New site up... and waayyyy broken

[potthole]

People turned off by the VIP membership won't join any board, because they will have no way of knowing about this board.

Erm...

You do realize that this board will show up on a simple Google search, right?

while this may be true, the problem lies withing the fact that a search needs to be made. why would someone search for a board if the only one they can see a reason to belonging to is right in front of them?

Exactly. If somebody goes to the FBHW site and sees they have to pay to use a message board to talk with other listeners, their instinct probably isn't going to be to Google and see if there's another.

Not true, I think you're underestimating people. Yes, the casual fan might not bother with checking for other boards out there, but those who are more than casual probably will be willing and able to put a little "effort" into it, especially if they don't care for the VIP forum.

For example: A few years ago I was looking for a Detroit Tigers message board. My first thought was to go straight to the source, so-to-speak, and I headed to the official team website. I found their message board, took one look, saw it was crap, then headed straight to Google. Did a search for Detroit Tigers message boards, and started checking the first few out. Nearly five years later, I'm still posting at the same board I found that day.