I’ve been writing at Viva El Birdos since 2008 or so; the timeframe is long enough that I don’t really remember anymore. A year before becoming a front page poster here, I joined Erik Manning at what was then the WordPress hosted version of Future Redbirds. Three website iterations later and many of you are familiar with Future Redbirds as a staple of minor league coverage.
Dan Moore (VEB’s Managing Editor) and I have discussed the launch of the SBN 3.0 since he was allowed to tell the rest of the moderators about it and one of things that made a lot of sense to both of us was the role that Future Redbirds could play within the SBN environment. VEB is, at the end of the day, a blog with traffic and page view related goals. The beauty of the re-launch lies in our ability to compartmentalize via the “hubs”.
As Dan said at the launch, the goal was to preserve the feel and operation of old VEB for the existing community to the extent that we could while expanding the appeal and content frequency to increase traffic and bring in new blood. SBN 3.0 lets us do both simultaneously with minimal innocent bystanders lost in the process. Merging Future Redbirds and Viva El Birdos works very well within that framework.
Here’s what to expect from Future Redbirds:
- Daily Farm Reports – Every morning you can enjoy your coffee with a full recap of the previous nights minor league action. From AAA Memphis to Rookie ball in Johnson City — with new stops at Peoria and State College — we’ll highlight the best (and sometimes the worst) box score lines while adding context and anecdotes about the players. It’s the best way to stay current with the day-to-day events of the minor league teams.
- Probable Starters – Mid morning we’ll list all the games for that day as well as the Cardinals‘ affiliate’s projected starter.
- Daily Analysis – In the afternoon, we focus on a more in depth piece whether that be about a specific player, the draft, an opposing team or something that caught our eye in a stat line. There will continue to be player interviews and conversations with the front office that appear in this space as well as scouting visits to the minor league affiliates.
Having worked within the separate ecosystems of Viva El Birdos and Future Redbirds for some time now, I’ve come to value them both for their individuality. There isn’t a lot of overlap in the commentariat and it’s fostered very different but no less valid conversations at each site. In much the same way that Dan’s decisions with the change at Viva El Birdos were designed to make that shift for the community as easy as possible, I’ll be doing the same thing as Future Redbirds moves. Here’s a couple things you’ll need to do to get started:
- Sign Up – You have to sign up to comment at VEB. You can pick your screenname, a picture avatar (highly recommended) and include a custom signature that will appear with all of your comments. It’s simple. When you go to the homepage, just click sign up in the top right corner of the screen. There’s a two day waiting period before your account is fully active (to prevent an invasion of spam bots), so don’t hesitate to get signed up now.
- Story Layouts – The posts that go up will aesthetically feel better. More importantly for your commenting, is that each post will display two numbers in the right hand corner. The first number is the number of new unread comments in that post and the second is the total number of comments. (This only works if you’ve signed up for an account.)
- New Commenting System – The commenting system that’s been developed at SBN is simply the best around. It’s threaded (just like at Future Redbirds) so you can comment on the main post or click ‘reply’ to reply to a specific comment. You’ll also notice that you can click ‘up’ on any comment and it will take you to the comment that was being replied to.
- Hot Keys – At the top of the comments on each post, there’s a link called “Speed Reading Tips & Settings”. Click it and it shows you all the keyboard shortcuts for commenting. If you enter a comment thread and press ‘Z’ it will take you to your newest un-read comment. Press ‘Z’ again and marks that comment as read moving to the next unread comment. It’s a great system.
- Comment Moderation – There’s two important functions that will help make my life easier and you’re life more fun. First, the fun. On each comment there’s an ‘actions’ link. If you click it, you can then ‘rec’ a comment that you think is awesome. If enough people (6) rec a comment, then it turns green and you’ll know that it’s good content. Conversely, if you think a comment is boorish or terrible, you can flag a comment. This will signal any moderators (read: azruavatar) that someone is acting like a dick. I then have some tools at my disposal to try and remedy that situation.
As far as how you should act at VEB versus Future Redbirds, don’t expect much change. I still ask that you’re reasonable in your argumentation, avoid personal attacks and generally keep the discussion focused on prospects. The daily post at VEB often contains lengthy and protracted off topic comments. That will not be allowed on the Future Redbird posts. I will be moderating comments on these posts as we transition over. It’s important to me that the Future Redbird community feels safe and has a place to talk about the minors still. That will not change.
The focus on these posts — both the content and the comments — will be on the minors. If you want to drop links about the minors in the comments, go ahead. If the post is about Shelby Miller and you want to talk about Carlos Martinez, that’s great. If you want to talk about your new rice cooker, that conversation should be in the daily post at Viva El Birdos. Off topic conversations are permitted there, within reason.
So, if you’re still with me, don’t be scared. For Viva El Birdos regular readers, this means more content within your SBN home that’s relevant to the Cardinals. For Future Redbirds regular readers, this means a better blogging and commenting platform to house the same great content and community you’ve participated in for the last 5 years.
This week marks the start of the Arizona Fall League. It’s the perfect time to get acquainted with the new digs and find out how to navigate the site. On Wednesday, you’ll find a Daily Farm Report waiting for you at Viva El Birdos. I encourage you to check out the VEB home page where Dan and I will be managing the display of all the content at VEB including the new minors contributions. If you just want to stick with Future Redbirds and minor league content, we’ll have a hub you can do that too. (It’ll look like a traditional blog format of the content.) If you have problems signing up or questions about how to navigate the site, e-mail me (timamccullough@gmail.com) — I promise to answer every e-mail I get.
Future Redbirds is taking the next step as a blog. Try it out. I think you’ll like it.
Entries (RSS)
This sucks. I’ll miss the community and discussion here.
VEB is an active community, but sometimes it feels like 50% of the content is insider jokes from a dozen guys who spend hours on that site daily. I’m not looking forward to filtering through all that noises, but I understand this move makes sense for other reasons. This is a great addition for VEB.
Thanks for speaking my mind, Alex.
This Sucks
Also agree. The online communities of Future Redbirds and VEB are decidedly different in tone and personality. I always came here to discuss prospects with people obsessed with it and to get away from VEB when things got far too bizarre or overwhelming.
I’ve seen other sports blogs combine, and in every instance, the one getting absorbed eventually completely disappears, leaving no trace, no matter the promises made. This sucks beyond belief.
This isn’t what is happening. The Future Redbirds traffic is not of lesser importance than what is on VEB now. If I let things change because of the move and everyone stops reading, then I’ve defeated the purpose. I have a vested interest in preserving your traffic.
Again, I think the hubs really are going to make all the difference. Sign up for an SBN account and go to the Future Redbirds section. You don’t have to visit or see any of the parts of VEB that you don’t like. Off topic comments are not going to show up in the FR section. If I didn’t think this was a positive thing for me, the other writers AND the commenters, I would not have made the move.
That’s the callous business side of it. The personal side of it is that I would not have worked to so hard to build this site for the last 3 years only to watch it be subsumed.
Unfortunately, I cannot envision a scenario in which Future Redbirds, as we know and love it, does not eventually disappear. Initially, I’m sure moderation will be heavy and VEB commenters will be respectful, but even respectful commenting and questioning to gain understanding will be “noise”.
My impression is that FR frequenters check the site as well as other MiLB baseball sources on a daily basis. They’ve probably watched a fair share of video, attended MiLB games, closely followed draft coverage many months before the draft, and at least have a beginner’s understanding of how to evaluate prospects from both a statistical and scouting standpoint. What I’m about to say is not meant as a dig in any way, but when some VEB members have commented on FR in the past, the type of fan they are and their level of prospect understanding has been quite obvious. They’ve just been searching for information and expressing opinions and were always respectful, and that’s great, but it’s disconcerting because they are the VEB members who are most involved and knowledgeable. I’m afraid the level of questioning and excitable commenting that is an SB Nation staple will consume comments of greater substance.
There is a par level of understanding at FR which commenters have the luxury of starting at that will be lowered. And not just that, but being exposed to VEB and a constant stream of fans at all levels will likely stunt the growth of the community’s collective level of understanding over the long run. Az, and even a few of the more knowledgeable commenters, have been catalysts for understanding by correcting misconceptions and false comments. There is just no way they can effectively “teach” such a large audience, especially considering they’ll be starting at more of a beginner’s level than new members at FR were.
But, this is just grieving. I certainly do not feel that Az or any of the other contributors owe me anything and am grateful for their selfless contributions over the years.
I think you are under-estimating VEBers. At VEB, the commenters pride themselves with being knowledgable about what they post. If someone post without fact or stats to back them up, they are quickly corrected. I feel most VEBers will use this as an opportunity to become more knowledgable about the minors
Alex –
I understand your concerns and I share them. I wouldn’t have done this if I didn’t truly believe that 1) I could preserve the current level of commenting and 2) introduce additional commenters while remaining topic specific.
Here’s my equivalent of Pascal’s wager: sign up for an account, try it for a month and see if it isn’t just as good.
All I’m asking for is a chance.
If you just want to find FR posts and not have to go to the main page, here is where you’ll find that filter: http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/cardinals-minor-leagues
Thirded. Very bumming news.
A very sincere thanks to Az for the work he’s put in the last several seasons at this site. I consider his insight way, way more valuable than I would expect from a team’s fansite. A big thanks to the rest of the community as well. Selfishly though, I can’t help but focus on my loss right now.
Very much agreed.
Honestly, you’re correct that a lot of the comments are inside stuff, and I know this because I am one of those people. But I think most of that will stay on the VEB side. I read F-R almost every day but following minor league teams via text updates is nothing like following the MLB team with a combination of TV and internet. Thus, much different commenting cultures. I could be wrong, maybe your worst fears will be realized. But don’t lose hope.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it — if Azru says he won’t allow off topic comments on FR posts, I’m sure he’ll stay true to that. And the commenting system is WAY better over there; I think that’ll lead to better discussions.
As the guy who works to cultivate all those inside jokes, I promise that our goal is to keep that on VEB and this—minor league discussion—on FR. I’m very sensitive to how communities work on the internet, and I wouldn’t have entertained this idea if I thought it would be detrimental to one or the other.
Before I began editing VEB I used to run my own Cardinals blog, and as much fun as it was, the sheer act of administrating it—of making sure WordPress worked, of paying for bandwidth, of all of that—was exhausting. My hope is that FR will be even better now that Tim doesn’t have to worry about that stuff.
This will be a good thing, as it will consolidate more of the high-quality Cards commentary into one blog. There is a strong overlap in the readership anyway. By merging, F-R posts will get more readership. The level of joking will probably increase, but I don’t mind that. I think most people here will be happy with the end result.
to counter what apack says, there might be a large portion of people that come from VEB to read future redbirds, i’m pretty sure there is a large percentage of people that go to future redbirds only.
i’m one of them.
i’m not a big fan of how sbnation works but i can’t help that. my biggest concern is how there is a ton of off topic noise that clutters up VEB posts. while obviously there are people that like that about VEB (i can’t blame them for how their community bonds and it can be commendable from a certain perspective) i hope that does not happen at the minor league portion of the blog. plz put in some sort of commenting guidelines asking for all future redbird like content be about the minor league system.
on a diff matter, will the original future redbirds blog die or will it at least live in a archived sort of way?
There are definitely people that only go to FR. That’s why I like the hubs so much. If you only want to see Future Redbird content, you just go here. The only thing that will be on that page is the FR content you’ve come to know and love. The only comments you’ll find on those posts are going to be topical. I’m committed to preserving the environment we created at FR within the better site technology of SBN. I’m not abandoning FR. I’m not abandoning the community we built here. I feel very protective of it.
We’ll move all our archives on this site over to SBN before we shut it down.
I just attempted to sign into the VEB site. First I was told that my “Indiana Cardinal” screen name was taken. I changed it to “The Indiana Cardinal” and my sign in was accepted. However my sign in was then rejected in that my email address of indianacardinal@__________.net was also rejected as being taken by someone else. I am not a computer wizzard and thus I don’t understand how that is possible, but I am not willing to change or create a new email address just to sign up to a site that, as with most of the other comments here, don’t enjoy for the same reason as others here, that there is too much garbage to wade through to get to substantive comments.
Future Redbirds is the first site that I turn to virtually everytime I turn on my computer. I will miss it, but I am not willing to come up with a new email when I use that email address as my address for ALL of my non business emails and sign ups to sites. Sorry.
I do feel “abandoned”. Good luck at your new site. However I think the reduced effort you indicate you are hoping to be relieved of will be overwhelmed by the tediousness of the VEB normal threads.
If it’s really saying that (email taken) it sounds like you’ve already signed up for VEB and forgot about it. Click forgot password and see what happens.
Hi,
If you’d like to send me an e-mail (use the e-mail button next to my name at the website linked to my username here) with your usual e-mail address I can sort this out for you. This sounds like you registered for VEB sometime in the last seven years and lost track of it.
Regards
Dan
Joined, though I’ll miss coming here
I’m sure it’s for the best but I will still miss this site. Can we at least keep the header at the top?
I want to try and find a place for that over there yes.
Good Luck and Best Wishes with the new web site. I will greatly miss Future Redbirds but will not be signing up at VEB.
As a long-time lurker I really appreciate what you do here regarding the minor leagues. All great stuff. I will try the new site but have sworn off VEB for the last couple years because of all the off-topic comments and inside jokes. Good luck and thanks for all you do.
I too am bummed but willing to give it a shot. I hardly ever post, maybe once every 3 months, but I read daily, have it as a bookmark on my computer and iphone, and recommend it to people all the time.
I have read VEB every once in a while but the threads with 300+ comments cause me to steer clear.
I actually really appreciate the small community of FR and am amazed at the content from readers. There is so much knowledge and insider info posted in a 20 comment thread.
I am going to sign up and give it a shot.
Thanks for all the work you guys have done. I love this site.
Azruvator
I love this site, but like many others gave up on VEB. However, I will migrate with you and give it a shot. Thanks for all you’ve done over the years.
Tony
First off, thanks for everything Azru. I have friends who follow other teams, and the coverage of their minor league systems pales in comparison to what we get here.
I’ve only posted once or twice, but I visit the site daily. I’ll definitely be following FR over to VEB, mainly because I simply don’t know how I’d survive without it. The content on the site is unbeatable. I do, however, share the apprehension of the other posters. I am very confident that you’ll be able to keep the non-baseball comments out of the new FR, but what really scares me is the risk of losing the level of intelligent conversation we have here. I stopped reading the VEB comments a long time ago, not only because of the inside jokes, but also the lack of substance. I think the real challenge in moderation will come when you have people coming in with little to no knowledge of the minors, who won’t hesitate to speak their mind, simply because they are in their VEB comfort zone. I might sound elitist in saying that, but it’s something we’ve managed to avoid here at FR, and it scares the hell out of me that it could happen here.
I love this site, and I really hope its character isn’t lost in the merger. I know you care about this site more than anyone, and hell, with the amount of work you put into it, you should have the right to do whatever you want. I know you’re going to give it your all, I just hope the VEB community cooperates. Thanks for everything you’ve done Azru, and here’s to hoping everything works out well.
Thanks for the work here on this site Azru. I understand it works better for you to fold futureredbirds into SBN / VEB. I always liked the smallness of the futureredbirds community and the fact that the posters here actually follow the minor league teams. We’ll see how it goes over in the bigger pond. Hope the posters are still of high quality as they had been here.
Azru I appreciate all the time and effort you have put into this site through the years. While not commenting often I looked forward to checking the site daily. I’m gonna miss this tremendously. I used to enjoy passing on this site to others in a way that makes me think of a great local restaurant. Sadly telling someone about VEB is more like spreading the word about McDonalds. Not that VEB doesn’t have it’s place but its just not my cup of tea simply because its not a great place to discuss baseball. Good luck in your new endeavor and sorry for griping.
Disappointing.