GAA Matters - Blog section

G'day. We will soon be opening up a blog section on the site for everyone to use. If you are an aspiring journalist, an angry fan or simply want to educate the unwashed masses, then this is the place for you.

Note that the format of these blogs will be quite different to the general posts on the site. The blog should take the form of an article or commentary and in order to avoid stuff like "Donegal is the bestest. Discuss… ", articles should be at least 200 words in length.

We are lucky enough to have some great writers and commentators on the site and hopefully they will make use of this new section and entertain us with their thoughts on the world of GAA and beyond.

It is entirely up to you how you structure your blog. It can be one "themed" blog where you regularly add articles or it can be a series of seperate articles that do not need to be connected in any way.

New blog entries can only be loaded by a mod - so if you have an article to submit then please PM it to one of the gang. All users will be able to post replies to blog entries.

The blogs can be about anything and I mean anything! Obviously we would expect that a lot of them will be GAA related however that's not essential.

This is new feature on the site so please give us your feedback and suggestions on how it can be improved.

So get writing and submit your pieces to a mod. We’ll open up the new section in a few days and hopefully we’ll have a few articles to open with.

this will be the ruination of this site. Not only will it take away from the already diminishing amount of gaa talk but we already have enough people on here who they think they are mr educated, and smarter than everyone else. I really fear that we are going to see an upsurge of the back slapping, great post, no yours was a great post. This is my 1000th post, have to make it a good one kind of crap. Do we not have enough gaa, general sport, jokes and general chit chat without people having to sit dreaming up 200 word posts or short stories?

Good post Samin. Thanks for the feedback.

I think it is a good idea, and well worth giving a go.

I can't see how an attempt to generate some interesting threads and provoke debate can be a bad thing for an internet forum. A good idea RMD, and I hope that the majority of posters at least give it a chance before criticising it.

Gud Idea Lol

RMDrive wrote:Good post Samin. Thanks for the feedback.

no problem, its just how i feel. The amount of gaa talk is already very low without encouraging people to write 200 word posts which i guarentee the vast majority will not be gaa related. All i am saying is if people are using there time to come with 200 word posts about the weather or some other crap it is limiting their time to post on gaa topics. But each to their own, good luck with the thread. I notice T.C you say discussion on an internet forum, not a gaa forum.

In fairness Samin, I wasn't thinking of it that way. I've always viewed this as a GAA forum, and probably 80-90% of my posts are the Gaelic football section, despite me having a huge interest in all sports. My ratio of posts to GAA points should confirm that.

Maybe you will get blogs about the weather or the likes, but I'd like to think that there will also be some quality posts from people whose views on gaelic games I respect. I think it is worth giving it a chance.

T.C. You're one of the few posters whose posts i keep an eye out for as they're usually well informed (except when talking about armagh) and gaa related. As i said its just that i feel this is going to turn into a story telling or i am more educated than you thread. But i hope it works out, the forum needs a bit of a boost.

Samin you seem to have overlooked the fact that the moderators will look over these blog-style posts before making them available on the site. This way, if, as you anticipate, any poor/pointless articles are submitted the moderators can decide not to publish them at all.

Perhaps you could ask the moderators to consider limiting the amount of non GAA-related posts that they publish?

Great idea and it will really add to the site. Some posters will be in their element.

SamiPremier08 wrote:Samin you seem to have overlooked the fact that the moderators will look over these blog-style posts before making them available on the site. This way, if, as you anticipate, any poor/pointless articles are submitted the moderators can decide not to publish them at all.

Perhaps you could ask the moderators to consider limiting the amount of non GAA-related posts that they publish?

i feel that will lead to bigger problems. people will be well ****** off if some peoples posts are published. Others are not, i think some people will feel that this forum is becoming elitist. Some posters will feel if they are not part of the original crew, or if it turns into a thread for established posters then it will cause more problems. I think having to send a PM to one of the moderators to see if the post is worthy or pleases the moderator will cause more problems than its worth

I think Samin has a fair point here. The option is always open to people to open and update a thread with their ponderings, why include a Blog section which is essentially for the same purpose?

samin10 wrote:this will be the ruination of this site. Not only will it take away from the already diminishing amount of gaa talk but we already have enough people on here who they think they are mr educated, and smarter than everyone else. I really fear that we are going to see an upsurge of the back slapping, great post, no yours was a great post. This is my 1000th post, have to make it a good one kind of crap. Do we not have enough gaa, general sport, jokes and general chit chat without people having to sit dreaming up 200 word posts or short stories?

Do you really think so?

Maybe a bit over the top of a reaction but the simple facts are we have had people leaving this forum in the recent past because thay have felt their opinion was not respected and basically felt that it was more of a private members club. Now we have a thread where blogs or pieces have to be 200 words and PM to a moderator to see if they feel it worthy to be posted. I just feel it will alienate people. I have only the best interests of this forum at heart (as do the moderators). We were asked for feedback, i am just trying to point out the problems i see occuring. I could well be wrong and hope it does not lead to problems or put people off this forum

Giving this further thought - Samin has a valid point. Isn't there facility enough for users to start a thread post lengthy blog-style posts as many already do. Seems unnecessary to start another section for what is essentially the same thing as the whole site is at the moment.

[quote="samin10"]Maybe a bit over the top of a reaction but the simple facts are ecause thay have felt their opinion was not respected and basically felt that it was more of a private member

IMO this forum has been invaded by refugees from other fora when their (User/ Friendly.Sell By") time has expired thereupon..(DBPC comes to mind)
I have no compunction in giving a "newbie" a bit of a grilling, to suss the lie of the land so to speak.....

[quote="Boxtyeater"]

samin10 wrote:Maybe a bit over the top of a reaction but the simple facts are ecause thay have felt their opinion was not respected and basically felt that it was more of a private member

IMO this forum has been invaded by refugees from other fora when their (User/ Friendly.Sell By") time has expired thereupon..(DBPC comes to mind)
I have no compunction in giving a "newbie" a bit of a grilling, to suss the lie of the land so to speak.....

I recognise its not easy for the mods. hard to know what way to promote the site without letting in **** holes. I was just giving my opinion

Some very valid points here and points of concern that I share myself. The only intention here is to improve the site, however possible. The debate on this is very healthy and informative.

This is your site - so all opinions and suggestions are very welcome.

RMDrive wrote:G'day. We will soon be opening up a blog section on the site for everyone to use. If you are an aspiring journalist, an angry fan or simply want to educate the unwashed masses, then this is the place for you.

Note that the format of these blogs will be quite different to the general posts on the site. The blog should take the form of an article or commentary and in order to avoid stuff like "Donegal is the bestest. Discuss… ", articles should be at least 200 words in length.

We are lucky enough to have some great writers and commentators on the site and hopefully they will make use of this new section and entertain us with their thoughts on the world of GAA and beyond.

It is entirely up to you how you structure your blog. It can be one "themed" blog where you regularly add articles or it can be a series of seperate articles that do not need to be connected in any way.

New blog entries can only be loaded by a mod - so if you have an article to submit then please PM it to one of the gang. All users will be able to post replies to blog entries.

The blogs can be about anything and I mean anything! Obviously we would expect that a lot of them will be GAA related however that's not essential.

This is new feature on the site so please give us your feedback and suggestions on how it can be improved.

So get writing and submit your pieces to a mod. We’ll open up the new section in a few days and hopefully we’ll have a few articles to open with.

Are the moderators trying to pass this new feature off as one of their own ideas?

Its a good idea, of course I am the brainchild behind all this, and indeed it was me who preached of many possible improvements to this forum way back in March. This being one of them. See "Promoting GAA Tipster" thread.

My biggest reservation would lie in the moderator's role throughout the procedure of blog-writing though. For the purpose of this particular activity, I feel a three man committee should be set up to read blogs (and edit accordingly) before release for public view.

My suggested committee members as follows:

Loyal2TheRoyal
PeterSolanTheGreat
Mossbags