Sunday, August 12, 2012

The Soundboard

Starting two weeks from now and lasting throughout the season the Sunflower League Football Blog will have a new feature called "The Soundboard."  What exactly is it?  Think of the "Voices" section of the Kansas City Star's daily sports section and you'll have a good idea.  The entire basis of "The Soundboard" will be to increase player and fan interaction on the blog in a manner in which all commentators can remain anonymous.

To maintain anonymity, please submit all comments to me through one of three forms.  Email me at elias.m.underwood@gmail.com, direct message me on Twitter @eliunderwood or simply send me a message on Facebook.  Be sure to indicate that the comment is intended for the The Soundboard and include whether you are a player or fan to save time with the searching process.  I will not in any way publish your identity, your team, your association, or anything besides the comment for that matter, nor will I hold a comment against you or your team simply because it happens to not be completely appropriate and make The Soundboard.  What kind of comments, you ask?  Well, this is where it will get interesting.

I encourage creativity and the more creative the comments the more likely I am to publish them (I'll probably publish all comments within reason, but you get the idea).  Sound off on anything.  Critiques of other teams (both positive and negative), rumors, trash talk, observations, thoughts, humor, etc.  I want to capture the things that get talked about but never truly have a medium for being exposed to the masses.  For instance, there's always Twitter chatter and talk between teams, but the majority of those who follow the league never catch any of this.  And much of the behind the scenes talk of other teams never even makes Twitter, but this will be an opportunity for that to get out.

Anything goes, and at the end of the day I'll be filtering what gets published.  So if you're not sure if your comment is Soundboard appropriate, submit it and the worst thing that will happen is that it won't be published (I think you'll be surprised with how much I intend on publishing).  Don't worry about the length of your comment either, because one of the real advantages of a blog is that space is not an issue.  Here's a look at how anonymously all comments will be appear on The Soundboard.

Players

"Team X won't be able to keep up with team Y, they just don't have the speed."

"The most overrated team we've played this season had been team Z, by far!"

Fans

"Heard a rumor that So-and-So is unhappy with playing time and considering transferring next season."

The quotes will appear as they do above, completely free of citation, with the only distinction being ambiguous "Players" and "Fans" section divisions.  And if you're afraid I'm trying to recreate some TMZ forum here, don't fret.  The same weekly coverage, statistics, prognostications and analysis that I've provided from the past four years will be in place.  The Soundboard will just offer an easier means of player and fan interactions via social media.

So in the meantime, get the comments rolling in and keep them coming.  Note that some grammatical changes will be made when necessary, but overall I'll work to keep the comments in their truest form.  And lastly, comments on posts are still strongly encouraged, but like always a username will be required for those comments.

Eli Underwood

10 comments:

MahValley said...

One change I would like to see is the interception stats. An interception is a change of posession wether it is returned for a TD or not it should be counted as such.

Eli Underwood said...

Not sure I'm following you there... all of the interception stats listed have always been just that, a change of possession. There is a category within those stats that lists how many interception returns for touchdowns a player has, but a pick is a pick and it's listed as such.

Firebyrd said...

Thanks, should be a fun season and interesting blog.

Unknown said...

Clever idea, Eli. The Soundboard sounds like an interactive way to facilitate communication between Sunflower League followers and players.

You'll have to keep me informed of the more ridiculous and humorous submissions you receive. :)

MahValley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MahValley said...

Interceptions (Based on return yardage)

Sorry about previous comment, the above is what I was talking about. It appears that several players have been left off the list. I could be wrong though;).

Eli Underwood said...

MahValley - I'm still not sure what you're getting at. If you're referencing SM Northwest I know that they don't always submit defensive statistics. That may be why a player would be missing from that list.

Govannon Grey said...

I have to give you credit. This soundboard is a great way to get people back on with fun 'chatter' who may be afraid otherwise being identified with comments, as well as making sure no pure idiots are posting things like "Ur Gay dude"

Govannon Grey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MahValley said...

Eli, Thanks, that clears things up. I was not really talking about smnw but the not reporting makes sense. I travel around the league every week and know for sure that a couple of kids are missing from the list.