Maybe it was just too costly to operate with the hundreds of thousands of posts every hour that the the bandwidth bill was just too much for their bottom line?

 

After all, they may not have much left after putting their name on a building in Tampa or sign an exclusive contract with a team everyone thinks is in that city, correct?

 

Maybe it was because they were one of the top ten sports sections in the country, if you are to believe their commercials, and they needed to be a top five to keep a measly message board going.

 

After all, God only knows how much it costs to make those video ads that took four years to show the Devil Rays in their correct green uniforms instead of the old alternate black ones that looked so good on Jose Canseco and Bobby Smith?

 

Maybe it was a case where those who came to talk about their favorite team knew more than the people running that sports department?

 

Don't want to bruise the egos of those on the payroll, right?

 

Maybe they were just tired of reading about their staff's objectivity, or maybe the lack thereof, when it would come from the common folk?

 

Whatever the case, the St. Petersburg Times Online Forums will pass into oblivion in short order leaving posters on a very popular board to scramble and find a new home that had the feel of the old one.

 

That is not likely to happen. You don't tear down a mansion to build a shack. In fact, no one really knows why the implosion happened in the first place.

 

With the gazillion of boards that are floating around the web, the Times was like a home to many, some possibly intellectually superior to those who had their own byline. It was one of the best if not for numbers but for the quality of the content.

 

Like other board there were the trolls whose sole purpose in life is to be Internet terrorists. It is an inescapable truth when you open up something for a free exchange of ideas.

 

Others actually censor posts because they want things to look peaches and cream to current and potential advertisers.

 

Maybe that is the true reason why the Times is letting this happen. They possibly studied at the School of Vince Naimoli and the almighty dollar became more important than the reader/fan.

 

Now there are going to be some that will say, "What's the big deal? It's only a message board?"

 

Sadly, it is all too true.

 

On the flip side of the argument, the board had some street cred as it was run by a newspaper, allegedly well respected within their own community, but the forum was as much a community to its members as the Times was to their peers.

 

It is easy to jump on board with the Buccaneers because they already had their Super Bowl. Same same with the Lightning and the Stanley Cup. But the Rays? What did they have except hope for the future with a miserable past hanging with them like the proverbial albatross.

 

It has not been easy for Rays' fans and they suffered every time one of those trolls came along to say how much better their team was than our home town baseball team.

 

The Rays section had all the feel of the few that would show up at Tropicana Field on a nightly basis even when they knew Naimoli was lifting their wallets.

 

They are called die-hards and for the life of me I never saw a more dedicated group of people than I did on the Times' Rays' board.

 

So why cry for the demise of a single forum?

 

Because there were friendships made there. Even enemies. But they all had one thing in common - most were fans of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and it was a place where they could voice their thoughts on the highs and lows that came with an organization undergoing reorganization.

 

There were the comedic threads that would break the monotony of all the losing. There were some that made no sense but went on page after page. It was a family of sorts but a family nonetheless.

 

Now it is the time for the many to find a new home. As much as I would like to see them come HERE they will go where they feel the most comfortable.

 

Shed a tear for the common man - and woman - because it is the end of an era in Tampa bay sports. You have lost a place to congregate in cyberspace as well as Ferg's in St. Pete when the board locals would gather occasionally. I even attended one and I am glad I did.