Mass 247 Cancellation Movement

[Sherm Sticky]

Social media....wow

 

[ND NYC]

I say trial by combat:

Lax v Hopkins

 

[GATTACA!]

Dear Lax

 

[gkIrish]

Dear Lax

But you get your face smashed...

 

[anarin]

This "movement" had a more quick and direct impact than anyone really thought was possible. The entire point was to send a message, nothing more. It's not about permanently staying away from 247, it's not about trying to deal a crippling blow to a company as big as 247... none of that is practical. It was simply about showing them that we were not going to quietly tolerate this bullshit from Hopkins.

Within 15 minutes of posting this, Keith Arnold was tweeting it. I don't know what happens if Keith doesn't do that... but from there it went gangbusters. Between tweets and retweets this reached tens of thousands. It is 100% on other boards.

By morning, Hopkins went from an arrogant, gloating little fuckface to getting chewed out by his superiors as they received "hundreds" (direct quote) of cancellation requests. He was publicly reprimanded in a statement by his superiors, and forced to issue a cookie cutter public apology with his tail between his legs. I'm sorry but that all so far exceeds the expectations of starting this "movement" I don't know what else you want. Him fired? Suspended? None of that was going to happen. But he's in hot water, pissed off a lot of his peers, been put on notice by his superiors, and lost mountains of credibility.

So yeah... if you don't appreciate the impact, then you're not paying attention.

Link to this apology? I'd like to read it

 

[GATTACA!]

But you get your face smashed...

But then im a total badass. Spoilers!

 

[Kaneyoufeelit]

But then im a total badass.

Might want to clean that post up

 

[GATTACA!]

Might want to clean that post up

That was seen on the show?


I had to stare at those posts for a solid three minutes to figure out what was going on lol.

 

[Kaneyoufeelit]

That was seen on the show?


I had to stare at those posts for a solid three minutes to figure out what was going on lol.

PM

 

[NDdomer2]

This "movement" had a more quick and direct impact than anyone really thought was possible. The entire point was to send a message, nothing more. It's not about permanently staying away from 247, it's not about trying to deal a crippling blow to a company as big as 247... none of that is practical. It was simply about showing them that we were not going to quietly tolerate this bullshit from Hopkins.

Within 15 minutes of posting this, Keith Arnold was tweeting it. I don't know what happens if Keith doesn't do that... but from there it went gangbusters. Between tweets and retweets this reached tens of thousands. It is 100% on other boards.

By morning, Hopkins went from an arrogant, gloating little fuckface to getting chewed out by his superiors as they received "hundreds" (direct quote) of cancellation requests. He was publicly reprimanded in a statement by his superiors, and forced to issue a cookie cutter public apology with his tail between his legs. I'm sorry but that all so far exceeds the expectations of starting this "movement" I don't know what else you want. Him fired? Suspended? None of that was going to happen. But he's in hot water, pissed off a lot of his peers, been put on notice by his superiors, and lost mountains of credibility.

So yeah... if you don't appreciate the impact, then you're not paying attention.

I don't give a flip what happens to hiM or 247. But if we're gonna call for mass action might as well make it legit. Yeah we forced them to send some blanket hr statements out. But what is that really going to do? I mean hell one guy wasn't even a subscriber and they said we hope to have you back. They didn't apologize for the real issue just that he inappropriately responded to fans on twitter.

Trust me, I am for ethics in college football and totally believe this effort was just, as well as agreeing this Hopkins guy is a total pudwhack. But, to be happy some douche got yelled at is like ratting your brother out the moment Dad gets home from work. In the end its just like "oh, that was it huh," because Dad really doesn't give a fuck. He just wants dinner cooked and the TV on. (They just want your clicks and brand posted all over this site).

So in the end I certainly applaud all the effort, yours especially, and I hope it has a more lasting effect than I personally see it having at this point. And I apologize for the condescending posts. I guess, I just thought why go through all trouble to email and cancel then turn around and talk about crystal balls rolling in and link their articles.

 

[The Polish Irishman]

I pick a cause every year to donate my time and help. I believe Irish fans are the best in helping the community. I will donate $2 per email cancellation to Kelly Cares sent to 247 Sports in the past week. Just PM a copy of your email you sent to 247. I will send a mininum of $250 to Kelly Cares and I can get my company to match my donation. As Irish fans, I feels we have an obiglation to make the world a better place. Thank you.

 

[IrishLax]

I don't give a flip what happens to hiM or 247. But if we're gonna call for mass action might as well make it legit. Yeah we forced them to send some blanket hr statements out. But what is that really going to do? I mean hell one guy wasn't even a subscriber and they said we hope to have you back. They didn't apologize for the real issue just that he inappropriately responded to fans on twitter.

Trust me, I am for ethics in college football and totally believe this effort was just, as well as agreeing this Hopkins guy is a total pudwhack. But, to be happy some douche got yelled at is like ratting your brother out the moment Dad gets home from work. In the end its just like "oh, that was it huh," because Dad really doesn't give a fuck. He just wants dinner cooked and the TV on. (They just want your clicks and brand posted all over this site).

Makes sense. You think if we're going for mass action, we need to go for the jugular. I don't really know how to accomplish that.

My goal was to send a message. Ignore the blanket HR statements and crap for second... I agree those are empty platitudes. The fact is that the staff of (one of) the largest team sites of the network is royally pissed at him and applying internal pressure. When they woke up in the morning and were like "wait what? why did we just get hundreds of cancellations?" shit hit the fan behind the scenes. They won't put that on public display... but trust me, it happened. So in my mind, not only did we send a message but it was amplified by guys like Keith and eventually received loud and clear. I don't know if we, as consumers, have power to do much more than that.

So in the end I certainly applaud all the effort, yours especially, and I hope it has a more lasting effect than I personally see it having at this point. And I apologize for the condescending posts. I guess, I just thought why go through all trouble to email and cancel then turn around and talk about crystal balls rolling in and link their articles.

I get this. Makes sense. I'm personally done with 247, crystal balls, and everything else. But it's not like I and others who are "done" can stop others from using their site if they so choose. Free will... free market... etc. etc.

 

[gkIrish]

I pick a cause every year to donate my time and help. I believe Irish fans are the best in helping the community. I will donate $2 per email cancellation to Kelly Cares sent to 247 Sports in the past week. Just PM a copy of your email you sent to 247. I will send a mininum of $250 to Kelly Cares and I can get my company to match my donation. As Irish fans, I feels we have an obiglation to make the world a better place. Thank you.

This ish just got real

 

[IrishLax]

Dear Lax

GATTACA: Have they told you who I am?
Hopkins: Some butthurt fan.
GATTACA: I am GATTACA of Irish Envy. My favorite commit was Blake Barnett.
Hopkins: Who?
GATTACA: Blake Barnett, quarterback. You recruited him. You trolled about it. You're a douchebag.
Hopkins: Did you come to talk or to fight?
GATTACA: I came to hear you confess.

 

[GATTACA!]

GATTACA: Have they told you who I am?
Hopkins: Some butthurt fan.
GATTACA: I am GATTACA of Irish Envy. My favorite commit was Blake Barnett.
Hopkins: Who?
GATTACA: Blake Barnett, quarterback. You recruited him. You trolled about it. You're a douchebag.
Hopkins: Did you come to talk or to fight?
GATTACA: I came to hear you confess.

Wait, are you dying? No, no, no. You can't die yet. You haven't confessed. Say it. Say his name. Blake Barnett. You raped him. You killed his future. Who gave you the order? WHO GAVE YOU THE ORDER? Say his name! You raped his future! You murdered our recruiting class! You killed 24/7's reputation! Say it! Say his name!

 

[vmgsf]

I commend you IrishLax. But, I hope we have just started. A very good start. But, a start.
They need to be really punished so they abandon the corporate PR bullshit and really CLEAN UP their act.

Strategy - first figure out with some very smart expert help exactly how they make their money. Posters who have this ability PM IrishLax? Second, figure out how to cost them the most money - short term AND long term.

Tell them directly unless you really do something to fix this, we will cost you every penny of revenue that we can by total abstinence and avoidance of anything connected with you.

We will support and spends our dollars on organizations that have some ethics and some professionalism.

This may take a while - to figure out the strategy and to implement it. But, I think it is worth it. Figure out methodically, how to punish and penalize them until they really do something that is truly meaningful.

I would like to see on IE a message or an indication where clicking on a link would support them, so an IE member could decide for himself or herself if he or she wanted to in the slightest, most, minimal fashion support them.

 

[koonja]

Makes sense. You think if we're going for mass action, we need to go for the jugular. I don't really know how to accomplish that.

My goal was to send a message. Ignore the blanket HR statements and crap for second... I agree those are empty platitudes. The fact is that the staff of (one of) the largest team sites of the network is royally pissed at him and applying internal pressure. When they woke up in the morning and were like "wait what? why did we just get hundreds of cancellations?" shit hit the fan behind the scenes. They won't put that on public display... but trust me, it happened. So in my mind, not only did we send a message but it was amplified by guys like Keith and eventually received loud and clear. I don't know if we, as consumers, have power to do much more than that.



I get this. Makes sense. I'm personally done with 247, crystal balls, and everything else. But it's not like I and others who are "done" can stop others from using their site if they so choose. Free will... free market... etc. etc.

My outsider's advice: I'd have everyone start threatening to 24/7 that you will send similar, more detailed emails to the NCAA, requesting that they look into what Hopkins has done.

Say some of the stuff you know that you haven't shared, or hint at it, whatever you have to do to get the point across.

That's the only way there's a chance Hopkins loses his job.

Sorry, should have said this earlier, but I figure some of you guys did it anyways.

 

[NDinL.A.]

I pick a cause every year to donate my time and help. I believe Irish fans are the best in helping the community. I will donate $2 per email cancellation to Kelly Cares sent to 247 Sports in the past week. Just PM a copy of your email you sent to 247. I will send a mininum of $250 to Kelly Cares and I can get my company to match my donation. As Irish fans, I feels we have an obiglation to make the world a better place. Thank you.

This is awesome and needs to be re-quoted.

Also, I posted this earlier but I'm sure it didn't get read by many, but 24/7 is getting exactly what it deserves. Aside from the whole Hopkins fiasco, on NSD they took to twitter to gloat and rip on the Rivals network because their site was down. Sure, they compete with Sampson et al, but they also work in the same work space and share a lot of time together, and it wasn't Sampson's fault Rivals effed up. A little common professional courtesy was in order, but that's not how those DB's operate.

Karma baby. I hope ISD and Rivals get their customers...

 

[Irish#1]

I don't give a flip what happens to hiM or 247. But if we're gonna call for mass action might as well make it legit. Yeah we forced them to send some blanket hr statements out. But what is that really going to do? I mean hell one guy wasn't even a subscriber and they said we hope to have you back. They didn't apologize for the real issue just that he inappropriately responded to fans on twitter.

Trust me, I am for ethics in college football and totally believe this effort was just, as well as agreeing this Hopkins guy is a total pudwhack. But, to be happy some douche got yelled at is like ratting your brother out the moment Dad gets home from work. In the end its just like "oh, that was it huh," because Dad really doesn't give a fuck. He just wants dinner cooked and the TV on. (They just want your clicks and brand posted all over this site).

So in the end I certainly applaud all the effort, yours especially, and I hope it has a more lasting effect than I personally see it having at this point. And I apologize for the condescending posts. I guess, I just thought why go through all trouble to email and cancel then turn around and talk about crystal balls rolling in and link their articles.

Makes sense. You think if we're going for mass action, we need to go for the jugular. I don't really know how to accomplish that.

My goal was to send a message. Ignore the blanket HR statements and crap for second... I agree those are empty platitudes. The fact is that the staff of (one of) the largest team sites of the network is royally pissed at him and applying internal pressure. When they woke up in the morning and were like "wait what? why did we just get hundreds of cancellations?" shit hit the fan behind the scenes. They won't put that on public display... but trust me, it happened. So in my mind, not only did we send a message but it was amplified by guys like Keith and eventually received loud and clear. I don't know if we, as consumers, have power to do much more than that.



I get this. Makes sense. I'm personally done with 247, crystal balls, and everything else. But it's not like I and others who are "done" can stop others from using their site if they so choose. Free will... free market... etc. etc.

Actually I believe this will have a bigger impact than a simple slap on the hand, especially if people are contacting the CEO directly. This action started by Lax and Hopkins actions have made the rounds to other forums and the other recruiting sites are aware of it. 24/7 has went the apology route. Sincere or not, this tells me they are concerned about their reputation and revenue. I think Hopkins bosses will be monitoring him closely for a while. I also wouldn't be surprised if they eventually alter his duties so he is not involved in OU recruiting.

 

[ND NYC]

what specific public non pay sites/boards/threads was the boycott 247 posted on?
i just checked all over...and didnt see anything.

can someone link them up ?

curious to see reaction of "the Others" on all this

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

I pick a cause every year to donate my time and help. I believe Irish fans are the best in helping the community. I will donate $2 per email cancellation to Kelly Cares sent to 247 Sports in the past week. Just PM a copy of your email you sent to 247. I will send a mininum of $250 to Kelly Cares and I can get my company to match my donation. As Irish fans, I feels we have an obiglation to make the world a better place. Thank you.

This is a great idea. Polish, since you are receiving the messages and keeping it totaled, would you mind giving me the final tally? I'll match your contribution as well. This is what I always talk about but rarely do. I want to see a compassionate and supportive community that isn't relegated to the margins but that actively supports each other.

Reps to you for this idea!

 

[gkIrish]

This is a great idea. Polish, since you are receiving the messages and keeping it totaled, would you mind giving me the final tally? I'll match your contribution as well. This is what I always talk about but rarely do. I want to see a compassionate and supportive community that isn't relegated to the margins but that actively supports each other.

Reps to you for this idea!

If all that comes of this is Polish and Veritate donating some money to Kelly Cares, we've all done some good.

 

[IrishinTN]

You guys might want to start a new thread about the donations or something because your posts will get buried at some point and other folks later today won't know about the donations.

 

[JTLA]

OK, I'm prepared to get peppered, but I have to stand up and be counted.

I respect the fact that many of you are more knowledgeable about this subject and ND recruiting in general. I try to follow it as closely as I can, but if we're measured by posts and whatever these vbucks are, well then...

I don't fully understand what exactly Justin Hopkins is alleged to have done that has everyone so worked up.

Here's what I have gathered...

• Hopkins reported Blake's interest in Oregon while he was a solid verbal to ND. He was the only one out there reporting this and was blasted here for being so delusional or just trying to get clicks from Oregon fans.
  - Welp. Sour grapes guys. I imagine 247 is structured the way they are to encourage exactly this type of reporting. They understand the regional and tribal nature of college football fans, so they employ people to report to those individual fan bases. Surely you can imagine a scenario where an ND based reporter has done the same or worse.
  
• Hopkins has been too close to Barnett and his family. He is an Oregon fan and used this closeness to exert influence.
  - There can't really be any way of measuring this, but assuming 247 and/or the NCAA have guidelines for this, find the proof that he violated them. So for it all reads like allegations based on perception and groupthink. If there are no rules or guidelines that he has violated, then what are we all shouting about?
  
• Hopkins has taunted ND fans and been a douche about celebrating his correctness.
  - Really guys? This is the internet. This is twitter. This is a message board. We are all guilty of this everyday.

I respect your choice to exercise your voice through cancelled subscriptions. I doubt your impact is of any consequence, and perhaps they will offer promotions for Oregon fans. I respect your choice to donate money to charities you find worthy. I'd respect it more if you didn't flaunt it publicly or associate it with sanctimonious 'we're better than you' morality.

 

[PANDFAN]

OK, I'm prepared to get peppered, but I have to stand up and be counted.

I respect the fact that many of you are more knowledgeable about this subject and ND recruiting in general. I try to follow it as closely as I can, but if we're measured by posts and whatever these vbucks are, well then...

I don't fully understand what exactly Justin Hopkins is alleged to have done that has everyone so worked up.

Here's what I have gathered...

• Hopkins reported Blake's interest in Oregon while he was a solid verbal to ND. He was the only one out there reporting this and was blasted here for being so delusional or just trying to get clicks from Oregon fans.
  - Welp. Sour grapes guys. I imagine 247 is structured the way they are to encourage exactly this type of reporting. They understand the regional and tribal nature of college football fans, so they employ people to report to those individual fan bases. Surely you can imagine a scenario where an ND based reporter has done the same or worse.
  
• Hopkins has been too close to Barnett and his family. He is an Oregon fan and used this closeness to exert influence.
  - There can't really be any way of measuring this, but assuming 247 and/or the NCAA have guidelines for this, find the proof that he violated them. So for it all reads like allegations based on perception and groupthink. If there are no rules or guidelines that he has violated, then what are we all shouting about?
  
• Hopkins has taunted ND fans and been a douche about celebrating his correctness.
  - Really guys? This is the internet. This is twitter. This is a message board. We are all guilty of this everyday.

I respect your choice to exercise your voice through cancelled subscriptions. I doubt your impact is of any consequence, and perhaps they will offer promotions for Oregon fans. I respect your choice to donate money to charities you find worthy. I'd respect it more if you didn't flaunt it publicly or associate it with sanctimonious 'we're better than you' morality.

<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/BlXdDMqsox5D2" width="500" height="271" frameBorder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>

 

[Emcee77]

Others are more competent to speak to exactly what Hopkins did, so I'll leave that to them, if they want to do it (most people seem not to want to post it openly on the board). I'll just say that we don't have to look hard to find the rules he broke. He is a journalist, a member of a respectable, even noble profession that holds itself out as operating by certain standards and rules of ethics, and he broke them. I thought that was obvious.

But speaking for myself, this isn't entirely about Hopkins. He was the straw that broke the camel's back. It's about commercializing and commodifying these kids' decisions about where to attend college. These kids are star athletes and a little attention is fine, even desirable, but the system has gotten out of control, now that it's reached a point where people's careers depend on how deeply they can intrude into the personal lives of teenage boys and their families. It's time to scale back and be neutral, old-school journalists. Until I see that happen at 247, I'm not contributing my money to it.

 

[Emcee77]

And I'll be honest, I've felt really guilty about canceling because I really like the BGI reporters and I think they do a great job. But the system is getting to be a little sick.

 

[ulukinatme]

OK, I'm prepared to get peppered, but I have to stand up and be counted.

I respect the fact that many of you are more knowledgeable about this subject and ND recruiting in general. I try to follow it as closely as I can, but if we're measured by posts and whatever these vbucks are, well then...

I don't fully understand what exactly Justin Hopkins is alleged to have done that has everyone so worked up.

Here's what I have gathered...

• Hopkins reported Blake's interest in Oregon while he was a solid verbal to ND. He was the only one out there reporting this and was blasted here for being so delusional or just trying to get clicks from Oregon fans.
  - Welp. Sour grapes guys. I imagine 247 is structured the way they are to encourage exactly this type of reporting. They understand the regional and tribal nature of college football fans, so they employ people to report to those individual fan bases. Surely you can imagine a scenario where an ND based reporter has done the same or worse.
  
• Hopkins has been too close to Barnett and his family. He is an Oregon fan and used this closeness to exert influence.
  - There can't really be any way of measuring this, but assuming 247 and/or the NCAA have guidelines for this, find the proof that he violated them. So for it all reads like allegations based on perception and groupthink. If there are no rules or guidelines that he has violated, then what are we all shouting about?
  
• Hopkins has taunted ND fans and been a douche about celebrating his correctness.
  - Really guys? This is the internet. This is twitter. This is a message board. We are all guilty of this everyday.

I respect your choice to exercise your voice through cancelled subscriptions. I doubt your impact is of any consequence, and perhaps they will offer promotions for Oregon fans. I respect your choice to donate money to charities you find worthy. I'd respect it more if you didn't flaunt it publicly or associate it with sanctimonious 'we're better than you' morality.

Have you seen this video?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/XsM9ITD-fDY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

While I don't know the details on how involved Hopkins was with Barnett's flip, it seems he had some small part to play. While he's not an official booster or anything, he's certainly not an unbiased journalist here. He was certainly close to the situation and the family given the fact he was releasing an article just 1 minute following Barnett's announcement. Theres been talk that his actions could be along the lines of a recruiting violation, but again, I don't know all that went down behind the scenes. That's just what I've seen/heard. Aside from all that, theres the fact he acted completely unprofessional in his responses on social media, and he gives good journalists a bad name.

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

OK, I'm prepared to get peppered, but I have to stand up and be counted.

I respect the fact that many of you are more knowledgeable about this subject and ND recruiting in general. I try to follow it as closely as I can, but if we're measured by posts and whatever these vbucks are, well then...

I don't fully understand what exactly Justin Hopkins is alleged to have done that has everyone so worked up.

Here's what I have gathered...

• Hopkins reported Blake's interest in Oregon while he was a solid verbal to ND. He was the only one out there reporting this and was blasted here for being so delusional or just trying to get clicks from Oregon fans.
  - Welp. Sour grapes guys. I imagine 247 is structured the way they are to encourage exactly this type of reporting. They understand the regional and tribal nature of college football fans, so they employ people to report to those individual fan bases. Surely you can imagine a scenario where an ND based reporter has done the same or worse.
  
• Hopkins has been too close to Barnett and his family. He is an Oregon fan and used this closeness to exert influence.
  - There can't really be any way of measuring this, but assuming 247 and/or the NCAA have guidelines for this, find the proof that he violated them. So for it all reads like allegations based on perception and groupthink. If there are no rules or guidelines that he has violated, then what are we all shouting about?
  
• Hopkins has taunted ND fans and been a douche about celebrating his correctness.
  - Really guys? This is the internet. This is twitter. This is a message board. We are all guilty of this everyday.

I respect your choice to exercise your voice through cancelled subscriptions. I doubt your impact is of any consequence, and perhaps they will offer promotions for Oregon fans. I respect your choice to donate money to charities you find worthy. I'd respect it more if you didn't flaunt it publicly or associate it with sanctimonious 'we're better than you' morality.

Sadly, your low intellectual capacity has obfuscated the truth of the matter and has been replaced by your own fabricated diatribe. But to address your objections specifically:

• The impact has been of consequence (indicated by public apologies from 24/7)
• What they do for Oregon is of no consequence. They haven't had Anti-Oregon rants spouted by 24/7 broadcasters, so it would seem to be a viable option for their fanbase.
• The idea of making the donation public isn't to garner praise but foster community. Hopefully it'll infect others to join or at the very minimum, strengthen the community & perception of ND fans.

There was no sanctimonious nature about it but since this wasn't the first error in logic you've made, let me help you out.

24/7 has now had two reporters going beyond the job description to publicly decry our fanbase, slander the university and possibly engage in illicit activity. Many of these people would prefer nothing more than to extirpate everything related to Notre Dame. That includes the academic life, the morality and possibly most of all, it's Catholic link. We needn't have some mental midget come in here grandstanding, acting like he's going to set the morality meter for what is and isn't acceptable in response.

I suggest you back out of the thread if you don't support it.

 

[IrishLion]

Sadly, your low intellectual capacity has obfuscated the truth of the matter and has been replaced by your own fabricated diatribe.