Topic for Barry Greenstein: PokerRoad and PokerRoad Forums

Barry Greenstein · #1 (**permalink**) 08-29-2008, 12:12 AM

I'm sure we're going to need a lot of help from our forum community. We're not entirely sure how to run these forums, but it has become clear that we need to develop a community where PokerRoad can be discussed.

Here is my opening statement:

The PokerRoad Forums are a place where players can talk about PokerRoad shows and discuss poker topics and strategy. Please keep the language and graphics clean enough so that we can have a diverse audience. We hope to provide a place that is friendlier to women than most poker forums, so please censor your graphics and discussions accordingly.

We also plan to get TV players and online professionals involved doing personal “wells” where they will answer questions from our community. Please limit the personal attacks on them so we can keep them around.

We encourage links to interesting threads or features on other poker sites. Our ambitious long-term goal is to be the hub for poker and we think we can achieve this by helping other poker-related sites grow with us, rather than by trying to eliminate the competition. In our corporate model there is no competition, but instead there are other content providers that we hope to leverage.

We want our forums to have a positive feel to them, so have fun while you post here.

Barry

Jofeljoh! · #2 (**permalink**) 09-08-2008, 05:04 AM

Thanks Barry.

We'll - (well, at least myself lol) will do our best. If you need any help or advise with running the community, I might be able to help).

Good thing there's a forum now! I always wondered why there wasn't any.

Charlie Tuna · #3 (**permalink**) 09-11-2008, 06:11 PM

Barry,

In the spirit of this being the place to ask questions about the forum, I will ask a couple (serious ones) that have been bugging me...

1. I'm a little confused by the poker discussion and poker strategy forums. There is no way to know whether the poker strategy sub forums assigned to the various games are intended to be strategy for cash games or tournaments. I feel like High Stakes Cash Games, MSCG, and LSCG sub-forums need to be in strategy and included as sub forums under each specific game type (maybe not for a while for some of the less popular games) and not in discussion because I don't understand what discussion there could be about these games, perhaps with the exception of HSCG, that is not related to strategy. I feel like a sticky at the top of these forums that spelled out what exactly is the definition of High vs. Mid vs. Low Stakes, basic rules, where to convert HH, etc., would help eliminate some confusion.

2. Would it be possible to add some "smilies" of the four different suits? As you know, 2plus2 has these and I think they would aid a lot of players in relaying hand histories, at least until we get a sponsored HH converter here for online hands, and for live HHs after that. I know this seems like a small thing but I think getting good strategy discussion going on this forum couldn't be a bad thing when there are resources like you, Joe, Bart, and other well respected poker minds floating around.

I hesitated to ask too many questions at this early stage in the forum's development because I didn't want to seem like a nuisance pushing for things to happen before the forum truly fleshes out but I just thought I'd ask these in the spirit of making (what are hopefully considered) constructive suggestions and fostering the growth of this new forum that I think has a lot of potential.

Barry Greenstein · #4 (**permalink**) 09-11-2008, 06:31 PM

I assumed that in the individual game forums, there would be both tournament and cash game discussions. I don't want to make more forums.

I think our site has a clean look to it and I am happy with our choices and the number of forums we have. I'm not confident in the way I have broken up the poker discussion and strategy forums. I'm hoping I will get a better indication of what we should have once we get more people posting about strategy.

As for the poker symbol smilies, I will have our supermoderator look into that. I assume that will be an easy fix. Thanks for bringing that up.

Barry

RicoSlim · #5 (**permalink**) 09-11-2008, 06:49 PM

Hey Barry,

Thanks for all the work to get these forums up and running. In the online tournament thread we are discussing setting up some private tourneys for forum members to play together in. We just didn't know if this was something that you wanted us as the forum members to set up or something that PokerRoad would do? Also, if you would like us to set them up do you have an issue with us using "PokerRoad" in the title of the tourney.

Here is the link to the discussion:
http://www.pokerroad.com/forums/show...=1957#post1957

Thanks,
RicoSlim

Barry Greenstein · #6 (**permalink**) 09-11-2008, 07:56 PM

I have no problem with you guys setting up tournaments and using the name PokerRoad. The idea here is that the community should have the majority say in the direction of the forums. We have certain guidlelines, but will generally not get in your way.

It's hard for me to play in the tournaments because I am sponsored by PokerStars. Obviously it wouldn't look good if I played on other sites, and if I play on PokerStars with you guys, our other sponsors will feel that this is a site biased toward PokerStars.

Barry

jojobinks · #7 (**permalink**) 09-11-2008, 09:20 PM

moderation: how will you handle it? i just got here a few minutes ago but haven't seen much of a presence except for you, joe, shronk and huff.

we've all seen what forums can get to be like without good mods, and i figure you four aren't gonna be here 24/7. i imagine your vision is not for this to be a sewer like nwp, and i imagine your growth will be rapid. so what's the plan?

coolfool · #8 (**permalink**) 09-11-2008, 10:16 PM

Well there have already been freerolls on fulltilt ... the heads up horse thing between ali and gavin.

I dont think if you played in a private tournament every now and again on pokerstars that your other sponsors would care... i could be wrong.. your sponsors could also sponsor emo music too

Barry Greenstein · #9 (**permalink**) 09-11-2008, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jojobinks

moderation: how will you handle it? i just got here a few minutes ago but haven't seen much of a presence except for you, joe, shronk and huff.

we've all seen what forums can get to be like without good mods, and i figure you four aren't gonna be here 24/7. i imagine your vision is not for this to be a sewer like nwp, and i imagine your growth will be rapid. so what's the plan?

We don't have or need ever-present moderators, but our two main moderators, JonV and Tina Tran, spend a lot of time on the site and can always be contacted by private message. They are friendly and helpful and not obsessed with power. We will keep the forums structured and limit the vulgarity and personal attacks, but a lot of the policing and decisions will be made by the community.

Some other people on our staff have moderator powers, and as we grow, we will add moderators from our community.

Barry

Kiddo · #10 (**permalink**) 09-15-2008, 07:10 AM

I don't have a specific question, but I thought I would congratulate Barry and all others involved for providing a poker forum that is a friendly place. It will be good to watch it grow!

I'm not much of a forum poster, I usually lurk on other forums but this is the first forum I have come across that I feel comfortable posting on.

Without jumping on the praise wagon too much, I really like the mindset of the people in charge here. I'm just waiting for Barry to stop being nice, we have to get the bad side out of him somehow! :P