[Stardust]

Hello everyone from Bluegrass Rivals. If I may, I would like to introduce myself. I am from the NKY area, and have been a member of BGR for a relatively short period of time. I am the culprit of your dislike to the excess of threads to he site. I have meant no harm, and was very careful of taking a step that I knew that would raise the ire of those not used to, nor understanding the reasoning of why I began what I did. Blame no one from the BGR Staff for any inconvenience of what has transpired over the past few weeks. But I have a reason, and hopefully some of the ideas that I have shared BGR staff members, you will understand and hopefully support.

I would first like to thank all or the loyal members of BGR and it’s staff for developing and maintaining this wonderful site. I have been a member of like sites as Bluegrass Rivals as well as other message boards and forum sites. I, looking for an alternative, happened to blindly find BGR by doing a google search for Kentucky High School sport forums. I knew nothing of the sites existence prior to this search. I became a member and immediately liked what I saw. But I certainly felt like an outsider to what was being posted on the site and had nothing much to add. I primarily landed in the non-High School section since it was really the only location that I could add any relevance and make posts. But for me, just as you, I am a tremendous supporter and lover of not only my NKY Alma-Mater and the other local schools in the NKY area, I am a fan and supporter of Kentucky High School sports.

The support that the members of BGR show to their respective schools is admirable. The ability to talk amongst your personal team supporters as well as the friendly banter to your rivals is a tremendous privelage that I think you all realize that you have. I to wish to share in that, however the limited area that the current members on the site does not allow for that. However, that did not warrant me to make or force upon anyone my interest to add members from other areas just for my own selfish reasons. Thus, I took it upon myself to reach out to some of the other Staff and Administrators of the site to determine if BGR is more of a local (EKY) forum site, or truly a STATEWIDE site. Upon learning that the site was intended to be statewide, I began posting threads that were more related to the NKY area, but had minimal response. But that helped me understand that there is not a wide membership from the NKY area. It was obvious that there was not as many members posting from the WKY, South, Lexington and Lousiville areas. This obviously meant that I needed to promote the NKY area, but possibly a method to reach the other areas was needed.

On other like sites, literally every sporting event that took place in the state of KY would be reported upon and posted on the site. All of these posts would have some interest from the supporters of their area. But, I should be clear, all areas of the state were supported. Maybe some of the steps that I started have not sit well with many members, but there was a reason for taking the approach that I did.

When I began posting the scores to games in all areas of the state, I was curious to see who the members were, how long ther had been members, and what areas of the state the replies would come from. Not many came from any of the outside of the EKY and the big school areas, which was not a surprise. So in response I took it upon myself to begin an extensive marketing of the site to potential new members. I have considerable access to Coaches, web administrators for High School sports, and others who may be interested in this site but as I, was not aware of the sites existence. I have pushed out as many as 300 emails to interested parties as well as have attempted to market the site in other ways. I assure you, I receive no reward for this with the exception of growing the sites membership from across the sate, and continuing the process of making your site, BGR, the #1 site Kentucky High Schools sports as well as other forums of interest.

I know of 13 new members who have signed up or shown interest to do so in the last three days. That number I expect to climb, but the only way that they stay active members is to have forums of interest to them. We cannot expect this to spread without the same thought and practice. So, it’s not just getting new members, but retaining them for the long haul

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