Pondering FanPosts

I’d like to see a feature on this site – FanPost Hall of Shame. The worst ones, to me, are still pretty amusing and should live in posterity on the front page, or an easily found tab. Might even discourage the Os21Girls and Nattyohs of the world.

it will be great again. i have some plans for some fanposts myself. I remember when we didn’t really have open threads, just a bunch of fanposts.

I was thinking the other day that I actually liked the fanpost-centric format better than the open threads. I still read probably 40% of open threads, but as someone who does not really contribute a lot of comments, I have been reading them less and less.

you know what might work, just as an idea… is to close the open thread for comments at a certain time, or not have an open thread on certain days.

it IS spring training, there are no really cutthroat position battles (what, fifth starter? fourth outfielder? Starting second baseman?) to talk about. And just because someone is listed down there as a Goomba or Koopa Troopa doesn’t mean their fanposts don’t count. After all, they are listed for the very reason that they DO contribute to the community, and there have been a fair number of good fanposts this offseason—we’re just all ready for baseball now. There’s only so much you can say about spring training games.

but let’s not knock the open thread format. If I’m at work, it’s great to know that I just have to keep one tab open, and I’m not going to miss any of the day’s discussion (as long as Mario’s enemies mention new front page posts in Bird Droppings — please keep doing that!). I think a lot of it is exactly what Steve mentions above — it’s Spring Training, and the O’s made all their offseason moves fairly early on (except for Vlad). There just isn’t that much to talk about baseball-wise until games start — let alone in the kind of in-depth analysis that we try to encourage in FanPosts.

That said, I’m bouncing around some ideas for semi-regular FanPosts I could write once games do start.

Like you said, maybe people have been a bit intimidated by the guidelines. Of course, those of us who remember the likes of Corey’s Corner, Rosana, or that John Gibbons fanpost, know that spelling certain things out was necessary. Maybe others were discouraged from trying to post their own, as a result. If so, then just your saying, “Hey, it’s OK” should go a long way.

The fact that the legendary poor fanposts were all made by people who weren’t actually a part of the CC community is a pretty big factor as well. You got the impression these people were just looking for any Orioles blog to dump their thoughts on and were probably making the post five minutes after finding the site. Someone who’s active on the site, or at least lurks enough to understand what we are like, is not going to have that same problem. But like you noted, I think that in trying to discourage the southfloridao’sfans of the world, it may be intimidating for active members to try to write something.

Seeing more of that would be cool. It’s neat seeing people flex their writing muscles, and no matter how much content the CC cadre of writers generates, there’s always going to be plenty of angles we are not discussing. Though I do think last season we had it to where there was an original article on most weekdays.

With regards to the fanposts in particular, though, I think looking only at that column is a bit misleading. There are several people who write posts that could be fanposts in their nature, but they have done it regularly and so you know them and trust them. Now they’re on the writing crew for the site and they have front page privileges and can bypass the fanpost step. Andrew has been a writing machine through the offseason, for instance, and James F had his regular posts about developing prospects and assets and such during last season.

Anyway, I like the way things are on the site right now as far as the content flow. But I encourage anyone who wants to write something more in-depth to not be shy about it and take the plunge. :)

all this talk inspired me, hope you guys check it out.

I think the Orioles need to give us some new storylines. “If the Orioles want to end their streak of (insert current number) consecutive losing seasons, (inert current young player names here) need to play up to their high expectations.”

The team needs to change the narrative. We all think the farm system is better now. We think this crop of young players has great potential. We’ve all probably thought/hoped that before (Bedard/Dubose/Riley/Ainsworth/etc). When the Orioles actually take that next step, there’ll be plenty of fanpost material.

Probably not by me, though. I mostly contribute through sarcasm.

This was a good piece and I have been reluctant to contribute. I enjoy reading the posted articles and I glance at the comments.
Unfortunately, I come to Camden Chat to mainly read about the Orioles. As someone who has tried to jump into the comments in both Oriole and other related topics, I don’t find it either fun or informative. At best I’m ignored and more likely told I’m wrong. All that’s fine and frankly I expect it. Its just that it makes it easy to comment less.
Overall Camden Chat is a great site and I check it everyday. I will try to make more of an effort to contribute and enjoy whatever comes from it. The baseball season actually starting will help.
Thanks