What makes a good fan post?

Or not, newcomers might be scared. :-)

take Sophia’s most recent fanpost for example. This was really only a copied photo and a couple open-ended questions. Still, it generated as much conversation as a Rudy gameday and even maxed out the Dave-o-meter. This would fly in the face of many of your rules, no? It got a bunch of recs, so perhaps we could consider a “catalyst for conversation” item to be added to the list? I’m not saying it was a good essay – it wasn’t an essay at all – but it was successful – BEdge successful -, so are we talking snooty book-smarts successful or hustlin’ street-smarts successful?

I think this should at least enter into the equation.

I will post something that is a little on the fringe. Maybe it has a very loose tie-in to the Blazers. But when Fanposts are very busy, I’ll just make a note to myself and post a few days later. Nothing is more frustrating to me than to see an interesting topic get knocked down the list when several Fanposts are similar to one another above it. (Edit your settings to 20 Fanposts on your screen and that helps to solve this problem.)

Other aspects of a good fanpost include numbered lists (check), bold fonts for headings (swing and a miss), shout outs to the Blogfather (check), all caps (check), a snappy/succinct title (sort of check), and inane predictions (no check).

Nicely done.

Prezofdeath in his latest Junk Drawer linked to my latest FanShot on the Blazers winning the 2008 Prism Award. Myemic commented that I should move it into the FanPost section. I put it in the FanShots because I didn’t think there would be more than passing interest about it, but maybe I misjudged. What do you think?

That leads to the obvious question: When should an item be a FanPost and when should it be a FanShot?

Don’t Post On Friday?? Or is this just a slow day?

Alternate theory: Most Blazers fans (and BEdgers) live in Utah and work for the state. They have instituted a 4 day work week, leaving them to spend time with their families, get work done at home, etc. on Friday. Only on Mon thru Thurs do they have serious time to dedicate to BlazersEdge.

So, fellow Utahans (Utanians? Utes?), how ’bout that unfortunate collapse of the rock arch? Were any of your homes, vehicles, pets or Blazers shrines struck in the collapse?

If people write a comment or fanpost with a link, assume that no one will click it. So if you link an article give us some quotes and a quick overview. Same with videos or podcasts. All my really bad diaries were basically a link and then my take on the link. All the discussion that followed ended up being focused on my crappy diary an not the link that I wanted everyone to discuss.

P.S.

Brevity is the bee’s knees. link

Before you post a fanpost.. read the fanshots.. half the time what you are about to share is already there..

Should always include re-written song lyrics to old classic rock songs.

(sample) An ode to ol 88 (Based on Behind Blue Eyes by The Who)

No one knows what it’s like
to be called Batman
To be a Frenchman
Behind brown eyes

No one knows what it’s like
To be rocked
To be stalked
By Sophia’s lonely eyes

But my dreams
They aren’t as empty
As my playin’ time seems to be

I have hours, only lonely
My love is Round-ball
That no one will see

Called you were always on my mind but then I found out it is a Hank Williams song,what can a poor boy do?

I’ve had a few posts live at the top of the rec page and then I’ve had others that have generated some decent discussion but it seems like no one likes it.

I think the best ones are the posts that give a perspective you’ll hear nowhere else. An interesting thesis, either in the title or the lead, is about half the battle to me. Whether you can turn that into something more is the tough part.

above are referring to an “outstanding” fan post, IMHO. There’s a difference between good and outstanding. Combining several of jscot’s points would create an outstanding post while using one of the lesser ones might not even equal good.

It might be interesting to create a list of attributes < good. (Since using < and > seems to be part of the popular culture nowadays. I won’t confess how many years it took me to remember which was which. …)

I would like to add a suggestion that a good fanpost would have a title that gives you a pretty good idea of what the post is about. Like this one. Be clever in the main post, not the headline.

Don’t confuse facts and opinon. I almost zinged jscot on this one when he wrote “Brandon’s ability to penetrate and score against almost anyone…” but I realized on second thought that it would be hard to find anyone knowledgeable who would disagree so it is a fact. But lots of things said about Oden, Rudy, & Bayless are still in the realm of conjecture as we’ve not seen them in action against NBA competition for 82 games. Or even 41. Many posters do acknowledge their comments as conjecture, but others do not. Even just adding “I think” to a nebulous fact makes it easier to accept.

Re: spelling. At least proof read your title. I have to confess that I will not read a fanpost if there is a typo in the title. If you can’t proof read your title, then you maybe didn’t proof your thinking either.

Ya gotta spill yer innards. To be picked over and slipped on, if’n you want to see what peeps can find here.