I meant to make this post right after the draft, but life kind of got in the way. Well, better late than never. A few days ago we went over 4 million hits since the inception of the site. I realize a lot of that is people hitting refresh, but every hit counts! In all seriousness, its been a really wild ride over the last 3.5 years, and most all of it has been positive. As I mentioned previously, I’m planning some redesign stuff for the site, but I really like where the content of the site has gone. Over the last 6 months, I’ve received quite a few offers to have ads placed on the site for a fee, and I’ve also received an offer (somewhat sizable too) for the domain name itself. But as I’ve stated in the past, I will never put ads on the site, and I have no plans on selling the domain name or content. The handful of donations I received, and more importantly, the consistently positive direction of the site is enough to keep me happy and motivated. This site would be nothing without the help of my fellow writers, notably Gregg and Todd, who manages all of the transactions and rosters on the pages at the top. Another thanks goes to all of the affiliate writers and those who have written guest articles, as well as those who have helped with the nuts and bolts of the site. And most importantly, a big thank you is in order for all the people who continue to come here, read the stuff we write, engage in solid discussion, and share this site with their friends. Next stop, 5 million!
Category Archives: 07. Site Info
Site Design Changes/Help
Quick update here.
Over the next couple days/weeks, you’re going to see some changes to the site. I’ve started to grow unhappy with the way the site looks. I get lots of compliments (and I appreciate all of them) on the content of the site, but I want the site to be more visually inviting. While I’m not ready to splash out $500+ on a custom designed WordPress theme, which will involve even more than just the money, I am going to go about cleaning up the display here. That means that the layout of the site is going to change, some stuff will be moved, some stuff won’t be displayed anymore, and things might just look all out of sorts. But hang with me, it will be worth the hassle. If you are looking for anything specific and can’t find it when stuff starts to get moved around, you can always use the SEARCH box at the top right of the site, I’ll make sure to leave that there.
I’m also going to ask for help on two fronts.
1. If you’d like to help (well, you’ll have to do most of it) design the new header for the site, and you have experience with photoshop, please send me an email at phuturephillies at gmail dot com.
2. I’m also looking for someone to help me with a simpler (but more time consuming) task in terms of getting some of the content here properly organized. Again, if you’d like to help, send me an email to the same address right above.
Thanks.
State of Phuture Phillies address
I wanted to take a few moments to talk about the website here, kind of recap what’s been going on, what I expect to happen going forward, and a bunch of other stuff. The minor league season is almost here, and with that will come an increase in traffic. With that comes more comments, more discussion, and mostly good times had by all. I wanted to briefly discuss some of the nuts and bolts here, as well as put in a request for help, and a bunch of other things. I tend to write best when I’m using bulleted points, and to keep this short and readable, I’ll do just that, so check below for more…
New message board in the works
I wasn’t happy with the board I created last year, but I found a new free site, the setup is much better (I think) and hopefully it will prove much more useful during the season. This board, unlike the last one, is much more customizable, as it utilizes the phpbb software. I am, however, unskilled when it comes to updating/editing the appearance of the board. So, if you have experience working with phpbb and know how to alter the code to change the colors/board header and you’d like to help, please send an e-mail to phuturephillies at gmail dot com. I’m also looking for someone to offer their services to design a banner/header image for the site, so if you have those graphics related skills, also do send me an email, Id greatly appreciate it.
For now, you can check out the board here and sign up. Its just a skeleton setup with basic rules, but you’re free to join, play around and discuss. As I figure out the ins and outs and hopefully work with someone I can improve the aesthetics and features of the place. My hope is that it provides useful during the season and gives another outlet for the good discussions that generally spill across multiple articles here. I know its common sense (and I noted it in the rules there), but please only sign up with your name from here, it will create far less confusion and its just common sense. Thanks.
Reader Top 30 Spreadsheet
Is now located under the “Top 30 Prospects” page at the top of the site. Head over there, scroll under the chart that I’ve made, and you’ll see a link to click to view it in Google Documents. Enjoy.
On an unrelated note, in my wordpress dashboard where the admin type stuff is, I can see what people are clicking, where links to this site are posted, etc etc, and I’ve noticed that every day, the “make a donation” button is getting 15-20 clicks, and there are no actual donations. If you’d like to donate (and as always, its 100% optional, but obviously greatly appreciated) and you’re having an issue with paypal, please send me an e-mail and I can try to help. Or maybe you just click the button out of habit, I understand that too. Either way, it was kind of a curiosity, and I wanted to make a note.
Comments on this are closed, if you want to comment on Reader Top 30 submissions, do it at the above link. Thanks.
Last call for Reader Top 30 submissions
I’m going to put them into a matrix and upload it to the site over the weekend, so if you want to submit a personal top 30 list, please send it to phuturephillies at gmail dot com and also include the display name you’d like attached to your list. Thanks.
Scheduling note
Just a heads up. Kevin Goldstein has agreed to do a little Q/A here to talk Phillies prospects and I’ve sent him a list of questions. Check for his replies sometime next week. Also, the target date for my writeup on the top 30 prospects is Monday. I’m about half way through, it will come complete with stats, graphics, and lots of insightful commentary. So check back Monday for that, and then look forward to the wisdom of KG.
Quick site update
I’m going to keep this short and sweet, and its not really a topic for discussion, so comments will be locked. If you need to get in touch with me on this, you can send me an e-mail. I’ve mentioned it tons of times before, but my goal in starting this site was always to keep it ad free, mainly because I don’t need to make money off of this site, and because I know how intrusive and annoying ads can be. I’ve had offers to integrate ads into the site, to merge my site with other sites, and just about everything in between. I’ve resisted all those offers, and I likely will in the future as well. This place runs on the hard work of everyone involved, especially guys like gregg who take tons of time to add their own content and keep things fresh. So, I actually came up with an alternate idea that might work. You may have noticed that I’ve added a “donation” button on the right side of the page. This button links to PayPal, and allows you to donate money in the name of the site. This donation button is 100% optional, you shouldn’t feel obligated to donate money, and I’ll never personally ask anyone who visits here to donate. But if you do want to toss a few dollars into the fund, I’d appreciate it. What will it go toward? Well, I have to renew the domain name every year to keep the unique web address and not .wordpress attached to it. Also, the money will go toward subscription services that provide baseball content that I can synthesize and pass along in some form. Finally, the money could be used to pay for content for the site, whether it be getting players to contribute in the same fashion as Michael Schwimer, or anything of that sort. This isn’t a tax writeoff, or some grand scheme. But if you want to contribute to this site, the option is there for you. I won’t address it again on the site, if you want to discuss it, then email is the avenue for that.
Scheduling note
Since Kyle Drabek was voted the #1 prospect in the Reader Top 30, and we started on #2, we’re just going to re-start from the top. I’ll wait a day and let everyone get all of the Halladay talk out of their system, then we’ll get going and move on. Also, thanks to all the Blue Jays fans who found my site through google (Travis D’Arnaud was a very popular search term yesterday) and checked out what was written on the guys you’re getting. Thanks to everyone else who visits regularly and who posted links to my stuff on other sites yesterday. We fell about 900 hits short of breaking the single day record for the site yesterday, but for mid December, I can’t complain. So check back tomorrow for the re-start of the Reader Top 30.
Programming note
Sorry for the lack of updates, I’ve been kind of short on time. I’m going to attempt to have something up on Thursday dealing with the Rule 5 draft, whether it be the Phillies taking someone or losing someone in the process. I’m also beginning to work on my top 30 prospects list, but it won’t be published for a while. Since we have plenty of time and not a whole lot to discuss, other than boring trade rumors/fantasies, I’m going to start the Reader Top 30, maybe on Friday, or maybe next Monday. There won’t be a firm time table, like one day per vote, especially with the holidays coming up, but it should spark some good debate, and in the depths of winter, good debate about interesting topics is always welcome.
So, look for Rule 5 stuff on Thursday, then maybe the first day of voting on the Reader Top 30, and we’ll go from there.
Phuture Phillies 