writing style of front page content
has anyone else decreased mgoblog consumption due to the strange writing style of front page content? Beyonce? Oklahoma? Really? Why is this necessary? And this seems to be the normal style for front page content for the last year or so.
Yes, it's February and this is traditionally a slower time of year (hey, basketball!) But in the history of my site patronage, my perception is that the front page content has become increasingly more difficult to read with numerous bizarre allusions.
And I'm aware that posting this on the board for people who still read the site more frequently will probably generate a chilly response, but I'm ok with that. Just wondering if there are people still lurking around that feel the same way.
February 25th, 2013 at 10:47 AM ^
I definitely agree with this. It's seems like there is only a handful of posters that are carrying the load of any meaningful or thought provoking content on the board these days. The in depth discussions just aren't there like they used to be. I think some of that has to do with the relatively underwhelming football season and some of it just due to laziness of the posters.
February 25th, 2013 at 10:36 AM ^
I've been lurking for a long time and was finally moved to make an account because someone ought to mention all of the stuff Seth or Misopogon contributes here. Whenever I tell people about the blog I send them his articles on last year's seniors. When I first started reading this site I was amazed that they were the only people in the fanbase trying to speak intelligently on the disaster that was Rodriguez. I fell in love with mgoblog because of Decimated Defense, not just because it was fantastic analysis that nobody else was looking at, but I loved the Titanic metaphor. I look forward every week to his "Museday" or "Hokepoints" (Note to Seth: just give up on having a name for that feature man) because he almost always finds a way to jump right into whatever I've been worrying about or thinking about.
I think Seth is getting a bad rap because while Heiko and Ace get to report from the pres box, Seth has to handl all of the shit work here. Lately he's been doing the free t-shirts thing but Dear Diary is another thing that I think brings a benefit to the blog but isn't going to be as useful as recruiting info or basketball game writeups. There are a lot of inside jokes on the boards, too many for me to keep up with, and Seth usually does a good job explaining those. He should stop posting those highlight videos. I don't know if that's a deal they have or something but I can find better on YouTube.
Each of the writers here are great at what they do. I miss TomVH and yes Ace isn't a perfect replacement because he doesn't have the relationship with the recruits, but then Ace is a better blogger than TomVH was, and I appreciate that we have a real basketball fan.
Anyway this is getting long but I just wanted to make sure somebody was thanking Seth specifically for all of the awesome work he does. I don't get all of his jokes, but the ones I do get are always on point and I like that he usually gives each post a theme. He comes across as "trying too hard" because of all the writers on mgoblog he's obviously the one trying the hardest. As other folks mentioned people need to stop whining about a guy for putting too much effort toward giving us free information, especially when the complaint basically boils down to "he's only my THIRD-favorite writer on the internet!"
February 25th, 2013 at 11:28 AM ^
Thanks!
I admit that naming the Tuesday thing was a conceit. It made more sense when there wasn't as much stuff by me on the front page--it's a little fear I have that people attribute anything good I do to Brian and then come down on me for not being Brian.
Sadly yes the videos are a contractual obligation.
February 25th, 2013 at 10:59 AM ^
"my perception is that the front page content has become increasingly more difficult to read with numerous bizarre allusions."
...
I'm 25 and have been reading this blog since the beginning of undergrad. My perception is that little is stylistically different. Brian is still busting out constant, hilarious content.
Citing one headline you don't understand as evidence of "numerous bizarre illusions" makes me want to punch you in the face is not evidence. If you want all your content delivered as flavorless mush because you lost your tastebuds years ago then go somewhere else. If you're so intellectually lazy and devoid of humor that jokes and illusions prohibit you from understanding the article then go somewhere else.
The style of this blog is EVERYTHING and you are not allowed to groundlessly attack it. Your decreased consumption is a good thing.
February 25th, 2013 at 11:54 AM ^
"Look guys, you don't know what it's like - I'm the one out there every day putting his ass on the line. And I'm not out of order. You're out of order. The whole freakin' system is out of order. You want the truth? You want the truth? You can't HANDLE the truth. 'Cause when you reach over and put your hand into a pile of goo that was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do. Forget it, guys, it's Chinatown."
Then again, about 50% of my sense of humor is based on The Simpsons. Another 25% is based off of other movies. The other 25% is kind of a sarcastic asshole that doesn't really translate to the internet.
My point is, everyone has their own writing style, presentation style, etc. As an engineer, I've gotten some feedback that sometimes during my presentations I lean on the sarcastic joke style a little heavily, but usually I get some laughs and I don't think everything should be a dull, straight-forward go at it. But there is a time and a place, and there is a limit. I am cognizant of that fact, and I think sometimes this blog gets a little unaware of it (because it's previously been successful and is the reason this blog has gained many of its readers). I think the humor has become a bit more forced lately, the references a bit more dense, and all that. I skip over more content now than I used to. I love the UVs, I think those are well done, but some of the other stuff just isn't as straight forward as I would like to receive my information. So maybe that's why I've gotten some of the criticism I have gotten for my presentation style, and yet I haven't really changed it, because in the past it has been successful for me and it's what I'm comfortable doing.
Also, I've struggled with that when writing blogs. I try to infuse my sense of humor into my posts and I think sometimes it doesn't translate, and many more times it's just not funny. Simpsons references don't always combine when talking about football x's and o's. In the end, with my types of blog posts, I've found being straight forward is the best approach for conveying the information, but also by far the least risky and the easiest, and maybe not the most engaging or reader friendly.
So I see both sides of the issue. Yeah, I don't get some of the references made here. I do get most, but I don't necessarily find them funny and increasingly have found them a bit distracting. Frankly, most of what I read is historical fiction about WWII and what-not, and I honestly don't really like David Foster Wallace (I'm more of a Hemingway guy personally). So when those references are made, I kind of tone it out and try to figure out simply the facts. At other times I like the fact that it's a bit more intelligent, but it's all a fine line, and I think Brian and co. run just as much of a risk of running too straight-forward as they are going the other way. I hope they can bring it back a bit and get to the level I have loved in the past, but I understand the difficulty in doing that.
This post rambled a lot and isn't very coherent, but hopefully something can be taken from it.
February 25th, 2013 at 12:08 PM ^
FWIW I discussed this thread with Brian and asked for his feedback on the OP's assertion. His response below:
internet.
Brian Cook =/= Jack Nicholson.
February 25th, 2013 at 1:50 PM ^
This has been a pretty amazing thread. I'll admit - when I first saw it and opened it I was already pissed and ready to neg everyone. But then I started reading and began to realize:
1. Its tremendous that the contributors are in positions that they can actually get constructive criticism from fans/readers that plan on continuing to read rather than having to turn in a work product that is judged on its own merits (e.g. legal briefs, midterm exam responses, etc.). Readers seem to care more about the body of work which is a testiment to the roots this site has in all of us. Either way you look at it, most of us are and will likely be committed readers and you all are just looking to enhance your visits.
2. I was very pleasantly surprised at the amount of truly constructive criticism and the lack of unhelpful criticism. I should have expected it since our Board is pretty darn good (if I do say so myself) but it surprised me. It just goes to show you that we all have a vested interest in the site succeeding and that fact alone must be somewhat comforting to Brian.
February 25th, 2013 at 1:59 PM ^
I want to thank everyone in this thread who provided their honest feedback, and it is a tribute to this internet community that such a conversation can be had with civility. I can't really change who I am, how I write, or where that overlaps with Brian. We have four times the front-page content that used to be posted here in 2008. Is it better to have 1 or 2 articles per day that are all Brian, or 5 or 6 articles per day where just 3 or 4 are going to relevent to any one given reader? It's been our experience that the more content the greater the readership; obviously there's going to be some people who will read all of it, some people who are just here for a certain thing, and a lot of folks somewhere between those extremes who will have to pick through more content to find the stuff they want.
Writing on another guy's site means you're always going to be compared to him: If you stray too far from what people like about it you're not giving readers what they came for; if you come too close you're a mimic. I brought this thread to Brian's attention this morning, but he's not exactly a fountain of feedback. He doesn't think I need to change anything; I think the existence of this thread proves otherwise.
What I can do is be better about explaining references. The failure of the Montgomery post that sparked this thread was not, I believe, stylistic--love it or hate it this blog does have a voice that people come for and that isn't going to change. I've always put themes into my posts as a way of letting readers know what frame of mind to be in, and if you don't want your news about a DL coach leaving without having to think about what that could have to do with a Rogers & Hammerstein play, threre's plenty of internet out there that will leave your cortexes the hell alone.
No, the failure was you had to have remembered an article from 2011 (or found the link I originally buried half-way through the text) to get what "The Beyonce" is. I didn't explain the reference, therefore it had no value other than to be more words to get through on your way to information.
My favorite way I've seen this done is Grantland's margins but that's not feasible for us. What I've done instead is download a plugin for the abbr tag, and I will encourage the other writers here to use that as well. Brian uses these for the UFR headers already. It's basically mouseover text. Here, try it. When I make references that some people may not get, I'll try to include one of these tags so everyone's up to speed with the 'bizarre allusions'. Look for underlined text and put your mouse over it. Give us time to get used it it.
February 25th, 2013 at 3:56 PM ^
Though maybe you can take it as something you can't do because you're different people. I don't think Brian cares. Not because he doesn't give a hoot about his readers, but because he got into this doing something he liked, his way, with no one telling him what to do. Which is why he's never "sold out" to one of the "big boys." And along the way, he found out it worked. And he does things his way, because that's how he gets enjoyment out of doing it. He never intended to be all things to all people, and if that costs him some readers, so be it. It's not a project to sell more and more widgets; it's make enough that this can be a living. Expanding to a staff was a blessing and a curse to him; there was enough coming in to expand coverage into areas he didn't have time to really give detail to, but it also made it a bit more of a business, because he has salaries to support.
That's not to say some tweeks here and there can't be ideas that can be helpful. But they have to be things one believes in rather than what the masses want for it to work in this kind of situation. If one isn't behind it, it comes off as false. Yeah, even I find sometimes your posts are like reading metaphorical novels, but if that's who you are, and not something you're trying to do, then you gotta be you. (My bigger gripe on the post was that it seemed like old news by the time it was posted, and maybe should have been a "RUMOR post much earlier, with a "CONFIRMED" edit/add on later). Take as much of it to heart as you can, but don't try and follow the masses....that won't be personally satisfying, or successful.
(Besides, are you not enough like Brian, or TOO much like Brian? I can't tell from this thread....)
February 25th, 2013 at 6:41 PM ^
We aren't going to post rumors unless we've confirmed from 3 independent sources--these articles were all going off the same source. That means by the time we have 3 confirms or an official confirmation it's old news to anybody who reads places who don't hold to that standard (including places that knock "blogs" for not holding to journalistic standards). Since we don't want to be rumor pushers, we need to be able to provide something else. When it's breaking, it's probably not going to be on here first unless it's REALLY important and we start tapping Brian's sources. Otherwise wait a bit and come here for perspective.
February 25th, 2013 at 7:50 PM ^
I could do without all of the MGoJargon. You can be witty and use plain English. "Meh," "THIS," "howeva," etc. add nothing and are beaten into the ground at this point. That's not specific to the content generators (e.g., Brian, Seth, etc.); that applies to the community as well. Producing content on a regular basis is extremely difficult. Brian, Seth, and others do a terrific job at that overall. This was a good discussion to have and hope Brian et al. take the useful constructive criticism to heart, while discarding the rest.
February 27th, 2013 at 6:26 PM ^
Breathe. Adjust. Consume.