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Step one into getting a blog for Sports SE was to poll for interest. After no objections (three upvotes and two contributing volunteers), we are ready to investigate defining the scope and purpose of Sports SE's blog...which may or may not be a challenge.

So how does my site get a community blog?

(2) Define the scope and purpose of the blog. Is the blog about the site? Is it about the site’s topic? Is it about the industry around the topic? Keep in mind the audience of your community and their interests. Another generic blog about may not be all that interesting. A community blog should be interesting to both current members and potential new members.

This one's easy, right? Our scope is sports. Our purpose is sports. Do we need to further define? Will the blog be a hodgepodge or a diverse variety of journalistic effort?

What will the scope and purpose and Sports SE's blog be?

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  • Any other insight, community?
    – user527
    Jul 3, 2013 at 15:33

3 Answers 3

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I think those that decide to write blog posts should pick topics they are knowledgeable about and provide posts that are interesting to your average sports fan. We probably should write about things happening in sports that are notable because they're a record or a rare occurrence or because the writer can provide some unique insight.

I think we should probably avoid writing about things that you could read about if you browsed the sports section of a news website. For example, the recent PED scandal in baseball.

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  • There's a fine line between mainstream and interesting. Unique insight will be our selling point if we choose to stay away from "hot" sports stories.
    – user527
    Jun 6, 2013 at 17:24
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I am a bit torn on this, I don't think having the rules of the game for many disciplines, is a meaningful investment of time.

Writing about famous sports events is also tricky, as any reference to facts (numbers, reports, images etc) will have to come from the press, which will certainly have a blog-like article to go with it.

So far I can see two major uses for a blog on Sports.SE:

  1. Giving feedback to the users, in the form of discussion of recent question trends, statistics on the site usage etc. This would effectively be some sort of community "management". (quotation marks are to indicate that it is not an active way of managing, but rather building an opinion on current matters of the site).

  2. Featuring articles with quality material that are results of accumulated experience and opinions, authored by users. This could serve as a basis for user interaction with the site, and perhaps attract more users. I realize that it's treading on a fine line here, nobody wants Sports.SE to become a place where supporters of different teams argue with one another, but I think we should also not be very afraid to keep the blog devoid of any personal touch (e.g. analysis of teams/events). The blog entries on SE sites so far all seemed to have some spirit of their own, reflecting the author behind the keyboard.

I have learned to appreciate these personal touches, even though I do not agree with some opinions put forth (for instance that closed questions on SE sites have only two long-term future that make sense; re-opening or deletion). As long as the barriers of respect are not crossed, I honestly feel some debate might do the site some good, it's too "sterile" as it is.

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  • 1) Hmm... We had an explosion of cricket questions for a while...but overall, stats and trends have been rather consistent. Something like this may come across as authoritative vs. informing the community...and we would need to have community participation to make such a blog post worthwhile. 2) We would have to set up rules bloggers follow when it comes to bias and respecting others' opinions. I have found sports debate shows to be entertaining, and feel we could do "controlled" debates to garner interest and participation.
    – user527
    Jun 14, 2013 at 13:39
  • @edmastermind29 I dont follow your reasoning behind your concern on (1). As for (2), sounds like a good idea :)
    – posdef
    Jun 19, 2013 at 13:32
  • @edmastermind29 ok now after watching the video you linked, I suggest we take it a step or two calmer in case we do go for some sort of debate
    – posdef
    Jun 19, 2013 at 13:41
  • Perhaps I don't understand your (1) fully...it sounds like you want to inform the community of recent site usage and noticeable trends, but I'm not following the reasoning behind blogging about it as stats and trends are rather consistent.
    – user527
    Jun 19, 2013 at 14:17
  • Totally agree with your "calmer" point...just throwing an example out there.
    – user527
    Jun 19, 2013 at 14:17
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My Suggestions -

  1. Sports Blog should contain a range of FAQ's from Sports site.

  2. We should publicise each game information or the question on Sports which do so

  3. What about taking suggestions for the blog posts in a private chat where any user who doesn't think he doesn't have sense to write a post but has a good quality information can suggest those in chat which in future can be added to the site.
  4. Sports blog should have quality link preference for the basic rules of the games such as i consider Lords a good site for cricket rules.Such more sites reference can be provided.
  5. Blog should also contain a range of new,hot questions on Sports which have a good quality answers.
  6. Why to be on sports? we must have some sort of the page which will help a new user t understand what kind of sit Sports is he must know about the activities on Sports which will help the user to full fill his Sports Need from training to a sports fan.

I will add more when it comes to my mind.

Please let me know if my suggestions are really helpful.

And feel free to criticise me as a part of discussion.

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  • 1
    Overall, good suggestions. My comments to suggestions: 1) That's a start, but we don't necessarily have to constrain to that. 2) Not sure I follow... 3) Offer suggestions, sure. If a user has good info, s/he could write it and we can help. 4) If applicable. Not every blog will have the need for links. 5) This is akin to asking a ruling question on Q&A and blogging about the occurrence. 6) This relates to Sports SE overall...and we hope to have already covered that here.
    – user527
    Jun 7, 2013 at 14:17

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