February 22, 2007

Google Apps: Google just launched Google Apps Premier. If the pantheon wanted to use it we could have sportsfilter.com email address or a universal calender for fantasy sports.

posted by apoch to navel gazing at 06:52 PM - 69 comments

Or maybe not. I'm not sure how well it integrates into pre-existing websites. There appears to be limits on user accounts, not that I can figure out what they are but you do have to request more. Hasty idea, not as good as I originally thought. Sorry. I'll go sit in the penalty box.

posted by apoch at 07:04 PM on February 22, 2007

"You sit for two minutes. You feel shame."

posted by yerfatma at 07:51 PM on February 22, 2007

If there's interest, we could extend SportsFilter with services like that. It would be easy for us to offer *.sportsfilter.com for Wordpress user blogs, as I'm doing on other domains.

posted by rcade at 10:58 AM on February 23, 2007

It would be easy for us to offer *.sportsfilter.com for Wordpress user blogs, as I'm doing on other domains. I would like to reserve the following domains in advance: http://iamrightandyouarewrong.sportsfilter.com http://statisticsruleall.sportsfilter.com http://derekjeterisnoarod.sportsfilter.com

posted by grum@work at 11:43 AM on February 23, 2007

We're calling dibs now? Can I get http://stepoffmynuts.sportsfilter.com? Seriously though. A community calender would be nice for all the various fantasy sports that go on and their deadlines.

posted by apoch at 12:06 PM on February 23, 2007

I like this, and I also like the idea of the sportsfilter blogs. I'd sign up for one ... which would be very similar to my hot new The Ad Whisperers! Check it out today! And leave a comment or something.

posted by wfrazerjr at 12:35 PM on February 23, 2007

I call: http://aroddoesntsleephereanymore.sportsfilter.com http://yournumbersbeliewhatimseeingrightnow.sportsfilter.com and of course, http://intangibles.sportsfilter.com

posted by The Crafty Sousepaw at 01:19 PM on February 23, 2007

I claim these domains in the name of, well, myself: http://scrappylikedavideckstein.sportsfilter.com http://barbaro.sportsfilter.com http://dontrytopersuademewithfacts.sportsfilter.com

posted by The_Black_Hand at 02:14 PM on February 23, 2007

http://whateverhappenedtotommysands.sportsfilter.com

posted by YukonGold at 02:19 PM on February 23, 2007

http://tigerwoodsisarobot.sportsfilter.com

posted by hawkguy at 02:24 PM on February 23, 2007

lutherspunctuationgraveyard.com or, for a throwback to '06; dontpickcisse.com

posted by Mr Bismarck at 03:56 PM on February 23, 2007

lutherspunctuationgraveyard.com My favorite so far. Well done, Bismarck

posted by hawkguy at 04:06 PM on February 23, 2007

lutherspunctuationgraveyardcom Fixed that for you.

posted by The Crafty Sousepaw at 04:25 PM on February 23, 2007

http://statisticsruleall.sportsfilter.com http://intangibles.sportsfilter.com It's like the Jets and the Sharks! (not Winnipeg and San Jose)

posted by grum@work at 05:17 PM on February 23, 2007

Yeesh. That's a little too violently tinged for me. I like to think of it as Delta and Omega. I'll let you choose which one you want to be. Niedermeyer or Marmalard. Heh.

posted by The Crafty Sousepaw at 05:32 PM on February 23, 2007

Screw all y'all. If we're domain squatting already, I want http://pantheon.sportsfilter.com http://rcade.sportsfilter.com and http://justgary.sportsfilter.com finally - http://clamshot.sportsfilter.com

posted by Ufez Jones at 06:18 PM on February 23, 2007

If you're serious at looking at such a pilot program, rcade, I'd be willing to do a blog about the Western Conference NBA Playoffs this year and possibly a full season of Mavs blogging next year. I'm sure we could find someone to do the Eastern Conference Playoffs (Weedy or YukonGold, maybe?) and possibly we could work together on a finals blog. It'd be an interesting experiment.

posted by Ufez Jones at 07:11 PM on February 23, 2007

I might be up for something like that. Interesting idea.

posted by YukonGold at 09:26 PM on February 23, 2007

I'd volunteer for the football blog(s). We could do one for college and pro, and I'd volunteer for 'em both. I'm here in South Bend, where we're known to get a little college football action now and then.

posted by The_Black_Hand at 07:27 AM on February 24, 2007

Wow, this could be awesome. I'd volunteer for the college football blog. I'm big in to the Big Ten, the Big East, and now with Temple, the MAC. I'd also be interested in doing some baseball, like maybe the NL East. Nice work on the domain names. I especially loved http://aroddoesntsleephereanymore.sportsfilter.com and http://stepoffmynuts.sportsfilter.com

posted by SummersEve at 08:15 AM on February 24, 2007

http://imgregmadduxandillcutyourheadoffritualisticallymutilateyouandburyyouinashallowgrave.sportsfilter.com or just http://gregmaddux.sportsfilter.com

posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 09:06 AM on February 24, 2007

This has sort of turned in the direction of something I've been thinking about recently, that there's a talent level here to try to put together something to compete with "major" sports sources online. If the passion of Truehoop can make ESPN throw up their arms and buy the place, couldn't some of us put together decent enough, regularly updated, grammatically inoffensive content? Rather than individual bloggers, maybe topics that a certain group of members contribute to. The snob in me thinks this would be the kind of thing you would have to show some chops for in normal threads first (nothing fancy, just u kno mayb spel rite). The progress of deadspin, from great to just ok after they opened the gates, makes me a firmer believer in gated communities for generating content, even while I remain suspicious of group behavior and exclusionism and a fan of the hoi polloi in general (just not in my backyard). Of course, the success of Metafilter's citizen newspaper (or whatever they were gonna do) makes me wonder at the likelihood of any of it.

posted by yerfatma at 09:30 AM on February 24, 2007

I'd be in for contributing on baseball and football, and my NFL picks would also be available, depending on whether or not I continue my deal with Draft Sharks for next season. Also, I'm claiming http://trademerightfuckingnow.sportsfilter.com http://jobuneedsarefill.sportsfilter.com http://tireworld.sportsfilter.com ... and my golf blog: http://idontthinktheheavystuffwillbecomingdownforquiteawhileyet.sportsfilter.com

posted by wfrazerjr at 09:50 AM on February 24, 2007

http://thatcanadianchickonextreme4x4isreallycute.sportsfilter.com http://red'soxaregay.sportsfilter.com http://lolronmexico.sportsfilter.com http://wingwangmafia.sportsfilter.com

posted by NoMich at 12:14 PM on February 24, 2007

In the spirit of rcade, put me down for popebenedictxvi.sportsfilter.com

posted by jerseygirl at 12:22 PM on February 24, 2007

http://goonsaregood.sportsfilter.com

posted by SummersEve at 01:22 PM on February 24, 2007

a fan of the hoi polloi in general (just not in my backyard) You look like Dick Cavett. I would be happy to make contributions to satellite efforts focused on anything I know anything about. Once I figure out what those are, I will get back to you.

posted by The Crafty Sousepaw at 01:36 PM on February 24, 2007

Did I tell you about the time Groucho Marx and I were on opposite sides of the TV at the same time?

posted by yerfatma at 06:00 PM on February 24, 2007

I was 'spectin someone to mention that.

posted by hawkguy at 06:45 PM on February 24, 2007

Did I tell you about the time Groucho Marx and I were on opposite sides of the TV at the same time? Next thing you know you'll be picking him up at the airport.

posted by The Crafty Sousepaw at 09:17 PM on February 24, 2007

Would also have been a great tool for our prototype Winter Olympics experiment. Can you support group Wordpress blogs?

posted by Amateur at 07:04 PM on February 25, 2007

It would be easy for us to offer *.sportsfilter.com for Wordpress user blogs, as I'm doing on other domains. Pantheon, you have mail.

posted by smithers at 09:37 PM on February 26, 2007

I'm game for anything. Contributing, making up funny user blogs, whathaveyou. Just so long as it doesn't cut into my working hours and you're all satisfied will wonderfully crafted, yet staggeringly late, material.

posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 09:25 AM on February 27, 2007

What? Writing? Are we writing things?

posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:48 AM on February 27, 2007

I'll throw my hat in the ring for the NBA blog. I know ufez has got the Southwest Division covered, Yukon could do the Atlantic, and I could take care of the Pacific. That would leave the Central, Southeast, and Northwest divisions. If I'm not being too presumptuous.

posted by lilnemo at 01:14 PM on February 27, 2007

I'd like to suggest the same thing for an MLB blog, with one person covering each of the divisions. I, of course, would like the NL Central. I envision it being called aroundthehorn.sportsfilter.com. I can also register just aroundthehorn.com and we can post it in both places. Anyone else interested?

posted by wfrazerjr at 01:56 PM on February 27, 2007

As I said above, I'd be in for the NL East. It'll be great. We can write stuff and then grum can tell us all how wrong we are.

posted by SummersEve at 02:11 PM on February 27, 2007

The MLB divisional thing might be interesting...

posted by jerseygirl at 02:15 PM on February 27, 2007

It certainly appears we have some interested parties here. Who's going to organize this mess? Who's in? Are the *.sportsfilter blogs actually going to be implemented? If so when do we start? rcade? Pantheon?

posted by lilnemo at 03:02 PM on February 27, 2007

I'll be in to write something, but I dunno what yet. It kind of sounds like folks are thinking along the lines of beat reporting, almost...is that the idea?

posted by lil_brown_bat at 03:33 PM on February 27, 2007

I'm thinking for the baseball blog beat reporting, lbb, with some added snark and the occasional column, perhaps an interview. Oh, and I'm thinking you and I can face off old school, "Point-Counterpoint" style. "Wayne, you ignorant slut."

posted by wfrazerjr at 06:32 PM on February 27, 2007

Aye, I'm down for the NBA Southwest Conference, but only on the condition that if a team from your respective conference wins the finals, you win $500 and a date with Maggie Gyllenhaal. I'll do my *cough* best to remain unbiased. I'll be in to write something, but I dunno what yet. It kind of sounds like folks are thinking along the lines of beat reporting, almost...is that the idea? I was thinking more of traditional blogging (for whatever that's worth in 2007), i.e. mostly linking and quoting interspersed with original thoughts, takes or opinions for some kind of individual flavor, but I'm open to other interpretations.

posted by Ufez Jones at 06:37 PM on February 27, 2007

*raises hand to heart* I pledge to be more objective and less of a fuckface than Dan Shaughnessy.

posted by jerseygirl at 06:50 PM on February 27, 2007

I was thinking more of traditional blogging (for whatever that's worth in 2007), i.e. mostly linking and quoting interspersed with original thoughts, takes or opinions for some kind of individual flavor... I'm hoping we get a good mix of diverse styles. I'd like to emulate what Kevin Arneson has done on Clipperblog, which is to say, not only aggregate news/features links but to break down tape (occasionally) and get an idea as to what teams in "my" division run offensively and defensively. I would like to get an idea as to what a teams situational tendencies are (inbounding plays at the end of quarters, fouling strategies in the final 2 minutes, etc.). I like the idea of doing a roundtable at pre-determined intervals with the other divisional bloggers to gauge where each team/player stands at that point in the season in terms of their standing, playoff readiness, or all star/mvp/roy/etc potential.

posted by lilnemo at 06:51 PM on February 27, 2007

I pledge to be more objective and less of a fuckface than Dan Shaughnessy. Well, that's good news! I'll do World Cup ski racing, that oh so popular sport, and I'll think about WNBA...although I'd really prefer it if someone else took some of that too. Or, I dunno, I might do something Olympics-related. I'm having an indecisive day.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:24 PM on February 27, 2007

I'm probably not the right guy for an entire season of NBA blogging. Totally up for being part of a 2007 playoff effort though. One additional idea that I thought might be some fun would be live blogging this year's Red Sox/Yankees games with a Yankee fan. Maybe have a "team" of both fans and break up the games for a little one on one "your team sucks" action. Could be fun.

posted by YukonGold at 09:06 PM on February 27, 2007

Are you guys covering these MLB divisions going to be unbiased about all the teams or just homers for your own?

posted by skydivemom at 09:21 PM on February 27, 2007

Golly gee, we'd all be homers of course.

posted by jerseygirl at 09:42 PM on February 27, 2007

In light of my writing ability, I claim fartsforum.sportsfilter.com.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 01:30 AM on February 28, 2007

Are you guys covering these MLB divisions going to be unbiased about all the teams or just homers? Homers? [The Phillies] are so quick to blame the [baseball] gods: they say that we devise their misery. But they themselves—in their depravity [and lack of discipline at the plate]—design grief greater than the griefs that fate assigns. So did [Pat Burrell] act when he transgressed the boundaries that fate and reason set [for home plate].

posted by SummersEve at 05:34 AM on February 28, 2007

Highbrow showoff. "My Homer is not a communist. He may be a liar, a pig, an idiot, a communist, but he is not a porn star. " -- Grandpa

posted by The Crafty Sousepaw at 05:49 AM on February 28, 2007

I dunno if you want to break things out by division right away. Why not make them catch-alls until they get so big they have to be split out?

posted by yerfatma at 07:32 AM on February 28, 2007

With regards to the blog sports journalism discussion going on here, I wanted to jump in and mention that DrJohnEvans and I have been working on just such a blogging application as we speak (it is called VSPORT.TV). The goal is to build a community blog tool for the grassroots or amateur sports person or the independent sports journalist. DrJE has taken the lead on getting the platform ready to go with some sport-specific themes and plug-ins (call the whole thing version 0.96), and we are hoping to make a little bit of a go of it eventually. We had been planning on letting everyone here know about what we were up to, and this discussion catalyzed us to come forward now rather than later. DrJE and I feel pretty strongly about the SpoFi community -- it is where the two of us met and where we see the ideal types of people who understand sports and the appeal of blog journalism/community/social networking/whathaveyou. Obviously we would like to see those who share this interest from the SpoFi community create a blog with us. That said, I am sure it is important to maintain the link to the original community or else you could have just started something at Blogger already. We have emailed the Pantheon about possible linkages and are just waiting on them to have a free moment to chip in their thoughts. In the meantime, we are keen to hear your thoughts.....and if you are interested, we could certainly clean up some of the dust to welcome guests for NBA Playoffs or MLB regular season blog launches. DrJE can give you his spiel as well. Much appreciated....

posted by smithers at 08:53 AM on February 28, 2007

Basically, yeah, what smithers said. We've been building a tool to make it blogging a more easy and natural process for sports people, either players or fans at any level. For me, this was partially born out of a frustration with vanilla blogging communities. I saw a real disconnect between starting, say, a Blogger blog ("great, I have a blog, now what?") and reaching the point at which you had an experience as enjoyable as, say, what SportsFilter offers. At SpoFi the mission and intent are clear, and the tools are simple and available, and it's easy to jump right in and be productive. I started working with smithers on VSPORT.TV with visions of a community of personal blogs with that kind of strength: a thousand little SportsFilters. It certainly appears we have some interested parties here. Who's going to organize this mess? Looks like smithers and I are volunteering—pending Pantheon approval. Everyone is offering content, we're offering bloggy horsepower. Our platform is Wordpress-based, too, and the newer versions are pretty good with user accounts and multiple users on multiple blogs, so all the suggestions about team blogging and rivalry blogging can be done easily. Personality-wise, I'd like to design a theme for the SpoFi blogs that matched the SpoFi front page to keep this community's look and feel. We could also include a sidebar feed of recent SpoFi posts (and maybe comments) on each SpoFi blog, and other little tidbits that like that maintain a tight perceived integration with this site.

posted by DrJohnEvans at 09:39 AM on February 28, 2007

As most of you know my writing is atrocious but I would be willing to cover this years Mullet Toss weekend which corresponds with a two day Widespread Panic concert at the Orange beach amphitheater. on preview, I may be too fucked-up to even find my lap top

posted by Folkways at 10:35 AM on February 28, 2007

DJE and smithers, this may be a dumb question, but would there be a front page that brings together the SpoFite blogs? And would they be sorta semi-organized, so (for example) all the various MLB divisions would be together?

posted by lil_brown_bat at 01:19 PM on February 28, 2007

Yes, we could definitely do that. The platforms are very flexible, so technology-wise, we can do pretty much anything in terms of presentation or organization or syndication. Which means that the question of what to do becomes more of a policy question, decided by SpoFites and the Pantheon. There are a couple of different things we could do with the structure of the SpoFi blog community, but of course I would like to hear what the Pantheon has to say before pursuing those questions further. (If they approve, then we can have a Campfire meeting and toast marshmallows. Well, I'll toast marshmallows, anyway.)

posted by DrJohnEvans at 01:58 PM on February 28, 2007

I'm all for helping to spark new projects in the same way that MetaFilter helped SportsFilter launch, but I think VSPORT.TV will have a better chance of success if it's independent in name, appearance and management. Through RSS and other means, we can make VSPORT visitors aware of SportsFilter content and vice versa. The reason I'm reluctant to make things more tightly aligned is that we've been there before with SportsFilter, which had some difficulties because there were so many admins.

posted by rcade at 02:00 PM on February 28, 2007

That's totally fair rcade. And we appreciate any advice or assistance you and SpoFi can offer. With that in mind, if people are serious about NBA Playoffs blogs or MLB blogs or whatever, please give us a shout. Email addy's in profile. (LBB, in this case, we would be pleased to put in extra facilitation to make sure the "organization" was to the group's liking.)

posted by smithers at 02:15 PM on February 28, 2007

To clarify, though, rcade, are you and gary open to doing such proposed blogs on the *.sportsfilter.com domains, or should we collectively try it with smithers and DJE's project? I'd be more comfortable doing it here, no offense to the hosers (you know, five years spent vs. startup, plus, I loathe .tv domains for some geriatric biased reason), but I'd like to hear something out of the pantheon. Or are you all still hashing it out?

posted by Ufez Jones at 09:55 PM on February 28, 2007

You've always been pro-Tuvalu, Ufez, and it sickens me. There, I've said it.

posted by yerfatma at 05:59 AM on March 01, 2007

I know there were those pictures of me, in a younger, more naive day, where, yes, I did once rock down to electric Tuvalu. It's shameful, but can't we all chalk up a little chunk of our past to youthful indiscretion?

posted by Ufez Jones at 09:00 AM on March 01, 2007

I say "Tuvalu", you say "Tuvalu". Let's call the whole thing off.

posted by yerfatma at 10:21 AM on March 01, 2007

To clarify, though, rcade, are you and gary open to doing such proposed blogs on the *.sportsfilter.com domains, or should we collectively try it with smithers and DJE's project? Ufez, I'm pretty sure rcade was serious. If he doesn't comment again here I'd just email him.

posted by justgary at 01:25 PM on March 01, 2007

I'm not sure who originally did the mythical interviews, but this blog thing might be a good way to resurrect that project.

posted by apoch at 06:54 AM on March 02, 2007

That was wc2k, apoch.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:32 AM on March 02, 2007

If he doesn't comment again here I'd just email him. Which I've done. I'll loop you in Ufez when I hear back. This assumes that his little contact form at his site is working properly.

posted by YukonGold at 10:43 AM on March 02, 2007

Cool cool. Thanks, Yukon.

posted by Ufez Jones at 05:34 PM on March 02, 2007

(If they approve, then we can have a Campfire meeting and toast marshmallows. Well, I'll toast marshmallows, anyway.) As long as we don't have to sing "Kumbaya", I'm OK with it. Actually, I'm nearing retirement from my job, and once I do, I would like to try writing a blog. I have some ideas, but since my job involves a lot of travel and occasional long hours, I can't do it justice. If something gets started, look for me in about 18 months.

posted by Howard_T at 12:44 PM on March 03, 2007

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