A letter to the KUsports.com staff.

Posted by Hawksboy88 July 9, 2012 at 11:40 a.m.

Here are a few recomendations that I am sure would be appreciated by myself and the fans as well.

KU sports is all about the fans. And we would like a place to talk. You already do a great job with the comments section on the articles. By why a so pushed to the side blog section on the main page? Lots of us would like to shout out our opinions and put in the effort to write something, but it is like nearly every post will go unnoticed. It is likely that this one will as well. All we are asking for is a new, glorified blogging system. It would be widely appreciated from all fans including ones like myself, who want to write big blog articles but feel it won't get the views.
A dedicated "Fan Photos" section. One of the biggest issues with the blog board is that it is being used for fans cough Jaybate cough to post pictures to. Drowning out any article that I'm sure someone put lots of time in to. And with only 5 blog posts per home page (an issue, see list item No.1) it takes no time at all for that to happen.
And 3... we need better profiles. Jayhawk fans want to connect with other Jayhawk fans. Maybe share recruitment rumors or even share opinions for a friendly banter. But other then the comment sections we can't even do that! I am calling for an update to the fan profile pages. More customization, a wall or some sort for other users to post on, and so on.

All easy requests that could bolster the KUsports.com fan experience by quite a sum. Please hear me out on this. And fans share your opinions below on anything else you would like to see. These are simple and needed changes to this website. Please follow up. Keep up the great work staff.

Hawksboy88

Rock Chalk Jayhawk

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HouTexHawk 10 months ago

Interesting that you have received no comments. I agree with all of your points. I do like to get into discussions with other KU fans and sometimes that happens when posting to a specific article, but I don't always get to the article within a few hours after LJW posted it and often my comments are posted late. I may not agree with everyone's perspective but I enjoyed reading them.

jross1972 10 months ago

No comments because JB has singe-handedly killed the blogs.

waywardJay 10 months ago

get over it, Jross. He's free to post what he wants too.

jross1972 10 months ago

Wayward. Tell the rest of the blogging community to get over it too. They've all disappeared thanks to ya boy.

waywardJay 10 months ago

spoken as someone who knows his answer is correct, and in no other way possible for their explained absence. If there were a dozen donuts.... and now there are 2 donuts... Someone ate those 10 donuts, and that someone must be one person....

Give me a break, Jross.

jross1972 10 months ago

But what if only one person in the room has doughnut crumbs all over his mouth and shirt, and his is the only breath that wreaks of bear claws and so on? Some things are obvious.

HouTexHawk 10 months ago

Maybe need to create something away from LJW with access by invitation only. I'm curious sometimes about the backgrounds of some of the frequent posters. Do we really have 40 and 50 years old feeling compelled to continue to write 'muck fizzou'? Or are these guys teens and college students? A lot of people have interesting insights. Some people still live in the Lawrence area where KU sports is a dominant topic while others who live in other places don't get a lot of local news about KU and realize that what is big news in KC doesn't hit the radar outside.

jross1972 10 months ago

The LJW, to their credit, has been very responsive to their readers. Surprisingly so, in fact. In ten years (perhaps a little less, but not much) I have been impressed on the handful of occasions where Ive petitioned for this or that, and have received satisfactory replies in a timely manner, with the exception of ONCE. I brought up the issue to KUSports with regard to the blogs and how paintshopping photos and plastering them to the blog section not only flew in the face of the blog section, but also discouraged real blogging by the logic given above. I got NO reply. I've wondered about this, and my best guess is an attempt by LJW to try to avoid censorship of anything that is not blatantly disrespectful. However, when you own and manage a site, you set the rules. I'd wager, for example, that if you could only blog once a week then bloggers would return, because The One Who Shall Not Be Named would be prevented from drowning out others' voices. In any case, Id like to keep the blogs here, but it appears its gonna take some finagling of the current allowances by KUsports to build a robust blogging community.

waywardJay 10 months ago

That's precisely the reason they didn't do, you were outright advocating censorship.

jross1972 10 months ago

You are wrong. It's not censorship if you set rules to say people can blog X amounts of times in Y amount of days.

waywardJay 10 months ago

clearly they thought that rule applied and booted his *ss. Wait, they didn't ? Nice try.

jross1972 10 months ago

The key word here is "if", as in "if" they decided to do that, it wouldn't be censorship.

justinryman 10 months ago

I can't write a blog on here unless I email a staffer to get permission.

I feel like I'm on probation for my blog about firing Keegan. I knew it would never happen, but I thought it would be fun to see what people would say.

Now if I want to write a blog I have to submit the subject matter and have them unlock the gate to blogville.

Oh well. I'll still read the articles, post a comment or three to the ones that need my opinion.

I do agree to the above about not being local and coming here to get my KU news. Living in Nebraska, I rarely got any info about what was going on at KU, then they ran off to the big10 and I get very little, even come the NCAA tournament time when they are playing in Omaha.

waywardJay 10 months ago

Kinda defeats the purpose of Blogging, yes? Opinions of the fans matter, only as long as it doesn't hit home with the dreck on our editorial staff. You can praise the good work of our best, but don't point out the lazy, uninsightful work of our highest up. I suppose these things tend to work out for the best though, Two years ago we were treated to a Summer of MIndless thoughtleess articles from Keegan AND Mayer. Mayer finally went too far, and he doesn't post so much anymore.

jross1972 10 months ago

Well I dont think Keegan deserves to be fired. I think he's wrong sometimes, yes, but then who isn't? But in light of your post I'm curious about the standards the LJW uses to decide what is and isn't allowable content in the blogs. With respect to the photos, however, it's easy to show that Jaybate's picture postings are a clear violation of the Terms of Use Policy:

"Except as otherwise provided in this Agreement, all materials displayed on the Website, including but not limited to text, photographs, images, illustrations, data, graphics or other content (“Materials”) are owned by KUsports or its licensors or other affiliates, and are protected by copyright, trademark and other laws. When you view or use these Materials, they are provided to you by KUsports under a revocable license. KUsports retains full right and title in and to the Materials. You may not copy, publish, redistribute or sell any of the Materials, nor may you reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise convert such Materials to any other form. You acquire no rights or license whatsoever in the Materials."

KUsports could use the above to limit his access if they so wished, but considering the effect that his postings has on the blogs (apart from their violation of the TOU policy), KUsports has left itself a couple of outs to deal with the problem:

KUsports may amend or change the any of the terms of this Agreement at any time by notifying you of the change in writing or electronically (including by email or by posting a notice on the Website). The changes also will appear in this Agreement, which you can access at any time on the Website. All changes and amendments to this Agreement automatically go into effect on the day after they are posted on the Website. Your use of the Website or any Services subsequent to such posting shall constitute your agreement to all such amendments.
At any time and in its sole discretion, KUsports can remove any User Generated Content (as defined below) content that it deems objectionable, including, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, User Generated Content that is racist, sexist, potentially libelous, defamatory, malicious, profane, copyright protected or otherwise containing third-party intellectual property, off-topic, disrespectful to other users, consists of inflammatory attacks of a personal nature, factually incorrect, used to identify users, incendiary to violence....(etc).

The words "...but not limited to" gives them the latitude to constrain how often a person is allowed to post, and what content is allowed to be posted. Why the site would do nothing as one poster drives serious bloggers away is completely beyond me.

waywardJay 10 months ago

I think you are just bitter someone thought the idea first, and it took attention away from your self congradulating writing style.

jross1972 10 months ago

So apply the test. If that is the standard for which people leave, a bunch of us must have come to that same emotional reaction simultaneously. That says either one of two things. Either that assumption is just patently ridiculous, on the one hand; or on the other, that such a common reaction at some point has a basis in reality. I won't shrink away for a minute in saying that people who blog want others to see their blog.

Duh!

Genius.

waywardJay 10 months ago

I was blogging too and I stopped. Wasn't because of Jaybate. I got bored!

jross1972 10 months ago

Well I can understand when your blogs get no responses and so on, it's easy to feel that way. However, others have voiced the specific complaint about ya boy.

waywardJay 10 months ago

To the points of this article.

Why don't we create one of our own? Independent of the LJW, one where blogging of all forms, YES even paint-o-grams, are supported in one ginormous fan-board. I'd write for it, and I would do whatever I could to get it to come to pass. We could reference it in our posts that do connect to LJW, get enough writers and that baby would be hoping like Grantland for Kansas.

Just think if we could get a few creative ( see below commentary ) minds behind this idea....

Secondly, Jay bate hate. Has to stop. Been on this site for three years now, and I can characterize those who hold issue with Jaybate into two categories.

       Prankstas - Those who cannot legitimately argue a point against him because they lack the verbal capacity to combat him. They have the Grit, they have the wit, but when it comes brains, well they ain't got.....

       Wannabees - Those who have the smarts but do not have the creativity ( AHEM JROSS ) to show their points in such varying ways. Picture Jon Lithgow ranting about outlawing dancing and you have this character nailed to a point. They are verbally straight on better than most folk, but don't see the world in ways other than their own short-sided world views allow them. These are people who like to label things they don't understand because it's easier to label something than to actually LEARN from someone else. That would mean that you are fallible, and on occasion, You may not be the smartest person in the room on any given subject. And Heaven forbid, when their ego takes that hit ( although it inevitably will eventually in life. )

   He's / She's ( we don't really know for sure now do we ? ) historically very bristling towards these two categories, and largely doting towards the people who he/she admires/likes/tolerates... I've never seen Bate go off on someone for no reason ( AHEM JROSS ) and I've never seen Bate speak much beyond a joking tone, even with those two categories I previously mentioned. In short, he's not doing anything to Break the rules, and because none of us want our views censored. You might as well ( AHEM JROSS ) grow up and deal with the fact he's not going anywhere.

marchphog88 10 months ago

I think that's a pretty shallow classification of how people feel about Jaybate and his contributions.

I would not classify myself as a Jaybate "hater", but his writing style and approach to posting can be disruptive. Sometimes, I find what he has to say incredibly entertaining and insightful. Other times, I don't find I have the patience or time to read through his post and get at the meat of his point(s).

This is not because I lack intellect, and I don't think his writing style is good just because it's highly stylized. In fact, one might argue that in a comments section on a "news" website, there is more value in making your point cleanly and with as little stylistic interpretation as possible than there is in writing with a distinct an unique voice. After all, the point (I've always believed) of a comments section is community interaction and discussion, and when you have a writing style that requires so much interpretive ability, it hinders that. It has nothing to do with whether or not Jaybate's approach is "wrong", per se, but more about whether his approach is context-appropriate.

Case in point: William Faulkner was a brilliant writer, but I'd sooner shoot myself than participate in a forum discussion with him whilst he used the writing style he uses in his novels.

The ironic thing is that Jaybate's contributions, as creative and unique as they are, with such a strong individual voice, probably are more appropriate in some kind of a blog section than they are on the comments section of individual articles.

I will say this--and this probably comes from my lack of familiarity with the blog structure on KUsports.com--I'm not sure how Jaybate's posting of pictures hinders the ability to access other fan blogs. Is it because the other fan blogs get replaced in the "fan blog" queue on the home page every time Jaybate posts a picture?

waywardJay 10 months ago

that would put you in the second category.... have the intellectual capacity but not the brush and stroke to make the argument... I find in life that most things can be broken down that simply... you are just not tall enough or you aren't short enough... you are either too fat, or you are too skinny. Shallow classification, or not.... You either have the brains or you don't. You have the creativity or you don't. Don't think it can be any more simple than that.

marchphog88 10 months ago

I suppose. All I'm trying to say is that it's not unreasonable to have a dislike for the way Jaybate posts, although I strongly believe in his right to express himself and appreciate the style and intellect that defines his writing. It just doesn't always work for discussing sports, imho.

Although I agree that there are probably a couple of posters who are too antagonistic.

jross1972 10 months ago

Say want you want to, wayward. The bloggers are still gone. You argue better than you reason.

waywardJay 10 months ago

this from someone who couldn't logically beat me in an argument two years ago, so you started calling me someone who supports separate but equal doctrine... In case you forgot it, you can look it up.

waywardJay 10 months ago

The truth is, You are like Rush Limbaugh, instead of discourse, you shout people down and when you are wrong you try and paint the person in the argument as someone disreputable. and two years later, You are still the same person.

jross1972 10 months ago

Lol, wayward. You've got a false sense of confidence, son. There is a record of comments that all readers can access, and in NO WAY can you construe yourself to have bested me in any argument. But that is not what this is about. You are moving this deliberately to a personal argument because you know the merits of your case is poor and you have to make it about something else. Bottom line. Jaybate has imploded the blogosphere. It is a fact. THAT is what this is about...

waywardJay 10 months ago

You can believe what you want. Fact, One doesn't get that frustrated when they are winning an argument... fact, It's irrelevant why other people stopped. Fact, you aren't quite as good as you think you are.

Opinion, everyone left because jaybate posted pictures.

Keep trying Rush.

jross1972 10 months ago

You can't overcome one troublesome fact: this is not a view that only I hold. So while you're faithful to your job as a Jaybatian minion, you would do well to see the facts in a vaccuum. Again, this widespread view is not of my doing. It isn't about me. But thanks for playin'.

Hawksboy88 10 months ago

First off, I appreciate all of the comments. This truly does mean a lot for you guys to read my article.

Secondly, I realize who JayBate is as a contributor to this website. I love his insight. He puts a lot of hard work into those very long comments. I for one appreciate them. But I don't appreciate his photos drowning out our blog posts. I think some of his photos are cool, but come on. Sometimes its a little much. Which is why I am calling for a Fan Photo section to help glorify that area of sharing us fans love. I can only imagine the possibilities plus the cool photos we would get sent in.

Thirdly, I love this site, and I think it can evolve into the best KU blog site out there. No other KU site has this many contributors and visitors. If treated right, this would be an incredible place for fans to gather and share opinions. I hope the KUsports staff sees these needs, and goes forth with production of a better website. A love letter to the fans.

I can only hope these things come true!

waywardJay 10 months ago

Hey, I'm all for the idea. It sounds great, and I would do anything you need me to get it started. I just think it would be much easier to accokmplish without LJW factionization.

Hawksboy88 10 months ago

I agree wayward, and maybe we should work together to get a different blog started. If we can't get the attention of LJW on here. I'm all for a new blog site and I've been wanting to start one for years. And hey, if we could get a lot of the top posters from this site to join in on the writing for a new blog, it could be something unique and special.

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