Bleacher Report Etiquette: Is There Any?

I guess I am still considered a newbie here at Bleacher Report, so my words don’t have many teeth with them. 

I enjoy writing! Did you hear me, or read me, or something? I absolutely love to write.  Somebody once accused me of “trolling” on here, and I guess I am so naive I don’t even know what that means. However, if it means trying to snake someone into reading and commenting on an article, I plead not guilty, sir.

Just as I responded to a comment on one of my pieces a couple weeks ago, I don’t care if anybody but the editor reads my stuff. I am not saying that to be flippant or presumptuous. 

Obviously I would like for the entire Bleacher community to read and comment on everything I write. I realize that is not going to happen, but I write nonetheless because, to me, my good friends, it is therapeutic.

Just as an artist loves to paint (if they are passionate about it), or a composer loves to write music, I love to write. That is just the way I roll.

I have seen some writers’ bios on here that have been here the better part of a year and have maybe only written 10 or 12 pieces, yet they own four or five “Picks of the Day.” That is what I call getting the best bang for your buck. God bless those accomplished writers.

Some, or so it seems, get a "POTD" for every single article they write. How is that? How is the POTD determined? Is it voted upon, or selected by someone or a committee? Just askin'.

On the other hand, I have been here a little over a month and I believe this is my 49th article. That doesn’t make me a writer seeking glory. It also doesn’t make me a publishing whore. All it means is that I probably find it more fulfilling than perhaps some of my more esteemed colleagues.

If I don’t write for a few days, I feel like something is not right. I don’t know why that is, perhaps one of the more philosophical writers cold analyze me and see what’s up.

One of the main purposes for this epistle is to address the editing of our craft. I for one, use Microsoft Word, check the spelling, check the grammar, name my baby and send it off to work.

I become quite melancholy when over half of my articles end up getting their name changed. Most of the time, nothing major gets annotated. It may be something very minute such as a colon instead of a semi-colon. No problem.

Many times, though, it goes beyond the punctuation to actual changes in the verbiage of the title. A recent example would explain my perplexity of the editing process. 

I finished a piece this morning and published it immediately. It was titled “The Top 10 Starting Pitchers in Reds Franchise History.” Why did I call it that, you may ask?  Because that was the name I settled on. The editor, however, had another name in mind. He or she wanted to call it, “The Top 10 Starting Pitchers in Cincinnati Reds History.”

Now, on the surface that doesn’t seem flagrant or malicious, so you may perceive me as a hair-splitter. I have certainly been called much worse. 

Let me paint you a picture. Picture it. Memorial Hospital, 2009. You and your spouse have just given birth to a baby girl. You two have spent many hours reading books and tossing names around. Finally, after much thought and due diligence you decide to call her Holly Celeste. Beautiful name, I helped pick that one out.

After writing that name on the order for a Birth Certificate, you wouldn’t want one of the nurses to arbitrarily change the name. Maybe she doesn’t think Celeste flows really well with Holly. 

In light of that she decides to scratch out Celeste and let the world know the beautiful baby girl is now Holly Renee. “Hmmmm,” the wife says, “that isn’t what we wanted to name her.”

Drastic example? Perhaps, but I imagine it made you understand the situation a little more clearly. I mean the nurse could have not liked Holly, either, and changed the name to Sara Jane. Pretty name, but that was not what I picked out, can you dig it?

If I wanted the article to be called “...Cincinnati Reds History,” then that is what I would have typed in the blanks.  Didn’t want the city in there, I figure everyone who looks at a sports site knows that the Reds reside in Cincy. The Reds have not always been called the Reds. They have been the Redlegs. They have been the Red Stockings. Therefore, I thought it crucial to indicate that the list was inclusive of the entire franchise, not just the “Reds.”

Needless to say, I changed the title back to what I originally called her. That is what you call exercising your prerogative as an author. Are we kindred in that opinion, or do you want your title to be treated frivolously?

I don’t mind minor punctuation and perhaps even a word changed here or there. But, and read this well Mr. or Ms. Editor. If you change my title name, I am changing her back. No offense intended; I am just made that way. Maybe that is what 58 years of bullsh*t can do for you. I don’t know.

I would like to go further and say that, at times, I don’t like to sound like I am Shakespeare or Hemingway or Steinbeck. There are times when I feel a little homespun humor can use some local vernacular. Word will catch it, so I override that and move on. The editors may have a special software tool that they use in their process, maybe they play on the side of caution. That’s cool, because I can switch it back to the original.

I also have a problem when a more experienced writer takes a junior writer to task in the comment section of his or her article, for the entire B/R community to see. We should all have our e-mail addresses available for each other or at the least a Bleacher Report e-mail address which we could use to contact each other in a more professional manner. Just sayin’.

Blatant name-calling, especially in the midst of profanity, is not needed here and should not be tolerated. If you want to call me an idiot, I don’t care. But don’t cuss me while you are at it. 

If you as a reader come across someone’s work that you find appalling or otherwise distasteful, do you need to pick a battle of vocabularies with him? Just read it, remember who wrote it, and don’t read his stuff anymore. Is that so hard to do?

After all, folks, we do have constitutional rights to write. We don’t need to play Supreme Court and tell somebody not to write things that we cannot condone or agree with.

If you want to call my articles “pieces of crap,” I don’t have a problem with that. But you, Sir or Madam, can do better. If you disagree with a point I am trying to enforce, let’s debate it. Don’t call me a pinhead and move on. Let’s exchange opinions honorably and with nobility. Tell me why I should have used a different statistics or a newer metric. Don’t just say I need to; tell me why.

I guess I have probably alienated the entire Bleacher Report family with this letter, but, again, that is just the way I roll. I am opinionated and I like to argue, but I don’t like to be degraded or cussed.

Let us all sharpen our pencils and try to put our best work out there, be it every day or four times a year. God bless you, and God bless America!