FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Other responsibilities and demands on my personal time had me planning a hiatus on blogging any way, so the timing of everything else worked out well.

A lot of people are blaming the format, but I had noticed people were drifting away the last few months from FN in general while newbies that ventured past the T and R section dwindled.  The ‘Why" goes to a lot of entities:

• Certainly the moderators were lacking to say the least.
• SI and the format didn't help.
• It became obvious "T and R" was geared to generate hate comments as much as provide nuggets of reporting (check out the difference between the original article and the articles as edited in t and R some time to see what I mean).
• TDs were ruined as much by the people who liked to do them as any other reason.  I am no certain which came first - a good TD record or hundreds of friends - but the first is definitely helped by the 2^nd.  My favorite was a guy who would admonish the opponents comments when his friend was doing well, but leave the statement "He is winning but I am going to wait and see the rest of the arguments before voting" when his friend was getting blown away (and this was 1 of the dedicated TD hobbyist) - about as "Fair and balanced" as Fox News.  In the mean time those who really tied quit making TDs and instead just accepted those they thought they could easily win.  Lets face it - TDs are what they made it.
• The number of obnoxious rude users seemed to outnumber the active fan users (it is the internet - what ya gonna do?)
• Existing members trashed newbies a bit too harsh for the site to grow.
• Of course, there is a lot of other things from the Krobe debacle to guys posing as chicks leaving off color remarks to people being stalked thru their groups and friends to... (well, the list is long).
• With a few exceptions blogs definitely dropped off the last few months (apparently most desire more than my 7 loyal readers).

Even our beloved group was slowing.  I confess, I was manipulating the "Most Active' list by when I posted new blogs (I won't bore you with the details of how I did this).  We had about 100 members, but at any given time there were only about 15-20 active.  Most of the people took the group off their favorites list and quit blogging or commenting long before the format change.

But in the end, the real reason is that the novelty of FN wore off before it developed substance.  I hope SI didn't pay a lot of money for FN, and my sympathies to the programmer who oversaw the format change that will get the blame for other factors.

I won't be moving to the new site as I don't see it as a viable option.

As part of FN or another site, there was a pool of potential members already brought into the group's neighborhood thru T and R, TDs, etc.  As people drifted away, others came in to sustain the group.  At any time there was 15 to 20 or so making it worthwhile.

As a stand alone site, I don't see how it will be able to attract new members in any numbers, while from time to time existing members will just drift away.

It also lacks the convenience.  For myself FN was a 1 stop site to check sports scores and stats, read some lesser seen articles in T and R, read a few blogs, make some sarcastic comments, and check in on the group.

I would suggest reconsidering the idea or at least changing the method.  If anything, build a list of potential members by sending out mail and move to another established site and set up shop there.  Not only do you have an influx of people, you have the chance to get some dinero as well.  I looked into it but didn't consider it worthwhile - the site that responded wanted a blog a day, at least 1/3 of which were of quality and researched, for which they would pay the handsome sum of...$500/year or $1.37 per blog.  However, as a group you could put up a schedule and offer 2 blogs a day for $1,000 a year, and have the money to do with as you will (divvy up, give away 25 $40 sports tickets or apparel certificates, T-Shirts, etc.).

Conferences aren't their common format (they like to do teams, not conferences, but much like FN, they are finding trying to keep a group going on just 1 team isn't particularly feasible).  On the other hand, it is the same cost AND you are bringing a group (not just a single blogger) which they have to find attractive.

Anyhow, I've digressed.  I will still stop by every week or 2 to check scores, stats, fan mail, comments, and peruse T and R.  I also opened up my profile for comments.  (I dropped a lot of inactive people from my friends list because recently some head cases have been harassing members and others thru people's friends list).

Otherwise I would like to extend my appreciation to everyone.

This has been a lot of fun and extremely entertaining - something I do not take for granted.

I won't list them all for fear of insulting those I might leave out, but I have met a lot of interesting characters I will not likely forget soon.

Good luck in all you future endeavors.

...and no, this isn't really my 100^th blog - it is my 20^th, but the way I count, my typical blog is at least 5 times as long as a standard blog, so it is the same as 100...