JJ Huddle "management."

never liked jj much and even worse when it went to pay.

Well the thread about the donations to the young man has been moved to a sticky and all the posts have been reduced to two. One of course supporting people joining to help the sick young man.

All other posts have been removed INCLUDING the ones that gave people the links and information on how to donate to the young man without joining the huddle.

Just another sign that this whole fiasco has become a nightmare for the powers that be over there. Now not only can't they take criticism (a sure sign that things are going bad), but now they have to hide other ways for people to help an injured person in order for them to sell a few more memberships.

It is totally disgusting and so very bush league to use someones injury like that for personal gain and then hide other ways to help the person. But that just shows the level of greed and arrogence that Frantz is willing to stoop to to pad his own ego.

And as far as JJ is concerned... he wrote the sticky announcement that is on the pink banner on the site encouraging people to join up. To me that makes him just as guilty and lowlife as the others over there. If he is not involved, then why write that plea. It ruined my respect for him.

I still think a chant of "free huddle dot com" at the state football games when ever the JJ staff are around would be funny as hell.

xnds1fan wrote: I still think a chant of "free huddle dot com" at the state football games when ever the JJ staff are around would be funny as hell.

Justin Credible had a thread about Freehuddle.com tshirts. It would be great if we would somehow get some intime for everyone to wear championship weekend

Full_count wrote:Well the thread about the donations to the young man has been moved to a sticky and all the posts have been reduced to two. One of course supporting people joining to help the sick young man.
All other posts have been removed INCLUDING the ones that gave people the links and information on how to donate to the young man without joining the huddle.
... but now they have to hide other ways for people to help an injured person in order for them to sell a few more memberships.
It is totally disgusting and so very bush league to use someones injury like that for personal gain and then hide other ways to help the person.

I think that is a pretty ignorant and dirty thing to do. If they truly wanted to help the boy and not use him as a gimmick, they never would have removed posts describing how to donate outside of that site.
That's not even mentioning the EXTREMELY poor taste of the decision-makers over there.
I'm ashamed for them and everybody who supports that sort of underhandedness! I would be embarrassed to still post over there and giving that site the time of day!!

Glad I'm here. I was a jj huddle reader for yrs. This is nice.

It's kinda sad and fun to watch the other board fall apart and self destruct.

It is just like the other message board that I was on that collapsed. The leaders make a bonehead decision and then when people question it, they begin to ban them and try every tactic in the book to get people to pay up.

They have offered free memberships to those in the military. They have used a poor sick young man to try and coeice people to join by offering to make a token donation. (and then removed any links for people to make their own donations.)

Now they have moved into the next phase that I witnessed before: removing any thread that even comments on the falling apart of the site or even remotely mentions the policy change. Just like on the other site that fell apart, it will now be fun to time how long the threads last.... most will be gone in less than an hour.

It even appears that JJ has some remorse about the whole deal. There was a thread a few days ago over there about the charges and JJ replied to it and said that he didn't own the site and said who to contact to complain. The tone of his post leads one to believe that he too is not happy about how Frantz and co. have deystroyed something that he built. But of course, that thread is gone.

It's deja vu all over and I am loving it.

Here's whats coming next: Look for another attempt to extort people to pay through a "great deal" from their site. They will also have their flunkies monitor this site and any negative comment made about that site or the owners will result in the poster here being banned over there. Finally, the owners of this board had better make sure their ducks are in a row because another desperate step that we will see is an attempt by the owners over there to challenge the legality of this site on some grounds. (copyright, name, similarities, etc.) It happened before.

All of this are signs that they made a bonehead business decision and have too big an ego to admit they were wrong and correct things. Signs of desperation are coming from Natali and Frantz.... watch for them.

ttt