Folks seem to keep forgetting the insight in "Insightful FanPost"..

Will you marry me?

At the time of this comment, there are three FanShots back to back to back about Shannon signing with the Lakers. Do people not look at previous FanShots before posting, to make sure somebody else doesn’t already have the news topic covered?

Step #1 to creating a FanPost: Look at the recent FanPosts and see if what you are planning to write about offers different insight than what is already written.

Step #2: Actually offer an analysis based off of something other than pure opinion (or if it is pure opinion, craft it carefully).

Step #3: Read it and think about how you would feel if you were reading it for the first time.

Step #4: Look over it and see if Dex, C.A., wondah, etc. would actually consider it worth their time to read.

Step #5: Post and be ready to defend yourself.

For FanShots:
Step #1: See if it is already a FanShot.

Step #2: See if it is in the Credits.

More posters, more chances of “rubbish”. There’s a reason your front-page posters are front-page posters. It’s not just the talent, but the time they invest. And believe me, insight doesn’t just roll off, because more than likely, there’s research involved. Regardless, you have to really want to spend the time, and then sit back and hope that your work pays off.

Not to say I disagree with you, but the people you mention are diamonds in the rough.

Also, it’s off-season.

good write up ….up ^ there….lol

It made me want to read the WHOLE thing and was split into paragraphs! lol

I know i do alot of joking on this site and dont seem to serious, but hey whenever i am trying to get serious and write some long ass shit…..nobody ever responds to THOSE post of mine. So for now…..i shall stick with humor and fun. :)

Some people also need to learn from that and split their posts up.

We have two a month, over at AN. Then again we like our drama.

Extremely well said, Mex. I agree with you completely. We do pretty good around here, for the most part. Honestly, I think it’s a combination of two things, right now: (1) some of the regulars around here are taking a break during the off-season, because honestly, when you’re used to the level of interest present in the regular season and playoffs, the off-season gets to a point where it doesn’t capture your interest and you need a break before gearing up for the next season again; and (2) people who don’t usually watch and blog at the same time have come around to read and comment now that there aren’t any games on to watch, at the moment. It’s why we get significantly more traffic in July than we do in June — the month of the Finals, of repeat championships, etc.

So we’ve got fewer regulars and more n00bs who didn’t come around when they were busy watching basketball and not chewing gum. And that’s fine — they generally figure it out. It’s a higher standard here, and it can take a moment to realize that and start marching to the beat of that drum. In the end, though, I think that more often than not this community tends to raise the bar for everyone who comes here, and a lot of people come and, once they figure it out, rise to the expectations.

That said, it certainly doesn’t hurt to actually put it in words every now and then, a brief FYI/reminder to everyone, new or old, of how we like to do things around here. People see it and tend to get on board. Hopefully your post will serve as a call to arms, and everyone here will make an extra effort to make the summer interesting and insightful.

Which — let’s be honest — is easier said than done. This is the time of year when Dex is writing about hot dogs and cheerleaders, after all.

And to close, let me just say, again, very well said with this post. Keep it up, and at some point, someone around here might offer you a well-paying job as a writer. And by well-paying, I mean not at all.

This.

X 1000

even the Create-A-Captions are notoriously bad now (sigh)

I think YOU should write more fan posts. I wish I could write off the top of my head and make it as good as this post. Im jealous. : ) j/k.

i think my career-defining comment so far was when i wished theo ratliff was my dad. yeah, i was proud of that.

…compared to other NBA fan blogs in SB Nation.

It’ll probably seem like I’m missing the point here at first, but hear me out for a little :)

There are a lot of reasons why most people like me are lurkers on blogs like this for about 95% of the time.
Most of the time it’s because we may feel that the lack of knowledge regarding the topic we have in our heads may take away from an otherwise very fruitful discussion with others (After all, didn’t our mothers always teach us “If you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything at all”?).
Sometimes though, most of us just simply really enjoy reading through every bit of information posted, sifting through all the splendid (and most often humorous) back-and-forths between the regulars, and just plain absorbing and digesting everything in our minds, relishing every bit of it to our satisfaction.

However though, there are some times where it’s just easy to feel like you know much, much more than what you really do after reading through a lot of other people’s insights in their articles and comments, so it’s understandable why people succumb into posting what you have described in this article.
Most of the time when that happens, we post on a strong surge of a whim, and we just end up mirroring what other people have already mentioned and sometimes sprinkle in a little too much of our own personal seasonings on it, which often, more or less, doesn’t really help the discussion other than incite or provoke emotions from others as well, assuming some sort of disagreement is to be had.
In doing this of course, more often than not we end up ruining what it was what we loved so much about it in the first place.

That said, I think this article really speaks out testaments to how we should maintain the quality of this blog… not by withholding our opinions/ insights/ ideas by not posting of course, but merely by thinking first before doing so. Thank you good sir for posting this. ヽ(´ー`)人(´∇｀)人(`Д´)ノ

back to lurking… again :p