Back in business
(Written by kencraw)
I spent a lot of time over the off-season thinking about whether I wanted to continue this blog. Who was I writing for? Who was benefiting? What’s the value? Is it worth my time?
Frankly, CGB has sucked a lot of the fun out of casual blogging. They’ve got more posts about more things by lots of good writers who have lots of good things to say and are often very good writers. There’s just no way I can compete. At the same time, I’m not interested in a big group blog. I’ve got certain standards and issues I’m not willing to compromise. So the way I see it, I can either hang up my hat or I can re-adjust to a format that’s not trying to compete with CGB.
Here’s how I intend to do that:
- “One man’s opinion”: The years of working for Rivals got me in a rut of trying to make sure everything I said was 100% defensible and being very cautious with my words. That’s in the past. This blog is now just “one man’s opinion” and you’re going to get ALL of it. To be clear: As a devout Catholic I find verbal charity and treating the players with respect and honor to be of the up-most importance, so you’re not going to see trash talking. You’re also not going to see a lot of rebutting other opinions or getting into protracted back and forth arguments with anyone. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, including me… so this is where you’re going to hear it, ALL of it.
- More off-topic posts: I’ll be posting more of my personal thoughts on things outside of the Cal Bears. Two things I won’t be covering are religion and politics. I’ve learned that those need to be separate. But you will see more off-topic posts about various things that interest me. My family, cool articles, whatever. I’m sure 80+% of the posts will still be Cal Bear related, but there will be more variety.
- Doing less: Sorry, no pick’em this year. No stats page. No edited podcasts (although I think Jason and I will continue to do our mid-week podcast and my OTRH podcast is likely to continue in un-edited form). More grammatical and spelling errors. Just simple posts that I can get up quickly with less effort. My goal is 4-5 posts a week plus whatever un-edited (at least on my end) podcasts result.
So, with that introduction, here are the posts to expect this week:
- Ode to my ’97 Jetta
- I donated $1200 and I didn’t even get a lousy T-Shirt
- Excited about the return home and my new seats
- 4 new Pac-12 coaches, playing 3 of them
- Road trips: Going to all but 3 this year
GO BEARS!
August 6th, 2012 at 1:08 pm
It’s about time!
August 6th, 2012 at 3:17 pm
Ken,
Thanks for coming back. I started reading your blog after you spoke at a Cal Grid Club event in Sacramento back in 08 or 09. I really enjoy your perspective and am glad your getting back to blogging.
I’ve also watched CGB grow in that time to the blog it is today and I think you’re correct in that switching to a first person perspective is a good move.
I think one area your blog really shines in are the podcasts. I don’t know of anyone else who does a fan perspective Cal podcast and now that I’ve moved to the East Coast I really enjoy hearing first hand about the game and the gameday experience from someone that was there and has a decent level of football knowledge. And the unedited podcasts don’t bother me, it was kind of funny hearing you refer to Zach Maynard as ‘Keenan Allen’ during one otrh podcast last year. Keep up the good work and I look forward to reading and hearing your work this season.
Go Bears!
August 7th, 2012 at 11:43 am
Hey welcome back Ken!
I’ve long felt that the more Cal blogs we have out there, the better. And you truly have one of the OG blogs. And more than anything, I’ve always appreciated your insights and commitment to respect when blogging about a team we’re all so passionate about, which unfortunately is a unique trait at times in the online Cal community.
So welcome back and look forward to reading more.
August 8th, 2012 at 11:59 am
Welcome back. BearswithFangs has it right.
Your perspective is appreciated and unique.
Blessings
August 15th, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Our goal is never to silence anybody else in the Calosphere. I appreciate the kind words, Ken, but the reality is that the more voices the merrier. If there is anything we can do to help you, do not hesitate to email us. It is a “rising tide helps all boats” situation here, in my view!
August 15th, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Oh, I in no way meant to imply that there was an attempt by CGB to silence others. But if you’re in the widget business and someone else makes a better widget, eventually nobody is going to buy yours. There’s just only so much demand for widgets. When you guys started TedfordIsGod, there were 7 or 8 quite active blogs. Now there’s just a couple.
And the reason is the SBN format delivers better than any other on “the more voices the merrier” and then your leadership style at CGB amplifies the benefits of the format.
So as bloggers have naturally retired and gone on to other things, instead of being replaced by new independent blogs, those new bloggers are starting out as occasional contributors on CGB and working their way up through the Follettariat to become a Jahvidtician and in rare cases, become a Marshawnthusiast.
Which is great, but the result is more and more traffic has focused on CGB, and less and less traffic has come here. I used to get 15k-20k hits a month during the season, last season it was around 4k. At some point it’ll just be me talking to myself in a padded room.
At that point you ask yourself, why do I keep talking? If nobody cares or is listening, what’s the point? And I decided that the point was it was cathartic, so I’ll keep speaking even if it’s a padded room. But, as my stated changes above shows, if it’s cathartic, I’m going to hold less back and I’m just going to be less concerned with being cautious with my words.
If CGB would like to help us independent blogs, I think the biggest thing that could be done is to link more often to us. I remember getting lots of links in past seasons. It seems like less and less these days.
August 18th, 2012 at 12:48 am
Ken, I’ve never posted a reply to one of your blogs, but for what it’s worth I love your stuff and would really miss it if it were gone. There really are almost no podcasts I listen to on a regular basis, but I haven’t missed you and Jason in quite awhile. Sometimes after a particularly painful loss I really appreciate your rants, but even more I really love sharing the glow you clearly feel after a great win. If it seems like you guys are talking to yourselves sometimes all I can say is you aren’t – I suspect there are a lot of folks like me out there. Thanks for soldiering on here. It’s really appreciated.