Congratulations on making it to public beta! Your site will be publicly visible on Wednesday afternoon.
However, before your move forward, I wanted to point out a few things that concerned us.
- A number of questions look like general reference. We've noticed that there are a number of questions concerning the rules of various sporting activities, or basic sporting history. These things are what we would consider "general reference," in that they're easily searched for on Google, or are found in Wikipedia with minimal effort. We strongly discourage questions like this! They don't make a site look good, and they yield more novice-level questions, which in turn won't attract experts.
- The site's audience is unclear. This is possibly partially the fault of the Community Team, but there is a need here for the community to decide who is wanted on here: do you want the athletes themselves, the experts at performing in an athletic event? Super-fans of a sport, the type who obsessively track statistics and argue about which third string rookie player is superior, the kinds who watch every minute of every draft and game and highlight reel? Casual armchair fans, who watch major games and know the bare minimum of a sport? Coaches, who mentor and train and help hone a player / athlete to peak performance? All of them -- and if so, is that realistic and/or viable? There's a number of ways this site could pan out; it's important that the community set the tone for the audience early on -- now! -- while the site is new and malleable.
- There is a degree of overlap with Fitness.SE. This is the lowest-priority issue on this list, but it's something I feel is important to be aware of moving forward. The "line" between Fitness and Sports will likely never be demarcated in a distinct and obvious way. However, as we move into public beta, the community must work to make a larger distinction between the sites. Specifics and grey areas will be worked out on a case-by-case basis, but the site's focus and target audience should be made distinct from Fitness. Effectively, this concern relies on the previous two.
Be cognizant of these issues moving forward. And, once more, congratulations on making it to public beta! I firmly believe this site could be very successful once these issues are ironed out. :D
