HFBoards is the place to be

[Peltz]

HFBoards... You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

 

[JetsFan815]

I agree that Reddit isn't a great place to discuss hockey. I feel like most of the posts are either reactions to some play or a meme/shit post. The funniest response tends to get the most visibility, even if it's not really relevant to the discussion.

Politics are also really annoying on there. Seems like very often, a discussion post which has nothing to do with Politics, ends up with some discussion about politics.

Unpopular opinions are usually on the bottom, hidden or even deleted at time. Yet they'll still show the other responses to those deleted comments.

The one thing I do like Reddit for is it is easier to find highlights. Sometimes I like seeing goals which are not necessarily threadworthy for HFBoards but is acceptable for Reddit. But those highlight posts drowns out posts related to discussion.

Reddit is only good as an aggregator of hockey news. Quickly getting a glance of what is making headlines without having to trawl through sportsnet/espn for hours.

For discussion it just sucks... 90% of the discussion is people posting memes and jokes. If you want to talk about why the 2nd unit PP on your team sucks or which 3rd pairing D-man should be the #6 on your team vs the #7 there won't even be an audience for that. You can have those types of discussions here.

 

[BB79]

This is the only original online account I have left that hasn’t been banned

This place is wonderful and I love you all!

Quiet you cotton headed ninny muffin Leafs fan!

 

[The Management]

The older I get, the less interested I become in social media, but this website is probably my favourite place on the internet. I love the old forum style. I mostly lurk, don't participate much, but enjoying reading the comments.

The lively game day threads, the shitposters arguing in the polls, the lopsided trade proposals, the chaos of trade deadline day (borking the servers), the prospects forum, and just the cross-section of different fanbases.

It's pretty rad.

 

[Canes]

It’s certainly better than the circlejerk over at r/hockey.

 

[Coffey]

I've said many times before on here, forums > social media.
People are remembered with username/avatars.
Tighter community.
Burner accounts are non-existent.

It's like why ICE cars are better than full EVs. Old style just works better.

 

[Osprey]

Why are you visiting Discord at 3 in the morning, unless you have a graveyard shift?

For the memes, of course. Duh.

Seriously, I haven't used Discord in a long time, but you don't have to visit in the middle of the night to see what's posted. You can just log on in the morning and scroll up to see what was posted overnight.

 

[Devilsfan2326]

I loved message boards growing up with the internet. Seems like this is one of the only active ones remaining. A bit sad especially considering I've been on the brink of a lifetime ban since about 2014

Same here. Any theories on why forums feel so much better?

 

[Frank Drebin]

Same here. Any theories on why forums feel so much better?

I really like threads. Journals of sorts in purely chronological order. It’s such a simple thing but as far as i know no other platform does it

 

[Devilsfan2326]

The older I get, the less interested I become in social media, but this website is probably my favourite place on the internet. I love the old forum style. I mostly lurk, don't participate much, but enjoying reading the comments.

The lively game day threads, the shitposters arguing in the polls, the lopsided trade proposals, the chaos of trade deadline day (borking the servers), the prospects forum, and just the cross-section of different fanbases.

It's pretty rad.

It's very cozy, any ideas on pinpointing why the old forums feel this way? Is it better discussion?

 

[tarheelhockey]

Reddit is only good as an aggregator of hockey news. Quickly getting a glance of what is making headlines without having to trawl through sportsnet/espn for hours.

For discussion it just sucks... 90% of the discussion is people posting memes and jokes. If you want to talk about why the 2nd unit PP on your team sucks or which 3rd pairing D-man should be the #6 on your team vs the #7 there won't even be an audience for that. You can have those types of discussions here.

The biggest problem with Reddit is the upvote/downvote system combined with the way threads are “telescoped”. The format rewards comments that play to the crowd by being funny, dismissive, and agreeable. It’s a popularity contest, not a meaningful conversation.

HFBoards is old school, but the format is FAR better for having the equivalent of a bar debate. The format rewards giving some thought to your response, giving clear evidence, and engaging with criticism. Some of the smartest hockey minds on the internet are long term forumers here.

On Reddit, you can learn a lot by checking the OPs each day. On HFBoards, you can learn a lot from weeks of debate on one topic.

 

[Devilsfan2326]

I really like threads. Journals of sorts in purely chronological order. It’s such a simple thing but as far as i know no other platform does it

And I feel like forums attract a higher quality of people in general. The slightly harder to find accessibility, like very slightly, filters out enough of those types of people who wouldn't have been caught using a computer before social media. Reddit and those places are like chain restaurants as compared to a family place that's a little off the beaten trail that HFBoards may as well be.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

I've said many times before on here, forums > social media.
People are remembered with username/avatars.
Tighter community.
Burner accounts are non-existent.

It's like why ICE cars are better than full EVs. Old style just works better.

Habs have a dude who goes by Slafy, who I'm sure just burns through accounts with terrible trade proposals

I'm pretty sure he goes by Lockin now

 

[Roo]

One of my guilty pleasure is to spy on the Leafs board after yet another heart breaking loss.

The next best thing for me after the Habs winning is the Leafs losing. And you have to be on HFBoards to truly hear the sound of the Leafs fanbase's hopes getting crushed in a spectacular fashion yet again.

Hahahaha, so good.. probably so many of us that do this to our division rivals, I know I do! Doesn’t even matter if it’s the leafs that beat them haha… the silent trolls, I’m sure there are many more out there than we think

Ryder, Halak and a 2nd

takes me back

 

[tarheelhockey]

I visited The Lounge a few weeks ago for the first time in 10 years. It's practically dead. Only a few people post there now, primarily in a single thread (the latest edition of the "Useless thread") and with only the latest random meme that they discovered. It's like every Discord channel at 3 in the morning.

The golden era of the Lounge was extremely brief. Classic case of a group of users congregating in an obscure corner of the internet, forming a little subculture among themselves, getting a tiny taste of popularity for being in the “cool crowd”, and suddenly mutating into a bunch of edgelords.

 

[SniperHF]

I miss being able to enjoy this site as much as I used to more than my team. It's lame.

Especially since “liking” posts was added.

I'd actually get rid of these if I could but it's too popular a feature. The worst thing about likes is it actually discourages posting. Yeah it rids of you some posts that just say "agree" or whatever, but you lose a lot of posts who might start by just typing "agree" and then keep going after they think about it a sec.

1 aspect that could be better is how far behind the site is if you're not logged in. Say a poster is on a time out or a 1st time visitor deciding if they want to make an account and they want to follow HF, they really can't. You are essentially 24hrs behind.

I've tried, certain peoples aren't listening. It's really bad for the site overall.

These boards used to be more popular when it was tied to an actual website.

HF's absolute peak in traffic was around 2014 IIRC. The article site certainly didn't hurt but I think it didn't drive as much traffic here as you'd think, there were A LOt of people who never knew the site or the boards existed depending on which one they started at. What it did do IMO was drive a different type of user here and that is lacking nowadays.

If only the playoff photoshop thread still happened every year. I think those were absolute peak HF

Social Media monetization made this inevitable. People who are truly good at this can't build their brand posting it anonymously on a board.

There really isn't a workaround for that which would let us pick-and-choose Interesting Threads, to the best of my knowledge.

At one point I was told they experimented with at least having NHL Talk truly live and from what I can tell it didn't work out.

While it is not my call to make, this sort of thing is IMO explicitly why we don't have a "dislike" reaction here.

This is the way.

 

[BB79]

Same here. Any theories on why forums feel so much better?

200 years from now, hockey fans will be reading our posts for a glimpse into the history of the sport.


Poor bastards...I'll apologize in advance

 

[Devilsfan2326]

I'd actually get rid of these if I could but it's too popular a feature. The worst thing about likes is it actually discourages posting. Yeah it rids of you some posts that just say "agree" or whatever, but you lose a lot of posts who might start by just typing "agree" and then keep going after they think about it a sec.

That's a very, very astute point. Even further some people get agitated if you just say agree instead of just liking now I think they're a little backwards. I think liking without saying anything is the lame way. Like you said, if someone starts with typing agree, it's an investment of sorts that most posters would want to follow up on a little bit. Just "liking" something is easy to forget that you ever did. And for other people there's a lot less to read, which defeats the point of the whole reason we're here.

Also come to think of it, the ones liking something may not ever post why. But the ones who dislike something are incentivized to post because they can't just hit a button. And they shouldn't be able to either, but this could make discussion more combative or one sided. Which could reduce posts overall, at least from new users who will be more anticipatory about negative feedback. The like system just makes it more natural to only ever reply to someone when you have a little criticism. I kind of like the like buttons sometimes when I don't have the brain power to think much because I'm tired, but it's easy for me to see how it reduces actual participation.

And this is a long post just to say: I agree.

 

[tarheelhockey]

People don't like to be downvoted because we are primitive social beings so we´d rather just stop posting.

It’s not just that… the mechanics of Reddit are designed so that only the popular posts get real interaction. If you say something meaningful that gets 50% upvotes and 50% downvotes, your comment will have a 0 score and be buried. Nobody sees it, nobody interacts with it, you may as well not have said anything.

Even someone who is completely comfortable with downvotes will stop commenting on Reddit, because their comments have no value in such a system.

 

[DearDiary]

I'd actually get rid of these if I could but it's too popular a feature. The worst thing about likes is it actually discourages posting. Yeah it rids of you some posts that just say "agree" or whatever, but you lose a lot of posts who might start by just typing "agree" and then keep going after they think about it a sec.

You could add mobile game mechanics to the website with a point system. Award points for logging in everyday, making a post with minimum 100 characters, making a thread, betting on sportsbook etc. Generate more ad revenue. Could even add gatcha mechanics where if you get a hit with an 80 or so roll guarantee, a mod will send you a personalized PM.

 

[Stive Morgan]

While it is not my call to make, this sort of thing is IMO explicitly why we don't have a "dislike" reaction here. (We do have it on That Other Forum I Help Run, but it's small enough that folks are generally allowed to blow off steam more, so it's less of an issue there. "Dislike"/downvote, IMO, does not scale up well.)

I find the laugh react sort of fills that role, though. I'm torn on using it, because I laugh react posts that I think are funny/amusing but the OP may think I'm simply disagreeing with them.

But even if it does imply disagreement, at least it's more of a lighthearted "haha, sure buddy" way and still just as visible as any other post, rather than a straight up thumbs-down, "straight to the bottom with you" as is the Reddit format.

 

[67 others]

Hahahaha, so good.. probably so many of us that do this to our division rivals, I know I do! Doesn’t even matter if it’s the leafs that beat them haha… the silent trolls, I’m sure there are many more out there than we think


takes me back

I need 13 more likes for "And 67 others like this" on my on post for once.

 

[Voight]

I still have a folder of HF screenshots on one of my old drives. Sometimes I go through them for nostalgia purposes.

Here are some of my favourites. The people here are so goddamn funny. I had way older ones but that drive is sadly corrupted.

Man I had some good ones saved before my computer crashed last year, pre bookmark/save function.

There's only one that I keep, but it's truly incredible:

View attachment 916933

Damn, I miss EHM leagues, it's how I came across this site in the first place.

 

[G0AT]

Right on op. This is still the Goat Hockey forum. I don’t post like I used to but I still lurk and read all the time here. Heres to more years of greatness!

 

[Voight]

It’s not just that… the mechanics of Reddit are designed so that only the popular posts get real interaction. If you say something meaningful that gets 50% upvotes and 50% downvotes, your comment will have a 0 score and be buried. Nobody sees it, nobody interacts with it, you may as well not have said anything.

Even someone who is completely comfortable with downvotes will stop commenting on Reddit, because their comments have no value in such a system.

I was tarred and feathered not here for suggesting that Marleau is not worthy of being selected for the HHOF. Everyones argument was "he played the most games ever !!1!11!"

I tried to have the sort of discussion you'd have on here (i.e, was never among the best players in the league, only two top, 0 stat finishes, no notable award placements etc.) but nope.