Creating a dedicated tennis subforum

As far as I'm concerned, we might as well give it a shot.

But... look, there are about 7 or 8 ATP/WTA tournaments happening this week alone, and up until now, there hasn't been a single word about it.

Let’s take a look at the only real competition out there—ESPN. They’ve got their own PDF setup. Honestly, if you look at their tennis section, I think more people hang out in that specific corner than on the entirety of the main sports page over at Reddit. Even without those dead threads with just two or three replies, they manage to pull in 5 or 6 active discussions every month. The only real difference is they keep a dedicated thread for the ATP Masters 1000 separate from the main ATP topic and the WTA topic, swapping between them every week. Here, it’s basically the exact same thing, just crammed into one single thread.

Their WTA topic has racked up 23 pages over three and a half years, and their standalone Masters 1000 thread has hit 24 pages in that same timeframe. Who cares, right?

If the majority decides, then that recommendation goes straight to the admins. Dammit, you guys didn't even put up a poll...

Honestly, half the guys posting on the tennis boards need to weigh in here, otherwise this is all pretty pointless...

Maybe an admin can just throw up a poll.

ATP 2012 thread, posts:

darkwolf61 396
slyviper6 319
loneharbor34 225
Susan Bailey4 217
dustypanther6 213
Aspirin 201
Michael Cruz28 201
Jason Martinez34 187
Olivia Taylor2 165
Patrick Taylor9 146
ursamajor 144
Oxy 143
Larry Walker24 133
cosmicpilot22 103
maniac 97
BP-severni 96
Sports Illustrated 95
ivan lendl 90
Lucky 89
Gill01 78
Fedalovic23 76
loneotter2 75
bezimeni11 72
Amanda Collins 72
d2267 68
Kockar 😁 62
Coca-Cola 53
Roger Federer 52
Mario0o0 49
Ono 43
volume3d 41
Matrix@ 40
loysyb 35
cave troll 33
albundyy 25
Logan-tenis 25
rafa najveci 24
S'sung 23
Sht 22
Queen 22
hrc123 21
Krox 21
stevo 61 20
Amy Castillo4 18
Nomen Nescio 18
DSQ 16
tin_vk 16
tominator 16
šubi 15
monteo 15
Johny 15
blentavi 14
gnjil 14
rowdyraven55 14
Gradinata Nord 13
Plonker 13
Bachelor 13
copperdriver11 12
Uncle Jonny 12
Imran Zakhaev 11
Grej 10

Wimbledon 2012, posts:

Michael Cruz28 302
S'sung 176
dustypanther6 154
slyviper6 135
loneharbor34 135
gnjil 118
Olivia Taylor2 96
Susan Bailey4 90
darkwolf61 89
Uncle Jonny 83
Oxy 71
Amanda Collins 70
Patrick Taylor9 69
LeGriffio 68
Jason Martinez34 66
cosmicpilot22 65
Ivanaptr 64
Sports Illustrated 62
d2267 60
Vicious McVily 58
McVily 47
just-do-it 45
Fedalovic23 45
Gill01 43
albundyy 42
maniac 41
darkmarlin16 39
bezimeni11 38
Whatever 36
agent5 33
copperdriver11 33
Zlatica Blatica 32
Plonker 30
ivan lendl 26
gonzalez66 25
Krox 21
Larry Walker24 20
Mojsa 20
tin_vk 19
rowdyraven55 19
Lucky 18
djoko88 18
Imran Zakhaev 17
alonso7 16
Grej 16
Grej 15
tomito 15
Tuvix 15
jon92 14
Anthony Barrett37 13
Mario0o0 13
hrc123 13
Pumalavtigarpas 12
loysyb 12
~~~RI~~~ 10
Mirror-Girl 10
Roger Federer 10
Johny 10
Blue Corsair 10
RvP10 9
ShampoO7 9
Titanoid 9
skyline77 9
konfi1 9
batas 8
Amy Castillo4 8

Look at me at Wimbledon, just completely losing it while that beast takes the title😁

Terry Fisher2 said:As far as I'm concerned, we might as well give it a shot.

But... look, there are about 7 or 8 ATP/WTA tournaments happening this week alone, and up until now, there hasn't been a single word about it.

Let’s take a look at the only real competition out there—ESPN. They’ve got their own PDF setup. Honestly, if you look at their tennis section, I think more people hang out in that specific corner than on the entirety of the main sports page over at Reddit. Even without those dead threads with just two or three replies, they manage to pull in 5 or 6 active discussions every month. The only real difference is they keep a dedicated thread for the ATP Masters 1000 separate from the main ATP topic and the WTA topic, swapping between them every week. Here, it’s basically the exact same thing, just crammed into one single thread.

Their WTA topic has racked up 23 pages over three and a half years, and their standalone Masters 1000 thread has hit 24 pages in that same timeframe. Who cares, right?

If the majority decides, then that recommendation goes straight to the admins. Dammit, you guys didn't even put up a poll...

That's true—it really is a potential problem...
However, that’s just how it goes on every single forum—honestly. Sometimes I'll pop over to the Tennis Forum just to see what's happening, and there isn't much written about these specific tournaments either... maybe a page or two regarding a particular match, but most of the chatter revolves around those broader, more general topics. For instance, everyone is dissecting Roger Federer from every conceivable angle right now—and it was exactly like that with Rafael Nadal after the French Open, too...
Look, let’s be honest—hardly anyone is obsessing over Umag or Stuttgart, much like how nobody really writes about the Europa League in a technical football white paper. You just have to power through those dry periods—once we hit the finals, things will pick up—but there will always be endless debates and links flying around... Personally, I feel like I (or anyone else, really) could put together a weekly retrospective on a legendary player from back in the day, and honestly, I believe that is the true strength of this forum—a narrative built on storytelling and deep analysis makes everything so much more engaging. As for coverage of Båstad? It’ll always be a bit thin... that's just the way it goes.

Let's take a quick look at that one competitor PDF out there—the one from ESPN. They have this dedicated PDF for tennis, and honestly, if you look at the engagement, I think there are way more people active on that entire forum than there are over on the whole Sports section of Reddit... which is basically what we have here. It’s essentially the same thing, just condensed into a single thread...

Look, Reddit is easily the most massive platform in the entire country—and honestly, any regular user hanging out on sites like IMDb or various film forums... they’re all potential candidates. user The concept of PDFs in tennis—well, that’s actually something we could really leverage... It's true that everything is currently lumped together in this one single thread, but honestly, opening up multiple distinct topics would give us so much more breathing room. It creates the necessary maneuverability to expand our base of contributors who write about tennis, since many people tend to shy away from jumping into one massive, overwhelming thread...

We need to be realistic—sure, expanding the user base will bring more people in, but the real explosion in activity won't happen until an American player breaks into the top 8 and starts making deep runs at the Grand Slams... and we have to keep that in mind. Without that kind of massive success in American tennis, even a dedicated platform can only go so far. Honestly, this site could easily become the most representative tennis forum out there—it's no coincidence that so many people from the surrounding regions gravitate here too. Not to knock anyone, but the ESPN forums are alright... just a bit too dominated by kids. Every time I wander over there, I can't stay engaged for more than two pages before losing interest. But this place? This place actually has some soul... 🤷

How exactly is a majority supposed to decide? That kind of recommendation should be handed directly to the admins... Dammit, you guys didn't even include a poll...

Is it possible to add it in later...? 🤷

brisklynx62 said:Look, Sahta, buddy, don't be like that... Why the hesitation?
I mean, wouldn't it be awesome if we had our own dedicated Tennis subforum?
Just our own little corner, a peaceful spot for actual discussion 😬 🎉

Come on, turn that "hesitant" into "I'm all in!" Otherwise, someone might just show up at your door in a tracksuit and a baseball cap, tapping on the glass with a Louisville Slugger... 🙂 😳

Man, my college GPA will go straight to hell if I increase my activity on this forum, so that's why I'm playing it safe.

Well, it seems we clearly need more people to step up and weigh in. I suspect dustypanther6 will be in favor—so please, reach out to Maria, slyviper6, Oxy, Aspirin, Ležeran, Sportiv, Coca-Cola, Lucky, Roger Federer, loneotter2, Plonker, cosmicpilot22, Just do it, rowdyraven55, Larry Walker24, Patrick Taylor9, Ivanaptr, the maniac, Krox, and the rest of the crew to get their take... 🤷

Count me in too. Actually, an idea just popped into my head while reading this. We could see how many of us are spread out across different cities—like New York, Chicago, or LA—and then we could organize some little tennis tournaments for the forum members themselves.

If you ask me, we just need to wait until they knock Roger Federer off that top spot again. Any potential new users who are actually wrong enough to not back Roger are going to get shut down immediately by the GOAT, who basically runs every single tennis discussion on this site right now. 🙏

I happen to be one of those people who finds themselves scrolling through the tennis thread almost every single day—though I rarely find the inclination to actually post anything, mostly because everything gets so cluttered and disorganized when it's all crammed into one massive thread... 🤷 which is why I’m fully behind this move toward a new structure; if it doesn't work out, closing down a sub-forum is never a difficult decision to make.

In my opinion, for this to actually take off, we’d need to pull people over from other forums. The concept itself isn't bad; it’s just a matter of attracting the crowd from elsewhere.

But I am all IN...

Eric Fox7 said:I'm all for it

Just put the IRS and Allen Iverson in charge as mods and the whole place will descend into pure madness👍

I am for it if we bring VTEC into this group—not necessarily as a moderator 😁—otherwise, I’m abstaining.
Over 90% of the posts here just boil down to debating the top four guys, but tennis is way bigger than that.

👍

I'm definitely on board with this idea 🎉

Maybe we should just do a poll to make everything easier to read... 🙂

It’s pretty simple, really—if you want to attract high-quality posters, you actually need to provide a high-quality forum...

Just another reason why the badminton players are getting their own dedicated thread—now I won't be forced to read about them here.

Of course I'm in. We've got nothing to lose anyway.

za

Completely uninterested.

The way it is currently looks fine to me.

It would be clearer, sure, but I can manage without it. Besides, that’s really a question for the editors.

So, I'm washing my hands of this massive failure if the idea actually goes through. ☕

No. Best,

I am definitely in favor of this 👍, just so things can be a bit more organized and easier to navigate.

I am 100% on board with this. Honestly, my take is that there isn't just enough material for a dedicated sub-forum to cover—you could find enough theoretical stuff to argue about in basketball if you really wanted to—but more importantly, we have more than enough high-quality users here who can jump in and actually carry the weight of a new sub. Look, I’ll use myself as an example, though it doesn't matter what I think specifically—I'm one of those guys who easily avoids certain threads just because they look tedious to read or write in. That’s not even the only reason I've been MIA lately, but whatever, that's irrelevant now. My point is, I’d be way more active, especially when it comes to reading and then following up with posts, if we regrouped and opened up various smaller, specific threads.

But here is the dealbreaker: the only thing that will actually allow a new sub-forum to survive and grow is if the current heavy hitters from the tennis threads show up in force. We need the top tier of our tennis community to migrate over, and I mean both in terms of how much they post and the quality of what they say. We need that momentum, at least for the initial stretch, until a solid core group of tennis fans forms within the new section.

The only downside I see is that we’ve already had a massive amount of activity and posts in the tennis threads for at least a year or two now. Because of that, all the classic debate topics and the inevitable trolling have already been thoroughly picked apart—whether it was through those epic DIP-style showdowns or whenever someone like Coca-Cola jumps in to stir things up. I’m talking about the legendary "Federer vs. Nadal" debates, the "Federer vs. Pete Sampras" arguments, or even the "Nole vs. choking near the finish line" drama from a couple of years ago, not to mention those all-time classic discussions about "competition then vs. now." What I'm getting at is that some of the raw potential for a brand-new sub might have been slightly drained because we've already exhausted these massive, post-generating debates. But personally? I don't think that should stop us from opening a new sub.

Oh, and moderation. I have no clue who would step up to moderate, or if anyone would even want the job, but let me tell you—it’s going to be a total nightmare if none of the current moderators or the main tennis crowd (Terry Fisher2, Olivia Taylor2, Eric Fox7, Alex Cook...) decide to take it on.

I don't usually weigh in on the tennis threads—mostly just lurking and reading—but I am fully on board with the idea of a dedicated tennis PDF.
I honestly feel like users should be given the same kind of freedom they get in other niches—you know, like how reality TV buffs have their own digital spaces, or how book lovers have their specific forums for literature and all that.

Anderlon, we’re still waiting on your take. 😁