MyGolfSpy: State of the Forum (Monthly Updates)

[Josh Parker]

58 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

I've tried to do various comparisons over the years but it's really hard given the change which was made to signing up for tests. That happened sometime in 2021 and for about a year (maybe a little more) reviews were also posted within this platform. It created separation between the forum posts which are counted and all the member testing posts. 

There are essentially eras for the forum with the beginning being from 2010 to early 2016. This saw some growth but was a slower period. From 2016-19 there was more growth and many of the things that are here today come from this era. 2020 was it's own beast for obvious reasons then the 2021-2022 was another separate era with well a lot. From 2023 on is what I would consider the current era. 

I don't know the whole history of the forum as I have only been here since 2016, but have definitely seen my fair share of ups and downs within the forum. Where we are now is certainly a fantastic high which I hope continues!

It's been awesome the last month with a ton of new activity. 

[rkj427]

56 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

I've tried to do various comparisons over the years but it's really hard given the change which was made to signing up for tests. That happened sometime in 2021 and for about a year (maybe a little more) reviews were also posted within this platform. It created separation between the forum posts which are counted and all the member testing posts. 

There are essentially eras for the forum with the beginning being from 2010 to early 2016. This saw some growth but was a slower period. From 2016-19 there was more growth and many of the things that are here today come from this era. 2020 was it's own beast for obvious reasons then the 2021-2022 was another separate era with well a lot. From 2023 on is what I would consider the current era. 

I don't know the whole history of the forum as I have only been here since 2016, but have definitely seen my fair share of ups and downs within the forum. Where we are now is certainly a fantastic high which I hope continues!

Jamie, your last statement really sums up all of the work and effort that you and the MGS forum staff have put in to create a forum where there is more camaraderie amongst all who participate more than a "competitive or egotistical attitude" of some members. 

Members now seem to look out for one another, to provide advice or assistance where they can, and have become a little more personally involved too.

This is still one of the most user friendly forums where one can not only get some advice but also has an opportunity to really interact and make some friendships in real life too.

Kudos to you and your team for instilling that "attitude" into the forum here. 

[CFreddie]

Amazing stats @GolfSpy_APH- this work travel is reallllly cutting into my ability to post recently

Keep up the good work!

[HikingMike]

12 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Still a few minutes left in "the day" it ends at 6am my time - but my goodness you all crushed it today!

I woke up this morning and had 11 PMs to respond to and another 34 notifications! This place freaking rocks!

To the MOOOOOOOONN! 

[GolfSpy_APH]

Just a quick side note update - Since the Arias test (some before we technically considered as 2024 reviews as they were completed in 2024) we have selected roughly 100 members for member testing so far (that just kinda blew me away when I realized that last night)

Going a little deeper though we have 51 new members selected for member testing this season. Over half! Which is really cool. Note that this does not include the 30 for Shot Scope and Callaway or Titleist Whitebox opportunities. 

So for all of you who are new to the forum, get into the forum and your chances at being selected are huge!

[CFreddie]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Just a quick side note update - Since the Arias test (some before we technically considered as 2024 reviews as they were completed in 2024) we have selected roughly 100 members for member testing so far (that just kinda blew me away when I realized that last night)

Going a little deeper though we have 51 new members selected for member testing this season. Over half! Which is really cool. Note that this does not include the 30 for Shot Scope and Callaway or Titleist Whitebox opportunities. 

So for all of you who are new to the forum, get into the forum and your chances at being selected are huge!

Awesome update Jamie - love to see the new members opportunities this year! 

[Rob Person]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Just a quick side note update - Since the Arias test (some before we technically considered as 2024 reviews as they were completed in 2024) we have selected roughly 100 members for member testing so far (that just kinda blew me away when I realized that last night)

Going a little deeper though we have 51 new members selected for member testing this season. Over half! Which is really cool. Note that this does not include the 30 for Shot Scope and Callaway or Titleist Whitebox opportunities. 

So for all of you who are new to the forum, get into the forum and your chances at being selected are huge!

This is awesome!  Boom !  

[Northern Monkey]

That’s fantastic results Jamie, keep it going

[TJ Hall]

3 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Just a quick side note update - Since the Arias test (some before we technically considered as 2024 reviews as they were completed in 2024) we have selected roughly 100 members for member testing so far (that just kinda blew me away when I realized that last night)

Going a little deeper though we have 51 new members selected for member testing this season. Over half! Which is really cool. Note that this does not include the 30 for Shot Scope and Callaway or Titleist Whitebox opportunities. 

So for all of you who are new to the forum, get into the forum and your chances at being selected are huge!

Love these updates @GolfSpy_APH!  

[William P]

Nice update Jamie. Stats show the opportunities are for all members as clearly stated multiple times!

[GolfSpy_APH]

And to think we will be selecting nearly another 200 more members for testing before our season is up!

[HikingMike]

9 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Just a quick side note update - Since the Arias test (some before we technically considered as 2024 reviews as they were completed in 2024) we have selected roughly 100 members for member testing so far (that just kinda blew me away when I realized that last night)

Going a little deeper though we have 51 new members selected for member testing this season. Over half! Which is really cool. Note that this does not include the 30 for Shot Scope and Callaway or Titleist Whitebox opportunities. 

So for all of you who are new to the forum, get into the forum and your chances at being selected are huge!

Wow that's awesome, and we're only in April. 200 more, nice! It's amazing how many testing opportunities there are for the lowly forum plebs like us* That's pretty damn magical.

* Ok, not just lowly forum plebs. Judging from the past tests I've kept up with, these are genuinely great humans, who love golf, put in some time, and give us some great write-ups. But yeah, we don't run a golf website and community or make decisions for it.

I'm curious if you can give any insight... because we've seen 5,000 signups to some of these popular tests - can you break down how many you think have a legit shot at being selected for a specific test out of all the signups? How many basically haven't followed the guidelines or don't have any forum interaction to speak of? Maybe a bunch are somewhere in between. And there will be some that were already selected for a test and won't get another one for at least a year. I guess this would be just a super rough impression, or just anything you can say, if you can. Basically, I think I can put myself in a group that has a chance at testing (along with people here in this thread). And when there is a number like 5,000 or something test signups, it makes me wonder what the actual pool is that I'm in. 

Oh yeah and I know there are sometimes requests from the company providing the items for testing that dictate what kinds of people get selected. Makes sense, and that's just the way that is. That "How to be a tester guide" thread is great stuff.

Edited April 16 by HikingMike

[GolfSpy_APH]

2 minutes ago, HikingMike said:

Wow that's awesome, and we're only in April. 200 more, nice! It's amazing how many testing opportunities there are for the lowly forum plebs like us* That's pretty damn magical.

* Ok, not just lowly forum plebs. Judging from the past tests I've kept up with, these are genuinely great humans, who love golf, put in some time, and give us some great write-ups.

I'm curious if you can give any insight... because we've seen 5,000 signups to some of these popular tests - can you break down how many you think have a legit shot at being selected for a specific test out of all the signups? How many basically haven't followed the guidelines or don't have any forum interaction to speak of? Maybe a bunch are somewhere in between. And there will be some that were already selected for a test and won't get another one for at least a year. I guess this would be just a super rough impression, or just anything you can say, if you can. Basically, I think I can put myself in a group that has a chance at testing (along with people here in this thread). And when there is a number like 5,000 or something test signups, it makes me wonder what the actual pool is that I'm in. 

Oh yeah and I know there are sometimes requests from the company providing the items for testing that dictate what kinds of people get selected. Makes sense, and that's just the way that is. That "How to be a tester guide" thread is great stuff.

General rule is 2-3% are members who have at least 50 or more posts. 

That said we often select members with posts from 10-40 posts. 

[TJ Hall]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

And to think we will be selecting nearly another 200 more members for testing before our season is up!

That really is crazy…I can’t imagine how many hours you all put in to make these happen!

[Dead Solid Bogey]

Great to see all the new members involved in the testing and with the forum in general. The new members should help the mods continue to add vitality and variety to the forum, especially with some of us  sorta older members possibly easing themselves off the forum pages. 

[HikingMike]

1 hour ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

General rule is 2-3% are members who have at least 50 or more posts. 

That said we often select members with posts from 10-40 posts. 

Ok that puts some good perspective on it, thanks!

[GolfSpy_APH]

Been slacking on this, but we are full throttle and in good hands with our staff and how the activity is going. May was a down month, but we had reached a pretty high-high so expected it to come down a bit. 

I am hoping we see June rebound a bit and a lot more on the course talk.

[jared52]

On 6/10/2024 at 3:53 AM, GolfSpy_APH said:

Been slacking on this, but we are full throttle and in good hands with our staff and how the activity is going. May was a down month, but we had reached a pretty high-high so expected it to come down a bit. 

I am hoping we see June rebound a bit and a lot more on the course talk.

People too busy playing to post?

[GolfSpy_APH]

2 hours ago, jared52 said:

People too busy playing to post?

Probably! And that's okay... Even a good thing as ultimately we want to see people out enjoy the sport we all love.

[Jim Shaw]

On 6/10/2024 at 1:53 AM, GolfSpy_APH said:

Been slacking on this, but we are full throttle and in good hands with our staff and how the activity is going. May was a down month, but we had reached a pretty high-high so expected it to come down a bit. 

I am hoping we see June rebound a bit and a lot more on the course talk.

probably the majority of "spy's"are in the northern hemisphere, longer days, warmer weather has all the outside stuff going on... to be expected I would think, although I am hearing rumblings of people leaving the sport. Coming out of covid and the cost of living in North America have been mentioned as the reasons. 

As you probably know I have been involved with the game for many years and have seen high's and low's, probably 4 or 5 cycles in the years I have played, wether this affects this forum I don't know for sure, probably just seasonal.

[Dead Solid Bogey]

7 hours ago, Jim Shaw said:

probably the majority of "spy's"are in the northern hemisphere, longer days, warmer weather has all the outside stuff going on... to be expected I would think, although I am hearing rumblings of people leaving the sport. Coming out of covid and the cost of living in North America have been mentioned as the reasons. 

As you probably know I have been involved with the game for many years and have seen high's and low's, probably 4 or 5 cycles in the years I have played, wether this affects this forum I don't know for sure, probably just seasonal.

@Jim Shaw Wondering if demographics are playing a major part… In my clubs specific case the number of elderly /seniors is quite a bit lower in just the last couple of years.. The Ancient Agers have been reduced by about half… Death, disability, and debt are the  culprits. Some of the younger people that I work with and younger members of the club are working more at their main gig’s or getting side gigs to keep up with the cost of living. While most of us would like to believe that golf is a necessity of life, truth be told,  it is one of the first things cut when looking to reduce expenses or needing to allocate time to other activities. 

 

[Jim Shaw]

7 hours ago, Dead Solid Bogey said:

@Jim Shaw Wondering if demographics are playing a major part… In my clubs specific case the number of elderly /seniors is quite a bit lower in just the last couple of years.. The Ancient Agers have been reduced by about half… Death, disability, and debt are the  culprits. Some of the younger people that I work with and younger members of the club are working more at their main gig’s or getting side gigs to keep up with the cost of living. While most of us would like to believe that golf is a necessity of life, truth be told,  it is one of the first things cut when looking to reduce expenses or needing to allocate time to other activities. 

 

for sure demographics have a lot to do with it, when I was raising a young family and trying to make a living priorities weren't golf for sure... I see that with my kids and my nieces and nephews

[GolfSpy_APH]

I know I have been slacking here, but the summer is a bit hectic for me with work.... I know ice and summer don't necessarily mix, but it is when we are the most busy. 

That said I will have a larger update for all of you end of the month. 

Feel free to drop any questions here as well. 

A cool note for all - the most posts in a year we have ever had is 126,000. Pretty darn good, but that was also in 2020 where all the signups for tests were counted as posts. This was prior to the new system we have now. It is worth noting that ytd we have had 13k posts all within the testing sign up threads. 

However as of this morning we are at 119,000 posts. So we will easily clear the prior record, but I also set a goal of 150k for this year. As we average 12-13k per month we should have no issues breaking that, but just want to thank all of you for the time spent here. It is truly incredible!

[TJ Hall]

1 hour ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

I know I have been slacking here, but the summer is a bit hectic for me with work.... I know ice and summer don't necessarily mix, but it is when we are the most busy. 

That said I will have a larger update for all of you end of the month. 

Feel free to drop any questions here as well. 

A cool note for all - the most posts in a year we have ever had is 126,000. Pretty darn good, but that was also in 2020 where all the signups for tests were counted as posts. This was prior to the new system we have now. It is worth noting that ytd we have had 13k posts all within the testing sign up threads. 

However as of this morning we are at 119,000 posts. So we will easily clear the prior record, but I also set a goal of 150k for this year. As we average 12-13k per month we should have no issues breaking that, but just want to thank all of you for the time spent here. It is truly incredible!

Maybe slacking on this one thread, but overall you have done incredible (along with the other mods)!

The opportunities, articles, discussion, growth and community are truly amazing and a reflection of what you put into it.

Thank you for all that you do to make this possible !

[GolfSpy_APH]

4 minutes ago, TJ Hall said:

Maybe slacking on this one thread, but overall you have done incredible (along with the other mods)!

The opportunities, articles, discussion, growth and community are truly amazing and a reflection of what you put into it.

Thank you for all that you do to make this possible !

August is just dumb its way too busy and impossible to catch up on everything.

[Coulter]

8 minutes ago, TJ Hall said:

Maybe slacking on this one thread, but overall you have done incredible (along with the other mods)!

The opportunities, articles, discussion, growth and community are truly amazing and a reflection of what you put into it.

Thank you for all that you do to make this possible !

 

3 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

August is just dumb its way too busy and impossible to catch up on everything.

I keep telling a couple of friends of mine that aren’t even golfers and couldn’t care less about golf how MGS is absolutely crushing it! They wish they had something like this for their hobbies. 

[Rob Person]

Thats amazing!  Compared to when I was a MGS Newbie last year, I love the direction the forum has taken.   The growth is phenomenal too!

Just curious if there is an algorithm for member retention numbers. I know there are always a bunch of -one and dones- for membership, mostly trlest signups.

Is there a purge feature that is ever used?

[Josh Parker]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

However as of this morning we are at 119,000 posts. So we will easily clear the prior record, but I also set a goal of 150k for this year. As we average 12-13k per month we should have no issues breaking that, but just want to thank all of you for the time spent here. It is truly incredible!

150K post shouldn't be an issue at all.  I'll just make a post in the "golf ball rollback" thread and we will be there in no time... 

[KrisMcKinney402]

I’ve been a forum member since ‘21 but have just browsed in the past. My wife and I recent got a membership at our local club and I’ve been more into the game than ever, playing multiple times per week and really improving my game. Since then I’ve found myself back on the forum and I’m loving it. MGS has done a great job with it and I love the constant content and discussion. It definitely keeps me coming back whenever I get a little down time, and I find myself engaging with the threads and members more frequently now. Amazing what a game can do for someone. 

[TJ Hall]

6 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

150K post shouldn't be an issue at all.  I'll just make a post in the "golf ball rollback" thread and we will be there in no time... 

Or post a shaft flex question…200k easy!