Y'all are invited to come over to Disc Golfer dot Org (http://www.discgolfer.us) and begin to explore its Facebook-like (also MySpace-like) functionalities as a "niche" social network for disc golfers.

It includes your own customizable profile page, widgets, blogging, photo-video-music sharing, internal messaging, message "walls," customizable subgroups that any user can form, a forum, and more.

The direct URL to Disc Golfer dot Org, which is open to any disc golfer, is <a href="http://www.discgolfer.us" target="_blank">www.discgolfer.us<a>.

Hey Terry...DiscGolferUSA is a site already. You might want to think about changing your name.

http://www.discgolferusa.com

Yikes. I've had the discgolfer.us domain for ages but didn't know someone was doing discgolferusa.com. Thanks for the heads' up. I will think of something to change really fast.

. . . I changed it to Disc Golfer dot Org. I really do appreciate the heads' up. Thanks! :)

I am, BTW, very pleased with the early response: http://www.discgolfer.us

Terry, you da man. We needed an easy way to keep in touch with old disc golf friends. This is going to be HUGE!!!

BTW - Take out the "!" in your last post, it messes up the hyperlink :)

Thanks, Andrew, that's kind of the idea. I was a bit averse to social networking sites for years, although I had accounts in Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc., and did little with them. But then last summer, to get material for my weekly column and also to see what my employer could do with them, I started paying more attention.

Sure enough, the ability to keep in touch with people you do not see very often really becomes meaningful. I have a friend who I have not seen in four years who has retired and now lives in Europe. It was when he reviewed a book in Facebook, and then I got and read and enjoyed that book, that I realized there really is something in this.

One of the most fun things in Facebook is that I have some of my fully adult F2F friends' kids who are in college as "friends" and I know more about what their daily life on campus is like than their parents - who are not in there - do :)

And, of course, in disc golf you make all sorts of friends that you don't see but once a year, if that often, so it suits us just fine. Enjoy! I am. Spread the word, please.

Just signed up :DThanks for your time making this site!

Changing domains is a pain! One of these should work:

http://www.discgolfer.us
http://www.discgolfer.ning.com -

Thanks for the quick update. And yes...changing the domains is a pain. Because some times the domain registry takes a while to update. Most changes will update withing 2-24 hours.

Yep. Right now one of them works, another forwards to the one that works, and the third doesn't work. Weird.

That Disc Golf USA site looks pretty quiet with the latest News articles dated 2002.

I did a research paper on the benefits of Social Networking this fall, I can't believe I never came across Ning.com in any of my research. None of my web searches brought it up, no articles that I found mentioned it... This site is very cool.

Who knows what the name will end up as? ;-) At the moment it is "Disc Golfer US" (as in USA and/or "us"). Please spread the word.

Best way to get there right now: http://www.discgolfer.us

Meanwhile, we're going viral with 113 members and 10,000 page views in less than 48 hours. Plenty of creativity going on with folks spiffing up their personal home pages.

The latest additions are that retailers and manufacturers are now allowed to create identities in the site, and we have a real-time disc golf news feed on the main page. We're working on a shared calendar.

Lots of local and topical subgroups are being formed and some interesting blog entries posted. Hundreds of photographs and dozens of videos and songs. Come and see!

Best way to get there right now: http://www.discgolfer.us

Hey Terry...you can actually use a meta-refresh to help keep all of the domains going to the proper one. Google Meta-Refresh and it should give you an example.

I like the fact that you can set up your blog as an RSS feed... I can link it up to post my DiscGolfer.Ning things to post on other blogs. Nice.

Hey Terry...you can actually use a meta-refresh to help keep all of the domains going to the proper one. Google Meta-Refresh and it should give you an example.



You'd actually want to use a 301 (permanent) redirect which you can do at the registrar level most times now. I won't go into all the details about it and bore everyone though.

Thanks, Taylor. I tried that and screwed it up royally. :confused: I am working with GoDaddy to get it fixed. If all goes well, the domain will end up being http://www.discgolfersr.us, although several others, like http://www.discgolfers.us and http://www.discgolfer.org will also work to get people there.

I really like this site!

Thanks, Robert. The coolest thing is that the more people who come into it, the more powerful, useful, and fun it is. We should be hitting 200 members shortly. It can only get better!

Cool website Terry...

enjoyed the quick video of #12 at Cedar Hill...I aced that (righty) this year at the Cedar Hill Mace Man event and saw it aced by Matt Savage (lefty) the previous year at the same event..

great hole

They need to get an actual message forum option on those sites... Something more modern and similar to this or PHPBB than what they have currently. It'd be a big step toward making the most popular disc golf message board online a non-PDGA run one... Nothing against the PDGA, but having them running the only real nationwide online community seems restricting and unnecessary if we can pull together an independent one.


-Chris.

Love the website man! Very cool and it's growing rapidly

Woj, I agree the forum on Disc Golfers R Us is nowhere near as nice as this one (and a pretty small part of the site), but as we grow the community and establish a sense of what the discourse should be like, I am sort of happy about that. For now. I want that site to be a place where everyone feels welcome and no one is intimidated.

Yep, we just hit #437 in http://www.discgolfersR.us - I think 500 will come tonight, to win the basket. And I have 20 nice discs lined up to be the random draw prize for the first 1,000 members - which I expect to be before New Year's Day.

I agree that I absolutely love the site. It is a fantastic setup! I have no complaints about what is provided, none at all. The idea of a full featured forum setup is probably a pipe dream, but who knows what the guys in charge of Ning.com have in planning. :)


-Chris.

Woj, I agree the forum on Disc Golfers R Us is nowhere near as nice as this one (and a pretty small part of the site), but as we grow the community and establish a sense of what the discourse should be like, I am sort of happy about that. For now. I want that site to be a place where everyone feels welcome and no one is intimidated.



What if someone makes intimidating posts there? What happens then? Are there rules and regulations posted conspicuously which clearly state what is and what isn't allowed? Are these rules and their implementation solely up to your interpretations, Terry?

Woj, I agree the forum on Disc Golfers R Us is nowhere near as nice as this one (and a pretty small part of the site), but as we grow the community and establish a sense of what the discourse should be like, I am sort of happy about that. For now. I want that site to be a place where everyone feels welcome and no one is intimidated.



What if someone makes intimidating posts there? What happens then? Are there rules and regulations posted conspicuously which clearly state what is and what isn't allowed? Are these rules and their implementation solely up to your interpretations, Terry?


Jeff,

This is why, much like the PDGA, a moderation team would be put into place if they ever implemented a full scale forum on Ning.com. Then it would be up to a full scale moderation team. Not up to Terry. Up to a team. Of course that leaves you wondering why this is better than having it all a part of the PDGA Forums?

Because it isn't the *PDGA* Forums. It leaves things a little more open because the large scale community would no longer be representative of the PDGA as a whole, freeing the PDGA itself from the worry that somebody would inadvertently stumble upon a "bad" post (and you know some are out there that nobody reports, things that nobody would want outsiders to consider PDGA sanctioned posts, but associated in their minds with the PDGA).

Additionally, from the poster's perspective people would be able to freely criticize the PDGA. This sounds bad, I know. And I know the PDGA accepts constructive criticism here. But no matter how welcoming the PDGA is to constructive criticism there are certainly people that would be hesitant to talk poorly in any way about the PDGA or the people in charge out of fear.

It would also, as a result, free the moderation team from at least one criticism that they are nothing more than toadies for the PDGA. These people would still deal with poster's calling them Nazis, saying they're being unfair, etc. but it would eliminate that hassle.

An independent forum with as much reach as the PDGA site would be a good thing. I assure you.


-Chris.

<blockquote>What if someone makes intimidating posts there? What happens then? Are there rules and regulations posted conspicuously which clearly state what is and what isn't allowed? Are these rules and their implementation solely up to your interpretations, Terry?</blockquote>
Rule #1 for Disc Golfers R Us (http://www.discgolfers.us) is "Please consider everyone here to be your friend." It is the first item on the upper left hand side of the home page and it links to the full guidelines here (http://discgolfer.ning.com/page/page/show?id=1809917%3APage%3A2271). They are still evolving. As I watch the users' behaviors I try to keep them minimal, but ensure that they cover pertinent circumstances.* I've probably made 50 edits in less than 5 days.

My goal for the site, it's mission, is to shape it so that when a disc golfer comes into it, they feel that they are entering a virtual disc golf course club house that is chock full of friends.

Yes, the rules' interpretations, and even their content, is up to me. I am, as always, willing to listen to the wisdom of others in the pursuit of my goal for the site. The users, ~540 so far and I am betting on 1,000+ before New Year's Day, will ultimately decide whether or not that works well for them.

* And, of course, the company on whose servers the site runs has its own, fairly comprehensive set of rules, just like Facebook and MySpace, which cover just about anything I may not think of, including a rather intense "Acceptable Use and Conduct" section.

Nice site Terry.

I like the idea of the free giveaways!!!

One of my hopes on the giveaways is that some of our commercially-minded folks will email or call me and offer to provide some future give-aways in return for recognition on the site. Think of it as a virtual "jumbo toss" or "ring of fire."

Where you now see some nonprofit promotions, which will be a feature of the Christmas and New Year's holidays each year, can be small company logos as links. Those who know about such things realize that 10,000 page views a day (Current average, it will go up!) are worth something.

I'm not made of money, and my wife, who is our major breadwinner, is losing her job in mid-January :( so give-aways on my own dime can't continue forever.

They need to get an actual message forum option on those sites... Something more modern and similar to this or PHPBB than what they have currently. It'd be a big step toward making the most popular disc golf message board online a non-PDGA run one... Nothing against the PDGA, but having them running the only real nationwide online community seems restricting and unnecessary if we can pull together an independent one.


-Chris.




I'm running some pretty decent software on the Disc Golf Course Review forums (http://www.dgcoursereview.com/forums) with a ton of options. Worth a look if you get bored and are looking for something a little different.

Still learning some of how the Disc Golfers R Us site - http://www.discgolfersR.us - works. Managed to make some tweaks to the forum part yesterday that puts posts into a handful of categories, rather than all in one.

Christmas was a relatively slow day, but the traffic is picking up this morning such that by 10 am we will have had 100+ new users, again, in the last 24 hours.

Will definitely pass 800 users today, probably by Noon, and 1,000+ before New Year's seems almost certain. There have already been 80,000 page views and the site hasn't been public for a week yet.

At this moment, people have shared 940 photographs and 72 videos. I really can't say what part of the site is my personal favorite :)

I've only had to ban one person, who joined anonymously with a fake name, fake user name, fake PDGA number, then posted some links, at least one of which had "sex" in its URL. I have asked a number of people to add more info to their profiles and for a couple of profile images to be changed. By and large, people understand that we want the tenor to be friendly and are accommodating.

Oh, and people have started about 60 "groups," which are subgroups of the site. It looks like local clubs and states, mostly, with some like "Geezers" and people who are planning to go to 2008 Worlds getting lots of people joining them.

It's only time before flaming and personal attacks start.

There are some people out there who just refuse to play nice.

Trust me, its coming.

You are probably right, Robert.

Someone who joins and immediately starts posting crap, like the person I already banned, may not care, and there will obviously be some of that. But I am "investigating" each new member "by hand" pretty carefully.

OTOH, someone who has been in the site a while, who has connections to lots of friends and groups, and has shared photos and videos and music, will care a lot more. In that sense, I think it's different enough from here that people will feel more vested in being nice and less inclined to ruin something good.

We'll see.

oh god...Who cares...Does it really hurt to be called names.

Good question.

It doesn't hurt *me* to be called names. I'm enough of an egotist that I immediately discount the credibility of anyone stupid enough to do so, to the point where their opinion of me no longer matters. That takes about 15 seconds. :D

However, there are lots of people who *are* hurt by name-calling, even by seeing it done to someone else. If we don't recognize that, then we end up creating places they can't enjoy being part of. (We're exchanging posts in just such a place, here.)

I want those people to enjoy my site.

My goal for Disc Golfers R Us is a place that the maximum number of disc golfers can enjoy. I'm tweaking it in ways that are creating what *I* think is an environment that will serve disc golf well. (Just performed the second "banning," someone else who joined anonymously and immediately started posting offensive stuff.)

Time will tell. If my vision is correct, lots of people will join, stick around, and enjoy it. If not, the site will fail.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid that at times some people will make it a personal issue to be disruptive on the site. Especially early in the process. A rather sad reflection on the people that would go out of their way to do so. You would think that if they have no real interest, they would take a mature approach and just stay away. In the end, of what importance is it to them if the site does well or not unless their motivation is one of the 'lesser' human emotions (jealousy, pettiness, bitterness, etc.)?

Hopefully in time the people who want to come to the site and be a part find it of value, and those who don't get bored and move on to other activities.

I just found out how to get a data dump of some of the registration data for users on the site. One of the things I can now find out, which I could not before, is the email addresses of users. You would not be shocked at the email address, which I did not know at the time, of the first identity I banned. (The second one was clearly a hastily made-up Yahoo! address, which was less identifiable but perhaps shows a learning curve at work.)

We'll get to 800 users in the next few minutes, and only two identities (possibly one person, possibly two) created with any malevolence in mind. That's not too shabby.

terry- i like the site, thanks for taking the time to put it together.

great way for people who might only see each other @ big tournaments during the summer, to stay in touch, especially with whats happening outside of their DG lives.

Thanks, Luke, I am truly thrilled to see people doing stuff in there. It's very much like stopping by a course you've designed and gotten put into the ground, and then stopping by and seeing people have fun on it :)

Sadly my work's filter won't let me access it. Probably a good thing b/c i'm supposed to be working, not chatting. Guess i'll have to wait until i get home.

Terry,

The site is great! Thank you so much for giving us a positive alternitive to communicate with each other.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks, man. This is so much fun.

The latest is, on the main page, I've got a "Who Is On Line Right Now" box going, with a "Live Chat" box right underneath it.

Both are Beta (in testing) but seem to be working okay.

I can't *wait* to watch the live action descriptions in the chat while people watching final nines send in photographs from their cell phones!!!!!!

Terry,

I've already rearranged my favorites and moved the site to the top of my disc golf favorite sites. Great Job!
I like that you can add a personal touch to a page or group.
I think it will remain positive if we just remember a little respect can go a long way.
Thanks again for the site.
Happy New Year
Nascar Dave

... The chat hasn't worked for me, on either computer, for a few hours? Odd.

... The chat hasn't worked for me, on either computer, for a few hours? Odd.




Same here.......

Not working for me, either, so I removed it. As I noted, it is in Beta, so I will be exploring the developer's site later today to see what is up. I miss it!

i hope u fix it, the chat is the best feature of the site.

Correction: The chat is the most ADDICTING feature of the site.

I need chat! I had big plans for mocking MTL as Columbus beats on Carolina tonight!!

Good news, if I am technically up for it. There's a newer version and they *really* want us to test it for them, because it was so busy when it was up on discgolfersR.us before. I'm working on it.

anybody else confused by the new member "Par-3" with photos of Tiger Woods up and supposed PDGA # 82? Ha!

Good news, if I am technically up for it. There's a newer version and they *really* want us to test it for them, because it was so busy when it was up on discgolfersR.us before. I'm working on it.


Yay Disc Golf! Ning.com is going to love having us on board. :) haha

anybody else confused by the new member "Par-3" with photos of Tiger Woods up and supposed PDGA # 82? Ha!



Yeah, that's an amusing one. Not sure what they're up to, but I figure they'll either fade away or start throwing discs. :)

Thanks for this Terry. Great Idea.

Iron Lion Collector Club:

http://discgolfer.ning.com/group/ironliondiscgolf/forum

For people involved with collecting, or the buying and selling of collectable discs. If you have insight, share it!

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Great time of the day to "schedule" maintenance.