I have been a practicing Bleacher Creature (that's what they call us right?) for about six months and 126 articles.
Don't believe me, look at my profile, there is the proof. However, I really don't think anybody is going to challenge the amount of time I've wasted (but greatly enjoyed) on this site.
It's gotten me my own free website along with another site that has begun paying me (not much, but it's something) to write about basketball for them.
Don't worry loyal fans (all five of you, if there are that many), I am not leaving B/R anytime soon, and will probably write here for a long, long time.
This article is not me saying goodbye in any way, it's just some more shameless promotion, anyway, back to the point of the article.
I read an article about a month ago by Jeffrey Klien (who has apparently stopped writing) asking how to improve B/R.
However, the article only got just over 200 reads and just seven comments (two from me). So I am asking, and hoping that the creators will see this, how would you improve Bleacher Report?
As for me, I have just one non-important question to raise for the creators. When is the "More Statistics" button going to begin working. It's been up for a few months and it's just annoying.
I want to know how I stack up (their words not mine) against the top writers.
If you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments.
Hopefully this version can get a few more visitors and get a few more open ideas going.
I'm Joe W.
Joe also writes for TheDailyCub.com, a Chicago Cubs blog, and Hoops4Life.com, a basketball fan's site.
comments (41) write a comment »
write a new comment
3 months ago
I want my own site =D
from 3 months ago
It's just a Cubs blog, I plug it at the end of every article.
3 months ago
I think Bleacher Report is a wonderful sportswriting community.
However, I have a few peeves with the Web site's organization. Sometimes people want to write all encompassing articles that mention 10 different sports. For example, an article I saw today asked the question: is this the greatest sports year ever?
It was a decent read, but it was front and center on the NBA page when I visited there, simply because there were two sentences about the recently concluded NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers. Its placement bumped other NBA intensive articles off the page.
Bleacher Report needs a section just for general sports articles, so that one article doesn't cramp five different pages because it mentions each of those sports in one line.
This article, for example, could go on such a page.
Also, I think there should be a link on each sports page relating to the time sensitivity of the article. That way, time sensitive stuff gets visibility over speculative 12 months down the road stuff.
I'm just trying to think of a way to get some of the great articles I've read more attention. Speculating on who will win the Western Conference next season may be fun, but nobody knows how things will shake out. We don't know how the free agent dash will finish, if other trades are in the works or how many of the revamped teams will look when they begin play this fall.
I bring this up because myself and another writer published articles about Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban's anti-Olympic comments. Neither story was read much nor did they solicit any comments, and yet, I felt the topic was more NBA pertinent than a lot of what I was reading on the site. I was surprised at how little fanfare Cuban's comments received. Call him a quack if you like, but he questioned the very idea of national pride and spirit.
These are minor suggestions, and some may think they are stupid, but I offered something.
If I think of anything else, I'll post it.
from 3 months ago
I agree, Robert. I'm a niche humor writer. I tag my articles humor/satire but also tag with APPROPRIATE categories. However, when I see one of my satires headlining the baseball or football area, it's not fair to folks who are writing serious, important pieces about baseball or football.
3 months ago
First, congrats on your paying gig. That's awesome! I'm not sure if this would be an improvement or not, but having a delete button for really inappropriate comments is a must.
I have seen some really nasty comments (calling someone a douche, for example) that really undermine an article.
While it's great to have spirited debate, there are already some trolls on this site who do nothing but offer negative remarks, and haven't written a positive remark about anything, unless it's pro their team. The problem with the personal insults is that it breeds more personal insults. Mob mentality.
I have seen a few bloggers get continual harassment from the same two or three commentators. It's disheartening and unprofessional.
While misuse of a delete button is possible, there are ways to control that.
Another thing is I can't understand the revisions on my blogs. I don't understand what the pink and yellow highlights mean. But I do appreciate the professional edits and positive feedback from all of the EDs.
from 3 months ago
I believe the flag as offensive button is the equivalent to the delete button you asked for. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I believe that the comment gets looked at and then they decide whether or not to remove the comment. For your question about the edits, the pink is there to show what was deleted, the green is what was added. I admit, sometimes it gets confusing and I'm not sure how they would fix that.
from 3 months ago
Haha I am in the exact same boat. The editing system is great, but when people make edits, I have no understanding of what they changed when reading through the edited article. I just go to the actual article link and read through it to see the differences.
I also would agree with Robert in saying that BR should be featuring more articles that are reporting on current issues rather than ones that predict and speculate for the future. I would think it would make Bleacher Report more enticing to casual web surfers looking for sports news and analysis.
from 3 months ago
I agree Tosten.
3 months ago
i like that hoops4life.com website is there a way i can get a section on that website? to talk about the nba in general
from 3 months ago
I think I got noticed because I am on the NBA top writers as well as Chicago Bulls Community Leader for continual writing throughout the NBA season. I will see what I can do about getting you on the site, I'm not sure how open they would be to another writer seeing as they are trying to pay everybody and they don't get any money from ads yet. Also, their videos are sick, ESPN quality I believe. I can sit there for a while and enjoy vids from that site.
3 months ago
I agree that the site has got enough quality articles that the daily '10 People I Hate' or 'Why the Patriots Suck' shouldn't be front and center when you browse the site. Too often the best articles (and yes, articles are a series of paragraphs formed to make a point or tell a story, not 3 paragraphs where you say something stupid just to get alot reads and comments) are buried by un-educated opinion or a rehash of a national sports outlet. For example, how many Tim Lincecum articles were there on BR, a day after the new SI had him on the cover?
Too many times you see people commenting that an article is too long, only to read some of their writing and see that they never posted anything over 2 paragraphs. While there are times that short and sweet is best, a true article cannot be written in 10 sentences, and it would be nice if the talented writers could get some shine time at the expense of the 'quick posters.'
I would be careful giving the article authors the ability to delete comments, when used correctly the comments can lead to great debates on a lot of differing topics--which is the best part of BR, maybe a button to report a bad comment and have an editor decide if the comment needs to be deleted.
I say all of this as someone who enjoys BR daily and would like to see it continue to give fans a place to express their opinions, in an educated way...
from 3 months ago
I completely agree that some of the best articles get unnoticed. For example, I have an article about Ricky Williams that I think is extremely well written. (Although that may be because I wrote it) Maybe a section as vent, where people can go on about what is making them mad right then and that way articles like "The Pats Suck" won't end up on the front page and will instead be actually put where they should be. I agree with all of your analysis. I wrote about the Rich Harden trade and went in depth, but won't be the first one to cover the story because of a ton of articles that said basically that Harden was traded in about two paragraphs to get the story out. They are more likely to get on the front page because they rushed to get it out and I looked into it and how it effects the race in the NL Central.
3 months ago
Perhaps the editors could have a thumbs up or thumbs down or some sort of ranking available to them. If all articles are edited, then if the editors say give a thumbs up to actual articles rather then news, those articles could be pushed forward to a more visible standpoint. I realize we're at one of the downpoints of the NBA season, but when I click NBA on the main page right now the first thing that comes up is a picture of Yankee stadium and "The 10 best sporting venues in the United States". Though it may be a good article, it doesn't have anything to do with NBA coverage. Maybe I'm wrong for wanting to see articles like "Why Elton Brand should go to Philly" and "Sizing up Beasley and Rose in their first summer league games" etc... but that's what I want on the NBA page, not an article that has very little relevance to the NBA. This issue has already been mentioned several times.
Another issue I have, I enjoy getting into debates about articles, it's a great thing on this site. I think in your personal play by play it should state whether someone else responded on a comment that you responded on. It tells you if someone responds to your comment, but not if someone also responds to the same comment as you. I don't want to go back and check to see whether someone responded or offered a counter argument.
3 months ago
Lots of good ideas for site improvement.
A simple one for me is an "Edit" button in the comment section, obviously only allowing you to edit your own comments.
from 3 months ago
Totally agree, I hate looking supid.
3 months ago
I would like to know the ratings that my articles are getting
from 3 months ago
Agree
3 months ago
Good article. This needed to be written.
One gripe I have is how some of my articles have been broken up so much that every sentence is its own paragraph. Now, I know this is NOT how online articles are written. I've taken several classes in college stating that paragraphs should be short, but this is ridiculous. The interns tell me that they're just following orders but I'm tired of having to re-edit all of my articles because to me, it looks horrible when that happens.
Also, it seems as if some of the community leaders are not properly taking down tags that don't pertain primarily to the article written. It's just weird for me to see an article written about "fair weather" teams and just because the Cardinals are mentioned in there, the article ends up on the team's front page.
Just my $0.02
from 3 months ago
I agree with all of your points. I must admit that, with all of my other stuff I am working on, I have forgotten my duties as a Chicago Bulls Community Leader. It happens and I am getting back into the swing of things, but it is hard to remember to look through all the articles and leave feedback.
3 months ago
Lots of great ideas being tossed around.
Another thing I'd like to see: the humor section getting it's name changed to "Under the Bleachers"
from 3 months ago
Good idea because the articles are really un-noticed but some are great.
3 months ago
I hope the higher-ups read this and give some good constructive feedback! This is an amazing site, but there's always stuff we can to do expand!
from 3 months ago
I posted a comment to Zander so hopefully he takes notice.
from 3 months ago
Good idea. Let's work on some stuff for promotion, eh?
3 months ago
This is a great site but like any site, there is room to improve. Other people have already mentioned the ones i think of right away: Comment Edit button, finding out ratings to your articles, etc.
3 months ago
Every BLOG site will be better when the RAIDERS reclaim dominance.
3 months ago
Hey Joe! Hope your week is going well.
I think one of the main things that bothers me about Bleacher Report, is that the site tends to be biased towards new writers. I understand that they want to get new members inspired to write more and stick around, but if the article is horrible, it shouldn't ever make it to any sports' front page.
I think it would be better if one of the editors just left feedback on how they can improve their writing so that their next article might be featured on the site.
So many times I've seen wonderful articles just never get visibility, and I'm afraid that this is because of B/R's attempt to let everyone be a star. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea.... but garbage is garbage.
from 3 months ago
I agree. Maybe they should do a Rookies page where all articles by people who joined within the last week are put, then, they go in with everybody else.
3 months ago
I would like to be able to go back further in my search for personal comments.
from 3 months ago
Maybe an option for longer play-by-play?
from 3 months ago
Exactly.
3 months ago
Hey guys, just some updates from here at the Bleacher Report shop...
1) People keep telling us that we are having serious concerns regarding Tags. Some users are putting too many tags on their articles so that they can appear on every page. Some time this month we are going to roll out a new tag-selector interface that will require users to carefully pick which leagues and teams BEST fit their article. We realize that this may frustrate some users who want their article to appear on the NFL, MLB, NBA page, as well as twenty or thirty team pages. But we also have a responsibility to our readers to make sure that all articles are RELEVANT.
We also really like the idea of having a page for multi-sports, where people can post articles like "10 Favorite Sports Memories," which don't have a clear league page.
2) For several weeks now, we have been asking users what TYPE of article they are writing (i.e. Editorial or Preview or Satire). Soon we will make it so that we are separating these out. That way, if you really only want to read Editorial pieces, you can look in the Editorials column. If you want News stories, you can look in that part of the page.
3) The "More Statistics" feature is still coming! We want to make it as awesome as possible, and our programmers have found it to be a little harder than planned. But we haven't forgotten!
from 3 months ago
You guys are doing an exellent job.
from 3 months ago
It's nice to hear an update. An article like this needs to be seen, but has nowhere to be seen unless it is the top story. I figured chances were slim that it was going to happen and I thought that this should be tagged with some major sports to give it a chance for people to know about it and leave feedback. I'm glad to see that the site is constantly growing and getting better. Keep up the good work, I love this site!
from 3 months ago
I have been seeing a few spam comments, I think that making a "mark as spam" button would be a good way to fight that. As sites get bigger, they get more spam people.
3 months ago
I don't know if it's possible, but I'd like to see the stuff in "The Rest" put up at the top of the page with everything else to give those articles more visibility. I say this as a humor writer but some of the best stuff on the whole site is in Beyond the Bleachers and because I'm a lazy Internet surfer, I tend to forget to check it out unless I go all the way to the bottom of the page.
3 months ago
Just to put out there what I've been noticing, articles that previews, controversial issues, predictions, and speculations continue to be the most featured articles on bleacher report.
That is one thing I would like to see changed, or at least modified.
News reports I feel would draw more web surfers to bleacher report, they're getting opinions and reports from open source writers rather than just random speculative pieces.
I just think there should at least be a somewhat even mix.
from 3 months ago
Also, maybe one article about a specific topic on the front page at a time. Right now, there are three Brett Favre articles on the front page.
3 months ago
Chill Joe, B/R is one of the best sites that I have seen in recent times and mate no site is free of enhancments, if that be the case, we would all be asking for podcasts etc.,
from 3 months ago
I have said multiple times that this site is amazing and that I love it, I was only creating an open way for new ideas to make the site more interactive or if there were any grievances that the Bleacher Creatures had. Nothing against the site, I plan to be here for a long time, and I love what they are doing. Improving, though, is never a bad thing.
2 months ago
We all have control over where articles are placed. Just rate an article low if you don't like it, and high if you do.
write a new comment