Article based website - Idea..

why not just start it here?

we can make an articles section, people send huey the article and then we can post it and lock it here

if they then have questions about it they can ask on another section?

I think the move is a Coach Huey's X's and O's blog, and have several contributors who post and talk about football and have a comments feature. Then you can have guest bloggers too. Each would kind of bring their own specialty, and respond to each other. It'd be more timely. It doesn't have to be the kind of repository of clinic articles that an AFM is, it's just a running commentary about football, strategies, real life, etc. It'd also be different than the message board because you'd post the longer posts, whereas the message board is more about the short two line answers or a link or two.

It also avoids "the bottleneck guy" who's job it is to edit and post everyone's articles. Bruce Eien tried to do that with his chucknduck site and it's not easy. The blog is as instant as a message board, but more formal. I just feel like it'd be a natural extension of the board, but wouldn't crowd out it's usefulness (probably most of the blog posts would be like "check out this thread here").

The group blog has been very effective in other areas, like politics, law, etc. Some of those sites get hundreds of thousands of hits every day. I think it'd be good because you'd get some bit of news and you'd get commentary from each other and readers. It wouldn't crowd out the board because instead of just posting a line or two about an idea, you would write out an article or at least a few paragraphs about whatever interests you, but it's not so formal as a site about articles. It's always a bit daunting to have to write about the origin of the R&S or explain the whole wing-t philosophy, this would just be more structured thoughts.

The key is to have people who regularly contribute. I just have my site since I'm long-winded, but I don't update it near enough. You can set it up to share all advertising revenue (and I think a well-read blog can make more money than this site's current format, not that it's about the money at all), but I can assure you it's barely candy money until you start getting thousands of hits a day (I barely make anything on my site). I think it'd be an amazing idea though, think about all the smart people on this site, posting about their specialties, while the blog format is still casual. I think the problem with the articles site is everything is so formal the submissions are infrequent. Also, blogspot (owned by Google) makes it very easy to add images in--often easier than the image hosting sites we currently use. Blogspot also does not charge.

Here's a couple examples, none are sports related though so just look for design and all. Some of these sites gets hundreds of thousands of hits every day.

www.concurringopinions.com
www.volokh.com/
www.marginalrevolution.com
www.becker-posner-blog.com/

We should start that idea here then tog, Huey where you at???

I think exactly what Chris said would work, an article section does seem like the next best progession.

Thanks for taking the initiative. Check out blogspot, they have a lot of fullservice features and make it really easy for posters.

If you want I wouldn't mind cross-posting some of the stuff I put on my site on your blog as well. I would just get it going and solicit others, you can suggest ideas to them maybe as well. Best of luck.

example of an "article" that was posted earlier by me .... i didn't write this article but placed within our board and gave credit to the author

Game Planning by Bill Walsh

we could have a specific board for articles, like i mentioned, with various categories within. members can place them on the site.

I think if those articles like that were not "lost" in the main board, and they were in their own prominent section where people can access them, it would essentially be the same thing

personally, I like the message board format, I can get direct answers and multiple ways of thinking about something that can help me shape what it is I am trying to figure out. I don't want stuff how someone else does it, and just take it "as is" I want to find what works best for me.

that's what I am saying though, your main beef is that it gets lost

if we put articles like that in a specific article section that is prominent (say, above the general section) then first time users that don't really know how to search, or are too lazy to search can just look there and then start the dialogue

I certainly don't want to mess up or divert attention away from a good thing. I would like it if Huey/tog made a forum for longer articles/posts. Kw in particular has some great long pieces that tend to get washed away in some of the natural clutter.

I'd say if there are people who think a separate site/format would be helpful then I say maybe start it up and cross-post the articles to this board and to the website, then after a few months you can look at the traffic (and cross-traffic, is the site bringing new people to board?). If it proves unnecessary then stick with the forum. I certainly wouldn't hurt to have the same info in both places and it really doesn't take any more time.

Also, one thing I'd like to see is a kind of "Greatest Threads" for those really good threads that can be forgotten about. I remember some great defensive threads about the zone blitz and some others that I only saw because someone posted a link to it in another thread; there's been some good passing ones too. Because not all threads and posts are created equal, it'd be a way to put some of the best ones in a single location so that when new coaches come to the board they can quickly and easily see lots of past wisdom. Only referring to search is hard if you don't know what you're looking for.

this is starting to sound like Chicago math......

if we started with an "articles" section, we would set it up in such a fashion that no one could post on the article once it was posted. lock it, this keeps the amount of reading and such down. there would be a limited few that could post ... as in a user would be given access for a short period of time to post his work ... it becomes a "read only" section. if a person has a question about the technique or scheme of the article, he can pm or email the user. if, several people seem to have many of the same questions, that author would be able to go in and add to his original post with a follow-up response in the same thread. limit the articles section to maybe 1 each (off, def, special teams, "misc") month .... due offense the 1st week, defense the 2nd week, etc.

i would have to look at the details involved about getting the board setup so that a person can only post on there when they have been given "access" .. otherwise, someone may accidentally post in there and we get into the whole "lost" thing again.

with doing it here, people already know how to use the various functions (ubbc code) to change font size, bold, underline, put in images, etc. .... whereas, with a blog you may have to use some html code for certain images (would depend on the type you had) PLUS, everyone would need rights to all the details of adding to the blog --- could be a headache their. the other option would be to send all articles to one person and that person put 'em up on the blog. that's a lot of effort for one guy. here, i simply say, , , "brophy, could you put up that article about LB play in the 4-2-5 this week?" i then make it so that brophy has the ability to post in the defensive section that week while all others are still read only. after the article has been posted, brophy is back to "read only" like the rest of us ...

did I misread something, or did Chris Brown solicit articles for his smartfootball site?

That, to me, would work....if he wanted to, or a "Huey" blogspot account (free) was opened up.

help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=1070

free blogspot account


just provide a link from this message board and you're golden (I'm thinking)


OR

Just use a sitekreator account to host links to these created articles that are hosted on Huey's site....

Just thinking (cheaply) outloud

I would think that for the greatest threads section you would pick threads that had been out for awhile and exhausted who was posting on them (for example when a great thread winds up on the second or third page) and then just lock them to prevent future posting (someone could PM a moderator if they had something important to add and needed it unlocked).

I don't think you need an exact ratings system (though one could work) but just within the discretion of the moderators. The idea wouldn't be it's a greatest thread the moment the thread appears, but once this board has been around for years upon years if you count up threads from 4-5 years prior that still resonates it'd be a great resource.

Huey: It should work fine here but I will say the blog is pretty easy. You just set up users by name and give them certain rights (most would only be allowed to add/edit/delete their own messages) and all the bold, italics etc comes with buttons--it is no harder than a word processor. Then you just hit "post" and it goes up. The quality control comes with the fact that the moderator can fix things but also the poster himself has his name on it so he doesn't want to post sloppy things. The only issue is it'd be a separate site so you'd have to just cross link them.

Anyway, I'll reiterate I think someone should spearhead the articles initiative and see if others are interested in writing--that's the important thing--and get to work. I'm for anything that gets good coaches going into detail about what they do. I can always learn something, and it sparks discussion.