Before message boards?

[Los Gatos]

The message board threads prompt me to ask: anyone remember the Cat-Chat list server?

[Lighthouse]

I have no idea about it.

[KentuckyWild2020]

In regards to message boards, I enjoyed Kentucky basketball much more before social media and message boards yet here I am 😆 🤣 😂

[George]

In regards to message boards, I enjoyed Kentucky basketball much more before social media and message boards yet here I am 😆 🤣 😂

Oh whatever. You know you love this stuff.

[Jody Porter]

I didn't even know these kinds of places existed until I graduated college. Up til then I'd just turn to whoever I was in a room with and "post", orally. Moved to Alabama after graduation, no one to talk 'Cats with, so I started looking around online. Of several options, I kept coming back to Wildcat Faithful. Definitely the best discussions and also the best sense of community of all the places I tried. Been there/here ever since (except for the last ten years or so....I forgot my password)

[capcat]

Living far away, I didn’t get much info most of my life. Went to the SEC tournament in New Orleans during Tubby’s tenure and saw signs for a WCF gathering in the hotel, but I didn’t go. I lurked, but didn’t sign on as a member until Kentucky came to Austin for the Elite Eight. I only remember the round because a sportswriter here said it should’ve led to a Final Five. Most awesome moment was having family from Kentucky visit and listening to them talk about basketball in my kitchen.

[Matt Dillon]

The message board threads prompt me to ask: anyone remember the Cat-Chat list server?

Never heard of it.

[DA#23]

Will might remember it.

Wanted to add: I joined this site in January 2006. I look at Rafters pretty often, but this is the only place where I have a membership and post.

[Joneslab]

I remember the old Wildcatchat board. I discovered it in college when I was first getting the hang of "the world wide web." Some guys who are still around posted there, IIRC: Deeeeefense, rcs, The Hack, trublujr, etc. Old School is a poster who's still around here who goes back farther than I do.

In 1999 I started on Wildcatfaithful. I was 21 and had heard about it in an article by none other than Pat Forde.

[Jody Porter]

Yeah I remember some of those names. Pretty sure I read the board for about two years before I ever posted. Had maybe 10 posts on WCF, then started fresh on WCN as Littlemeyer. Felt like I knew all of those people without ever saying a word to them. Message boards are funny like that, especially ones that foster a community like has happened here and on those old precursors to here.

ukbob, windycatz, oruacat2, buddah....a few other names I remember off the top of my bald head.

[KentuckyWild2020]

Oh whatever. You know you love this stuff.

I do but the difference is back then before PHONES IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND, i would zoom in and watch a game no distractions. No my mind gets all over the place, just need to put down the phone and turn off the computer...

[Jody Porter]

Sports talk shows and social media (and the popularization/mainstreaming of sports gambling which kinda goes hand in hand with those) have changed the way people enjoy sports, for the worse IMO. Nothing can just happen on the court/field now; it has to be a part of some larger narrative, and by God you'd better have an opinion on it and most importantly get that opinion out there immediately (and LOUDLY if at all possible, and it'd better be possible, or you should just shut the **** up instead, you casual)

If I can avoid that, and instead seek out reasoned discussion like one finds here, then it's all good 👍

[Joneslab]

I think sports has become like politics: you can be interested in it in a vacuum, but once you see other people giving takes it changes the way you experience the thing.

I've seen some catastrophically unbelievable takes in my years. And I'm not just talking wrong--usually that's subjective. I'm talking racist, ugly, weird, all of the above.

And that's putting aside these people who are constantly negative. They tend to be the worst, as we all know.

I agree that as great as these places are, sports were way more enjoyable before them. That said I've had hundreds of great conversations here and at WCF over the years and really wouldn't trade it. It's just a massive catch-22.

[Joneslab]

^ I will put in as a defense of message boards: I've always believed that places like here are better than Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter is almost impossible to have a debate on. At least here you can hash out an issue.

Message boards get really stupid though when you get a group of un-serious people around just ranting about stuff. Most of the threads on Rivals devolve into this kind of thing.

[Jody Porter]

Oof, Twitter. That's where I've been hanging out for a decade or so, and I'm sick of it, and that's mostly why I'm back here where I feel like I belong (lol).

I don't mind putting out a bad take in here. The pushback it gets will be constructive. On Twitter, the pushback will be brutality. You'll get ratio'd. Big time. And you'll be called terrible names, as will your wife and kids and parents, and of course your looks will be mocked. I basically just learned to keep mouth shut, which gets boring. So, here I am. Get used to the bad takes, because I'm not stopping, no matter how much you yell at me.