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[CouchCoach]

Well, this is an unsolicited "thank you" for caring as much about the other Zones as much as the Fan Zone. Doesn't take much reading to see that I do not come here just to talk about the team but to get to know posters and make some connections.

And I have thanked you for not only the welcome, special thanks to Idgjt, but the way you accommodated our migration from the old DC.com and accelerated our infusion into the gen pop but would like to extend that once again. We were not only pissed at how they handled that but feeling pretty low and you welcomed us in and began putting up with the nonsense we'd grown accustomed to among many of us.

One question I do have is why not set up temporary Zones for specific issues like a Dak Prescott Zone or a Garrett Zone when there were so many threads about the same thing. Then, we might have fewer posts about "oh great, another __________ thread". You enter a Zone, expect threads about that Zone heading. Like we know we have Cooper following the Prescott deal once that is settled and that will dominate the Fan Zone. The Garrett Zone would be gone or sent to the Expired Zones section if people felt the need to continue talking about him. Or since he stayed within the division, that might stay active as I think we're not exactly through with him.

I want to thank you for something else, however I may have disagreement from many fellow posters, no character limit on the posts. I am one of the ancient posters so when I have thoughts, I need to express them while they're there and one of the things we can't take with us are our words. Can't take them back either.

Reality, it is obvious you care a great deal for what you've created and that is truly appreciated by someone who came from one where they did not.

 

[Reality]

Just curious if you know why the DC.com forums shut down? I'm sure you probably don't but maybe you have some insight. I was one of the users who came over when it was shut down.

I do not know for sure, but I do have a theory.

Before they shut down, some NFL teams used the official NFL web system for hosting their sites while other teams, like the Cowboys, had their own self-hosted solutions.

Over several months, I noticed those self-hosted NFL team sites moving from their own hosting to NFL hosting with the NFL web software, which likely had no support for forums or the NFL had no desire to run, manage and moderate forums themselves.

I know that forums were never very important to the Cowboys or most NFL teams (outside of the Commanders) because they offered no real upside and came with a huge downside (a lot of what appeared to be team-supported and promoted negativity and complaining).

In the past few years, even a lot of content sites have been disabling comments for their articles on their sites for the same reason. There is so much complaining, hate, trolling and spamming, it's just not worth it to most sites and companies to have to manage them.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Have you ever considered allowing socks if the sock is used for humor value and not for attacking anyone? For example, we could have an Eagles fan and write him as a buffoon that we could all laugh at.

 

[YosemiteSam]

*laughs*

There have actually been many great posters over the years since CZ launched. It would be nearly impossible to ever choose one in particular.

I said best, not second place.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Sorry but I didn’t know it. The reason I ask is that I know it’s not a personal revenue stream for you so you would have no problem answering it.

There is a multitude of reasons that Reality shouldn't or wouldn't release that type of information.

While ads help support the site. So do donations and if he were to share information it could be misconstrued by a users who help support the site as that they no longer needed too. In essence, that could inadvertently hurt the boards financial stability putting the board's future at risk.

The only way to get that information across in the correct context would be to share the sites financials. This is a private site, and far more information than any regular user needs to know. So there is absolute no good reason to do something like that.

Sharing that type of information cannot help the board, it can only hurt it. So why do it?

 

[Reality]

Well, this is an unsolicited "thank you" for caring as much about the other Zones as much as the Fan Zone. Doesn't take much reading to see that I do not come here just to talk about the team but to get to know posters and make some connections.

I have to admit I spend most of my time on CZ in the Off-topic Zone .. I enjoy reading discussions on random topics.

And I have thanked you for not only the welcome, special thanks to Idgjt, but the way you accommodated our migration from the old DC.com and accelerated our infusion into the gen pop but would like to extend that once again. We were not only pissed at how they handled that but feeling pretty low and you welcomed us in and began putting up with the nonsense we'd grown accustomed to among many of us.

Thank you for saying that

I have always loved message boards even before the web's arrival. I have been on many forum/discussion sites over the years and made a lot of friendships that were lost over night because the site was shut down, sold or completely changed without warning, so I fully understand how that feels.

It's not about just losing a site or a place to read and post, but instantly losing access to a lot of random people you have come to know and like without any warning. All of the users may not be your best friends, but you still enjoy the online friendships and relationships you build over time, even as purely a reader.

I think the infusion of a lot of new users with established connections (meaning not random individuals) was a great addition to the site. There was a transition/adjustment period on both sides of course, but I think it went well because you brought with you a lot of great users and we already had a lot of great users. Eventually, the few outliers fell into line and realized we can be one big community.

One question I do have is why not set up temporary Zones for specific issues like a Dak Prescott Zone or a Garrett Zone when there were so many threads about the same thing. Then, we might have fewer posts about "oh great, another __________ thread". You enter a Zone, expect threads about that Zone heading. Like we know we have Cooper following the Prescott deal once that is settled and that will dominate the Fan Zone. The Garrett Zone would be gone or sent to the Expired Zones section if people felt the need to continue talking about him. Or since he stayed within the division, that might stay active as I think we're not exactly through with him.

Actually, this is something I did long ago. We had a TO Zone, a Romo Zone, etc. when things would call for it.

What I found though was when I moved all of those same-topic threads to their own forum, most of those threads died and posting dropped considerably in the other threads in the Fan Zone forum.

Most people do not understand how forums work effectively. For example, deleting a thread on a controversial topic can lead to a significant reduction in posts in other threads. Not out of anger at the thread's deletion but simply not hanging around long enough to read the other threads. It's like going to Youtube to watch one video and ending up watching 5 others while you are there. If that first video had never piqued your interest, you would have never watched the other 5.

The same goes for benching so-called annoying users (meaning, other users find that user annoying). If you take an annoying user out of a thread or suspend their account, you have less dissenting voices which leads to less posting in the threads they were posting in as well as additional threads, again for lack of hanging around to read them.

I want to thank you for something else, however I may have disagreement from many fellow posters, no character limit on the posts. I am one of the ancient posters so when I have thoughts, I need to express them while they're there and one of the things we can't take with us are our words. Can't take them back either.

The main reason forums implement a character limit on posts is not the first post, but rather than endless amounts of replies that quote the entire post just to post an emote or a one or two word response.

I would love to see a feature one day that truncates full quote replies when there is no reason to do so. I have even thought about removing the reply button on the first post, but that still would not prevent long posts as replies from being quoted.

Reality, it is obvious you care a great deal for what you've created and that is truly appreciated by someone who came from one where they did not.

As I said, I am a long time forum user myself as it has always been my favorite part of the internet. I understand things from both sides (user and admin side) that most people cannot as I have run and posted on several popular message boards and forum sites over the years.

I know some people hate the rules here, but they have no idea that those rules have been shaped over a long period of time to give the site the best chance of being a place most people want to spend their time. I know very well that some users will not be happy and that's perfectly fine. I've felt the same way on other forum sites I have posted on as well.

I have always said what makes this site great are its users. We, as users, may not always agree, but we still show up day after day

 

[BigStar]

Big thanks Reality, this is one of my favorite hobbies. When I don't log on for a few days, I tend to get itchy. So appreciate you keeping it running smoothly along with the mods. Sometimes forget people "do stuff" so I can "do my stuff" lol

 

[Reverend Conehead]

I spend more time in OT than anywhere else too, especially in the offseason. There's only so much you can talk about whom the team should draft or what the schedule will be.

 

[MWH1967]

As a % how much does CZ get from advertisers vs member donations?

Shoot for the moon young man....

 

[Khartun]

Who is the best poster in CBZ history?

hah I already know it's me!

@leotisbrown although it's been a long time since he's made an appearance.

 

[cml750]

Is the hardware to run the site hosted by third parties are do you maintain it yourself? If you maintain it I was curious what it takes to maintain a site such as this with a ton of traffic? Finally, what upgrades have been made through the years either third party wise or self maintained?

 

[YosemiteSam]

Is the hardware to run the site hosted by third parties are do you maintain it yourself? If you maintain it I was curious what it takes to maintain a site such as this with a ton of traffic? Finally, what upgrades have been made through the years either third party wise or self maintained?

I've always suggested to Reality that we upgrade the ownership around here.

 

[Reality]

Is the hardware to run the site hosted by third parties

The CZ servers have always operated in high-end enterprise level data centers. It is not cheap and has cost me a lot of money over the years, but well worth it performance wise.

do you maintain it yourself?

I have always handled all server/network operations and development of the site myself.

If you maintain it I was curious what it takes to maintain a site such as this with a ton of traffic?

It's busier some periods of the year than others, but it still requires being available 24/7 just in case something happens or goes wrong.

Finally, what upgrades have been made through the years either third party wise or self maintained?

I have completely replaced the servers several times over the years. In fact, I will be upgrading CZ servers again during the upcoming summer before training camp arrives.

I have made several development tweaks and changes to the forum software, the databases and the servers used by CowboysZone to optimize it for maximum performance.

Maximizing optimization of network, servers and development systems has always been one of my best skills in and out of CowboysZone.

That combined with enterprise servers is why CowboysZone's response time is usually instant (extremely fast loading) even during the heaviest traffic periods that would easily overload most sites.

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

The CZ servers have always operated in high-end enterprise level data centers. It is not cheap and has cost me a lot of money over the years, but well worth it performance wise.

I have always handled all server/network operations and development of the site myself.

It's busier some periods of the year than others, but it still requires being available 24/7 just in case something happens or goes wrong.

I have completely replaced the servers several times over the years. In fact, I will be upgrading CZ servers again during the upcoming summer before training camp arrives.

I have made several development tweaks and changes to the forum software, the databases and the servers used by CowboysZone to optimize it for maximum performance.

Maximizing optimization of network, servers and development systems has always been one of my best skills in and out of CowboysZone.

That combined with enterprise servers is why CowboysZone's response time is usually instant (extremely fast loading) even during the heaviest traffic periods that would easily overload most sites.

Interesting information^^

If you don't mind me asking what type of computer hardware is needed to run the servers?

 

[YosemiteSam]

Interesting information^^

If you don't mind me asking what type of computer hardware is needed to run the servers?

Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB of memory.

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB of memory.

 

[Reality]

Interesting information^^

If you don't mind me asking what type of computer hardware is needed to run the servers?

I really do not want to give out specifics on this other than to say it's enterprise level servers and hardware.

 

[YosemiteSam]

I really do not want to give out specifics on this other than to say it's enterprise level servers and hardware.

Enterprise Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB of memory.

 

[Reality]

Enterprise Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB of memory.

That's actually what I typed in a reply that I deleted

I figured someone may think I was being serious

 

[quickccc]

What decides if a post or topic that was started and created in Fan Forum, is moved to another forum - ala Overtime, Roster, Draft zones, etc.

also since this Topic seems to a cornerstone FAQ section, should we keep it around as a Sticky ?