Paying TomVH
After following a day's worth of wild and crazy January recruiting news I have become reflective.
Rivals and Scout both offer a lot of information and commentary on Michigan football and its recruiting. One of the two even edits its content and offers 21st century web design, which is great. Their only downside is costing $100 to get the meaningful information. For thousands of people their content is worth that cost--the information has value.
That is why the (1) free and (2) superior content of MGoBlog is so great. And why we should try to contribute to the site if we can. The site is a great gift.
But as he becomes more and more valuable to Michigan junkies like myself it is becoming clear that we need a way to contribute $$ to Tom VH. He is matching the recruiting content of the paid sites and giving it to us for free. I submit that we should, at least, be telling Tom "thanks," and perhaps telling Tom "thanks and as a token of my thanks please accept this gift of [more than zero dollars]."
Is Tom on the MGopayroll that we donate to on this site? If not, I demand that Tom VH promptly make himself donatable.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:47 PM ^
Make himself "donatable"? I doubt Tom wants us donating him...
January 20th, 2011 at 4:59 PM ^
250k You might want to hold onto this one.
+1 for anything related to Dumb and Dumber
January 20th, 2011 at 5:00 PM ^
"See this? That's a car, 275K, might wanna hold on to that one..."
January 20th, 2011 at 5:03 PM ^
Of course I mess up my own quote.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:11 PM ^
A for effort. I wasn't trying to one up you, we posted simultaneously.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:48 PM ^
I gave Tom my sister and he said that was acceptable payment.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:59 PM ^
I gave him my newborn to train as an apprentice. In a way, we both win.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:02 PM ^
You just had to outdo me didn't you? Douche
January 20th, 2011 at 5:09 PM ^
Don't worry, all i could offer was my fattest sow : (
January 20th, 2011 at 5:12 PM ^
Croatia rocks...seriously. I've been a lot of places and it is way up there.
January 20th, 2011 at 7:46 PM ^
So you gave him an Ohio State fan?
Ehh? Ehh?
No, we're-, we're, pretty average sized.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:36 PM ^
she is indubitably, irrefutably, breathtaking acceptable payment!!!!
January 20th, 2011 at 5:42 PM ^
I gave him my pony.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:48 PM ^
Can someone tell me where I can donate I did not have a clue about donations. I would be glad to help.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:49 PM ^
There's a button in the top right corner that links to paypal.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:50 PM ^
Click on make a donation on the right side of the screen where it says "Beveled Guilt". Just above the diaries
January 20th, 2011 at 5:05 PM ^
Are there any more neat old-tymey Michigan pictures like that and/or where do I find them?
January 20th, 2011 at 5:12 PM ^
Bentley Library has online collection of cover art from old Michigan football programs. The best ones are from the 20's and the late 30's.
January 20th, 2011 at 6:24 PM ^
This is so cool. Would you mind if I stole this for a new avitar?
January 20th, 2011 at 6:37 PM ^
Feel free, I found it on Google Images a while back. I don't own it.
January 20th, 2011 at 6:49 PM ^
Nice. I'll take the oppertunity to do that now instead of taking notes about healthcare policy.
January 20th, 2011 at 6:57 PM ^
for an inappropriate photoshop..
January 20th, 2011 at 4:50 PM ^
Don't worry about it dude. If he didn't enjoy it and wasn't getting by I doubt he'd do it. Plus his clothes look nice in his twitter profile pic so I'll give the man the benefit of the doubt. Also, how sweet would it be to talk recruiting as your job? Don't feel so bad for the guy.
Don't take this as me discounting what Tom does. Huge asset to MGoBlog.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:54 PM ^
After reading your post out loud, I'm guessing you look like this:
January 20th, 2011 at 4:59 PM ^
I rock 8 collars. He's only got 7.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:13 PM ^
I am 99% sure i went to college with this guy, although he is missing the 4 sea-shell necklaces.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:22 PM ^
i can only assume you mean he's missing 4 sea-shell necklaces in addition to the 3 of them he's wearing in between each shirt.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:51 PM ^
You went to mSU?
January 20th, 2011 at 4:52 PM ^
I am pretty sure I read earlier this year that Tom is on the payroll.
But donate regardless. The site is the best around.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:59 PM ^
so I clicked on some adds...
January 20th, 2011 at 4:59 PM ^
Let's see here. You, the MGoBlog (UM fan site) want to pay a guy who calls up high school kids about their recruiting process?
It's a nice sentiment, and it's amazing he does this for free. But that would probably be a big no-no. I could see that being a gray area that other schools (especially SEC schools) would take advantage of.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:06 PM ^
huh? what do you think, all of the other recruting site workers just do it for fun?
January 20th, 2011 at 5:06 PM ^
I doubt the guys at Rivals and Scout are doing it for free. As long as they are not recruiting for the school and are instead acting as journalists, there should be no issue.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:12 PM ^
I can assure you that they are paid -- and reasonably well.
And while I'm sure they do their best at being journalists, some of them are also pretty blatant homers who (I'm sure) at least mention or display their school of choice.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:26 PM ^
I'm all for Tom getting more than just props, but I don't know the rules on all this stuff. Since we're on probation, anything gets me agitated. Plus, I wouldn't want to do anything that would jeopardize his status. I can just see people in his position getting propositioned by boosters.
That's all. TomVH rocks. I just don't want us getting caught doing something illegal.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:39 PM ^
Tom is just interviewing the kids, not persuading their decisions. You're jumping through a lot of scenarios randomly and assuming that if Tom became propositioned in any way he'd give up his journalistic credibility to do so.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:10 PM ^
There are hundreds of reporters all over the country who get paid to talk to recruits what are you talking about?
January 20th, 2011 at 5:18 PM ^
TomVH is able to talk to kids during the recruiting dead periods whereas coaches cannot. Don't you see the potential for corruption if all of a sudden School B starts paying someone in Tom's position under the table to pass info on to these kids during dead periods or any other time.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:24 PM ^
take a deep breath.
sure it would be a problem if coaches got around dead periods by contracting out recruiting to self-styled journalists who were really just recruiting. but that's not what Tom nor any of these other guys is doing. they're covering news. and they can get paid to do that.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:30 PM ^
Yes, but that's totally different than what's happening. MGoBlog is in no way connected to the UM athletic department, and as far as I know Tom isn't recruiting anyone, he's simply interviewing them. MGoBlog is no more connected to UM than the Orlando Sentinel is to UF football, but their reporters still interview recruits even though a lot of the recruits probably know their allegiances.
What you brought up is against the rules, what Tom does is not.
January 20th, 2011 at 6:36 PM ^
My favorite part was when you said that something would probably be a bad idea and then said that you really had no clue what ou were talking about...
January 20th, 2011 at 4:59 PM ^
I'm naming my first-born "TomVH." No idea how to pronounce that, but I like it.
January 20th, 2011 at 7:10 PM ^
awe·some (ô
s
m)
January 20th, 2011 at 5:00 PM ^
Which of the two has "21st century web design"? They're both horrible.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:06 PM ^
January 20th, 2011 at 5:06 PM ^
Maybe it's the finance guy in me but... I have a hard time coming to terms with a for-profit site that would openly ask for charitable contributions.
Brian has the site running near perfect. I love it. I am an addict. However, he's chosen the "free" business model (money through ads) and I think it's great for the fans. He seems to be doing OK with this model. If he wasn't (or decided he could make a lot more money), he would charge a monthly fee.
In my mind, you can click on the ads and get Brian his money that way. That's his business model, after all. If I were to give him some of my money, it would be a large amount and I'd be looking for an ownership stake in return. Anything else just doesn't make sense to me. But maybe I have a very shitty understanding of e-commerce.