News re Hockey's Future Site

[Leslie Treff]

Folks,

As some of you may have heard, the large corporate owners have decided to shut down the main Hockey's Future site ***NOT HF BOARDS*** at the end of June. Unfortunately, when it is a large owner, it is only profitability and future monetary possibilities that rule. After much thinking about this, I have decided that, if the shutdown happens (there are efforts underway to buy the site from the current owners to avoid this action), that I will revive my HF NY Rangers website and give you as much info as I can there. I am contacting Mike Farkas (under separate cover) and several other journalists that cover the team in the hope that they will participate to continue to give you the best NY Rangers prospects coverage in the biz if the shutdown occurs. I (and I am sure Mike) will keep you abreast of what is happening over the next few weeks.

Best regards,
Leslie

Click to read more...

 

[UAGoalieGuy]

Well that's some garbage! You would think with all the popup and side ads that site has they would be bringing in enough revenue.

 

[nyr2k2]

We'll save HF. Thanks, Leslie.

 

[Mac n Gs]

How much is the HF sponsorship? $12 a year?

 

[FLYLine27*]

How much is the HF sponsorship? $12 a year?

Yea. I couldn't even navigate the boards anymore without 800 popups coming up, so i just pay the damn fee.

 

[Ail]

Let's be real here, the real money maker is the boards, not the prospect information. How many people read those compared to **** posting here?

 

[NYRFAN218]

Considering how much I utilize the site and how much info I gather from it, $12 a year is really nothing to me. Have no issue ever paying it.

 

[KingWantsCup]

Tell your owners to let me run the show and they'll make a fortune.

 

[Edge]

Unfortunately, this isn't terribly surprising.

I started writing for HockeysFuture back in 1997 and I can't remember a time when they weren't trying to make the business model work --- going back to when the Taylor brothers owned the site.

I think a successful business model could be executed, but it would require a significant investment in resources and a decent amount of starting capital. This, of course, says nothing about the changing landscape of news and the challenges when trying to get people to pay for a news service.

With that said, my heart is saddened to hear this news.

 

[Ori]

yeah, that`s not good news - at least we have HF.

 

[Doctor King Schultz]

Yea. I couldn't even navigate the boards anymore without 800 popups coming up, so i just pay the damn fee.

There are free chrome and firefox extensions you can use to avoid the popups. I used to be a sponsor myself but not in a few years. I don't think I've ever been to the actual HF website though, only the forums here.

 

[Gardner McKay]

How much is the HF sponsorship? $12 a year?

Yeah and its a completely ad-free experience. I've had a sponsorship for years.

 

[Igor Shestyorkin]

Tell your owners to let me run the show and they'll make a fortune.

A hobo's fortune.

 

[Son of Steinbrenner]

Unfortunately, this isn't terribly surprising.

I started writing for HockeysFuture back in 1997 and I can't remember a time when they weren't trying to make the business model work --- going back to when the Taylor brothers owned the site.

I think a successful business model could be executed, but it would require a significant investment in resources and a decent amount of starting capital. This, of course, says nothing about the changing landscape of news and the challenges when trying to get people to pay for a news service.

With that said, my heart is saddened to hear this news.

I think it's probably easier to run a site like Hockey's Future today. Why? Because information is more readily available. Really, the site could've survived if they paid attention to the 100's of good writers that call themselves posters. Promoted the most talented posters with a column on the main site.

So lets say you (For example) made a great post about a prospect (Like you always do) someone from HF should have said "Edge, great post expand on it and we will post it on the main site" They could've also looked at the many debates on each board and had two posters give a "point" "counterpoint" column.

The site also could've had a morning news links for each prospect, minor league team, etc. Better rankings with more fan interaction with the prospect rankings. Remember when prospect rankings on the main site were hotly debated? I do. The new rankings were something to look forward to. Now I can't even tell you the last time I looked at our prospect ranking. (That can also be blamed on the Rangers drafting or lack of drafting the past few seasons)

This board alone has many great writers. Better writers with better opinions than most of our beat writers. Some of our posters even have better sources than our beat writers. I have to imagine each team board is somewhat like this one.

That is not to say Leslie did a bad job. She did a great job. Fantastic writer. Great with the fans. Always attentive and when I was on twitter one of the first people I followed. But with that said. the main site could've been better. Should've been better. I'm sure none of that is Leslie's fault.

I can't fault the owners of the site. They have more of a complete picture of what's going on. Nobody wants to lose money on a business and I hope nobody is losing a job when the main site closes. If so, let me just say to that person(s) how sorry I am.



I hope this board survives. I can't see myself searching out a new Ranger message board.

 

[cwede]

Maybe a site like General Fanager, CapFriendly or RosterResource could support/host a migrated HF?

 

[eco's bones]

I suppose I've not really thought all that much about the economics of this thing. Always circumnavigating the popups and ads--kind of annoying like a mosquito bite but hardly something that I found it hard to deal with.

But then.....I'm not really surprised either. Not much in this life comes without some kind of cost attached. Just wondering if they're going to **** it up to the point that I leave.

 

[Infinitum Vitae*]

If we lose HF i might actually have to get a twitter account.

 

[Megustaelhockey]

Admins have confirmed that the boards will not be affected.

 

[Edge]

I think it's probably easier to run a site like Hockey's Future today. Why? Because information is more readily available. Really, the site could've survived if they paid attention to the 100's of good writers that call themselves posters. Promoted the most talented posters with a column on the main site.

So lets say you (For example) made a great post about a prospect (Like you always do) someone from HF should have said "Edge, great post expand on it and we will post it on the main site" They could've also looked at the many debates on each board and had two posters give a "point" "counterpoint" column.

The site also could've had a morning news links for each prospect, minor league team, etc. Better rankings with more fan interaction with the prospect rankings. Remember when prospect rankings on the main site were hotly debated? I do. The new rankings were something to look forward to. Now I can't even tell you the last time I looked at our prospect ranking. (That can also be blamed on the Rangers drafting or lack of drafting the past few seasons)

This board alone has many great writers. Better writers with better opinions than most of our beat writers. Some of our posters even have better sources than our beat writers. I have to imagine each team board is somewhat like this one.

That is not to say Leslie did a bad job. She did a great job. Fantastic writer. Great with the fans. Always attentive and when I was on twitter one of the first people I followed. But with that said. the main site could've been better. Should've been better. I'm sure none of that is Leslie's fault.

I can't fault the owners of the site. They have more of a complete picture of what's going on. Nobody wants to lose money on a business and I hope nobody is losing a job when the main site closes. If so, let me just say to that person(s) how sorry I am.



I hope this board survives. I can't see myself searching out a new Ranger message board.

Personally, I think there's quite a bit of potential in the right hands.

I think HF needs to continue to evolve into more than just a prospect site.

I think it could benefit from more engaging content --- nothing generates interest quite like a discussion.

I've often toyed with the idea of returning to write for Hockey's Future and doing a feature under the premise of "Where are they now" on a monthly basis.

It might even be better to create an affiliation of sites --- RangersFuture, PenguinsFuture, FlyersFuture, etc. Keep the stronger followings alive.

 

[NYGBleedBlueNYR]

if everyone paid the $12 and there were no adds would they lose money?

 

[Gardner McKay]

if everyone paid the $12 and there were no adds would they lose money?

I should probably know this (Gusta almost certainly will), but I don't believe the sponsorship had anything to do with the prospect side of HF. I didn't visit the prospects side often but I don't recall there being ads all over as there are on these boards.

 

[Megustaelhockey]

Sorry, guys, but you cannot promote other sites or platforms without prior approval.

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

So does this mean all the prospect ratings and write ups are going away? That blows if that's the case, I use them almost every day

 

[darko]

We are pretty lucky that we have about a dozen knowledgeable posters on here who follow our prospects closely so i don't think we'll miss much.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Unfortunately, this isn't terribly surprising.

I started writing for HockeysFuture back in 1997 and I can't remember a time when they weren't trying to make the business model work --- going back to when the Taylor brothers owned the site.

I think a successful business model could be executed, but it would require a significant investment in resources and a decent amount of starting capital. This, of course, says nothing about the changing landscape of news and the challenges when trying to get people to pay for a news service.

With that said, my heart is saddened to hear this news.

I've said it a few times in other threads, now. Hockey's Future died when they fired everyone and moved to this standardized writing stuff. Losing Edge and Brandon (I was also fired, but I do not consider myself to be in that category at all) was devastating and the site became a bland also-ran after.