JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
We are excited to announce a new addition to our message board forums, called 'HN Extra'.
We appreciate each and every one of you who visits our site, reads our articles and spends time in our forums. We also realize the forums aren't for everyone, and for some folks, you'd like to take part in the forums but there are reasons you choose to not be active.
Based on feedback through the past eight years we have been a free sight, the biggest concern forum users express to us is a lack of civility at times and at other times, outright trolling.
While our forums are too large to go through every post, we feel our new membership forum called 'HN Extra' will be a fun, enjoyable and informative place for Iowa fans who want the inside scoop, who want to have adult level discussions and debates and be free from trolls.
Here are a few of the highlights that will also serve as a list of (what we feel are) benefits to this forum:
TROLL FREE: Trolls typically don't pay money to access premium forums. If someone were to do that, we will gladly keep their payment and then promptly ban them without reentry or refund.
TROLL FREE: Yeah, this deserves another bullet point. Our hope is the level of conversation and back and forth in this forum will be something you enjoy, like the good old days. Does this mean we can't have debates, or even spirited debates? Not at all. In fact, I enjoy such exchanges. It does mean this forum will be a place where we can agree to disagree without things devolving into a flame war or insult fests.
NEWS & NUGGETS: One of the reasons Rob and I have been pushing for a premium forum is because we want to have a place to post some news items, nuggets, etc, that we don't necessarily want all eyes to see....that may seem like an odd proposition to you, but we've both been at this for nearly 20 years. We have developed great relationships in Iowa City...we know a lot of 'insiders' and there are often times when we have a tip, nugget, whatever you want to call it, that we are not comfortable disseminating generally, but we will post such items in here.
BREAKING NEWS: In this day and age of twitter, it's next to impossible to 'monetize' breaking news. That said, when we hear and confirm breaking news items, we will likely post them here first before disseminating them generally via our other forums and social media channels. Most stories that wind up panning out will typically have their 'unveiling' in a premium forum.
RUMORS: Neither Rob nor I are big on rumors...but there are times when some rumors are more credible than others. Rob and I will feel comfortable posting things here behind the paywall, as the folks who are likely to subscribe to a premium forum are also mature enough to handle what is posted responsibly.
Most people who pay for access like this tend to value what they receive and are less likely to share it with the world. We can't demand that you keep what you see and read here entirely confidential...we'd like that of course, but we are not naive and we realize that some folks will struggle with that.
I will be hanging out in the HN Extra forum quite a bit...which might be a detracting point for some of you
But like many of you, I tire of the nature of trolls, and it takes all the joy out of the message board experience for me...so I am no different than you. And yes, while we could have had a stronger hand in moderating the free boards, at some point in time, you'd like to think you don't have to babysit grown men and women...and the number of trolls is less than the number of people who want to have genuine discussions. That said, we won't abandon the free boards...and we still encourage you in helping us policing these boards and kicking trolls to the curb.
So thanks again for stopping by, thanks again for supporting this website and Rob and I look forward to engaging you in some high level Hawkeye discussions.
CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE HN EXTRA FORUM
We appreciate each and every one of you who visits our site, reads our articles and spends time in our forums. We also realize the forums aren't for everyone, and for some folks, you'd like to take part in the forums but there are reasons you choose to not be active.
Based on feedback through the past eight years we have been a free sight, the biggest concern forum users express to us is a lack of civility at times and at other times, outright trolling.
While our forums are too large to go through every post, we feel our new membership forum called 'HN Extra' will be a fun, enjoyable and informative place for Iowa fans who want the inside scoop, who want to have adult level discussions and debates and be free from trolls.
Here are a few of the highlights that will also serve as a list of (what we feel are) benefits to this forum:
TROLL FREE: Trolls typically don't pay money to access premium forums. If someone were to do that, we will gladly keep their payment and then promptly ban them without reentry or refund.
TROLL FREE: Yeah, this deserves another bullet point. Our hope is the level of conversation and back and forth in this forum will be something you enjoy, like the good old days. Does this mean we can't have debates, or even spirited debates? Not at all. In fact, I enjoy such exchanges. It does mean this forum will be a place where we can agree to disagree without things devolving into a flame war or insult fests.
NEWS & NUGGETS: One of the reasons Rob and I have been pushing for a premium forum is because we want to have a place to post some news items, nuggets, etc, that we don't necessarily want all eyes to see....that may seem like an odd proposition to you, but we've both been at this for nearly 20 years. We have developed great relationships in Iowa City...we know a lot of 'insiders' and there are often times when we have a tip, nugget, whatever you want to call it, that we are not comfortable disseminating generally, but we will post such items in here.
BREAKING NEWS: In this day and age of twitter, it's next to impossible to 'monetize' breaking news. That said, when we hear and confirm breaking news items, we will likely post them here first before disseminating them generally via our other forums and social media channels. Most stories that wind up panning out will typically have their 'unveiling' in a premium forum.
RUMORS: Neither Rob nor I are big on rumors...but there are times when some rumors are more credible than others. Rob and I will feel comfortable posting things here behind the paywall, as the folks who are likely to subscribe to a premium forum are also mature enough to handle what is posted responsibly.
Most people who pay for access like this tend to value what they receive and are less likely to share it with the world. We can't demand that you keep what you see and read here entirely confidential...we'd like that of course, but we are not naive and we realize that some folks will struggle with that.
I will be hanging out in the HN Extra forum quite a bit...which might be a detracting point for some of you
But like many of you, I tire of the nature of trolls, and it takes all the joy out of the message board experience for me...so I am no different than you. And yes, while we could have had a stronger hand in moderating the free boards, at some point in time, you'd like to think you don't have to babysit grown men and women...and the number of trolls is less than the number of people who want to have genuine discussions. That said, we won't abandon the free boards...and we still encourage you in helping us policing these boards and kicking trolls to the curb.So thanks again for stopping by, thanks again for supporting this website and Rob and I look forward to engaging you in some high level Hawkeye discussions.
CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE HN EXTRA FORUM
