Would you drive two hours from your home, find a party, walk in, glad-hand everyone, take a beer, and generally act as if you belong there?
If you answered yes, I hope you live three hours from me!
However, this is where the Senior Writers come in. We can do much to help ease the transition for the youngsters and newbies who inhabit the site.
I think back to Daniel Barber. He went out of his way to post my articles on his fans’ boards. He e-mailed people. He promoted my work just as vigorously as he did his own!
So, to my fellow Senior Writers: do you know of a talented writer on here who is struggling to get reads and comments? Never seems to make it to the Front Page of the site, even though their work is stellar?
Well, why not give them a nudge?
Abhimanyu Vinay Rajput, whom most of us know as AVR, has bought into the “Pass it on” movement, proposed by Jamie Ward. Especially as Senior Writers, we should do this. It lends instant credibility to a writer who might not be well-known, but is worthy of being read.
Just pass it along to one person; you might start a torrent of reads...
Shockingly, I've heard far too many youngsters and newbies levy bitter complaints against the Senior Writers that had nothing to do with the rankings!
Being blown off; berated for posting where they were not invited; talked down to or made to feel inferior; or flat-out refusal to reply at all to a question or request.
Ladies and gentlemen, that’s just wrong. Listen to the words of George Benson, in the song “The Greatest Love of All”:
“I believe the children are our future
Teach them well, and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride, to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be”
George “gets it.”
Has anyone else noticed how many insanely talented young writers we have on this site? We have a 13-year old Senior Writer now, Josh Dhani, to go along with the 16-year old Senior Writer Isaac Barrow.
We have Graham Brunell, who I am going to kidnap and verify from his Birth Certificate that he is actually 13.
(G. B. knows I’m joking about that...or am I?)
Jake Livinston is 13. Wyatt Beltz is days away from being 14. Eric Annett, Nick Barnowski, Matt Miselis, and D.J. Rallo are 15. Jared Farver, Sulayman Hussein, and Taylor Rummel are 16. Those are some of my favorites, off the top of my head.
They form the heart of the “Kiddie Korps,” or the “Junior Cavalry,” as I like to call them. They are our future!
One of them might be the next Peter King, Tim Kurkjian, Ken Rosenthal, or Grant Wahl. But not if we don’t help them.
Saraswathi Sirigina recently had this quote up on her profile page: “Leadership is all about responsibility.”
Think about that—deeply—for a minute.
When the powers-that-be decided to endow each and every one of us with “Senior Writer” status, they made us responsible for many things:
The continued high quality of our own work;
The attracting of new members to the site;
Having lively yet respectful conversations/debates;
The mentoring of newcomers.
In no particular order (thus, no numbers attached).
I have already begun to devote more time to the mentoring of new and younger writers than I do to writing my own material. In fact, Karthika M. and Blaine Spence, two of my dearest friends on Bleacher, badger me weekly for new material.
They stop by my profile and a few minutes later, I get a PM, wondering if I’m still alive and planning to write something new?
Well, you two, I did write something new, but I would really rather tell you about this piece by a kid I’ve really taken a shine to...
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