The Swamp

rass wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 6:41 am I count at least 6 separate articles about the Panthers trade for Darnold on the "front page" and at least one other on the fallout for other teams after the trade, along with 5 distinct photos of Darnold.

Are you enjoying the Julio Jones coverage? Five of the top six headlines at the top of the page. Fourteen total articles, including duplicates, with his own dedicated section. And three tweets, in the new useless Twitter section.

Yet, with the new redesign, articles about the Penguins and Oilers sometimes never make it to my front page. I can tolerate a little bit of nonsense, but if it interferes with the stuff that I'm paying for, that's a problem.

(And yes, I'm annoyed with some of the changes in the Firefox redesign that I'm unable to fix. And don't get me started on horseless carriages. Or talkies. I hate change!)

As a fan of UConn Men's basketball, I share in your frustration.

EnochRoot wrote: ↑Sun Jun 06, 2021 6:03 pm As a fan of UConn Men's basketball, I share in your frustration.

They know our preferences, what we read and don't read. I've never clicked on a Julio Jones article, so why show me 14 of them?

The hockey coverage is still excellent, but I have to search for it more than I used to. There are probably others who haven't searched and are simply reading less. (As a few others said in this thread a couple of months ago.) That leads to lapsed subscriptions.

I just don't understand why every single page redesign leads to a more user-unfriendly experience.

How well do you know the NHL rulebook?

I consider myself a knowledgeable hockey fan and my result was pathetically bad. Per the author, I qualify "as reliable as an NHL referee’s microphone".

Damningly brutal piece of allegations against Syracuse's women's basketball coach.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Mon Jun 28, 2021 5:48 pm How well do you know the NHL rulebook?

I consider myself a knowledgeable hockey fan and my result was pathetically bad. Per the author, I qualify "as reliable as an NHL referee’s microphone".

That was such a well written quiz. There were very few answers you could write off immediately as wrong so either you knew the answer or it was a 25% shot.

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 29, 2021 9:42 am Damningly brutal piece of allegations against Syracuse's women's basketball coach.

As bad as that coach is, the victim-blaming in the response from the Syracuse Athletic Department is even worse to me. (Paraphrasing) "Well, if you reported this in a timely manner, then maybe we could've done something. It's not on us that we don't follow up on exit interviews, or even show up for zoom meetings."

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 29, 2021 10:37 am

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 29, 2021 9:42 am Damningly brutal piece of allegations against Syracuse's women's basketball coach.

As bad as that coach is, the victim-blaming in the response from the Syracuse Athletic Department is even worse to me. (Paraphrasing) "Well, if you reported this in a timely manner, then maybe we could've done something. It's not on us that we don't follow up on exit interviews, or even show up for zoom meetings."

Oh, absolutely. The AD brushing it all off with "everything's fine" comments after 12 players entered the transfer portal after this season doesn't look so great now.

former ESPN executive-turned school administrator wrote:We also implore student-athletes to be candid in their exit interviews.

Motherfucker, how much more candid do you need than this?

One player said she filled out and submitted an online questionnaire about her experience that was supplied to her by a school employee. In response to a question about the weaknesses of the coaching staff, she wrote: “Ego, manipulation, controlling, disrespectful to women/girls, anger issues, mood swings, gas-lighting (sic), lying, emotionally abusive, not caring, doesn’t communicate, doesn’t follow through, empty threats (fear tactics), anytime any girl is talked to we are disrespected in some way.” No one from the school followed up with her to learn more.

Add in the handling of the Chase Scanlan issue and the SU athletic department having a rough few months.

Now a couple recent star players from the women's basketball program are defending the coach. Going great.

The part that I am curious about, and not limited to just this scenario, is how we always hear from successful players who enjoyed their time with the team/at school, love the coach/program, and are always happy to talk about their experiences, yet no one ever even asks dissatisfied players (whether they transferred out or just muddled through their time as less successful players) what their experience was like.

"John Wilkes Booth didn't shoot a President in the one play I saw him in."

I am a mark for Pablo Mauer (MLSist). He is just a weird DC person. Got his gig covering DC United and paid the bills as an auto mechanic fixing exotic cars. He is the reason I subscribe to the Athletic. Just don't want him to go back to fixing up strange Dodges and such. He takes on the strangest topics...well today's is right up there. Tracking down the guys in the Crew logo.

https://theathletic.com/2682819/2021/07 ... -mls-logo/

That was great

wlu_lax6 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 01, 2021 7:22 am I am a mark for Pablo Mauer (MLSist). He is just a weird DC person. Got his gig covering DC United and paid the bills as an auto mechanic fixing exotic cars. He is the reason I subscribe to the Athletic. Just don't want him to go back to fixing up strange Dodges and such. He takes on the strangest topics...well today's is right up there. Tracking down the guys in the Crew logo.

https://theathletic.com/2682819/2021/07 ... -mls-logo/

That’s a tremendous piece. Thanks for sharing.

Today’s piece about PGA Tour player Harry Higgs is tremendous. Gotta respect the zero fucks given attitude he has.

Anyone need a free 30 day pass? Just got the email again. I've got 5 to give out.

Sabo wrote: ↑Wed Dec 16, 2020 10:05 am

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Wed Dec 16, 2020 10:03 am Pretty damning article on Omar Vizquel.

Yes, that was a depressing read. It's hard to find athletes to look up to these days.

Not the Athletic, but...

There seem to be a lot of stupid shit an editor should catch at the Athletic lately. Seems like a typo or a missing word in nearly every article. BUt this is also fucking lazy:

If Wentz is healthy, the most likely scenario is that he settles in somewhere between the guy we saw in 2017 (one of the NFL’s best starters) and the guy we saw in 2020 (one of the NFL’s worst starters)

WTF. That is shit analysis. Overanalysis really. No reason to not just say "the mist likely scenario is a mid-level Qb." Which is how you can describe about 20 QBs every damn season.

I was making that point about another outfit the other day. I get that they are running bare-bones shops, but just reading behind yourself (as shitty as a self-editor as most of us are) would catch most of this stuff. The typos and missing words are the ones that really get me... just lazy.

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Tue Aug 10, 2021 12:39 pm The typos and missing words are the ones that really get me... just lazy.

Yeah me to

But overall, yes, I agree there are some serious quality discrepancies between their best and worst. I don't want anyone to lose their jobs, but when the inevitable happens I hope the "ha, we just signed the biggest (team) writer in the local market away" are given a nice retirement and its not the mostly younger writers doing the serious analysis getting cut loose.

mister d wrote: ↑Tue Aug 10, 2021 12:44 pm [editor's note: We think AB meant "must" where he wrote "mist" in the 4th paragraph]

DAMMIT.

A_B wrote: ↑Tue Aug 10, 2021 11:53 am WTF. That is shit analysis. Overanalysis really. No reason to not just say "the mist likely scenario is a mid-level Qb." Which is how you can describe about 20 QBs every damn season.

Every analysis could be like that...."He could be awesome...he could be shit. Probably somewhere in the middle".

mister d wrote: ↑Tue Aug 10, 2021 12:44 pm [editor's note: We think AB meant "must" where he wrote "mist" in the 4th paragraph]

[...and by fourth we mean third]

A_B wrote: ↑Tue Aug 10, 2021 11:53 am There seem to be a lot of stupid shit an editor should catch at the Athletic lately. Seems like a typo or a missing word in nearly every article. BUt this is also fucking lazy:

If Wentz is healthy, the most likely scenario is that he settles in somewhere between the guy we saw in 2017 (one of the NFL’s best starters) and the guy we saw in 2020 (one of the NFL’s worst starters)

WTF. That is shit analysis. Overanalysis really. No reason to not just say "the mist likely scenario is a mid-level Qb." Which is how you can describe about 20 QBs every damn season.

Agree that it's a cliched piece of sports writing, but that doesn't even qualify as analysis. Basically it's saying that he'll play somewhere between his all-time best and his all-time worst which is a statement that can be applied to every single athlete ever.

For the third time in about two months, they've given me 30-day guest passes. I actually should have ten to give away, as they sent them to me twice in less than three weeks.

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 1:01 pm For the third time in about two months, they've given me 30-day guest passes. I actually should have ten to give away, as they sent them to me twice in less than three weeks.

My $1/month yearly sub was about to expire and I just didn't want to pay the $8 a month since I'm paying for defector, but they knocked it down to $1.80 for an additional year so I re-upped.

But I also have guest passes if anyone needs one.

oh man. I didn't really want to read that but I'm glad I did - how fng unthinkable; that poor family.

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Sep 23, 2021 3:50 pm ‘His name is Sang. He is a pitcher.’

dammit

That gutted me. What an amazing father.

The national NFL writer profiled Central Michigan's LT, an Austrian who is projected as a possible first-round draft pick this year.

I didn't learn until reading this story that his journey to the NFL began by being an exchange student living with a guy I know from college (which is how he ended up playing football at CMU in the first place. The father of his exchange family was a CMU football player in the mid-90s.)

Since I seem to be (justifiably) either ripping or just ignoring the Sabres left and right, I'll drop a positive article here on the legend Rick Jeanneret...

‘Let’s celebrate this guy’: Rick Jeanneret, the choreographer of Sabres memories, enters his final season

As of 7:26AM NJ time I can't find an article on last night's MLB game. The live blog is still live, though.

Wow. Shoved that article right up Rass's ass, huh?

Please. Definitely wasn't in "my" feed and didn't see it on the MLB front page or the dedicated "Dodgers vs Giants" real-time feed either.

Besides having a $12 year new subscribers deal, mlist (Paublo M) has a good article on Bruce Arena's first coaching job at University of Puget Sound.