I know for a long time I was reluctant to ban commentors or delete comments because I thought that it would hurt the community. But then I started to run into commentors that were hurting the community on their own. Two people came in and started belittling anyone that didn’t agree with their stances, making it a not friendly place to be. Those were the first and only 2 commentors I had to ban. One time proved to be enough. It also prompted the creation of my first commenting policy which essentially was:

1. Don’t swear. And don’t try to evade the censors when you swear either.
2. Don’t be a jerk.

Disagreement and criticism are fine, but there are ways to do it in a civilized manner. As for the swearing, it’s not that I have a problem with swearing in general. But I feel that my comment section is a reflection on my blog and on me and it’s not the kind of thing that I want on my site. It’s a sports site and there is no reason that parents should have any qualms about their kids reading it.

A guest post at Problogger nicely captures my feelings on the matter:

How you choose to moderate the comments on your site will affect who feels comfortable to participate on your site, and who will want to come back again and again.

If you let rude, obnoxious, spiteful comments persist on your blog, you are basically telling all of your commenters that it’s okay with you to behave badly on your site. This covert permission can act like a magnet, drawing in hooligans and bullies, making the reading of and participating in your comment section uncomfortable for many. I learned long ago that people will give you as much crap as you are willing to put up with. If you tolerate abusive commenters, they’ll just keep coming back.

USS Mariner probably has the strictest policy that I’ve come across. They will delete posts for a whole host of reasons that go beyond inappropriate content and will do it if they don’t deem your comment worthy. And yet they still have a very active community and the result is a ton of very intelligent discussion. Even a very strict policy can actually help to build community and that strong community lends more credibility to the blog itself.

The other downside to comment moderation is that it takes a lot of time. Spam catchers take care of stuff that is truly spam, but moderating comments can take so much time that it detracts from your regular blogging. The most absolute way is to moderate every comment. This can and will detract from the community because comments don’t appear right away, and who is always watching their blogs.

If you’re using Wordpress (I can’t speak to the functionality of other blogging platforms) you can enter key words that when they appear in a post it will be sent to moderation before reaching the audience. This is also an effective way to ban people. I’ve entered IP addresses of the offending commentors into this field as well. It typically deters them for a while – at least until they get a new IP address. Hopefully by that time they will have given up posting. It doesn’t solve all the problems, but it can at least free up some comment moderation time.

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Still, there is a fair number of subscribers to the RSS feed, meaning that there are still a few of you who do see the new content when I post it.

So I’m going to call on you. Do you think a site like this has any value to you – assuming it was updated more often? Would any of you like to contribute ideas, or do you have questions that you want answered?

I look at this as a resource for the sports blogging community, and while I’m a participant, I’m far from an expert and I think the site really needs more voices. We can all learn from each other. Whether it is technology, how to find information, blogging platforms, CSS and layouts, the interplay between the MSM and blogs, or trying to make a buck, there is a lot to learn.

So if anyone would like to write here, or use this space to pose questions to a bigger group, this is your invitation to do so.

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That last link, take a look at the story. They never mention Zumsteg’s name. They mention the blog, but fail to mention that the blog’s author also penned a book by the same name. They don’t link to blog either despite it coming from ESPN.com News Services that gathers and produces news for the web, where there are links and stuff.

The thing is, I’ve heard this mentioned on sports talk, and other avenues and they also refer to the source as a “blog” or a “blogger” as if almost to discredit it. The man has a name. He is an author. He’s written for Baseball Prospectus in the past. Why not write it as “The issue was first raised by Derek Zumsteg, the author of The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball and a blog by the same name.” Give the man his due, and don’t try to diminish the message because of the medium he used.

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Where striketwo tracks conversations in the blogosphere, Ballbug tracks the entire conversation for baseball’s hottest topics, including from the mainstream media.

For bloggers this should serve as a great way to find information, not to mention a great way to snag some traffic as well.

More: Introducing Ballbug, tracking baseball buzz – blog.memeorandum.com

ballbug, memeorandum, striketwo

Two things we take a lot of pride in…One we try to be different…Two is work ethic…the least we owe you is a really good day’s work. . that said, last Wednesday, at this very time… last 5 minutes of the show we presented a very funny and very smartly written fake Wonderlic test…the people who run michiganzone.blogspot created it. . they were furious with us…they deserve all the credit because it was very smart and very funny. . today, mzone gets the credit for this. . we have no problem with giving people credit…you tell us where you got it, we will give you credit…burden falls on me, its my show…last Wednesday, I didn’t do a good enough job checking. . there you go. . you can go to Google and punch up Mzone. . they are absolutely killing me and that’s fine…interesting thing about all this is…all this really got me going this weekend. . emotions flowing…I wrote a book this weekend…called “To Kill A Mockingbird”. . totally original. . talks about social issues.. .”

Why solo is the way to go

• Total Control: There are no disagreements about the direction of the site, or what is appropriate, or color schemes, or linking policy, or anything. In a solo operation it’s all up to you.
• One blogger, one sound: If you have an established audience, they might not welcome another voice. If they’ve been coming back, they’ve been coming back because of something you’re doing right
• The money: If you’ve decided to monetize your site, it would probably only be fair that you would share some portion of the revenue. Deciding on the amount could be tricky socially. And then there are the tax implications. Does this person become an employee or are you partners?

Why you should use the buddy system

• More is better: More writers -> more content -> more visits -> more money! Well, it isn’t always a straight shot, but many of those elements are related. The additional writers are especially helpful when life gets in the way. At least there is someone else to keep the site fresh.
• Baskin Robbins: Different people have different tastes, and different writers have different styles. While there maybe a core of your readers that love the way you write, there could also be a group that can’t stand it. Maybe a different writer with a different style could bring in a different audience.
• Built in disscussion: Even if others aren’t commenting on your posts, you can always comment on each others. Or, the posts themselves can be discussions, ala Rob and Rany.

I don’t think one way is right or wrong. There are examples of successful teams (Belth and Corcoran, Lederer and Smith), just like there are many successful individuals. It’s all a matter of what you feel comfortable with. Personally I’m inclined to stay solo, but weeks like this always make me wonder why.

So more and more people are blogging, but so many of the blogs look the same. Default templates and addresses containing blogspot abound. While there is nothing wrong with default templates, and blogspot addresses, you may find that you want to differentiate yourself and have your blog develop its own identity. Here are a couple steps to build your blog brand.

Location, Location, Location

Like in real estate, location is key. Your blog needs to be easy to find, and so it needs a good address in a nice neighborhood. If you’ve been on a hosted site, like a blogspot or wordpress site, your best bet is to try and get a domain name that matches. The other nice thing is that you can have an email to match your site. I use GoDaddy to register domains, and the cost is minimal.

As for what constitutes a good domain name, it is really a matter of personal preference. There is probably some search engine advantages to having keywords in your domain, but do it in a natural way. The domain should be relatively concise. It might be a good idea to avoid the full team name. For the Detroit Tigers Weblog, I was feeling very uncreative when I registered the domain. Ever since then I’ve been nervous that the team could probably shut it down.

Now one of the tradeoffs of having to have that blogspot address is that you don’t have to worry at all about hosting, or software, or well anything. Just that the site is up. With your own domain though, you are carving out your space on the web, and you should have a little more control. If this scares you, it shouldn’t. Many webhosts will install your blogging software and get you set-up at sign-up time.

Don’t Default

If you really want to make your blog standout, don’t use the default templates. You can certainly start with a predesigned template, and unless you’re a CSS wiz I’d really recommend it. Just play with it and tweak it enough to make it your own.

Now don’t forego developing content as you get lost in template tweaks. Believe me, it’s easy to do. You don’t have to do complete redesigns all at once. It’s okay to make small changes as you go along. (Just make sure you save a back-up of your template each time)

If you just don’t have the time or inclination to pick-up CSS, try developing a banner. A fresh banner on a classic template like Kubrick is often all you need. Of course if you’re Photoshop challenged like me, this could take longer than redesigning your template. Try to find a friend who is good at that sort of thing, or try and teach yourself. There was recently an excellent Photoshop tutorial at Performancing.

Favicon for flavor

You know those little pictures that appear next to web address in the location bar of your browser? Those are called favicons. While these are by no means essential, they are just so easy to implement. And in a tabbed browser environment like Firefox, it really helps to identify each site.

If you’ve got your snazzy new banner, crop out a square-ish shape. Once you’ve got your picture, submit it to a website like this. They’ll create the favico.ico file and tell you how to include it on your site.

Voiceprint

The most important branding for your site is the content itself. What is your writing style? How often do you write? What will the reader find when he comes to your site? Your content is where the real differentiation occurs. All of the other steps are just there to help people find your stuff, and keep them around long enough to read those gold nuggets.

First in terms of defining success Will points out that all bloggers are looking for feedback. That feedback could be in terms of visits, comments, money, and praise. I’d also include additional opportunities as another feedback component, but I like the definition as a starting point. At this point in terms of defining success it becomes a matter of magnitude. Caroll points out that with the exception of David Pinto, nobody is making a living blogging about baseball. Also, he notes that no blogs have the followship that mainstream media has. Again, I can’t argue with the assertion. However, I’m not sure that the lack of the above means blogs aren’t succeeding. As a blogger, I’m satisified that several hundred people care enough about what I think to visit on a regular basis. I consider it a success that the voice of the Detroit Tigers lists my blog among his regular reads. I understand that I probably won’t make a career out of this, but I’m satisfied considering this is a hobby and a passion. The income is just a bonus.

Sports bloggers in general are blogging out of a passion for their sport or team. For some it may be an exercise in journalism, or what may amount to a rather lengthy resume. But I don’t know many who started a sports blog as a profession. There aren’t carefully crafted business models prior to starting a blog because there doesn’t need to be. While the easy entry encourages a great deal more content and conversation it probably diminishes innovation from an economical standpoint.

Now I think Will is talking on a broader level and thinking of success of blogs as an entity as opposed to individual endeavors. I believe he is talking about the success of the blog as opposed to the blogger. Afterall, Belth landed a MSM gig, and Gleeman used his blog to land a host of paid writing jobs. I’d consider both of these to be successes. In another example, John Bonnes ported his Twins Geek blog over to MSM for an entire season.

But in terms of blog success it may best be defined in their adoption by MSM. Many papers have charged internal columnists/writers to start blogs to better keep up with current news. Many of these blogs are effective at communicating things that don’t fit in game stories or the beat reports. But as informative as the MSM blogs may be, they still don’t provide the voice or insight that many appreciate in their local blogger.

I don’t disagree entirely with Carroll’s post. I just view the situation a little more optimistically.

The new Topix is still a news aggregator, but it has become much more interactive. Instead of just displaying news by category, it now allows readers to comment on stories. In addition, users are now allowed to suggest stories and a forum is included as well.

So what does this mean for sports bloggers? First, it is another potential source of traffic. Second, it is another potential source of information. You can subscribe to a feed for each topic (your team for example). Third, and most importantly, it may be a step towards another potential online community.

Technology and politics have several different sites that help promote discussion and awareness. Digg covers technology, and memeorandum covers tech and politics. Sports is a very vibrant online niche, and yet there isn’t a similar product. Sports Blogs does a terrific job as an aggregator, but it doesn’t do link analysis or measure popularity. Baseball Primer excels at aggregating relevant stories and hosting discussion, but it doesn’t aggregate the discussion across blogs.

Now I don’t think Topix will accomplish all that, but it may be another opportunity for an underserved niche.

And finally, I don’t know what this will mean for the future, but Topix is jointly owned by Knight-Ridder, Gannett and Tribune. Topix functionality may be coming to a local online newspaper near you.