Always The Same Mistake

but my girlfriend says she doesn't like point totals that are too big anyway. 

My peen is bigger than your peen.

hard.

as in, it was hard to read this and care one way or another. 

brian, you are better than them. cool. 

Parks and Rec is such a great show. It's too bad nobody watches it.

Everything I've read says slideshows are just a way to generate more page views

I took a class at MIPA (high school journalism training, held at MSU in the summers, yes BIG NERD) that was basically all about catering to reader habits in editing. One exercise I've found useful for a long time is that we pulled open a USA Today (at the time, USA Today was basically Bleacher Report) and identified all of the neat tricks they use to pull readers in.

It's heavy psychology. The mind likes information to be delivered pre-organized for easy storage. Easiest package: A list of short, condensed messages, numbered, each with a photo.

Slideshow, man.

This is the genesis of the "more slideshows" way of thinking. It's also the reason people every day get addicted to Cracked.com. It's info-entertainment crack. To pretend like we don't do this would be hugely hypocritical -- you can't find a single Dear Diary or Post of Misopogonal logghorea where I don't at some point use one of these "pull you in" tricks that takes advantage of reading psychology. It's not evil -- just a part of the editor's bag of tricks.

For example,  you are probably reading this after wondering what the following list is about...

1. Nerds.
   

2. Michigan State.
   

3. USA Today.
   

4. Psychology
   

5. Cracked.com
   

More like you're doomed if you don't provide something of value over a thousand monkeys.  A thousand monkeys are free.

But everyone admit it, THAT was the link you clicked on, no?

I sort of agree, I like to leave the cozy MGoBlogosphere for general knowledge, but there really hasn't been anything in Fanhouse/Bleacher/Deadspin to keep me coming back (Deadspin has potential, but I always feel like I'm wading through enough crap before I read something interesting that I lose interest).  The Yahoo! Sports Blogs Brian referred to are fantastic.  They are the perfect merger between the intriguing indie blogs and the resources of a major platform.

As an older long time reader who has been reading MGoBlog almost from the very beginning, I have had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this blog and its community.  The main page of this site has been the best and most comprehensive free site for Michigan Football information and commentary for the die hard fan since day one.  Brian has his quirks and the site has evolved and become more serious as opposed to its heavily sophomoric beginnings.  The heart of what Brian does well is to get beyond "color commentator" sound bites to do in depth analysis of whether the team is doing well or not.   He has earned most of the accolades given him.  It is impressive that he has managed to make a living out of commenting on Michigan Football.  

On the negative, he has a bit of a hissy side and at times a rather self-inflated view of himself.  At times he takes on the self-important posture of the "pajamas in the basement" blogging crowd who see themselves as the most important thing happening, not just in media, but simply the most important cultural wave of the generation.  But usually it is something one can endure when it crops up, like in the above OP.  

Really, I don't care about his opinions of Deadspin or old media or old media involved in new media.  He has his opinions and is entitled to them.  It his blog and he is free to publish what he wants.  I still subscribe to the print version of Sports Illustrated.  I still think Peter King is the best sports writer in the business because of his combination of writing, insiderness, and his humble humanity.  He is just likable (to be blunt, in a way that Brian is not).  If I read nothing else sports in a week, I will read MMQB.  I still listen to Colin Cowherd because after Rush, he is the next best talent on radio.  He is often wrong and pinches the ideas of others without credit, but he is always interesting.  As he says, conflict sells.  And he does that in spades.  I read ESPN and SI online each day at breakfast and MGoBlog at lunch (if Brian posts in time.  Another frustration with this blog is the lack of deadlines).

As for the boards, they have always been over run with cliques, the most prevalent being the WLA.  This board has always been snooty and thinking itself better than all the other boards.  There was a time when that might have been the case, but no longer.  I dip into the boards only sporadically.  The vast majority of it is inane chatter.  I used to appreciate many of the diary posts, but those have become over run by the statisticians, engineers and clique insiders.  I have an appreciation for sabermetrics, especially when hard core stats can turn conventional wisdom on its head (like going for it on fourth down vs. punting; why 3 point shooting is so important and so forth; and why defensive passer rating is so important).  But many of the stats churned out by posters on this site have too much of the air of otherwise relatively unimportant people trying to prove that they are smarter than everyone else, usually stealing time from their boss at work or sitting up late at night in their pajamas, churning out irrelevant statistical analysis that add little real insight to our football knowledge.  Harsh, but true.  

Football, in the end, is about assembling a team of the most talented athletes possible, about breaking down film, creating missmatches, scheme and a game plan and then learning/teaching fundamentals and executing.  Game time decisions that statistics are based on only matter if you have the athletes who can compete, they are sound fundamentally, are prepared and the game plan is in place to create success.  This is why the UFR is so valuable.  Brian is a fan who has taken the initiative to break down film play by play and analyze it.  This is what separates Brian from all the other pajamas-in-their-basement posters.  It is why people are willing to put up with his smug crankiness.  He does his homework and has something meaningful to say about the game.  When he uses stats, he is selective and does not rely on them as a substitute for breaking down film.  This is also why of all the posters here, I respect Magnus the most, as he can actually break down film (as well as a couple of others).

I have been reading MGoBlog and dipping into the boards periodically, usually at times of high drama, like the coaching change or signing day or spring camp, and was completely turned off from the board for a long time (I had another account which I had since day one of accounts but walked away from when I lost the 1500 or so points that I had slowly accumulated over time because I had not posted or commented for a year) and thought I might give them a fresh look recently, but for the most part the content has continually gotten more inane and fights have gotten more petty and hissy.  Points have ruined the boards.  Opinions are evaluated as much on how many points one has as they are on the content of the post.  And the insiders do vote each other up and vote down dissent.  It is like a bunch of high school girls.  I was glad to get out of high school and am beginning to feel much the same about MGoBlog too, especially the boards. 

The site as a whole that used to find its identity in its spread offense nerdiness is now going through an identity crisis.  Brian finds himself back in a place from which he thought RR had liberated him, the conservative college level pro set offense and a team that will be built on defense first and will likely go back to maddeningly  scoring just enough points to win.  It is no wonder he is cranky.  As someone who does not sit in his pajamas in the basement in the dark blogging and posting, if I could find another site that gives the kind of information and analysis that this one did without the cranky smugness of this site's author (which rubs off on the actively posting readership), I would leave MGoBlog behind.

I think that this site is moving into uncharted waters with the new coaching change.  I, for one, appreciated Brian's defense of the "new football," but at the same time, my loyalty is to Michigan Football first and all it means to me, and not to MGoBlog.  If the crankiness continues, it might be time to move on.  I have already begun to regret dipping my toes back into this board community.

Why am I posting this?  Why now?  Why in this thread as a sub comment?  I am not sure.  something about what Don said touched a nerve and I can't put a finger on it.  Perhaps it is the recognition that I have spent too much time on this site, gotten too involved at times, knowing in the back of my mind there were better things to do with my time than argue with people who have nothing better to do than sit in their basements posting stupid shit.  It makes one feel like I have taken the "lesser road" made the "poorer choice," that I have diminished myself for getting involved.  Even now, I look at the time I wasted posting this thing and think to myself "why did I bother?"  No will care.  They will get offended.  They will mock me.  They will neg me.  Shrug.     For me, I am finding that I am enjoying reading the Detroit News as they are embracing the program as it moves into its next chapter more than the stuff of this blog when taken on the ballance.  I want to feel that same positive feeling here about moving forward.  I am tired of the crankiness and the smugness.  

Perhaps that is the essence of what Don does: he has asked, "What would I do without MGoBlog?"  I would miss the UFR and the recruiting news, but I think for the rest of it, I am getting to a spot where I am able to say that I would probably get by with other sources and do OK satisfying my needs as a new media football fan.  I am getting close to that point where I am considering moving on from this site.  I am not quite there yet, but lets just say that for me Brian is on probation.  He may see himself as smugly sitting high on his mountain of blog success, but the internet is a fickle place and I am at the point where his smug superiority is starting to run thin.

The points have taken on a life of their own.  We all know what "sending [handle] to Bolivia" means, and "posbang" and "negbang" are an intrinsic part of our vocabularies on this site.  The double-edged power of the neg, in particular, makes it an awesome tool for both curbing dissent (pessimistic interpretation) and for real-time feedback on new ideas (optimistic interpretation).

On a related note, does anyone know when for-real upvotes and downvotes will be back?  Two weeks without real voting is making me jittery.

For an elite few, that might be the case.  At this point, I've fallen onto the other side of the equation.  At some point, the Mgoboard devolved for me.  The vitrol and e-rage over the whole Rodriguez saga had a big part in this, but so did the whole Mgopoints saga.  The posbang threads were... interesting.

As much as I hate to say it, I think Brian's doing it wrong.  And as much as people hate things like the RCMB, I would say that their board format is just done better than Mgoblog's.  If people want to create threads that are off topic, there should be separate boards.  If somebody wants to post a link to a doc sat, EDSBS, or whatever newspaper article, they should have their own subsection.

As for points, I'd support more of something like up or downvoting, and just not keep track of total points by user (or make it hidden).  Look at soemthing like SBN or, god forbid, like Youtube*.  Lots of upvotes on SBN mean the post is "recommended", which highlights it and makes it easier to read.  Lots of downvotes means the comment is hidden.  I think that's a great system to control trolls: it's impossible to troll if nobody can see your content.

In conclusion: I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore.  The first rule of Mgoboard should always be that we do not talk about points.

*Youtube is still doing it wrong.  The featured comments are usually something like "Thumbs up if you like Peanut Butter!!!!11!"

Classic case of how different something can look depending on where you sit.  To many the high point totals just reflect a small group of very frequent posters intent on controlling the discourse and validating each other's opinions at the expense of any they don't like.  Many people here have a lot of good things to say but just don't want to bother with being shouted down.

Not directing this at you or anyone in particular - just another opinion.

Just trying to grow my epeen.

The question is, why did you write this post in the first place?