The Future of the Belfry Bob's Backstop for September 27, 2004

We're wrapping up our fourth season of Orioles coverage, fun, and anger management this week. It's been a lot of fun, despite the performances we've all had to weather these past years. Friendships have been forged, stupid internet pissing contests have been held, information exchanged, arguments made, movie quotes exchanged...and much more.

This season in particular, though, has been a mixed bag. My time became an issue for two reasons. One, as many of you know, I am writing a novel. When I try to spend at least ninety minutes a day on the novel, the minimum 45 minutes spent on the page every day (more typically 90 minutes) becomes more difficult. Second, I've been on the road a lot this summer due to changes in my job.

I'm not sure that this would have become an issue except for an apparent sea change in our message board at the Belfry. Although our overall hits were at an all-time high this year, participation was down a great deal. A lot of long time posters either disappeared or greatly reduced their participation. I wrote some private e-mails to registered fans earlier this season, and discovered that it wasn't The Belfry, but the Orioles, that seemed to have caused a lot of growing indifference on the part of fans. That made me feel a bit better, but it didn't change the situation.

Every time I was "brought down" by the lack of participation on the board, I'd look at the other other major Orioles boards at FanHome and the Hangout and seldom see anything going on over at those spots that I would have wanted to see at our own, so it really came down a lot of the time to not having anything to talk about. or, as Tulsa Fan puts it, the same old thing, over and over again.

I know that Belfry writers and readers aren't into the "same old thing," blasting each other, or suggesting trades or posting your 2005 lineups. We're grateful for that. But there is one area in particular that is an issue for us that I need to resolve for myself this off-season before making plans for next year.

There isn't enough linkage between what is on the front page and the message board. Kerry in particular spends a ton of time putting together his articles. This is high-quality stuff that could be printed in BA, or by Prospectus, or anyone else (and it's been quoted in a number of spots on the web and elsewhere)...and it simply too often gets little or no reaction from our own readers! The same thing happens with me all the time...I'll spend 45 minutes putting together the stories from around baseball for Around the Horn, with the idea of informing, amusing, and starting a little discussion...and we may be doing the first two, but certainly not the third. I can spend two hours putting together a parody piece that garners two comments, often both of them "mercy comments" from DavidL and Meg, both of whom can be counted on for the kind word.

It's difficult to express what I want to get at here. Neither of us are looking for huzzahs.

I think the issue is that we don't get enough feedback most of the time to make us feel that the articles have accomplished what we wanted to do.

There are two keys to writing, or running something like this page. One is to do it for yourself, to write what you want in your style, not to do it for others. The second is to do it as long as its fun for you and not out of any sense of obligation.

What I'm trying to figure out is which way to go with the site in the future. I really cut back on things like the Orioles News later this year, since I figured most of that was available elsewhere, though the discipline of the daily box scores for the minors I think improved the farm reports. Other than that, there was nothing I really wanted to cut that I didn't lop off in the spring.

So, I guess the question is do I just drop the "page" part altogether and just go to having a massage board? I'd miss writing articles and putting together the parodies, but it would be cheaper and a lot less time-consuming and we'd be still be able to keep the community together.

I'm not sure about this. A big part of me wants to keep going as we're going, but the lack of regular discussion of front page issues/articles/features is making me wonder about the time allotted for it. One of the things Kerry and I both noticed when we wrote for the Hangout was how little reaction there ever was to anything we did. Again, you don't write for praise, but you do write for reaction, hopefully.

We know people are reading. Our average daily hits are up about 20% this year, after a likewise increase a year ago. But we really need, I think, more involvement with the basis of what we're doing in order to continue it the way we have in the past. I think it first became a big deal this year when the Yearbook got very little mention at all this season after we put in probably a hundred hours of time between us doing it. It's just, for lack of a better word, discouraging.

It's odd in a way. Our "scoop" before Spring Training in the remarks by Jim Beattie, the pickup of some of our parodies by other bigger websites, the reading of columns on the air on WBAL, the distribution of the Frank McCourt columns, our several mentions on Prospectus, and the incredible work on the draft that Kerry has been doing, has given us a lot of recognition this year. But that's not what we're about.

Let us hear from you, either in the private message section, or on the board, or in e-mail (backstopbob89@aolcom). We want to know what you think.

It's been another great season hanging out with all of you. My impressions of our time together and of all of you follows later this week, along with the season in review, and more, as we wind down on the last week of the season!