As I end my second season blogging here at ATQ, I want to take a moment to reflect on the blog--both where we have come, and what my goals are for the future. This season has been both incredibly exciting and incredibly frustrating at ATQ, but the positives have far outweighed the negatives.
Football season was amazing. We had the jersey contest and was able to use that as a tool to build a community here at ATQ. We have had incredible posters this football season--not only ntrebon and jtlight who contibute, but GangGreenCA, SnoConeGod, jteubs, butthol, bradLL99, and a ton of others that are just too many to list here. And although the lack of coverage during basketball season (my fault) took a little steam out of that, the community we have here is strong and growing. We won the college football award for best Pac-10 blog--which is more a reflection on all of you than it is on me. I've said it before--its really easy to post when you know that there is going to be a ton of insightful conversation about everything. And, if something is left unsaid, I know that you all have my back on the diaries. You all make this blog what it is--and I thank you for that.
You also know that I have been very frustrated by the patchy basketball coverage due to the fact that I coach high school basketball here in the Portland area. This is my biggest regret, and it is my vow to fix it by the time next season rolls around.
This upcoming season will be year three for ATQ--and I have many goals to make it even better. We'll have news, spring ball updates, and football previews all offseason to keep us occupied. The jersey contest will return, which hopefully will spur even more people to set up an account and become members of the community. The full week of game previews and blog collaborations that I have gotten good feedback on will continue also. Basically, everything you enjoyed about last football season will be back.
So, what will change? I've already said that basketball coverage must improve, and I'll make it my vow to do that. I also want daily news updates in the morning on the blog. Nick and I did that a lot during football season, but have kind of gotten away from it. I'll be honest--its not easy for me to blog at work, which is really the best time to update the news of the day. But I'll get in touch with Nick and Jared to see if we can't pull something together. Finally, next year will mark the first year of baseball at UO since 1981, and, as long as the television and radio contracts make it feasible to actually follow the team if you don't live in Eugene, I'll try to give that as much coverage as I do basketball and football as well.
Finally, there is one more thing you need to know. SB Nation, which is the network that has provided the site to us free of charge, is changing their blogging platform. Those of you who are on other SBN blogs probably know about this already. If not, check out Lookout Landing as an example. It is likely that all SBN blog will be migrated to that format before summer rolls around. There are a lot of pluses, such as network-wide accounts, fanshots, and a layout that will make it much easier to search the site. Because of the network-wide logins, you will have to register again, only the new login will be good for all SBN sites. You may want to create a login now on one of those sites to ensure that you get the login you want.
There is also one more thing I want to do next year. I want to have some sort of a meetup event where ATQers can meetup and go to a game together. Because of our large Chicago readership, I wish that we could do one in the Windy City, but I just don't have the extra income at this point to afford a plane ticket to Chicago. However, I'd like to have one in Oregon. Because I'm not sure it would be easy to purchase group tickets for a football game, I'm thinking a basketball game may be the best way to pull that off. Whether we want to do that in Eugene or in Portland at the Pape Jam is something we can talk about. But, if we can get at least 10-15 people to commit, that would be something that would be fun.
I have a lot of fun here, and I'll keep this place going as long as it looks like others are having fun, too.
Please use this thread for any suggestions on things that you would like to see here.
GO DUCKS!!!
--Dave
P.S.--I also want to give a shoutout to Peter Bean at Burnt Orange Nation, who gave me the opportunity to do this with zero blogging experience, which is rare by SBN standards. I've kind of been figuring this out on the fly over the last couple of years, but I think its developing nicely.