So glad that BOTC finally will not let anonymous people post .... Good Job Tom less false info but more important no more keyboard tough guys..... KUDOS BOTC

Thank You! This will not invade anyone's privacy but it should help clean up the forums which is the goal & why we are having everyone register in addition to helping BOTC know our audience better so we can provide more user-related information.

And yet now everyone has piped down. Go figure.

R.I.P. Forums.

Most forums have this setting. It’s the weekend and still early.

It will settle things down, but it’s still just a screen name.

You know what they say: we're all just anonymous (Lacrosse) on the internet.

boo so boring now! crickets!!!

Looking forward to it.

congratulations

My recommendation is to have one forum were you can be unregistered. Call it the "Locker Room" were people can talk while be unregistered. And I wouldn't waste my time moderating it, it will be a cesspool but you know that already.

Then restrict their ability to view - not just post - on the "premium" forums. They want to participate they register.

That's how it is done pretty much on every other site.

Great idea, appreciate your advice. I actually do like the name the 'Locker Room' and I will in fact label it that.

great desision

Thanks. Setting this feature up now.

While. Said above it's only a screen name
It is more than that
It also shows support to the site

thank you

It also keeps the pot stirrers and rabble rousers off. Though that impacts the entertainment value - it limits the "fake news".

Seems to have killed all of the bad posts at the expense of the informative posts.

Just proves 99% of the info on the boards was crap. It was kind of like reading The Enquirer at times.

It definitely proves people cannot be bothered to register. Much may have been crap but some of it was useful. Given it is all still anonymous it seems like the former. No one has any idea who laxcoachFC is, right?

It is a pain in the neck to register, so there will be less traffic. And people can hide behind a fictitious name.

Requires people to add an email address and some info when registering... that makes it easier for moderators to track some posters. It probably scares away some of the troublemakers as well.

What can the moderators really do to someone even if they know their email.

I'm missing my daily soap opera entertainment.

Lol it really was. I think what you'll find is people with a number of posts in the counter under the user name people can be held more accountable for their posts and you'll know whats garbage and whats not. When people start making fake names and have1 or 2 posts you'll know its a pot stirrer.

It's kind of like the LaxPower forums now. A lot of insightful facts and good info. But, soap opera and drama entertainment value are definitely down.

I've been registered for ages. It's as anon as you want it to be. Depends what you post. I've had 2 people figure out who I was over the years. Not a crisis. Plus, with regi, you get the added bonus of private messaging.

2 thumbs up

👍

Well this didn't last long. Already ananymous postings today for girls 2023 and another thread. I guess botc threw in the towel

We are testing different permissions so anonymous posting is on at the moment.

BOTC is a successful business and if they are hoping for 1 or 2 threads to be posted on a day then they are getting what they want. Comments are way down which I would guess means views are way down which will mean advertising will be down. Sounds like new coke has failed go back to the classic

Comments are down but Daily Unique Visitors, Page Views, etc are the same. When we add the HS Scores, Club Rankings and other informational tabs on top of what we recently implemented (Blogs, Commitment Center, Job Directory), we want people to not just visit Back of the Cage for the forums but to see the other information that they deem useful for them. We want to protect our sponsors so if there was anything that was affecting our analytics, we would make changes. But thank you for saying the we are a successful business. We appreciate your support and everyone else that visits our site on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

TM-
Sounds like you are adding some great features to the site
Thanks in advance

Thank you for your hard work.

Has it been undone?

Thanks Gg1j18 and any suggestions that you would like would be great.

Where did you get the list for the commitment center? Some kids are missing, or did school drop them? Just wondering

It is a list I compiled throughout the year for the Boys since I am involved with the Boy's Club/Showcases but as for the girls, although I am involved with showcases, there aren't many resources I can go to, to see a list of the players who committed so now that I created social media platforms, I am getting help from YJ, Steps, Legacy and Title 9 who are tagging me with their commitments along with other clubs. Our focus is primarily for players in the Tri-State area and MD,VA and PA since that is where we get our traffic from. But what team/gender are you referring to? If you or anyone has a 2019 or 2020 commit you would like to submit, you can click on the Submit Commit tab and we will approve immediately upon verification. For any 2018 commitments, you can email us and we will add it to the blog that we have set up for Girl's College Commitments from September 1st and On or the Boy's College Commitments from September 1st and On.

Just keep the registration requirement through the fall tournaments. I'm sure with something to actually talk about many more people with register.

My programmer is working on more specific permissions so in order for him and his team to do so, it was either allow everyone to talk or to close the forum. What we are trying to do is allow only registered members to see certain posts or to somehow reward them with something at the end of the year (i.e. Free Camp for those with a child in grades k-7th, Free Showcase with those with a child in grades 8th - 11th) Would be curious to hear your thoughts on that and if we were able to upgrade the permissions so a non reg. user could only see the locker room posts as an example or they would only be able to view the areas where the sponsors ads are (Tryouts, Camps & Clinics, etc)

I get the reason why the forum wanted to force registration. It simply will destroy the brand. it is not what people want. Grated there are plenty of inaccurate posts, however it gives people a chance to vent and call out some that need to be called out. I agree individual kids need to be left out of conversations. I hope the anonymous posting prevails, otherwise I'm out. We already have laxpower....that site is way boring compared to botc. KEEP THE OLD BOTC!!!!!

Nothing wrong with old format, moderators need to deny posting offensive material directed towards kids or anything racially offensive

The brand??? The way BOTC was structured and operated was one of if not the most negative and toxic forums every created to discuss lacrosse!! Almost every forum dissolved into the spread misleading and categorically false information in the form of personal attacks. If BOTC is simply able to track specific users so you can tell who is even in a discussion is a huge step forward. Many times you have the same user posing as multiple participants creating their own brand of chaos.

But you can't stay away, can you? Gotta admit, some great stuff here that you would not know if they force people to register. The test failed, because it went form a hundred posts a day down to 2.

Touche' but 2 posts is exaggerating and as I mentioned, our daily unique visitors and page views stayed the same so we were not jeopardizing our sponsors. It wasn't a test, it's something that needs to be cleaned up but at the end of the day, who ever posts something inappropriate and if it gets passed our moderators, contingent on the post, the poster can be held accountable (not from Back of the Cage but from other parties). Not sure why registering would deter people from posting when the mod's still have access to their IP address. But we (the mod's) have to do a better job with the approving, modifying or deleting the posts.

Thanks for your support and hopefully we can keep the posts clean.

what forums are better?

pretty sure many dont understand the technical issues related to IP address etc.so they are uncomfortable registering

No computer expert but cant people change their IP address. I think maybe a little more of a delay in a post appearing so it can be approved would be acceptable to most posters and would allow the more obnoxious posts to just never happen.

Understood. We agree with the one poster with allowing people to vent, express their opinions, share their experiences, etc as that are what forums are for but if we see the same person posting to their own posts and they are just filled with garbage, we will ban them from the site, it's that cut and dry. So I hope they know that an Internet Protocol Address (IP Address) is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication therefore allow certain websites like B.O.T.C to identify it but I can see many people not understanding that technical jargon.

Glad to see the forums coming back to life!!

Like Howard Stern used to say, people who hate him listen more than people who love him.

What are all these other lax sites people refer that are better?

There is no reason for you all not to register. Tryout season is here in two weeks and some posts can be very informational.