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UPPER MANAGEMENT
Fantasy Sports Neighborhood
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Welcome to THE UPPER MANAGEMENT. Fantasy Sports Neighborhood.
You are currently viewing the UM as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features.
The UM opened August 17th, 2007 as a handpicked 100 members who were asked to join for their smarts and community involvement. But the word got out that the UM neighborhood is not just your average start up community! .... Members begun jumping in from word of mouth .. and now the UM stands at 300+ members and over 30,000 posts and growing!
The site has it's very own Texas Holdem table which has members playing against each other 24/7! .. MLB Gameday audio only for the community. A live chat room, fantasy leagues with the winner landing up to 100 dollars in prizes. We also have our own FREE Baseball draft kit for our UM members, as well as an upcomming Football draft kit. We run our own monthly MILB prospect list. But most importantly .. The UM has grown into a community of sports friends. So jump in and, join the UM today! |
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youngbuck8100
Joined: 19 Sep 2007
Posts: 3136
Location: Brookline, MA
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 Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:24 am Post subject: |
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| Delbert6 wrote: |
Blah- keep forgetting to log in!
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But YB, here is the thing- when you write a piece about a site's first year you have to be honest with your readers,,,
Seriously- the realities of some of my points have certainly shone through to many,,
Its not a slam or slight, its a mere pointing of fact as we all work to improve, enhance, and build upon the great foundation we have established,,,,,
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Admittedly, I threw in the "sophmoric" pun to get a rise out of you- and that's one of the things I personally enjoy about this place-
We can build a top notch fantasy squad while letting off a bit of steam by chastizing the latest box office flop!
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As I opened with, it was a good article and I was merely trying to point out that in many ways it is just as helpful and positive to realize the negatives as much as the positives as we work towards a bigger, stronger, mightier, UM!
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I wrote this article sitting on a beach. I wrote the opening few paragrahps and thought of the exact same thing you brought up. Do I need to bring forth the flaws of UM, or do I just point out a few negatives and drown them out with the positives. I chose to do so because I feel that there are times for calling out issues, and times for focusing on the positives. Right now, I felt UM was like a baseball team on a 15 game win streak. Maybe the team makes errors or doesnt execute things well on the feild, but does it make sense to bring down the moral of the team by calling them out on these imperfections? No, it doesnt. You ride the streak and adress the issues afterward. I feel like UM is at an alltime high right now, many members, many activities and overall it is just getting better. There is no need to be a buzz kill and say negative things when there are so many positives.
I understand exactly where you are coming from though Delb. There are things about UM that could use changing, and I respect that you are willing to point them out. I just didnt feel this was the time or place to do so, so I didnt include my personal issues with site ongoings.
Again, I greatly appreciate what you have to say Delb. Under your millions of commas, disses at Grid and mention of old time Red Sox players that played before I was born, you have great and respectable opinoins. I also love how you can make fun of people in this place, I called Commish a bitch and made fun of Biz's grammar while writing an important article. It is helpful to point out the negatives, and maybe they should be adressed, but not now, and not here.
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darko
Joined: 19 Sep 2007
Posts: 5356
Location: Melbourne, AUS
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| Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:48 am Post subject: |
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I can definitely understand Delb's point of view (and YB this isn't a knock on your article). Criticising UM is just as important as pointing out positives. I mean we may think we are doing OK in a certain section but we could be wrong and it usually takes a 3rd person looking in from the outside to paint a better and clearer picture.
As for 'Events' sometimes disappering just as quickly as appearing. Sometimes a certain event will just not work for various reasons - too complex, not drawing enough interest etc. Also at times we just dont have 'man power' to run some events. This isn't directed at anyone in particular but at times (if possible) it would help ALOT if some people would step up and run an event (which ever 1 they think will suit them). It just isn't right for Biz to be the commish of all these leagues when he has other things to do which hold more importance - such as admin stuff, recruiting etc. Biz may disagree with this, but I really dont think that he should be commishing baseball CEO, hockey CEO and basketball CEO... I'm not saying he does a bad job (far from it) but his time SHOULD / COULD be better suited towards things that will improve the site... Plus I'm pretty sure Biz would love to focus mainly on admit stuff. So, if anyone on here is interested in running future events - post on here or PM Biz and he'll welcome any contributions and by that I dont neccesarily mean you have to jump in and commish the league. Some events go for days / couple weeks and it would require 30 minutes a day (at most from a person) - BTH for instance. Any contributions, regardless how small you may think it could be is most welcome.
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superpoon
Joined: 24 Sep 2007
Posts: 1300
Location: Bridgeport, CT
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| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:25 am Post subject: |
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Couple things YB.
Let me first say that it was a decently -entertaining- article, which is the most important thing (except for accuracy) for a writer.
There are a some things I think you can improve upon.
This article is essentially a direct narrative of the positive going-ons of the past few years at this forum. Although you had a few points of personal insight about certain things you mentioned, there were no real groundbreaking thoughts presented. If you're going to do a first person narrative like this, you need to have some points, either through personal experience or some other claim with support, that tell the reader... well... something that they don't already know. The article doesn't really have a specific point, aside from just telling us what happened while drawing no conclusions.
I liked your earlier article about being a vendor at Fenway more than this one. However, the trend in your writing has been pretty much the same. NOTHING IS WRONG with writing narrative pieces (hell, its my favorite). But you have to be creative and mix it up a bit. Essentially you go from start to finish in simple, chronological order, and just tell the readers what happened in the time-frame. This is perfect in a history book or a how-to book, but articles like these need something else. This happened, then this happened, then this happened, then this happened <-- that should be avoided.
Your sentence structure could be improved and sometimes your articles have this sort of... I guess unrefined feel to them. But as you keep writing more and more it will keep improving (I know from experience), so I wouldn't worry too much about that.
Just remember... every article has to have some kind of central point/theme/claim or whatever you want to call it. And most importantly (unless its like a basic news report), it has to have something enlightening for the reader.
Now, I know you're only 18-ish (?) and about to go to college. I must say what you've produced is pretty solid, mostly because you have a good flair for spicing things up, with some jokes or tongue-in-cheek moments. This is not so easy to do, and its great and entertaining, but cannot always be relied upon.
From experience, I think that its much harder to write a narrative sports article than a persuasive sports article. Even many ESPN.com writers stay away from them, and stick to things more to the tune of "Why Ryan Howard should be in the Derby" or "Who is the best hitter in the AL?" type pieces, but some of them (usually a Page 2 writer... no never Jemele Hill, ugh) can come up with narratives that are absolute gems. The point is, its a lot harder. You might want to wet your lips with something more simple where you can go claim-support-conclusion and just worry about presenting your points.
(the Rays article I wrote for this site... BP had originally suggested it and I probably wouldn't have done it on my own. It really took me forever to get it right AFTER actually writing the bulk of it, but fortunately I think it came out very well. I won't be trying that type of thing again for a while unless I have a lot of time. Yes, I realize BP probably asked you to do this too.)
OK that was more than a 'couple' things. I hope you don't take this the wrong way... I don't want to seem snobbish or a dickhead who thinks he knows it all, because I know my writing is far from perfect. Just trying to help you improve. Everything will come together over time as long as you do 3 things:
1) Keep writing.
2) Listen to criticism.
3) Eat Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sammiches
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This sig is to coerce Michael Clayton out of sucking balls in '08
Superpoon GFX Archive
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Bizplayboy
Website Admin
Joined: 16 Aug 2007
Posts: 5450
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| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:06 am Post subject: |
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I may be biased but i enjoyed it  It was a recap of sorts, but keep in mind that some of the events he talked about happened when the site has less then 130 members in it. so, unless you were part of that initial 100 or so, some of the things he mentioned were not known. I took the article more as a feel good story then anything. So asking him to add other things, maybe to add critique to his article may have gone against what he was trying to write about.
Darko your 100% right about some of the event's ... Delb, if you want to run some events, I have a queue of 10 things I'd like to add to the site, Just send me a PM!
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Commish
Assistant Admin
Joined: 16 Aug 2007
Posts: 1981
Location: Brooklyn, NY
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| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:20 pm Post subject: |
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Let me first say that it was a fantastic job by YB here. I was not around all weekend (Billy Joel at Shea Friday and a party saturday all day...none of which are wife related YB u bitch! lol) So I finally gave this a read and caught up on the replies. I really liked it. Listen though, YB is not a paid writer here, so if he forgot a few things, who cares? The fact that he probably gave a better recap of year one than I might have been able to give is great lol
| youngbuck8100 wrote: |
1) I had to do it, Commish is the perfect person to take a shot at because he has fun with it.
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damn right. Hell, if you cant make light of yourself...then u have some sort of insecurity. Plus, I think I know how to give it back also lol
| Delbert6 wrote: |
YB-
Nice job on a challenging subject;
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I feel as though you may have sugarcoated things a bit and not been completely blunt about some important issues,,,,,
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1) The incessant need of the site admin to stretch himself too thin by trying to run, recruit, commish, and control too many leagues,,
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Delb and everyone else, I think this #1 on your list of negatives actually is the main reason for all the other things on your list or any other negatives list there is. However, the more people that get involved in the site like they have, the less this has to happen. And I have noticed a change already. When we first started this, we felt the need to have us involved in every league, every post, etc...to try and help the conversations and the leagues going......but I tell you this....not at all in a long bunch of months have we had to do that. I think maybe baseball and last years basketball we had to do it. But that is all part of starting up a forum. you need the guys involved enough until it can take on a life of its own....and all of you have certainly done that!
And that is what we have tried to do from the beginning! get good people in here and it will thrive on its own.
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Grid
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 2119
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| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:40 pm Post subject: |
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This past year has been the worst of my life. I'm fatter, stupider and probably have testicle cancer, all because of this fooking forum and articles/threads like these.
Rot in hell, UM!!!
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462 TD's and counting!
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Bizplayboy
Website Admin
Joined: 16 Aug 2007
Posts: 5450
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| Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Grid wrote: |
This past year has been the worst of my life. I'm fatter, stupider and probably have testicle cancer, all because of this fooking forum and articles/threads like these.
Rot in hell, UM!!! |
Grid, I know that if i send you a 'I heart the UM' T-shirt ... you would put it on! ...
I feel your love!!!
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