the message that has me scratching my head is "He's definitely leaning towards XXXX, but sources tell us he's not 100% sold."

i'm used to two separate messages: first is definitely leaning towards (which i regard as very tight) and second is he's not 100% sold (which i regard as merely considering, but open to third party recruiting). does anyone have an idea what it means when these messages are combined? Alternatively, is there a list floating out there somewhere with the very tight, tight, even, etc. meanings of the FSS Word on the Street messages? i tried using the site search engine, which i personally think is terrible, and came up with zilch; tried google and it seems like no one's made a comprehensive list...or at least shared it in the forums.

So the crux of your problem is that "leaning" isn't a very tight message.

But I'm pretty sure this is what you're looking for:

http://whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?TopicID=458446

jdno: thanks, but those are scholarship messages. i'm referring to word on the street (wots) messages. 

i used to take girt's queue on this being a 6/3 split, not a 3/3/3. i even tested the 3/3/3 theory myself and am 100% positive its not like that. however, i think its actually 4/2/3 with a low, medium, and high threshold. im pretty much 95% sold on this, even though i never tested it to verify it myself, like i did the 3/3/3. the complete list of the 9 messages is somewhere, on these forums, i think in multiple places actually.

i take this as one of the two medium messages. if you think of it as low, med, high, the messages are self explanatory. 

i think this the complete list, but i don't see it prioritized like you are saying... low, med and high. (i actually think its broken down even further than 3 categories. but that's a good start.)

edit: that list is missing the WOTS when there are two or more teams that are being considered. i only recently learned that the order that the teams are mentioned indicates who is in the lead.

oops, yeah, you're right jtt

I view that message as a level one (low level) but the high end of low level. It's not a significant amount of effort, but more than your minimum. I just took a guy off a sim in Rupp who had this message.

Posted by jtt8355 on 5/2/2014 3:16:00 PM (view original):
i think this the complete list, but i don't see it prioritized like you are saying... low, med and high. (i actually think its broken down even further than 3 categories. but that's a good start.)

edit: that list is missing the WOTS when there are two or more teams that are being considered. i only recently learned that the order that the teams are mentioned indicates who is in the lead.

even more than 3 categories? now that i am pretty sure is not true. when i was testing to see if it was 3/3/3 or if girt was right and it was two categories, it was clear at least the top 3 messages were all the same - as with nothing changing, they would rotate from one to the other, randomly. also, it was clear 3 of them bottom ones were the same, as they were switching around randomly. then when i got the 4th bottom one was the same, i stopped testing, because i figured if there were 3 levels, it had to be 3/3/3.

my testing could be totally wrong but i would really be blown away if there was anything but 2 or 3 categories. i may have screwed up in testing but i think really my problem is i was testing a too narrow view, testing only for 3/3/3 or 6/3 and never finished, assuming once i knew it wasn't 3/3/3, there was no point in continuing. ill see if i can dig up my notes on that, they are here on this computer *somewhere*. i actually found all kinds of weird **** i did experimenting when i was looking for something earlier in the week. 

I've considered there to be 3 levels of interest when a recruit is considering you alone. Maybe Jtt means that there are two different levels when there is a battle? From my notes;
Low: 
- XX is front runner, but family tells us not sold.  
- Had some attention from XX, but sources say very open to other offers.
- Some attention from XX, but keeping options wide open. 
I have seen all of these message cycle through on the same recruit(s) over 2 days of recruiting without putting more effort in. In most cases this was a minimal amount of effort to be considered. I consider these equivalent. 
Medium:
- XX likes him but he may not be a priority.
- He's definitely leaning towards XX, but he is not 100% sold.
- XX seems to be the favorite - right now.
I have also seen all 3 of these messages randomly on the same recruit(s) despite putting no more effort in, and no other schools showing up on the list. Sure there are things like considering credit, as well as the possibility that someone else put in effort but not enough to get considered...but my experience has been that the choice of message is random. I'd guess these messages show up at 8-12 home visits, but probably varies somewhat based on prestige. 
High:
- Seems *Very* solid
- XX seems *Very* tight with..
- Insiders say he is very high priority
I am recalling from the forums that these messages are seen at the equivalent of ~20 HV? 

When two teams are considering a recruit, I have seen struggling btw Team A and Team B - where team A is leading by a small margin & "recruit is definitely leaning towards team A" where I consider team A to be leading by a larger margin, but not enough to have knocked team B off the list.

just my 2 cents

one cannot generalize about how many HV to get to a certain message

depends for sure on the recruiting prestige of the school and the ranking of the recruit.  If he is delighted to hear from you, it takes less.....if it is a stretch takes more

thanks ggall. i was suggesting that within each category, there might be priorities. like jsajsa said, there is a high end of the low level.

I was thinking that with the "struggling between" message, that the order in which the schools are listed has meaning. In other words, the school listed first is ahead, while the one listed second is trailing. Is that the case?

Posted by wildcat98 on 5/4/2014 5:36:00 PM (view original):
I was thinking that with the "struggling between" message, that the order in which the schools are listed has meaning. In other words, the school listed first is ahead, while the one listed second is trailing. Is that the case?

Yep.  This is correct. 

So strange. Went from slightly ahead in the WotS message in one cycle, to the guy signing at the competitor school the next. Never seen that happen before. Not complaining, since he wasn't like a worldbeater player or anything. Just struck me as odd, since I'd never seen it happen before.