[JohnJ of HM]

I thouht that one of the main reasons for setting up this forum was to get away from the personal insults and negativity that was a feature of the previous forum.
The exchnages on another topic on this forum seem to have sunk to the level of the previous forum.
Can I register a plea for exchanges to remain civil please?

[SSR]

Totally agree with the sentiment, but will only work if people are willing to refrain from
posting deliberately inflammatory posts. Nothing wrong with having different opinions,
but please think twice about deliberate antagonism.

[dinogyro]

I agree too. It would be nicer for this to be a place where we can have respectful discussion.

[The Back Row]

Since this "Thread" has died a death, lets try and see why, respectfully, this forum is asleep other than transfer rumours. Not my views, but the views of some AI analysis of the forum and its threads shared here to see if it stimulates any debate - Before we get into "I like it to be this way, and not that way"....

I asked AI not only to analyse the forum but to take a comparison with another club with similar gates in an adjecent thread - which it selected a non-league football club with gates of 5-8,000 in the North West of England, Carlisle.

Sale first:

By Share of Total Replies

Approximate distribution of replies:

Category % of Replies
Sale Men (inc. Rumours) ~93%
Sale Men (excl. Rumours) ~7%
England ~2%
OOTP ~2%
Other Teams ~2%
PWR ~0.1%
General Rugby <1%


Key Insights
1. The Forum Is Driven by ONE Thread

The Transfer Rumour Thread dominates everything:

3,815 replies
Without it, core Sale men’s discussion is actually modest.

This suggests:

Fans are more engaged by speculation than match analysis.
The forum behaves like a rolling pub conversation.

2. Actual Match Analysis Engagement Is Moderate

Match reports typically get:

2–20 replies
That’s not insignificant, but it’s not explosive.
Fans are reading more than replying.

3. England Rugby Competes Strongly

The Six Nations thread:
86 replies

National rugby clearly matters to this audience — it is one of the strongest non-Sale drivers.

4. Former Players = Emotional Glue

The OOTP thread:
110 replies
This is nostalgia engagement.
It’s identity-based discussion rather than tactical discussion.

That tells you this forum values:

History
Personalities
Memory
Long-term attachment

5. PWR Engagement Is Extremely Low

Only:

5 replies

For a Sale forum, that’s near invisibility.

6. Fans Care About the Wider Rugby

The “How did your team get on” thread:

110 replies
Tribal rugby discussion matters.





What This Says About the Forum Culture

This forum is:

Primarily Sale-focused — but disproportionately driven by transfer speculation
Strongly interested in England
Emotionally attached to former players
🏟 Moderately interested in broader Premiership results
Very low engagement in PWR content
Not heavily tactical/analytical — more conversational and opinion-driven

On that last point, it is clear that the few active posters (Estimated 15-20) who openly challenge any posts perceived as deliberately negative.





Compare this to some similar metrics for a top 5 National League (5th Division) football club, which has a similar fan based (Using average home gates as the metric) based in the North West of England.



Depth of Engagement
Sale

Engagement is concentrated in:

One mega transfer thread
A few England threads
Occasional nostalgia

Most match threads:

Low double-digit replies
It is relatively lean.

Carlisle

Engagement is:

Multi-threaded
Sustained
High volume
Spread across dozens of topics

Even niche threads get:
100+ replies
10k+ views

This is a living, breathing daily ecosystem.


What Is Actually Discussed?
Sale Forum Focus

Sale men’s team
Transfers
England
Some nostalgia
Very little women’s rugby
Minimal broader rugby debate

It’s narrower and more club-centric.

Carlisle Forum Focus

They discuss:

Match threads
Predictions
Individual players
Youth team
National League
Media content (podcasts/YouTube)
Stats
Positivity threads
Spare tickets
Squad spreadsheets
Off-topic football nostalgia
Former players at huge scale

The football forum is:

Club-focused
League-focused
Media-focused
Data-focused
Personality-focused

It has layers.





Cultural Differences

This is the really interesting bit.

Rugby Forum Culture (Sale)

Feels like:
A small community
Low - Moderately active
Conversational but lacking passion
Less tribal
Less daily churn
More reading than posting


Football Forum Culture (Carlisle)

Feels like:

Constant daily activity
High emotional volatility
Deep player-level analysis
Strong tribal intensity
High meme/humour presence
Constant prediction and speculation
It behaves like:

A 24/7 digital terrace



Numbers That Really Stand Out

The biggest contrast:

Former Players
Sale OOTP: 110 replies. /. 42k views

Carlisle Former Players: 2,092 replies / 250k views

That’s not 2x.
It’s 20x!




What This Suggests About Engagement Intensity

If we strip out Sale’s mega transfer thread:

Carlisle forum engagement is likely:
5–10x more active per topic
Far broader in subject range
Much more personality-driven
The rugby forum is:
More contained
Less reactive
Less obsessive




The Most Interesting Insight

The football forum spreads engagement across:

League
Squad
Youth
Media
Individual players
Predictions
Culture

The rugby forum concentrates engagement into:

Transfers
Core club matters
Occasional England



Anyhow, that is 15 minutes of a train journey wasted. By all means, insist on only one way of interacting, but the suggestion would be if you only want to hear one voice, and one way of speaking, you will hear very little.

[Clutch]

Why are you consulting with AL, thought you hated Sanderson :-)

The conclusion is we need more memes?

[The Back Row]

I'm not allowed to say hate any more... plus anyone can see this is far too succinct and lacking in made up irrelevant bro-science to be one of his press conferences!

(Intro should say adjacent sport - not thread)

[AndaleManito]

I'm not allowed to say hate any more... plus anyone can see this is far too succinct and lacking in made up irrelevant bro-science to be one of his press conferences!

(Intro should say adjacent sport - not thread)

"I'm not allowed to say hate any more... "

.....

Not sure whether a comparison to a football team forum is apt - would be better to compare it to a forum of another Prem rugby team no?

Doesn't really matter anyway, I'm happy with the level and tone of the content on the forum, and everyone else but you seems to be. Not really seeing anyone else getting a kick out of name calling/resorting to personal attacks.

[The Back Row]

Its a perfectly valid comparison. Both seemingly similar fanbases so why would you have such significant variances in engagement?

But you make my point perfectly - if the attitude is "Im part of this tiny band of engaged people, and I don't want to hear anything different" then maybe that is why there is such low engagement? 'Everyone else seems' to be fine with it. You know apart from the 99.67% of fans who go to games and don't post on here...


I mean look around, professional rugby, the Prem, club rugby is failing drastically in terms of engagement, numbers, finances, sponsorship, tv deals and spectator interest. So yeah, sure compare to another rugby club - convince yourself that 25 active users (or whatever the number is) out of six or seven thousand average gate is fine... the forum is fine... rugby is fine... we're all fine just carry on.

[AndaleManito]

Its a perfectly valid comparison. Both seemingly similar fanbases so why would you have such significant variances in engagement?

But you make my point perfectly - if the attitude is "Im part of this tiny band of engaged people, and I don't want to hear anything different" then maybe that is why there is such low engagement? 'Everyone else seems' to be fine with it. You know apart from the 99.67% of fans who go to games and don't post on here...


I mean look around, professional rugby, the Prem, club rugby is failing drastically in terms of engagement, numbers, finances, sponsorship, tv deals and spectator interest. So yeah, sure compare to another rugby club - convince yourself that 25 active users (or whatever the number is) out of six or seven thousand average gate is fine... the forum is fine... rugby is fine... we're all fine just carry on.

Hard to believe you're not trolling really... obviously a supporters forum for another rugby team would be a more apt comparison that that of a football team, given Sale Sharks is a rugby team...

Are you aware that I might agree with your opinion on Sanderson, just don't appreciate you calling people a moron? I stuck up for your right to voice your opinion in another thread, others have agreed with it too! Everyone else can voice their opinions without name calling, why can't you?

In terms of engagement, I'm sure more name calling and personal attacks is just what we need, that will solve all our problems! Thank you for your service O most great and humble one.

.....

I'm all for a good debate, but it's obvious you get a kick out of being provocative/winding people up - the fact that you haven't engaged with any of the recent chatter in the thoughts on next season thread is telling. Good luck with your complaining and name calling.

[eBike]

Interesting data but having just watched "Good Luck, Be Happy, Don't Die" I'm sceptical of their use. However, joking aside, it's disappointing to note the "lack of interest" in the Sale Sharks Women as, in my humble opinion, they are worthy of MUCH more support and interest than currently.

There's no PWR till March 7th so little to post. Let's see what the crucial Loughborough match generates

[dinogyro]

There was more PWR discussion, but under different threads. I must have done more than 5 PWR posts in the last month.

[eBike]

Fair comment.

There was a suggestion that it might be worth opening a specific PWR thread so I've given it a try. We'll see how it plays out. Especially if it generates attention to the dire state of the Heywood Road pitch. It's not good enough

If it doesn't develop, nothing ventured, nothing gained. It's just a forum.

In passing, Drua play the Hurricanes on Sky Sport Action Saturday morning at 3.35 so an opportunity (perhaps) of seeing our incoming Fijians. Worth recording ?

[poyntonshark]

Canakaivata started, looks a unit. Difficult to make much judgement as conditions horrible. Shaun Edwards would have refused to play. Only reason it doesn't look like standing water as because the grass covering is very lush. Any box kick going to ground has a splash down.

Great win for Drua. Canakaivata went off early in second half (I assume) I didn't actually notice him going off.

[Major Bloodnok]

[...] Especially if it generates attention to the dire state of the Heywood Road pitch. It's not good enough

[...]

I mentioned it to Shona Campbell at the SSSC event last Tuesday – she said they all thought it was great fun and infinitely preferable to playing on plastic (the Gloucester players all complained, apparently).