flo’s excuse to stay relevant… “watch party”

[Newbie123 5]

How can you see some value if not a flo subscriber? It’s behind a paywall.

[flyingcement 747]

1 minute ago, Newbie123 said:

How can you see some value if not a flo subscriber? It’s behind a paywall.

Not value for me. Value for subscribers.  

[Mphillips 1,654]

28 minutes ago, flyingcement said:

Instead of just being a stream provider, there is some value on creating a community or a little ecosystem in which people can be more engaged.  

I don't have any friends either, but my wife knows exactly what's going on and when it's going on. Whether she wants to or not.

[Jaroslav Hasek 2,047]

47 minutes ago, Newbie123 said:

Shouldn’t have to apologize. It’s clickbait, they promote the watch party without giving a description of what it is in hope that people watch. As the season goes on, their “metrics” numbers will go down.

As many people have pointed out, Watch Parties are not a new concept. they are relatively new to Flo but we've been doing them since March. the plan is obviously NOT to trick people into clicking because they think it's going to be able to watch the event live. lol that's just silly. 

people are turning in and staying engaged. when people stop doing that, that watch parties will stop. I don't expect that to happen anytime soon tho! 

[flyingcement 747]

12 minutes ago, Mphillips said:

I don't have any friends either, but my wife knows exactly what's going on and when it's going on. Whether she wants to or not.

You'll always have me :)

[LifeintheRed 81]

1 hour ago, Jaroslav Hasek said:

As many people have pointed out, Watch Parties are not a new concept. they are relatively new to Flo but we've been doing them since March. the plan is obviously NOT to trick people into clicking because they think it's going to be able to watch the event live. lol that's just silly. 

people are turning in and staying engaged. when people stop doing that, that watch parties will stop. I don't expect that to happen anytime soon tho! 

That Sir, is exactly what I did and exactly why I did it! It was not "obviously" for me and honestly, I felt duped and as a consumer, I don't particularly enjoy being called silly by the companies I invest in financially (almost feels like I'm being mocked). But hey, maybe I am silly for thinking FLO still live streams good college dual meets (sorry, when I'm hurt and humiliated I lash out . . . my apologies) .

Anyway, fool me once right? I made your metrics this time, but I don't plan on making that same mistake again. 

[Jaroslav Hasek 2,047]

14 minutes ago, LifeintheRed said:

That Sir, is exactly what I did and exactly why I did it! It was not "obviously" for me and honestly, I felt duped and as a consumer, I don't particularly enjoy being called silly by the companies I invest in financially (almost feels like I'm being mocked). But hey, maybe I am silly for thinking FLO still live streams good college dual meets (sorry, when I'm hurt and humiliated I lash out . . . my apologies) .

Anyway, fool me once right? I made your metrics this time, but I don't plan on making that same mistake again. 

i was calling newbie silly for thinking Flo's strategy was to trick people. it's obviously not, and it's foolish to think it is. i never said anyone who got confused by our watch parties was silly. you either misunderstood my post or are just trolling. for the record, its cool either way. 

anyway, our data includes measuring how long people stay viewing the watch parties (and all the other streams). if everyone was clicking on the watch party and then quickly turning it off, we'd notice it. but most people aren't. they are, instead, watching for a long periods of time and engaging with the watch party chat function in the app. which is why we are continuing to do them. maybe that changes and we stop doing them. only time will tell!

[GreatWhiteNorth 530]

2 hours ago, Mphillips said:

I don't have any friends either, but my wife knows exactly what's going on and when it's going on. Whether she wants to or not.

Tracking what goes on and when it goes on, and for how long.

Hmmm... sounds like she might work for Flo.

[AnklePicker 643]

40 minutes ago, Jaroslav Hasek said:

i was calling newbie silly for thinking Flo's strategy was to trick people. it's obviously not, and it's foolish to think it is. i never said anyone who got confused by our watch parties was silly. you either misunderstood my post or are just trolling. for the record, its cool either way. 

anyway, our data includes measuring how long people stay viewing the watch parties (and all the other streams). if everyone was clicking on the watch party and then quickly turning it off, we'd notice it. but most people aren't. they are, instead, watching for a long periods of time and engaging with the watch party chat function in the app. which is why we are continuing to do them. maybe that changes and we stop doing them. only time will tell!

Just keep hammering them about the site design. Great content, horrible web design.   I love Flo, but visit less because of the way the site is constructed. 

[juniorvarsity 15]

On 11/19/2021 at 2:50 PM, Jaroslav Hasek said:

in the past, espn et al didn't care when schools made side deals for their non-rev sports. now they are shutting those down and forcing schools to leave money (and promotional partners) on the table

this makes sense that the best NCAA wrestling Flo is streaming this year are the collegiate open tournaments. Given that access to the best dual meet content is off the table, Flo should look to create their own NCAA level events in the future. Whether it is a dual meet tournament with pools or their own open tournament. Maybe they could see if some high level high school kids want to come and make it prestigious for kids to get invited.

While it is new format and needs to take place before we understand the model, what is going on with the Collegiate Wrestling Duals on rokfin is super interesting, whether you are a Flo guy or not. I want to know how well this works for the teams with skin in the game. Maybe Flo can pay teams to come to their events if teams can actually start to profit from the events they put on in the future.

[GreatWhiteNorth 530]

I've tended to defend Flo. But, at this point, Flo is on the verge of becoming the next Blackberry, MySpace, Palm Pilot, etc.

Recently, they appeared to be in a position to dominate the future of wrestling streaming - then, with piles of new money, they got cheap and lost whatever vision they had.

The "watch parties" and the like are cute, at best. 

The subscription switch from Monthly-or-Annual to Annual-Only has been a kick-in-the-teeth-money-grab to potential new customers as well as longtime supporters.

Flo needs to spend money to make money, and remember that they work for their subscribers, or they'll soon become a footnote in wrestling streaming history.

 

 

[Jaroslav Hasek 2,047]

Palm Pilots were nice. anyone who remembers otherwise is lying. 

[ThorsteinV 83]

On 11/21/2021 at 8:20 PM, Jaroslav Hasek said:

i was calling newbie silly for thinking Flo's strategy was to trick people. it's obviously not, and it's foolish to think it is. i never said anyone who got confused by our watch parties was silly. you either misunderstood my post or are just trolling. for the record, its cool either way. 

anyway, our data includes measuring how long people stay viewing the watch parties (and all the other streams). if everyone was clicking on the watch party and then quickly turning it off, we'd notice it. but most people aren't. they are, instead, watching for a long periods of time and engaging with the watch party chat function in the app. which is why we are continuing to do them. maybe that changes and we stop doing them. only time will tell!

Do you guys also have data monitoring Twitter engagement? If so, did Pyles lose a lot of engagement following the Willie trials? It seems for as many followers he has, he gets pretty limited engagement lately. 

[TBar1977 4,481]

7 hours ago, Jaroslav Hasek said:

Palm Pilots were nice. anyone who remembers otherwise is lying. 

So nice they went out of business. Lol. But the good news is that anyone who was hopelessly stuck in the Palm Pilot cult can buy one used on eBay for about $30. Good for causing eye strain as an e Book reader I suppose. 

[Gantry 1,872]

The GOAT Palm Pilot was the Treo 650, loved that thing. 

[Plasmodium 2,218]

1 hour ago, Gantry said:

The GOAT Palm Pilot was the Treo 650, loved that thing. 

I dug mine out of a drawer.  Now for the charger .   

[Mphillips 1,654]

Three pages. I never fail to be impressed...

[GreatWhiteNorth 530]

3 hours ago, Gantry said:

The GOAT Palm Pilot was the Treo 650, loved that thing. 

True. But that was the Hwt division.

In the lightweight division, the Palm V was the champ. No keyboard, but didn't need one if you had mad Graffiti skills

[littlepun 23]

On 11/24/2021 at 4:36 AM, ThorsteinV said:

Do you guys also have data monitoring Twitter engagement? If so, did Pyles lose a lot of engagement following the Willie trials? It seems for as many followers he has, he gets pretty limited engagement lately. 

One reason is probably because he blocked so many people. Still have no clue why he blocked me. I feel like a sucker sending Flo money at this point.

[ugarte 515]

Flo does not have the broad production capability of ESPN but there are some very obvious ways that I think Flo would be a big improvement over ESPN's coverage.

1) Arena. The instant archiving of completed matches. ESPN doesn't do this at all, and with 8 mats running simultaneously, it's much easier on Flo to catch something you missed. It also has "upcoming bouts" tracked further in advance so you can rotate windows. 

2) Quad view. QED.

3) Flo loads mats/windows much faster than ESPN does. And if you want to switch mats, Flo doesn't clutter the choices with a basketball game between Valparaiso and IUPUI.

4) ESPN's mat titles don't update with whoever is on the mat. The integration of mat coverage and Arena is pretty reliable and very useful. The updating thumbnails that let you see if a match is underway and includes a timestamp/score? Also good. ESPN3 gives each mat a generic title like "NCAA Wrestling Championships Session 1 - Mat 8 " or whatever and it's so long that sometimes you see "NCAA Wrestling Championsh..." and have to click around until you get the mat you want. And the order that the mats display is "the order the producer got them working," not alphabetical.    

5) While there are bursts of good commentary on ESPN, often the matside guys simply don't seem to know current scoring rules or officiating emphasis and miss very obvious stuff. People here complain about Flo's commentary as well - everyone's a critic! - but I think the second-to-second accuracy is usually better.

So, no, I doubt Flo will be able to bully venues into providing the best angles or compete with ESPN on HD quality for the NCAA tournament but... Flo's tech and presentation is better is some very significant ways that I don't think people appreciate enough. 

[MizzouGrad 137]

30 minutes ago, ugarte said:

Flo does not have the broad production capability of ESPN but there are some very obvious ways that I think Flo would be a big improvement over ESPN's coverage.

1) Arena. The instant archiving of completed matches. ESPN doesn't do this at all, and with 8 mats running simultaneously, it's much easier on Flo to catch something you missed. It also has "upcoming bouts" tracked further in advance so you can rotate windows. 

2) Quad view. QED.

3) Flo loads mats/windows much faster than ESPN does. And if you want to switch mats, Flo doesn't clutter the choices with a basketball game between Valparaiso and IUPUI.

4) ESPN's mat titles don't update with whoever is on the mat. The integration of mat coverage and Arena is pretty reliable and very useful. The updating thumbnails that let you see if a match is underway and includes a timestamp/score? Also good. ESPN3 gives each mat a generic title like "NCAA Wrestling Championships Session 1 - Mat 8 " or whatever and it's so long that sometimes you see "NCAA Wrestling Championsh..." and have to click around until you get the mat you want. And the order that the mats display is "the order the producer got them working," not alphabetical.    

5) While there are bursts of good commentary on ESPN, often the matside guys simply don't seem to know current scoring rules or officiating emphasis and miss very obvious stuff. People here complain about Flo's commentary as well - everyone's a critic! - but I think the second-to-second accuracy is usually better.

So, no, I doubt Flo will be able to bully venues into providing the best angles or compete with ESPN on HD quality for the NCAA tournament but... Flo's tech and presentation is better is some very significant ways that I don't think people appreciate enough. 

If the wrestling championship ever goes to Flo, you might as well kill the sport now. Flo's inability to successfully stream large events has been a constant problem for YEARS. I still remember the National Duals debacle. 

Additionally, I like rugby. FloRugby held the rights to the top competitions this Autumn. During one of the biggest matches of the year - South Africa vs England - the stream died during the middle of the match. 

I don't care how technical, expensive, complicated, whatever word you want to use for it, streaming is the backbone of the business and that cannot happen. Imagine CBS blacking out during Super Bowl. IT CANNOT HAPPEN. Yet over and over and over and over again, Flo drops the ball. 

They can come up with whatever content they want, until they nail streaming live sports they will continue to suffer. 

It's why I'm unlikely to buy the Rokfin National Duals because I don't think they have the ability to stream it without issues over two days.

 

[Mphillips 1,654]

8 hours ago, MizzouGrad said:

Additionally, I like rugby. FloRugby held the rights to the top competitions this Autumn. During one of the biggest matches of the year - South Africa vs England - the stream died during the middle of the match. 

The Three Lions converted a PK in the closing minute to win 27-26.

[GreatWhiteNorth 530]

47 minutes ago, Mphillips said:

The Three Lions converted a PK in the closing minute to win 27-26.

How dare you bring that filth in here... those lions can convert their PK's (whatever that means) somewhere else. And that goes for all three of them.

[flyingcement 747]

4 minutes ago, GreatWhiteNorth said:

How dare you bring that filth in here... those lions can convert their PK's (whatever that means) somewhere else. And that goes for all three of them.

You think that's filthy, wait until he tells you about the hooker!  I actually played a full season of adult amateur rugby in London without ever having understood the rules.  In the first game (match?) I was disqualified for repeatedly forgetting to drop the ball after being tackled.  Our team (Belsize Bulls) had a standing tradition of finishing a bottle of port among us at half team of each game.  Each team would have a home pub where they would host the opposing team afterwards for some drinking games and banter.  The culture of the sport is really a lot of fun.  I still don't know the rules