Surly Horns State of Things End 2023

[immamac 42,834]

The podcast is hard with wives and 2 young children each. By the time we are able to do it it’s usually so late that one of us is just exhausted or beat or already passed out. 

 

[BornAndRaised 12,281]

Nah I get that, but you and RGB could be infrequent guests, not the show runners. Hence rotating cast of surly posters who have shit to add

 

[YGIFS 19,449]

I hosted a radio show years ago and did a pilot podcast with the son of a famous Mormon entertainer.  Is that anything?  I'm quite terse in real life and have almost nothing to offer this audience.  

[BurntOrange&White 39,930]

Make CTJ actually race people in 40s and live stream it.

[BornAndRaised 12,281]

14 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

I hosted a radio show years ago and did a pilot podcast with the son of a famous Mormon entertainer.  Is that anything?  I'm quite terse in real life and have almost nothing to offer this audience.  

I would be willing to contribute as well. Imma and RGB can throw together some TOF/Surly/Burnt Ends talking points and then we can get some aggregate headlines w/r/t Texas and sports headlines. The hardest part would be finding funny people or people with time do sit down and record a weekly.

[Hate 20,106]

If anyone is interested in listening to 50+ year old ramble on about the Grateful Dead after smoking kind bud and drinking whiskey, I’m your man!

[NoName 16,350]

5 minutes ago, BornAndRaised said:

I would be willing to contribute as well. Imma and RGB can throw together some TOF/Surly/Burnt Ends talking points and then we can get some aggregate headlines w/r/t Texas and sports headlines. The hardest part would be finding funny people or people with time do sit down and record a weekly.

the time is the killer i think for most people. just hard to sit down and do it...i think there are more than enough funny/well informed folks around here about different sports or recruiting or almost any topic at hand. but kids/life just are time killers

[BornAndRaised 12,281]

Also on the top of additional forms of media, there's another pretty popular CFB podcast that I think has reached out to us in twitter DM's. Could have a surly rep go on their, act a fool and drum up the site as well as shit talk on our behalf vs a washington fan?

[RGBIII 22,838]

1 hour ago, BigOrange1 said:

 @immamac what happened to the podcast?  i'm sure it's time consuming, but i think getting to "know" the site owners could make it more likely that people would want to participate on the forums.

 

1 hour ago, BornAndRaised said:

I feel like this could be good too. As sports change through out the year, have some of the people who are more involved with those sports on. I think I lurked the volleyball thread and isn't @Js1 our resident volleyball nerd? Why not have him on one week to talk about our portal hunting there, or a post mortem of the season. 

Even if you @immamac or RGB can't be on all the time, if we could have one person devote time to a weekly thing like a producer, and rotate people on to talk different sports, coaching searches, fund raisers, shitting on aggy. It could be really good and a way to get people involved in the site and drive additional engagement.

 

59 minutes ago, immamac said:

The podcast is hard with wives and 2 young children each. By the time we are able to do it it’s usually so late that one of us is just exhausted or beat or already passed out. 

 

Or one of us got too drunk...

 

We do need to podcast more often. We enjoy doing it, its just hard to have schedules match up. Also we have to watch what we say and how we say it more now with TOF. Not a great look when you have founding members of an NIL collective talking recruiting and if you know myself and @immamac then you know we dont like to be cautious in the slightest. I dont mind having others fill in on the podcast, but we also enjoy our quality control and podcasting aint for everyone

[BurntOrange&White 39,930]

How about getting Sponsors for the tailgates? 

[BornAndRaised 12,281]

2 minutes ago, RGBIII said:

 

 

Or one of us got too drunk...

 

We do need to podcast more often. We enjoy doing it, its just hard to have schedules match up. Also we have to watch what we say and how we say it more now with TOF. Not a great look when you have founding members of an NIL collective talking recruiting and if you know myself and @immamac then you know we dont like to be cautious in the slightest. I dont mind having others fill in on the podcast, but we also enjoy our quality control and podcasting aint for everyone

I only brought it up because I feel like it's a bit hard to fill an hour every week with strictly recruiting or football. Adding in others can help you have more staying power on a weekly basis.

[NoName 16,350]

13 minutes ago, BeardIP said:

I’m not understanding the 5 digit loss of his year comment. Were you ultimately saying that the 5 figure loss number boiled down to not only the NIL payout, but the timing of the NIL payout?

Is that not money separated in like an escrow which is different from the operating costs and P&L of the website? If not it probably should be, if not for tax and segregation of duty purposes, but because it is it’s own entity and you can get a better illustration of the health of both at any given time.

How is the NIL structured that there would be a loss unless there is a pre-committed number that wasn’t met? If that is the case, maybe you don’t pre-commit but give a guidance based on estimated donation and fund raising, and then pay out the NIL the actuals at the end of the year next year?

it's a calendar year not matching up thing he said, so more related to timing i believe.

i think you basically have to pre-commit for something like burnt ends, i assume you are guaranteeing a $$$ amount for the players signing the NIL deals

5 minutes ago, BornAndRaised said:

I only brought it up because I feel like it's a bit hard to fill an hour every week with strictly recruiting or football. Adding in others can help you have more staying power on a weekly basis.

i agree with it. adding in others or segments (rotating) could be super helpful to fill a specific amount of time

[RGBIII 22,838]

6 minutes ago, BornAndRaised said:

I only brought it up because I feel like it's a bit hard to fill an hour every week with strictly recruiting or football. Adding in others can help you have more staying power on a weekly basis.

But also another person to wrangle

[BornAndRaised 12,281]

Just now, RGBIII said:

But also another person to wrangle

Touche'

[BigBenBamboozle 1,952]

Long-time mostly lurker from the Shaggy glory days. The Figurelli thread on Shaggy will probably never be beaten in sheer terms of laughs per post, absolutely scathing hilarity. I've since found nothing as funny on the whole of the internets.

The problem you're addressing here stems from most active users enjoy the on-the-margins, zero fucks essence of this site. Attempting to build content to appeal to posters who actually like having steep barriers to entry for new users will always prove to be a difficult catch 22. This site is the Cool Hand Luke of the sports web, and it will always have a failure to communicate to a broader audience. 

But while I have you, thanks for running this inscrutable, multitudinal beast of a forum. It's been a blast.

[bizzle 1,153]

have you considered merging the cloak room with the texags politics board and charging a monthly fee to watch the 25 most active posters interact in real time

[Magus Ossis 2,797]

Put banners on the cloak room.

[Js1 85,261]

3 hours ago, BornAndRaised said:

I think I lurked the volleyball thread and isn't @Js1 our resident volleyball nerd? Why not have him on one week to talk about our portal hunting there, or a post mortem of the season. 

I've got a voice made for typing on a message board, trust me. 

[Deej 76,751]

19 hours ago, BurntOrange&White said:

It's gatekeeping that you're doing....The board needs fresh blood, PERIOD. 

 

[Deej 76,751]

On 12/26/2023 at 11:14 AM, Hook1997 said:

It’s not just aggy and there’s plenty of examples of it over the years.  Someone new post a different opinion of someone but nothing bad, then one of the main ones negs them.  The rest of that group follow with negs and shit talk.  Yea there’s a have thicker skin element to it but it’s definitely off putting when you first signup.  

Most who get negged in to Bolivia, deserved it. The rest get shit on accordingly until they figure it out. 

[TheMailBox357 213]

TBH, I've hated this forum's software & been wishing the admin switched over to XenForo forum software since the mid-2010's on ShaggyBevo. When I suggested it in the past, folks disliked the idea becuz other UT forums (i.e. IT, HornSports, & OB) also use XenForo and felt that it would make Shaggy/Surly looks too much like those forums.

If that isn't gonna happen, than I gotta co-sign the talk in this thread about shifting to the Discord Server app (or even an alternative option like the Telegram app). Both of those apps got better functionality than the current SurlyHorns forum software. The only thing I worry about Is if a Discord Server is as easy to find & use as a messageboard for Noobs & casual posters.

[BurntOrange&White 39,930]

6 minutes ago, TheMailBox357 said:

TBH, I've hated this forum's software & been wishing the admin switched over to XenForo forum software since the mid-2010's on ShaggyBevo. When I suggested it in the past, folks disliked the idea becuz other UT forums (i.e. IT, HornSports, & OB) also use XenForo and felt that it would make Shaggy/Surly looks too much like those forums.

If that isn't gonna happen, than I gotta co-sign the talk in this thread about shifting to the Discord Server app (or even an alternative option like the Telegram app). Both of those apps got better functionality than the current SurlyHorns forum software. The only thing I worry about Is if a Discord Server is as easy to find & use as a messageboard for Noobs & casual posters.

Yes discord servers can be searched via search engine if they’re large enough and they have direct links such as discord.gg/surlyhorns

[Laga4 1,270]

4 hours ago, RGBIII said:

I dont mind having others fill in on the podcast, but we also enjoy our quality control and podcasting aint for everyone

I would for sure have an audition before turning the mike over to some random Surly posters.  

[Deej 76,751]

41 minutes ago, Laga4 said:

I would for sure have an audition before turning the mike over to some random Surly posters.  

Fuck it.

[BachelorTrek 2,966]

2 hours ago, Js1 said:

I've got a voice made for typing on a message board, trust me. 

I've got the opposite -- sportscaster voice.  Lulz.

[Darth Tron 1,122]

8 hours ago, Danimal said:

Along these lines... I think something like Airtable, Google Sheets, or another collaboration tool could be useful as a master tracker for annual recruiting classes to help highlight who the key Texas targets are and who the better players are. Much of this information is shared in the recruiting threads, but it would be nice to have this synced centrally.

A recruiting class table (ex: 2025 Recruits) would have columns of information like this:

• Player Name
• Position
• Composite Rank
• Texas Priority (High, Med, Low)
• Likely Leader (Texas, other school)
• Bobby B update notes
• Gerry H update notes
• IT update notes
• 247 update notes
• TFB update notes
• Surly take / thoughts (e.g. "might not have a committable offer because Player X committed")

Permissions could be granted to a handful of recruiting addicting degenerates here to update and post info as available. 

I mean no disrespect, but if our central problem is one of demographics and engagement, I’m not certain that starting a spreadsheet is going to ameliorate the issue.

[Sheep Have Wool 1,053]

2 hours ago, TheMailBox357 said:

TBH, I've hated this forum's software & been wishing the admin switched over to XenForo forum software since the mid-2010's on ShaggyBevo. When I suggested it in the past, folks disliked the idea becuz other UT forums (i.e. IT, HornSports, & OB) also use XenForo and felt that it would make Shaggy/Surly looks too much like those forums.

If that isn't gonna happen, than I gotta co-sign the talk in this thread about shifting to the Discord Server app (or even an alternative option like the Telegram app). Both of those apps got better functionality than the current SurlyHorns forum software. The only thing I worry about Is if a Discord Server is as easy to find & use as a messageboard for Noobs & casual posters.

I had no idea you knew about message board software. I thought you stuck to chicken wings and allegedly stealing from charities to pay tax bills.

As for suggestions, some sort of consistent Surly live chat/stream in parallel or in addition to game threads might provide an additional way to get people actively involved in the community and drive folks to the site from another platform.

[Covri 6,244]

.

Edited December 28, 2023 by Covri
Rambling

[RGBIII 22,838]

3 hours ago, TheMailBox357 said:

TBH, I've hated this forum's software & been wishing the admin switched over to XenForo forum software since the mid-2010's on ShaggyBevo. When I suggested it in the past, folks disliked the idea becuz other UT forums (i.e. IT, HornSports, & OB) also use XenForo and felt that it would make Shaggy/Surly looks too much like those forums.

If that isn't gonna happen, than I gotta co-sign the talk in this thread about shifting to the Discord Server app (or even an alternative option like the Telegram app). Both of those apps got better functionality than the current SurlyHorns forum software. The only thing I worry about Is if a Discord Server is as easy to find & use as a messageboard for Noobs & casual posters.

Shut up puta

[DanTheHorn 4,913]

I tried to read though all this before giving my $0.02. siap.

1) Like others a banner add that is not as intrusive as what we saw a few months ago would be fine. Make it an opt in for legacy members that are not three fiddy if you worry about it. At least they can support the board in that way give them Ad Opt In Image.

2) Maybe an off-topic flagging and troll flagging that is not a neg. After N flagging's the post is hidden unless people have themselves setup for wanting to see off topic and troll posts. This would allow folks that want to come in here and just read on topic stuff to have all those posts on ignore and not the user since sometimes we all post off topic stuff. In addition, the quote button would be disabled on such posts.

3) Did not know people looked to the committed recruit thread for actual information. Most folks on the recruiting board are so well versed on a recruit that the information would be either known or irrelevant. I see them as I was here when it happened thread. Also, isn't a link provided to the player on one of the sites that actually do it for a living. Actual insider information is probably not going to be found here because that information is discussed in confidence and unless you are that person you are not going to run here to post it.

4) Some people have complained about GIFs that is a hard one since that is some of the most enjoyable shit here for me since I wonder how you assholes came about some of them.

 

Thanks for all the hard work that those that make this board enjoyable do.

 

 

Edited December 28, 2023 by DanTheHorn

[Leeroy Jenkins 2,397]

4 hours ago, Deej said:

Fuck it.

Bitch I have been here for a long time. 

[immamac 42,834]

I will bring back the discord to thread integration. Bidirectional. 

We will also tie in live casts with our voiceovers or something. It’ll be fun 

 All chats and thread update in real time. 

[runthebone 7,966]

1.  Based on what others have said about younger people and their aversion to reading, it looks like the world is totally fucked.

2.  Can we help with an NIL top-up?  Or is it really just an accounting thing?

[BurntOrange&White 39,930]

8 hours ago, immamac said:

I will bring back the discord to thread integration. Bidirectional. 

We will also tie in live casts with our voiceovers or something. It’ll be fun 

 All chats and thread update in real time. 

TBH that bidirectional thread integration is is great for game threads but in terms of discord usage it basically just spams the discord

 

Perhaps game threads, 20XX Recruiting Thread, and player commit thread. 

Edited December 28, 2023 by BurntOrange&White

[immamac 42,834]

1 hour ago, BurntOrange&White said:

TBH that bidirectional thread integration is is great for game threads but in terms of discord usage it basically just spams the discord

 

Perhaps game threads, 20XX Recruiting Thread, and player commit thread. 

Correct and livestreams etc. the high velocity threads. 

[immamac 42,834]

19 hours ago, BeardIP said:

I’m not understanding the 5 digit loss of his year comment. Were you ultimately saying that the 5 figure loss number boiled down to not only the NIL payout, but the timing of the NIL payout?

Is that not money separated in like an escrow which is different from the operating costs and P&L of the website? If not it probably should be, if not for tax and segregation of duty purposes, but because it is it’s own entity and you can get a better illustration of the health of both at any given time.

How is the NIL structured that there would be a loss unless there is a pre-committed number that wasn’t met? If that is the case, maybe you don’t pre-commit but give a guidance based on estimated donation and fund raising, and then pay out the NIL the actuals at the end of the year next year?

Yeah the NIL programs are August to August and I do tax reporting January to January. The loss is mostly due to having to pay out their contracts front heavy not that it’s bleeding to death. The shortfall total is around 5k for this year for burnt ends which is easily made up for with ad revenue. 

I very publicly switched off ads for a while then went to a new partner who significantly reduced the ads but revenue went up. These ad networks are on net 60 pay timetables and there was a breakup fee for the one I turned off. All of these things landing before January 1 are what fuck things up on the balance sheet for the year, but they don’t make the site in the red. I have always run it to as close to 0 as possible, the tailgates are really what threw things into the red this year and that’s like you said an easily solvable problem. 
 

The NIL funds don’t need to be escrowed lol I run P&L for shit way bigger than surly this is a cakewalk. Also it shouldn’t be its own corporate entity because the quid pro quo is advertising surly. The whole thing is very intentional and on purpose it’s just my tax year being calendar aligned that’s fucking this up. I will likely switch it up this year. 

[ITHorn 800]

7 hours ago, runthebone said:

2.  Can we help with an NIL top-up?  Or is it really just an accounting thing?

I think that a one time TOF 50/50 raffle could be a great way to rake in a quick influx in cash to pad the coffers while also reaching a broader audience of casual fans who may not be aware of the NIL efforts beyond the "Arch Manning makes 2.8 milly" type of tweets. I know of another non profit in Texas who ran something similar and had pretty surprising results. Although I'm sure the idea of mixing anything remotely related to gambling and NIL fundraising efforts would get shut down super quickly. 

So assuming that would be a no go, has any thoughts been given to a silent auction type of event to raise for TOF? I'm sure that with the vast variety of professionals and resources on this site and offline it wouldn't be hard to get an attractive package of tickets, services and memorabilia to bid on. It may be easier to draw in large business to donate services, tickets, etc as well rather than straight NIL $ and could be a good way of starting to break into those communities. I'm sure all of this has been gone over somewhere ad nauseam. Appreciate all of the efforts, donate currently to BE and TOF but will be increasing both after seeing the results on and off the field. It's insanely impressive what has been built in a short period of time. I've got some insight into the Country Roads Trust at WVU and outside of a big initial surge from Ken Kendrick (owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks) and some of his buddies, they are struggling mightily to attract donors at every level. 

[immamac 42,834]

3 minutes ago, ITHorn said:

I think that a one time TOF 50/50 raffle could be a great way to rake in a quick influx in cash to pad the coffers while also reaching a broader audience of casual fans who may not be aware of the NIL efforts beyond the "Arch Manning makes 2.8 milly" type of tweets. I know of another non profit in Texas who ran something similar and had pretty surprising results. Although I'm sure the idea of mixing anything remotely related to gambling and NIL fundraising efforts would get shut down super quickly. 

So assuming that would be a no go, has any thoughts been given to a silent auction type of event to raise for TOF? I'm sure that with the vast variety of professionals and resources on this site and offline it wouldn't be hard to get an attractive package of tickets, services and memorabilia to bid on. It may be easier to draw in large business to donate services, tickets, etc as well rather than straight NIL $ and could be a good way of starting to break into those communities. I'm sure all of this has been gone over somewhere ad nauseam. Appreciate all of the efforts, donate currently to BE and TOF but will be increasing both after seeing the results on and off the field. It's insanely impressive what has been built in a short period of time. I've got some insight into the Country Roads Trust at WVU and outside of a big initial surge from Ken Kendrick (owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks) and some of his buddies, they are struggling mightily to attract donors at every level. 

So the issue with a lot of stuff people think of isn’t the actual thing itself it’s that the leaky bucket effect for those things essentially leaves less profit for the NIL initiative than was paid to the person putting it on. 
 

if burnt ends took a 15% cut like opendorse or anything we would in effect get paid as much as one of the players. Some fees are as high as 25-30% of gross revenue. Everyone is skimming off the top except us. We gross up processing fees and everything so we take a 0% cut and a -3% cut in absolute terms. 

[ITHorn 800]

1 minute ago, immamac said:

So the issue with a lot of stuff people think of isn’t the actual thing itself it’s that the leaky bucket effect for those things essentially leaves less profit for the NIL initiative than was paid to the person putting it on. 
 

if burnt ends took a 15% cut like opendorse or anything we would in effect get paid as much as one of the players. Some fees are as high as 25-30% of gross revenue. Everyone is skimming off the top except us. We gross up processing fees and everything so we take a 0% cut and a -3% cut in absolute terms. 

That makes sense. I can only imagine the fuckery around payment processing and micro transactions that occurs around the country with this stuff. Appreciate the insight. 

[NoName 16,350]

Just now, immamac said:

if burnt ends took a 15% cut like opendorse or anything we would in effect get paid as much as one of the players. Some fees are as high as 25-30% of gross revenue. Everyone is skimming off the top except us. We gross up processing fees and everything so we take a 0% cut and a -3% cut in absolute terms. 

i really think there is a place for a version of Charity Navigator for NIL.

you guys not taking a cut is awesome and should be lauded across the board by anyone involved with NIL. it's absolutely a best practice if the goal is to take care of the kids/program. instead we have a things like the Ann Arbor NIL club or Austin NIL club (last tweet: 2/3/23 fwiw, and i don't think they have done *anything* this year product wise) taking a huge cut.

it's beyond shitty.

again, thank you for taking care of the players.

[immamac 42,834]

7 minutes ago, NoName said:

i really think there is a place for a version of Charity Navigator for NIL.

you guys not taking a cut is awesome and should be lauded across the board by anyone involved with NIL. it's absolutely a best practice if the goal is to take care of the kids/program. instead we have a things like the Ann Arbor NIL club or Austin NIL club (last tweet: 2/3/23 fwiw, and i don't think they have done *anything* this year product wise) taking a huge cut.

it's beyond shitty.

again, thank you for taking care of the players.

Correct. It was my plan to launch this on http://nil.exchange but I’ve been too busy doing other stuff to boot up an NIL exchange. If I had some developers that wanted to do it I’d be fine to juggle them. 

[gofuckyourself 8,197]

21 hours ago, Hate said:

If anyone is interested in listening to 50+ year old ramble on about the Grateful Dead after smoking kind bud and drinking whiskey, I’m your man!

The fact that we already have Bill Walton as a celebrity poster and aren't leveraging him is a glaring omission.

[hornian 5,210]

On 12/25/2023 at 10:49 AM, immamac said:

This is the problem, everyone is too busy on insta and tik tok to do any of that. 

I’m way behind so this may have been said, why not get someone to start a surly insta or tik tok and then point them here? 

[hornian 5,210]

On 12/25/2023 at 11:44 PM, Mitch Cumsteen said:

I posted this in another thread somewhere, but I think there's an opportunity moving to the sec to do a surly version of sec rant. The balls on any poster on that gawd awful forum talking shit about this place is (fricking) rich. So maybe add an sec board that's not so longhorn focused and maybe get some new blood that way?

Somewhat related to that and as mentioned upthread, I think a lot of the crowd sourcing / fatwa shit is lame. A few folks from hardcore husky - who were admittedly terrible - got kicked off that probably didn't deserve it. People need to use the ignore feature more unless a poster does something egregious. I thought we came off like thin skinned pussies and it's generally better to keep them around and mock them for being idiots than ban them.

Also, if things get really bad I can start taking pictures around my house again. Just let me know. 

Make an SEC board; or just a board with “Tell me about X School” Threads and move those off the football board. All shit talking is legal, no neg rep allowed on that board. Shit only removed if it crosses a line (doxxing, pron, etc.), but for the most part have thick skin or GTFO. 
 

Could also post road trip threads in there for away games. 
 

Encourage other Schools fans to participate and interact. 

[G650 14,229]

12 minutes ago, hornian said:

Encourage other Schools fans to participate and interact. 

[Sabalo 994]

3 hours ago, immamac said:

Yeah the NIL programs are August to August and I do tax reporting January to January. The loss is mostly due to having to pay out their contracts front heavy not that it’s bleeding to death. The shortfall total is around 5k for this year for burnt ends which is easily made up for with ad revenue. 

I very publicly switched off ads for a while then went to a new partner who significantly reduced the ads but revenue went up. These ad networks are on net 60 pay timetables and there was a breakup fee for the one I turned off. All of these things landing before January 1 are what fuck things up on the balance sheet for the year, but they don’t make the site in the red. I have always run it to as close to 0 as possible, the tailgates are really what threw things into the red this year and that’s like you said an easily solvable problem. 
 

The NIL funds don’t need to be escrowed lol I run P&L for shit way bigger than surly this is a cakewalk. Also it shouldn’t be its own corporate entity because the quid pro quo is advertising surly. The whole thing is very intentional and on purpose it’s just my tax year being calendar aligned that’s fucking this up. I will likely switch it up this year. 

Would Bobby bring you and one of the Tight Ends on OTF for an interview? He's been good at promoting  the tail gates and TOF, but never mentioned Burnt Ends or Surly.  I understood why he never mentioned Surly when he was doing the show with all the IT guys, but I don't know if he would consider it promoting a competitor now.

[EastHorn 281]

As more of a lurker I still enjoy this as my internet home (over reddit, facebook, I'm too old for anything else in my 30's).  I guess the question is the goal of the website to be a message board or NIL engine?  Also will there be a tailgate for natty in Houston? 

[Pancho 44,688]

1 hour ago, G650 said:

But you’re from the “other schools”

 

[Frank Drebin 5,654]

I’ve heard great things about Ian Boyd.  Maybe pay him to generate content?

Maybe pay him by the word?

[NoName 16,350]

17 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

I’ve heard great things about Ian Boyd.  Maybe pay him to generate content?

Maybe pay him by the word?