THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Emails were light.  Just checked my google reader: around 3000 posts over the last 10 days.  This is a bit of a downer.

Makes me think we (bloggers) start too many threads, if I’m getting 300 posts a day to go through.

Let’s see… 3000 posts, 10 days, and about 100 active blogs.  That’s 3 posts a day per blog.  I start at least 5 threads a day, so, by my logic, I post way too much.

I’m going to have to think about this.  I mean, at some point, it’s just blog pollution no?  And I have no doubt I’ve contributed my fair share to the problem.

Welcome back.

About a year ago, I cut my RSS reader down from about 25 blogs to around 10 that post regularly and about 5 others that are more sporadic. I felt that I was reading too much and retaining too little, and I’m much more satisfied now.

I start at least 5 threads a day, so, by my logic, I post way too much.

I’m going to have to think about this.  I mean, at some point, it’s just blog pollution no?  And I have no doubt I’ve contributed my fair share to the problem.

What’s the logic, Tango v. Other Sports Blogs? There are basically four categories of posts here: baseball, hockey, other sports, and non-sports issues. With that range of subject matter, having a higher post count isn’t surprising.

Personally, I’m a firm believer in quality over quantity. There are plenty of posts here that I don’t read simply because the topic doesn’t interest me. But it’s rare that something is posted and I think, “Why is this worthy of a thread?”

You choice, of course, to change how things are done, but I’ve been satisfied.

I’d go by comments.  If you find there are a bunch of posts without comments, then you’re probably posting too much, because either people don’t have time to read or they found it not interesting enough to discuss.  That doesn’t seem to be a problem here though.

I’ve decided to remain part of the problem. 

I’ve already started a few threads (and more coming), and I don’t see any reason not to have those threads.  I find them at least interesting to me, and I’m reaching out to those people who share my interests.

My problem is really that I got lazy and just keep adding to my Reader, without taking anything out.  The problem is only apparent when I don’t keep up on a daily basis.

Nice to have you back, Tom.

I believe the burden of sorting the wheat from the chaff falls primarily upon the reader, not least because people’s tastes and interests differ.  Of course, as the other Mike says, if no one comments, then you might wonder whether it’s worthwhile writing.

I don’t see how people follow so many others on Twitter.  I limit myself to following a maximum of 70 people because I find I can’t keep up with the good ideas there if I follow more than that.  Even following just 66, as I do at the moment, I sometimes have to let the tweets pass unread for a day or so.

i havent tried getting up to speed on twitter yet specifically for that reason. i figure if i read the right blogs then anything important enough on twitter will be reported on them. the trick is to follow the right blogs, of course. but still, seems a big overwhelming to try and keep up with twitter and i have enough distractions as it is.

Kendynamo/7, I know a lot of people use Twitter mainly for an instant news source.  Since I’m on Twitter already, it functions a bit for me that way, too, but I wouldn’t find that alone a compelling reason to use it.

I prefer it more for participating in the sabermetric and general baseball discussion, a lot of which has moved out of the blogs and onto Twitter over the past year or two.  It’s true that pieces of that will also get into the blogs, but I find the Twitter conversation of better quality and completeness than what makes it into a blog somewhere, if it ever does.

Twitter is also very good at pointing me to the blog pieces I should be reading.

It definitely can be a distraction for all the same reasons listed above.

Two additional purposes of Twitter for me are to get quick feedback/answers to questions and to promote awareness of my writing.

Tom, I love your threads. Not that I’ve ever seen you and can comment on how you dress, but the threads here are generally of great interest to me. (except the hockey ones, but everyone has their own particular tastes). I realize I don’t have much in the way of substantive quality to add, but I read your blog constantly, and appreciate the amazing combination of quantity and quality you’re able to come up with.

(How do you do it? Are you even familiar with that soft fluffy thing called a pillow?)