Will we have a "news section " abbout the latest rugby news???? A bit like planet rugby or whatever?
The reason I say this is because if we want to grow we have to really ask ourselves "what do people want?"..........how many people are looking for a rugby "forum" compared to people who are looking for "rugby news"....or "rugby gaming"? Is the market substantially bigger in non forum contexts when it comes to rugby internet activity or is it less?
When it comes to drawing in members we need to look at what consumers want and focus our drive towards that area. However this is only if we want more members as our goal. Our goal may not neccesarily be that.
I am not saying that the "forum" should change into something else. What I am saying is that if the "forum" part has low intenet interest it may be better to have another vehicle pulling in members as a step towards joining the forum. The Portal as a result I think is a FANTASTIC idea as it can be used as the vehicle to members signing up. All we need to do is to design the Portal to cater for the needs of internet consumers where they can get things that they are looking for (needs based) and if they want to go deeper and join TRF altogether so they can post then that is good.
Therefore my own opinion for the Portal is that it should be "news and info based" as this is what I personally believe people are looking for first and foremost with internet rugby browsing. However every news item or whatever is on the Portal should be mandatorily linked to a thread for people to post in.........the linking of reports and peoples opinion has been shown to be widely successful on big sites. It will also be unbeknown to them, their "introduction" to the Forum section and thus the original heart of the site.
This however is a major task especially money wise so I do understand we have our limitations. People return to Planet rugby and such sites because of their reliability with their bigger budgets and their ability to have people on the spot all the time when rugby things happen. It is a typical cycle for success with sponshorship, advertising, quality product, more hits, and the cycle goes on. I do realise that we are just starting from scratch.
So in this respect with our limited resources I think that you guys have done a great job and that the Portal is probably in my opinion going to have a huge impact. This is the best thing that has changed on the site so far IMO........great job implemeting it. It is a bit ugly (blue is cold and......dull

)...but I know it will get there.
Keep up the good work!