Admin 3

Just to clear up a few misconceptions... This has been pointed out multiple times, but it seems to keep being brought up so I will once again clarify that the monetary cost of running and maintaining these boards was a non-factor in the decision to sunset them. Yes, it does cost money to run them, but that was not even part of the discussion of closing the boards. The boards will remain open through the end of the day tomorrow. (Friday, May 5 is the final day.) When we talk about the usage drop-off, it refers to every metric we have -- not just registrations or post counts. We completely understand that the vocal group on here is extremely passionate and active. However, the number of actual active users is considerably smaller than many seem to imagine. Despite the 70,000+ registered accounts, only a very small majority have been active in the last year to two years -- and that includes people who don't post comments. We understand there are plenty of members who come to read, rather than post their thoughts. (In fact, more than 70% of registered users have never posted a single time.) When we talk about activity, it includes those fans as well. All of it has declined. The number of members visiting and posting on the boards on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis has reached very low levels. (Last preseason/regular season, only about 3% of members visited the boards. And in October and November, all of the posted comments were made by just 1% of the users. These numbers include news article comments as well.) The mods and I greatly appreciate all of the compliments about how our board is better than others out there and how much better our members are than those on other boards. (We have always agreed.) But as any of the mods can attest, it's not easy to keep it so clean and the trolling to a minimum. There is a significant amount of effort and behind-the-scenes communication going on between the mods and admins. (In fact, the amount of conversation taking place in the mod area is greater than all of last season's game threads and this year's draft forum post volumes combined.) To keep things up to our high standards requires a great deal of time and human resources, and we must constantly evaluate how we're utilizing those resources so that we might best serve all our fans. As you may have noticed, several fans have been looking to launch an unofficial community for those still interested in interacting with each other in a message board environment beyond tomorrow. I have been in contact with those creating the boards at www.purpleflock.com and invite you to check them out. We know that many who have voiced their displeasure will still disagree with our decision to close the boards, but we hope you might respect the fact that, since last offseason, much thought, debate and consideration has gone into this decision. We greatly appreciate your support as fans and thank you for your unsurpassed passion.

Yes, all accounts will still be active and function the exact same way to allow commenting on news articles.

Our plan is still for this Friday to be the last day of the boards. (Commenting on the site's news articles will continue however.)

You should always receive a response from Contact Us. All of those emails go directly to one person who then funnels them to the appropriate people in the depts. pertaining to the message. We have received several emails from people on the boards and sent replies to each of them. As we do receive a significant amount of emails, it sometimes takes several days for the message to be sent to the proper person to address it.

It had been removed, but has since been added back there.

BOARD CLOSURE DATE CHANGE Thank you to everyone who has shared feedback on this thread. We wanted to ensure we provided ample notice to the community of the shutdown and originally felt that 3+ weeks was suitable. Also, with the NFL calendar now spanning 12 months, we realize that there is no "best" time to sunset the boards. However, with the amount of chatter that occurs during the free agency period and draft, we understand that March 31 may not be the ideal time to close the discussion. With that in mind, we have decided to leave the message boards up and running through the draft. The new shutdown day will be Friday, May 5 -- one week following the NFL Draft. We realize that many will still be upset that the board is closing, but we hope this provides members an opportunity to continue the ongoing dialogue during this busy time of year.

"We" being the Ravens front office. And we have reviewed, will continue to review and appreciate every comment posted here. However, the plan is still to sunset the boards.

To clarify again, we do not view Facebook or Twitter as a "replacement" for these boards. They are just other social communities that we are encouraging people to engage with after the boards no longer exist. We completely understand how they are very different platforms and communication tools than this one.

Thank you @ellicottraven for your critical, yet level-headed and respectful comment. No offense taken. Let me explain to you and others that there were many factors that went into this calculated decision and it was made after much careful thought and consideration. And to address two common points many members have made -- the monetary cost of running the boards (or anything involving sponsorship) was not the driver of this decision. Also, the purpose of the move was not to try to drive traffic to or increase our followings on other social media platforms. We looked at a lot of data -- both internal (about our boards) as well as external (digital and social media usage habits in today's world). While many here have argued that the site's traffic will significantly decline because the majority was made up by usage of this board, our numbers did not show that. Over the last several years, we have seen significant declines in the number of active users while audiences on other social platforms have drastically increased. We understand that the smaller group of regular board users here are extremely active and we very much value your avid support of our team. We are constantly evaluating everything we do with the intentions of delivering the best to our fans and reaching the widest number of fans that we can. There came a point when we felt that we could better server our fans if we devoted our resources -- including time -- to other initiatives. We fully support thoughtful and insightful discussion and always prided our community on that tenet. We understand Facebook and Twitter may not be everyone's favorite modes of communication, but there are plenty of other fans who feel differently and use them to engage teams, athletes, media members and other fans in thoughtful dialogue. Everyone may not be in agreement, but it's widely accepted and acknowledged that conversation today occurs on these platforms. And while trolls and negativity are present on those channels, we have seen (particularly over the last several years) an equal amount of trolling/attacking/negativity on these boards. (I realize the users may not have seen it, but just ask the mods how many inappropriate comments have needed to be removed from this community.) The intent was never for Facebook or Twitter to completely replace the boards. We are only encouraging members to visit those platforms because they provide ways to keep you engaged with us and each other. The "powers that be" are aware of this decision. Our team was well aware that the very active people in our community would be upset by this move. I don't want you to believe that we don't care about you, because we certainly do -- we are reading every single comment. As others have recognized though, the digital landscape is evolving and we are doing what we feel best serves our fanbase as a whole. I am not asking that everyone now agree with our decision as I truly understand the disappointment being felt by some. However, I hope that everyone can respect the thought that went into it, know that it wasn't made on a whim and realize that the fans are always at the forefront of our minds in everything we do. Thank you for reading. And thank you for your loyalty, support, passion, heart and dedication. It's those traits that make the Ravens Flock -- undoubtedly -- the best group of fans in the world.

@K-Dog @rossihunter2 We definitely considered timing, but, as @T3hRaven pointed out, there is never a best time to close these as the NFL has become a year-round topic of conversation. We have discussed this move since before the start of the season, but obviously didn't want to close the boards then. I suppose a case could have been made in closing them in mid-February -- arguably the quietest time of the League year -- but we wanted to keep them up as we continued our research and further evaluated everything. Technically, the new League year begins today, so that was an option, but it just seemed to make sense to let the community live through the end of the month.

@EdTheMythicalOne A line was added (in bold) to the top of the TOS, letting members -- new and old -- know that the boards will be shutting down at the end of the month. We wanted to ensure we communicated the message to as many members as possible in case people happen to miss the announcement or this thread. We realize that some people are checked out and will be surprised when they return after March 31, but we are using all available features to minimize that.

Hi @Edgar, I'm not sure if you are aware, but we launched a Ravens podcast -- The Lounge -- at the beginning of the season. Our writers, Ryan Mink and Garrett Downing, share their thoughts and often sit down and chat with players and other guests. The 47th episode was posted yesterday. Check it out on iTunes, Soundcloud or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Yes. This change will not affect the content on the website and mobile app.

Just to dispel the various questions of those wondering if this is an April Fools joke, it is not. March 31 will be the last day the boards remain open.

After careful consideration, we have decided that we will sunset our message boards at the end of this month. Since we opened our boards a decade ago, the digital landscape has greatly evolved. While we understand there remains a smaller group of highly-engaged fans who participate in conversation in our forums, a significant amount of the dialogue about our team and our games has migrated away to other social media platforms over the past several years. Our message boards will remain up and running through Friday, March 31st, and will shut down on April 1st. We recognize that this change may upset avid members of our community. However, we look to utilize our time and resources to focus on how we can best connect with our fans across an array of digital/social outlets. If you are not already engaging us and other members of the Ravens Flock on our Facebook page, Instagram account, through Twitter or Snapchat, we invite you to follow us on those channels and continue to participate in our social communities. In addition, the commenting feature on our website articles will remain intact. Members will be able to continue using their boards account to log in and share their thoughts at the bottom of every news story. We’d like to thank all the Flock members and our moderators who have brought thoughtful conversation to this space and made our community great for the last 10 years. Ravens Social Media Hub »