Good morning guys,
I know we haven't quite opened our doors here at the Sideline Coverage forum, but I wanted to bring your attention to an important holiday that a number of people are looking to establish in the foruming world. This holiday will forever be known as Global Forum Day, which will occur on April 7th every year. We're thinking big with this, and we'd like to turn this into a tradition that goes on for many years to come... Potentially until we're old and grey. Or maybe after. We haven't created a Wikipedia page about this just yet, but maybe that's the next goal?
If you are familiar with me, you know that forums have been a pretty consistent hobby for the majority of my lifetime. I started posting on forums back when I was twelve years old. Totally breaking COPPA laws back then, but I apologize for that. I got really into forums through sports. It was a blast being able to connect with other sports fans, whether it was having LeBron vs Kobe debates (answer has always been LeBron) or discussing how much the Red Sox suck. I've been on forums since 2008. Seventeen years at this point. It's crazy to recognize on how much time has flied, but I'm sure plenty of others who read this have been in this hobby even longer than myself.
Anyway, forums have changed dramatically since then. We've seen the rise of Reddit. We've seen the rise of Facebook Groups, and really we've seen a major swing of hobbyists just sticking to the main social networks, and not extending into our world. It's been an alarming change, in my opinion. I certainly don't mean to present this as doom and gloom, but follow the news. See what's going on with Reddit, and their contract(s) with AI companies. See what's going on with Meta. See the latest news on Twitter, or whatever you want to call Elon's garbage platform. Even if the roles of forums like ours have changed over the last few years, I think it's crystal clear that those platforms like the ones above are NOT the answer. The small independent forums (like this one) are the platforms that I believe we should be investing our time and energy into.
Knowing the times that we are in, we feel it's really important to take today and recognize the importance of these forum(s). This doesn't have to have anything to do with Sideline Coverage, but just in general. While going through your day today, think about all of the relationships you have established over the years on forum(s) like this one. All of the friendships that you have created. All of the information that you have learned. All of the knowledge that you have obtained.
So guys, happy Global Forum Day! Thank you for acknowledging the threads that bind us.
Much love,
Cam
