Hi.
The Cheat here.
You may remember me from such directives as "put a subject line on your damn offensive images" and the coining of the nickname "Big Hairy Balls."
It's been awhile, and the site feels a little off. Come to think of it, it smells a bit funny too. Is there an expiration date on this thing?
Turns out there might be.
I haven't been around lately in part because I'm not entirely enthused about the direction of the team -- and a surprising lack of activity on both the trade and free agent front -- but mostly because I just plain haven't had the time to sit down and write anything when something was warranted. Unfortunately, it looks like I'll be just as busy for the next 10 days or so.
I'm not leaving, that's not what this post is about. I love what we've built here, but I currently don't have the time to put in the requisite effort to maintain the site. And with the exception of the month from mid-December to mid-January, when school is removed from my list of obligations, I can't guarantee I'll have enough time to maintain the site in the future.
So, we need to find a way for the site to continue as we head forward, and that means some new blood at the helm, someone who has the time and the wherewithal to put up with you guys. I want the site to continue to be someplace we all want to visit, and honestly, that means tightening up the complete lack of rules we have of acceptable comments -- Some of the stuff on the right rail got pretty ugly the last 6+ weeks.
If you're interested in keeping this site as the irreverent band of misfits that currently makes up the site -- and trust me, the Powers That Be at SB*N have this site marked on their radar as in need of new management/direction -- I'd suggest you step up and create some content of your own. We'll make sure solid right-rail material finds its way to the front page. That'll always help, but specifically in the next two weeks.
As for the longer term future, it's time to start a search for the next Dear Leader. I'll still be here, writing (eventually), commenting, and joining you crazy SOBs for drinks, but we're going to need someone else to steer this ship in the long term. There is a financial incentive, a small one, to guiding this unruly bunch, and with proper management -- i.e. someone who posts multiple times a day, provides daily relevant links, and who writes content that generates links not just from within the White Sox blogosphere but the entire baseball community in general, can easily reach 5 figures, which might actually make the position worth while.
These duties don't necessarily have to fall to one person. It could be a combination of people, someone who focuses on aggregating good content from around the web (both newspaper and blogs) and someone else who concentrates on more opinion pieces,recaps, etc. -- I hope that we can keep most of the other band around (Larry w/ his minor league stuff, Colin & his numbers, U-God and his previews and HSA and her passionate lady flavor) which should provide a good base from which to work from. And hopefully, I'll have the time to chime in every now and then as well.
If you're interested in taking the helm you should do/be doing these things:
- Demonstrate that you can generate good content -- either here or at another venue, though we'd obviously prefer you make that contribution here, as we need it pretty bad.
- Demonstrate that you can have the wherewithal to stick with it. SB*N isn't going to hand you the keys without both a good sample of your writing and the demonstration that you can stick with something for more than a week (think: months).