The State of Jockstocks

[SiteWolf]

So I intended to do this as last year ended- life happened, it does that a lot, seemingly even more since hitting 65 last year. If you’re reading this, I appreciate it and since it could potentially get lengthy (who, me?!) I appreciate it even more.

Listen, it is beyond fathomable to me at times, but we are now at the 20th Anniversary of the launch of Jockstocks…..20 years! Started with just the forums, added Pick’em by Memorial Day or sooner, stock game into beta testing last summer, launched in September. Overall, I’ve had a lot of fun, some of it not so fun. Family doesn’t always get why I continue and I’ll admit there are days I don’t either. But I’m a stubborn Scandahoovian and still believe some way somehow an investor will materialize or we’ll otherwise find the money to take Jockstocks, if not to where I’d always dreamed it would go, at least to something that makes all these years more worthwhile. Of course, they’ve already been worthwhile and, given the length of time many of you have spent with us, I assume worthwhile for you, too. I’m talking about actually generating revenue and actually putting together more of what my dream for this site has always been.

Here is the deal. The coding for the site is ancient, by web standards. Much of it is still working, still hanging in there- a testament to Shawn’s (primarily) initial coding as well as Nick’s ability to add to it and fix what breaks. However, it’s getting harder for that to continue to be the case. Nick has a wife and 3 young kids and an uber busy life. I still find the time to get done what needs to get done, but things like this morning (when my hockey site didn’t update until 10am) and the changes other sites make to their coding and offerings mean you wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve had to build, rebuild, and tweak spreadsheets to generate stats….nearly every single day of the year. When I think of some of the things I’ve done to try and ensure the game at least appears to be running smoothly, I shake my head. Even things like having to wake up at 3am while on vacation in Hawaii, just to get NFL stats in. Or spending an entire day working on building a backup spreadsheet I hope to never need.

But I just want you to know- I am STILL keeping my overly optimistic eyes open to the possibilities I KNOW this site can reach. Oh, some of what was originally planned may have changed- times have changed in the 2 decades that have passed. I still plan on the basic game ALWAYS being free, but I also still hope to create ways to generate revenue. Gone, however, are the days a site like ours could generate a solid stream from advertising alone. Not impossible, but will take more creativity. Premium subscriptions, premium competitions, and other yet-to-be-determined areas would need to become viable. Nick and I don’t need to make millions here to feel it’s worthwhile.

A disappointment for me for years has been how underused and inactive our forums have become. I mean, I get it, forums across the web have died as people get more and more tied to other forms of social media. To that end, that may be the best thing to work on in the short term- replacing forums. The software is out of date, the logic of spending to buy a new version of vbulletin isn’t there. Yet they may be a part of our problem in other areas of the site.

I asked months ago about how people felt about using Reddit as our forums and most thought it OK (none of us think it ideal). Yet, I started a subreddit and virtually nobody has gone there. Does that mean you would prefer not to? Does that mean you’d prefer we fixed/replaced our forums? Or do you just not place much value on being able to communicate publicly? I was glad to find a way to resolve most of the Messenger speed issue. Before that, it was frustrating thinking of just how I could communicate things to everyone if they couldn’t load Messenger, rarely went to the forums, didn’t check Facebook or Reddit, didn’t even utilize the Google Voice number I set up. I need to feel like I’m letting everyone know things as they come up and I miss just having conversations with you guys.

I could go on here, but this is getting plenty long enough. New forums, ways to use more of your available cash in what I’d like to rename your Legacy (Total Value) ports, duplicate markets to handle things differently than has been done, be that to use for things like salary cap competitions, markets using real cash, or even cryptocurrency, a mobile version of the site, sister sites that are more informational, more sports in the market…all of that and more is still in my crazy neurotic brain.

Bottom line is, I appreciate that you are still here and I hope you continue. And more than anything, I still hope there comes a time where we become much bigger and active than we have ever seen before!

[rich76]