Enhancement ideas for NSBB

[Tim]

A little background first – for those that don’t know, I’ve been involved in an all-consuming project in my day job for the past 12 months. As a result, my ability to add anything to the site has been severely curtailed. Well, the project is finally ending (and I am leaving that job just to be safe!). Now that I’m going to have more time again, it’s time to start looking at enhancements for NSBB.

 

In general, what you’ll see below is that I want to build an infrastructure where the community can build a great knowledge base on various topics. The order of the topics below isn’t entirely random, but it isn’t ordered by any means either. Please let me know what you think, what you’d spend time contributing to, what you’d spend time reading and what might you think might get people talking about the site and coming to visit.

 

Thanks!

[Guest]

1) Contractwiki.nsbb.com

 

TransmogrifiedTiger and I worked on getting a contract database online last year and both ran into time constraints. I’d really like to get this up and running to enable downstream enhancement ideas, though. So my idea is to create a contract wiki where everyone could come in and add / modify contracts. Of course, full versioning control would have to be implemented and users would have to gain / lose privileges based on feedback. But I think it could be the only site on the web where the contract information would not only be complete, but also be regularly updated.

 

2) Blogs.nsbb.com

 

• I was considering ways to get more content onto the site by bringing on additional writers. This seems to be a great way to create a win-win environment. NSBB can provide a great set of viewers and writers can provide additional content to bring in even more viewers. Each blogger would get the revenue from the google ads on their pages. NSBB would benefit from the additional readers coming to the site. I’ll have to think about whether there should be revenue sharing from the ads or if there should be a small monthly fee for the writing space, but I think there’s a way to make it fair for everyone.

 

3) Stats.nsbb.com

 

• Bob’s Keeper and I were working to get a very significant and sophisticated set of stats and visualization tools up and running. That is still one of my primary near-term goals. It would be a stats database unlike anything out there on the web (that I’ve seen anyway).

 

4) Transactionwiki.nsbb.com

 

• Much like the contract wiki, I’d like to build a transaction wiki to allow users to maintain the database of transactions taking place at the minor and major league levels.

 

5) Players.nsbb.com

 

• I’d like to build player pages that gathered the stats, contract and transactions for each player. I’d also perform background web searches for information on the players and present an up-to-date list of articles and other information on them.

 

6) Scoutingwiki.nsbb.com

 

• As the season goes on, we have a lot of people going to major and minor league games. I’d love to have a way of collecting the scouting reports on the players from the community. Input from different sources would have to be weighted over time in some manner to reflect the accuracy of the scout. As time went on, it would give the community a tremendous database of information on the players. This could even be used at the major league level to track subjective views of a player's defense, track stuff for pitchers, etc.

[Andy]

I could consider being a blogger. These look like pretty great ideas.

[Drew Doughty]

I could consider being a blogger. These look like pretty great ideas.

 

I agree with both statements.

[Guest]

What should come first?

[Drew Doughty]

The Blogs sound easiest, but the Stats sounded most interesting.

[WrigleyField 22]

I think I would rank the scoutingwiki as a major need. Out of all the things that people could already have a lot of access to the boards, scouting is probably the hardest to come by. Stats, Contracts, and Transactions are constantly being presented through the message board already by posters. At some point I guess it would be cool to have a collabrative effort to put all these things together in a database, but at this point there is a lot of info on those things everyday.

 

I'd rank it as

1-scouting

2-blogs

3/4-stats/contracts (can't decide)

5-players

6-transactions

 

All these ideas sound pretty exciting.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

I would choose something that would set the site apart from others first...like the stats or the contracts.

[Derwood]

Would all of these new tools be restricted just to the Cubs and their farm systems, or would you want content added from all teams?

 

For example, I live in a town with a NYPL team. The Cubs don't have a team in the NYPL, but perhaps people would be interested in scouting/transactions/blog reports on the league, especially those interested in tracking the newest draftees each year.

[Guest]

Would all of these new tools be restricted just to the Cubs and their farm systems, or would you want content added from all teams?

 

For example, I live in a town with a NYPL team. The Cubs don't have a team in the NYPL, but perhaps people would be interested in scouting/transactions/blog reports on the league, especially those interested in tracking the newest draftees each year.

The database would have all players (for various reasons), so there would be no need to restrict the input to just the Cubs system.

[Derwood]

Would all of these new tools be restricted just to the Cubs and their farm systems, or would you want content added from all teams?

 

For example, I live in a town with a NYPL team. The Cubs don't have a team in the NYPL, but perhaps people would be interested in scouting/transactions/blog reports on the league, especially those interested in tracking the newest draftees each year.

The database would have all players (for various reasons), so there would be no need to restrict the input to just the Cubs system.

 

cool, so there's room for contributions for those of us stranded in non-Cubs territory

[Guest]

Here's my thinking this morning on the sequence...

 

If I'm looking to get one of these done by the end of the year, the scouting enhancement would be lowest priority. That doesn't really help until spring training (at the earliest). The contract & transaction enhancements are probably most appropriate to the season. The blogs are year-round. The stats are most appropriate in-year, but can also be very interesting during the offseason. The player pages will probably be last because information from the other enhancements need to be built-in first.

[CubsInNC]

What should come first?

 

Tim,

 

I would suggest this order:

 

1)Stats.nsbb.com

Yeah, there are a lot of places online to find stats, but nothing that holds them all and keeps them quick at the fingertips. As much as we're mostly statheads, or at least, we realize their importance, this is probably the most logical place for us to start.

 

2)Players.nsbb.com

This is what the Cubs are about. For now, I'd have basic Bio information, etc on them, and the stats, once they're done. I'd leave table space to import the transaction and contract wiki data. But we follow the players. No one holds a dearer place in a Cubs fan's heart than the players on the team, or players who were on the team.

 

3)Scouting.nsbb.com

 

This is probably the next most important (to me) after stats. I don't live in cubville, or any of the surrounding minor league towns. But I do like to follow the people in the minors, as well as like to have access to any information I can get when the cubs acquire someone else's minor leaguers. The problem with this one is it will be the hardest to implement, imo, because of the vastness of the minor leagues, independant leagues, and foriegn markets.

 

4)blogs.nsbb.com (and I strongly encourage all bloggers to turn over ALL ad monies to Tim - we're in this for the love of the team, not the money!)

 

As we add features we'll need more money to support the excess bandwidth, and server load. I have a feeling that if all this is implemented that multiple servers could be needed to handle the load. The money for this has to come from somewhere. This would also allow some of our better writers and sportswriters to ply their trade in the online forum. And could lead to them getting the media access we all covet that Bruce has. :P

 

5)Contractwiki.nsbb.com

 

I'd say this is towards the bottom because there are good sources out there already for this information (Cot's, etc). It would be *very* nice if it was all kept on-hand but isn't a more "necessary" need than some of the others.

 

6)Transactionwiki.nsbb.com

 

Same goes with this as well. (Some) Different sources for this information, but it would be very handy to have it all together.

 

I'd be willing to help out any way I can.

[Derwood]

I would have no problem giving the blog ad money back to the site. Maybe for a Premium Membership in return? Or not, it's up to Tim. As I said, I volunteer to write about the NYPL if there is interest.

[Yeti]

Tim,

I love the ambition! Will this content be available to all users or just premium users or some combonation of both?

While I'm thinking that in the long run the scouting feature will be the most useful(for me anyway), considering that this is Hot Stove season transactions and contracts should be given priority.

I agree with CubsInNC that bloggers should be encouraged to send any Ad revenues back to NSBB.

Anyway thanks for continuing to improve the site

[Guest]

Tim,

I love the ambition! Will this content be available to all users or just premium users or some combonation of both?

While I'm thinking that in the long run the scouting feature will be the most useful(for me anyway), considering that this is Hot Stove season transactions and contracts should be given priority.

I agree with CubsInNC that bloggers should be encouraged to send any Ad revenues back to NSBB.

Anyway thanks for continuing to improve the site

The content would be available to all users. I'd actually be hoping that those portions of the site would become popular amongst non-cubs fans to draw additional viewers (and ad revenue) to the site.

[USSoccer]

Not only would I leap at the chance to Blog for NSBB, but I'd happily pay a monthly fee for the right to do so.

 

If you're looking to get additional revenue in order to help expidite the rest of the enhancements, the Blogs would be a good thing to put up first.

 

There are all fantastic ideas, Tim!

[Southpaw191679666239]

Tim,

 

I think these are all great ideas/improvements/additions/etc. At first thought, I wasn't confident I could write well enough for a blog, but I've been meaning to start one. NSBB would be good motovation to get the writing ideas going. :)

[Banedon]

Is it necessary to seperate the Wiki's? Could the contract, transactions, and scouting wikis' all be part of...say NorthsideBaseballWiki.com? or Wiki.Northsidebaseball.com...something like that. Is there value gained from seperating them out? It seems like being able to have be a "one stop shop" would be more valuable.

 

Great ideas though. Very exciting! :D

[Guest]

Is it necessary to seperate the Wiki's? Could the contract, transactions, and scouting wikis' all be part of...say NorthsideBaseballWiki.com? or Wiki.Northsidebaseball.com...something like that. Is there value gained from seperating them out? It seems like being able to have be a "one stop shop" would be more valuable.

 

Great ideas though. Very exciting! :D

Well, they could all be part of the same wiki, but I'd get them up and running separately. Ultimately, the information is going to be brought together for viewing on player pages and perhaps in other unique ways. But the input forms would certainly be distinct and would be brought online sequentially.

 

Of course, I have to figure out how to code the infrastructure for a wiki first. :D

[UMFan83]

Here is how I view the choices:

 

1. Contract Wiki: Cool idea, it would be a great reference for the users of this site as well as other sites. It would definitely be something that would seperate us from other message board/fan sites.

 

2. Blogs: I like this idea a lot too. I don't speak for the others on this site, but I don't think its necessary to give bloggers a share of the revenues of the site. I would think that most people would rather the revenues go towards keeping NSBB running strong and what not. If you do blogs, be sure to encompass a lot of different varieties and opinions. For instance there are a lot of technical posters on this site, but there are also a lot of funny, less serious posters. Each bring different angles to the forum, as they should to the blogs.

 

3. Stats: I like this idea if you can get it running fluidly. It might be difficult to update current stats regularly unless you have someone dedicated to updating and whatnot (if you are choosing to use season in progress stats instead of just past stats)

 

4. Transactions: I think this is decent, but it seems like there are many sites up there that keep others up to date about transactions, even on the minor league level. Perhaps resources could be better used then this. Just my opinion.

 

5. Players: This is pretty cool. I like some of the other suggestions better, but I would like something like this to be featured

 

6. Scouting: Just my opinion, but wouldn't it make more sense to just open a "Scouting Forum" on NSBB and let posters submit their scouting? just seems like it would be taking away from the forum aspect of the site to have a scouting wiki.

 

While we are on the topic of the site, I noticed you making some improvements on the searching. Is there any chance that the archives will be posted somewhere for viewing/searching? Do you even still have them or are they gone for good? Keep up the good work!

[Guest]

What should come first?

 

Tim,

 

I would suggest this order:

 

1)Stats.nsbb.com

Yeah, there are a lot of places online to find stats, but nothing that holds them all and keeps them quick at the fingertips. As much as we're mostly statheads, or at least, we realize their importance, this is probably the most logical place for us to start.

 

2)Players.nsbb.com

This is what the Cubs are about. For now, I'd have basic Bio information, etc on them, and the stats, once they're done. I'd leave table space to import the transaction and contract wiki data. But we follow the players. No one holds a dearer place in a Cubs fan's heart than the players on the team, or players who were on the team.

 

3)Scouting.nsbb.com

 

This is probably the next most important (to me) after stats. I don't live in cubville, or any of the surrounding minor league towns. But I do like to follow the people in the minors, as well as like to have access to any information I can get when the cubs acquire someone else's minor leaguers. The problem with this one is it will be the hardest to implement, imo, because of the vastness of the minor leagues, independant leagues, and foriegn markets.

 

4)blogs.nsbb.com (and I strongly encourage all bloggers to turn over ALL ad monies to Tim - we're in this for the love of the team, not the money!)

 

As we add features we'll need more money to support the excess bandwidth, and server load. I have a feeling that if all this is implemented that multiple servers could be needed to handle the load. The money for this has to come from somewhere. This would also allow some of our better writers and sportswriters to ply their trade in the online forum. And could lead to them getting the media access we all covet that Bruce has. :P

 

5)Contractwiki.nsbb.com

 

I'd say this is towards the bottom because there are good sources out there already for this information (Cot's, etc). It would be *very* nice if it was all kept on-hand but isn't a more "necessary" need than some of the others.

 

6)Transactionwiki.nsbb.com

 

Same goes with this as well. (Some) Different sources for this information, but it would be very handy to have it all together.

 

I'd be willing to help out any way I can.

Thanks for the detailed feedback. All I can say about having the contracts database here is that I have some downstream ideas on how to use that information. Here are a few examples: the database could be used for analyzing team structures and trying to discern tendencies of various GM's; combining it with stats to look at production per dollar or true player value: creating a "GM Simulator" that could be used to simulate trades, build teams, etc. There are more ideas beyond that, but it gives a flavor of why I want the database to be available on the site for other uses.

[Guest]

2. Blogs: I like this idea a lot too. I don't speak for the others on this site, but I don't think its necessary to give bloggers a share of the revenues of the site. I would think that most people would rather the revenues go towards keeping NSBB running strong and what not. If you do blogs, be sure to encompass a lot of different varieties and opinions. For instance there are a lot of technical posters on this site, but there are also a lot of funny, less serious posters. Each bring different angles to the forum, as they should to the blogs.

Some additional thoughts on the blogs and revenue...

 

I still want to have "official" writers for NSBB articles, as well. The writers are currently getting the entire google ad revenue from their articles. Instead of compensating the blog writers in the same way, I could just "promote" the most successful of the blog writers to official article writers. I definitely want some sort of reward to be out there for the bloggers if they do a good job. But if consensus were that it is fair for the bloggers to have to "earn" that reward, I'd obviously be fine with that, too.

Edited October 26, 2006 by Tim

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

Are the blogs going to be linked to the message boards so that people can discuss what the bloggers are writing about?

[Guest]

Are the blogs going to be linked to the message boards so that people can discuss what the bloggers are writing about?

That is my intent. Kind of like how the articles have a link to a thread down at the bottom. I might go one step further and display the messages in the thread at the bottom of the blog post, though. I'll have to think about the best way that can be done.