This post has been in my head for the better part of two months, I was going to hold off on writing it for a while, but I’ve gotten quite a few emails in the last few weeks about the site in general, and specifically about my involvement in the discussions here, so I felt it was time to write this up. This will be wordy, and though I haven’t decided yet, I think I’m going to lock the comments on this post, because I have no intention of this being a back and forth shouting match, I’d just like to clear the air and then move on. But by the time I’m done, I might change my mind. So anyway, for aesthetics purposes, I’ll add the divider here and then get going…

First things first. We’re approaching the two year mark since I started this site. Two years. What started on a whim has turned into something I obviously couldn’t have possibly imagined. The site got 17,000 hits in January 2007, the first full month for the site, and now we get 17,000 hits in a week, sometimes in 3 or 4 days. In July of this year the site got over 180,000 hits alone. The last time I looked, the site has gotten close to 1.6 million hits. This type of popularity wasn’t something I envisioned, but its something I’m grateful for. With the increase in traffic, sometimes things haven’t gone as I’d have liked. At times I got into verbal disputes in discussions, at times I’ve written passive-aggressive openings to new postings, and I’m not all together happy with my actions on those occasions. But I’m human, and I realize its going to happen.

A few months ago I made it a point to stop posting in the discussions here. I made this decision for two reasons. The first reason was just discussed. I tried to maintain a professional appearance here, I didn’t want to get involved in bickering and back and forth arguments, because I didn’t want it to detract from the content I was trying to turn out. The second reason is that I didn’t want to completely shape opinions here, I wanted a broad, diverse dialog. I appreciate that people would respect and want my opinion, I just didn’t want to be the overwhelming opinion. I felt that by sitting back and allowing the discussion to unfold without my involvement, it might foster more opinions, more angles, and that might be beneficial to the site in general. But I’ve received a bunch of email, people asking for me to re-engage to share my opinions. I’m of two minds, as you can imagine from reading this post thus far. Part of me wants to jump back in, part of me wants to remain on the sidelines for the reasons listed.

I also wanted to take a step back and talk about the site in general. Most people, when starting a new project, have very detailed plans of what they want. They have an end product in mind, and they design their project to try and meet their end goal. I was just the opposite. I started this on a whim. When I started, I have no idea if I would actually be any good at writing, if people would read, or if people would value my opinion. I’ve made sure to state over and over again that I’m not a pro scout. I don’t have access to tons of inside information. I like to think I understand the process of evaluating prospects, though I’m quick to point out the limits of using 2nd hand and 3rd hand information to make definitive judgments on players. But as the site has moved forward, my goals have become more focused. I’ve tried to make the site appear as an actual website, a place with organized information, as opposed to a message board. The readers and the feedback/discussion that takes place in the comments has been great, well, most of it, but my intention was really for this to be a place for me to try and offer analysis/information for others to read. The discussion aspect has been the part that I haven’t really been able to figure out, in terms of the right balance.

I know that one goal I had in mind was for this not to turn into another site covering the Phillies big league team. As I’ve stated tons of times before, there are lots of great blogs/message boards/web sites out there for talking about the big league club. Beerleaguer, Phillies Nation, The Good Phight, BackSheGoes, and lots of other sites. These places focus on the big league club, and then talk about the minor leagues in passing. My goal was the opposite, to focus solely on prospects. Now, I’m not naive, I know they are connected, but for me, the connection was to be a very minor aspect. I want to focus on what the players can become, when they’ll get there, why they will succeed, why they won’t, and things like that. I’m not really interested in discussing Pat Burrell, or Jimmy Rollins, or anyone on the big league club here. Of course I have my opinions on those players, I’ve been a Phillies fan my whole life, but I choose to discuss my thoughts on them at other sites. I’ve said before, there is a way to discuss prospects under that lens. It’s fine to talk about Jason Donald, talk about his ceiling, and then talk about how he fits into the Phillies plans. But I don’t think its relevant to discuss general MLB rumors here. You can find tons of other outlets to do that. The goal here has always been to discuss our prospects.

So this brings me to the various squabbles that have taken place over the last 6 months. As I mentioned above, I’m grateful for the popularity of this site. But I guess what the random disagreements have proven to me is that at times, I’m like an overprotective parent with regard to this site. I pay the domain fee to have a “real” URL, just phuturephillies.com, instead of having .wordpress.com in there. I choose to keep the site ad free because I understand the annoyance of seeing ads plastered on websites. I’ve resisted the temptation to have the site integrated into other websites. And I’ve resisted the urge to make a large profit by selling the domain name. I have not made a single penny from this web site in 2 years. I’ve spent countless hours trying to improve the site, whether it be by tweaking the layout, working on new features, trying to get interviews with players and talent evaluators, or responding to people who email me. I spent a lot of my free time on this site when I was employed, and I’ve spent literally hundreds of hours working on my prospect evaluation system, which I plan to unveil in the next few months. I’ve done all of this because I like this site, because I like discussing Phillies prospects, and because I’m proud of what the site has become, from getting 100 hits the first day, to getting 14,000 hits on draft day. So, much like a parent, when someone says something derogatory about the site, I tend to react. If someone tells you that your kid is ugly, or fat, or dumb, you’d probably react in a strong way. When someone tells me that my site is dead, or cheap, or crappy, its very easy to react. Maybe I should just ignore this, just let it go, but that’s often times easier said than done. Everyone who comes here is a guest, I’m thankful for those who come and contribute and add positive value, but I’m not thankful for those who come to stir the pot, cause trouble, and take away value from the site.

I guess what it comes down to is fun. An e-mailer made a very good point to me a little while back, that it seemed like I wasn’t having as much fun with the site over the last few months. I think hes probably right. So at this point, I’m going to try and get back to having fun. I tried a number of measures to improve the “quality” of the comments here, but restricting access didn’t seem to help, it just hurt traffic. So at this point, I’m just going to ask for some simple help from you, the people who come here regularly. I’m going to ask that you be as civil as possible in the comments sections of each and every post. Try to interact in the comments as if you were talking to someone in person, not behind a computer screen. If you disagree with someone, disagree with them and back up your point. That’s why we’re here, to share viewpoints. But I’m not going to tolerate bashing, I’m not going to tolerate trolling. I’m not going to censor the site. I’m not going to restrict access to anyone. But if I see inflammatory remarks or personal insults directed at anyone, I’m just going to delete the comment. I’m not going to single anyone out, I’m just not going to allow the site to head down that road. I think this place has kept a level of decorum better than you see on most blogs, but that doesn’t mean it can’t get even better. So if you see someone getting out of line, just ignore them, don’t bother to respond. I’ll never censor an opinion here as long as its relevant to the content, but personal attacks won’t be tolerated, plain and simple. I think as the administrator here, I’m entitled to that right.

I have a lot of ideas for the site going forward. I’ve debated over the last month or so whether I wanted to push forward with this or pull the plug. I can’t do this in a half hearted manner anymore, and as I said above, I want to have fun with it, that’s why I started in the first place. If this post seems too over the top, or too melodramatic, you’ll have to excuse me. As I said, this site is like my child, and I’m very protective of it. I’m going to begin to get involved again. When the Top 30 voting is over, I plan to jump back into discussions. I’ve made it a point to not comment in the Reader Top 30 voting because I don’t want to sway the results. I’ll do my Top 30 list again this year, and its going to be even more in depth than last year’s version, so you’ll get plenty of thoughts on that when the time comes. But the Reader Top 30 is just that, its for the readers, it has nothing to do with me. I have a few other projects in mind. I want to try and improve the layout here, I want to revive the Wikispaces project, I want to try and line up more interviews, and eventually I’d like to explore some kind of message board format for expanded discussion.

There you go. As I’ve said a number of times here, and in the past, I’m extremely grateful for the support here. This long post, and my previous rants, don’t apply to 98.5% of the regular contributors here. Most of you are excellent, and a great resource for this site. But as is the case across the interweb, and in real life, the few bad apples often times muck up the big picture. My hope is that in the future this won’t come up again. 2008 has been even more successful than 2007 for this site, and I hope 2009 is even better. I don’t want to discuss this post in other posts here, so please don’t take what has been said here into other areas. If you would like to comment, you can do it via email, phuturephillies at hotmail dot com. So, thank you to everyone, and I look forward to moving forward from this, jumping back into the fold, and making this site better in 2009.