A couple of notes on Rafters

Oct 23, 2025
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And their plan will fail miserably. The best UK sports forum on the web has been destroyed by greedy people trying to make a buck off your fandom.
Same thing happened to InsideCarolina. Once upon a time it was the most heavily trafficked board on the Scout network. Now it's all paywalled boards on On3, and they spend every month begging for new subscribers by advertising some discount or deal.
 

chimchim

Freshman
Jan 7, 2026
36
71
18
FYI you don’t have to pay for this forum and it’s about UK sports
Thanks for stopping by to talk about this. I do think it's only a matter of time before this whole site is behind a paywall. Maybe another 6 months? We shall see. But it's like I always say, nothing lasts forever, even cold November rain.
 
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Goingfor9

All-Conference
Jan 27, 2003
15,683
2,326
113
This is what happens when your storied program starts to sputter. Less traffic leads to this contraction. It seems to be in direct correlation to our results.

How much is HOB and can you pay monthly? I’m on a tight budget but want to be involved in quality conversation


And @MattJones we are counting on you to put the pressure on Barney to move on. So much has happened that would get anyone else fired a long time ago. We have a president who is pushing 80. People I talk to don’t want Mitch think he’s corrupt been here too long.
 
May 27, 2007
31,129
23,951
113
This is what happens when your storied program starts to sputter. Less traffic leads to this contraction. It seems to be in direct correlation to our results.

How much is HOB and can you pay monthly? I’m on a tight budget but want to be involved in quality conversation


And @MattJones we are counting on you to put the pressure on Barney to move on. So much has happened that would get anyone else fired a long time ago. We have a president who is pushing 80. People I talk to don’t want Mitch think he’s corrupt been here too long.

I don't believe this has ANYTHING to do with our recent results.

And actually it's just the opposite. Come around here after a loss and all hell breaks loose. Come around here after a win and it's basically crickets. Losing actually means more people being engaged, not less. Misery loves company I guess
 

LineSkiCat14

Heisman
Aug 5, 2015
38,300
59,918
113
This is what happens when your storied program starts to sputter. Less traffic leads to this contraction. It seems to be in direct correlation to our results.

How much is HOB and can you pay monthly? I’m on a tight budget but want to be involved in quality conversation


And @MattJones we are counting on you to put the pressure on Barney to move on. So much has happened that would get anyone else fired a long time ago. We have a president who is pushing 80. People I talk to don’t want Mitch think he’s corrupt been here too long.

Ehh I dont know. I think this is mostly because forums are the VHS tapes of the 2000s. Less and less people are using them. No one under 30 is signing up, and theres less and less desire to manage these forums.

I dont think this has anything to do with UK basketball being meh.

At the same time, Mitch can kick rocks and he should have been shown the door years ago.
 
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Feral Manatee

Redshirt
Sep 27, 2022
9
15
2
Our subreddit is shamefully inactive compared to so many other SEC schools. The Tennessee one has over 3 times r/wildcats. I highly encourage everyone to try it.
Reddit is an amazing platform - people would love it 1000x more than traditional message boards once they tried it. My only concern is will people go there en masse. Because it is pretty gd perfect.
 
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ZaytovenCat

All-American
Apr 25, 2013
23,522
7,311
97
My subscription to HOB has been on auto renew for the last 8 years or so. It’s up in October and I’m pretty sure I’m cancelling before it can renew again. I never cared for On3 to begin with. Absolutely hated them killing the rivals sites. Rafters hasn’t nearly been the same since it migrated here. Traffic isn’t what it was. This move does nothing but kill it even more. Hope on3 takes a bath on this deal.
 

ZaytovenCat

All-American
Apr 25, 2013
23,522
7,311
97
Just want to go on record of saying no me gusta. It is what it is. I’m sure this one will die a slow agonizing death.
Compare this place to Rafters on rivals. It’s already been dying a slow death since the move. Traffic isn’t remotely what it was on Rivals. The one and only reason I even stayed was due to maybe a handful of other posters I’ve liked for a long time still being here.
 

kuhlkat

All-Conference
Nov 17, 2003
2,933
3,261
98
Just so folks know, the decision to get rid of the other free boards was not mine or Justin’s. On3 is getting rid of all free boards on its site for moderation issues and I think virtually all of their new sites have none. They also have a strict policy of no “general discussion” boards bc they devolve into politics and on3 has a “100% no politics” policy. Justin and I both convinced the powers that be to keep one due to historical purposes and they agreed. My guess is that within the year, it will be the one of the last ones left in the entire on3 network

I know it’s not ideal for some people and it is a change. But Justin has agreed to keep moderation of this board under his editing and it will continue. It’s not a “KSR” decision and it certainly isn’t my decision. It’s just the way they do message boards and it’s why when KSR+ started theirs, no free discussion board was part of it.
You should adopt their " no politics' policy.
 

Morgousky859

Junior
Apr 19, 2025
171
327
63
Compare this place to Rafters on rivals. It’s already been dying a slow death since the move. Traffic isn’t remotely what it was on Rivals. The one and only reason I even stayed was due to maybe a handful of other posters I’ve liked for a long time still being here.

we’ve been here a long time old man, fighting the exact same fight we began long ago. We’ve been right over and over, and still fight the same damn fight ain’t it wild? People really don’t learn.

I gotta run, gonna get zapped. In the words of JVC, it’s not paranoia, if they’re really after ya.

See ya on a few of the other boards.
 

ZaytovenCat

All-American
Apr 25, 2013
23,522
7,311
97
Hey remember when on3 first bought Rivals and we were told the rivals boards would be staying and not going anywhere? Only to then a couple weeks later have the rivals forums disappear and be forced over here when clicking the link for the old Rafter site…

Yeah… i remember that too. That’s why I have zero doubt on3 will gut this board all the way out within a year. I trust on3 as much as I trust Barnhart or JMI.
 

UKfan2151

All-American
Oct 1, 2003
14,366
9,241
113
Hell, traffic has already fallen off big-time since the switchover this evening. It seems people are voting with their feet.
 

PhattyJ

Junior
Jun 24, 2015
148
330
63
Had premium before on3…

…literally today, because of how amazing Will Stein is doing I decided I didn’t want to miss anything. Logged on to upgrade and this is what I’m met with.

glad it didn’t happen tomorrow. Lost this 25 year poster. The free boards with felow UK fsns of all backgrounds is what made palatable paying for “info” that would hit X momentarily.

it’s a damn shame. But also, who didn’t see Matt jones eventually being part of the cabal that ended open discussion?
 
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Jtf2217

Senior
Apr 20, 2024
299
637
93
Just so the powers to be know if HOB get closed and we all have to migrate to KSR and have to post on the KSR board 'll just save my $$$$
 

bbnkat02

Heisman
Nov 14, 2017
46,030
68,126
113
Everything has become about squeezing a cent of someone.

I get it. It’s capitalism.

But when profit takes a seat over service then it’s no longer about business. It’s about greed.
 

Smeegs

Senior
Nov 19, 2025
215
574
93
Hey remember when on3 first bought Rivals and we were told the rivals boards would be staying and not going anywhere?
Yep, the OP’s post hopes we conveniently forgot about this. And, frankly, most of us DID forget, because that’s the sort of short attention span world we now live in.

But, for those who do remember, this is precisely the opposite of what we were assured would happen quite recently when On3 purchased this place. “Oh, we pinky promise, the free boards will remain as is!!” LOL

To their credit, some folks here knew that was ******** at the time, and called it out as such. And indeed, ******** it was.
 

meteordealer

All-Conference
Nov 20, 2004
11,495
2,153
113
Just so folks know, the decision to get rid of the other free boards was not mine or Justin’s. On3 is getting rid of all free boards on its site for moderation issues and I think virtually all of their new sites have none. They also have a strict policy of no “general discussion” boards bc they devolve into politics and on3 has a “100% no politics” policy. Justin and I both convinced the powers that be to keep one due to historical purposes and they agreed. My guess is that within the year, it will be the one of the last ones left in the entire on3 network

I know it’s not ideal for some people and it is a change. But Justin has agreed to keep moderation of this board under his editing and it will continue. It’s not a “KSR” decision and it certainly isn’t my decision. It’s just the way they do message boards and it’s why when KSR+ started theirs, no free discussion board was part of it.
Yeah right. I guess it just magically disappeared at the same time your "merge" happened.
 

SkyPrince

Senior
Jul 7, 2025
251
525
93
Ehh I dont know. I think this is mostly because forums are the VHS tapes of the 2000s. Less and less people are using them. No one under 30 is signing up, and theres less and less desire to manage these forums.

I dont think this has anything to do with UK basketball being meh.

At the same time, Mitch can kick rocks and he should have been shown the door years ago.
Is the under 30 crowd really that engaged in anything UK sports related.
I would describe most as casual to sporadic as far as fandom goes.
 
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*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
42,800
76,001
113
It cost on3 pennies to keep two boards.. It's just a few lines of code... Two boards has no more traffic than a giant one. This is just part of a plan to slowly move to all paid site. If they can have one free board, you can have 2. And if you want to use the moderator excuse, again. It's the same... If traffic stays same, then you have the same amount of Post to look through. It's just in one folder now instead of two... There is zero way to look at this other than pushing for all paid content.
100%, the moderation issue excuse is a total joke.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
42,800
76,001
113
Is wildcat



This. I think they’re basically trying to sabotage this board. Combine everything and make it such a miserably chaotic disorganized mess that we’ll feel like we have no choice but to switch to their pay boards.

That way they can still claim that they provided a free option …while actually scheming to drive people away from it.
It’s all going paid soon. It took what like 4 months after the first merger to do this. I wonder if there will be another thing the founder tries to buy before on3 shuts down so he can remake that into a new site again.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
42,800
76,001
113
It is really sad I'm on quite a few message boards - HOB, RR, The Bengals Board, The Old Red Guard among some others.

Rupp Rafters was the most active by far. One of the last gut punches it feels like from the old internet going away.
The OG internet was the best, now everything is owned by Amazon and Google. They can legit flip a switch and cut off access to the internet now.
 
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*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
42,800
76,001
113
I've used various formats for online discussions. Reddit, discord and others. In my opinion, these old school message boards are still BY FAR the best for meaningful discussion. It's honestly not even close. Not sure why they have been dying in the last 10 years. I guess people just use social media so much, they just automatically assume the popular apps are the best.
I agree 100%. Apps are useful, but these boards are great for topics like this and live streaming game discussion.
 
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