When I first started this blog last June, I wasn’t sure how long it would last. But nearly a year and several posts later, the blog has taken on a life of its own thanks to those of you who frequent Beyond The Beat. So now I need your help.
BTB is in the early stages of a major facelift, and has been for the last month behind the scenes. A move away from WordPress – who has been a great blog format to work with – is coming hopefully by late April/early May. More to come on this.
The look will change – layout and advertising. Content will grow and morph as well. And this is where you come in….yeah, you.
My original plan was to use BTB as a one-stop-shop for all my writing, from HOOPSWORLD to the Northwest Examiner and any freelance writing gigs along the way. I also wanted to give a glimpse about covering the NBA in Portland and the league as a whole.
Hopefully I’ve done those aspects justice.
As a highlight, I’ve had some brief feature stories (in memory of Kevin Duckworth), occasional interviews with other beat writers (the latest with Chris Tommason and Aaron Lopez from the now defunct Rocky Mountain News), and plenty of additional very random thoughts on the Blazers (time for Martell Webster to really shut it down?) – and the NBA to boot (some Mexican food from Mo Williams actually sounds good right about now….).
And while I have a sense of how I want to proceed with in content going forward, your feedback is important to this process and is greatly appreciated.
If you are a faithful reader (all five of you) or simply stopping by for a quick blog fix, your comments are what help keep this adventure interesting.
So it’s feedback time.
What have you enjoyed? What has worked? What needs to be scrapped? What would you like more of? Story ideas you’d like to see come to life? Interviews you’d like to see? Other blog/website features you’d benefit from?
Speak up….
And thanks always for reading and writing.
W
I’ve enjoyed your perspective coming from covering NY to covering the Blazers.
I’m a basketball fan so the non-Blazer stuff is interesting as well. I enjoy the articles.
Most of the things I dislike are slightly technical in nature.
The RSS feed has really small type when viewed in the RSS reader on my desktop.
And this is no fault of yours, but Hoopsworld has a stupid script that tries to determine if your browser fits their criteria for a browser that can read their content. It misdiagnoses my RSS reader which means that every time I try to read one of the articles there, it is a hassle. Obviously not your fault, but it greatly reduces the amount of Hoopsworld content I read.
One technical items that I enjoy are the fact that you have the full articles available in the RSS feed so I can read it on my iPhone. Because of that fact, I read your posts while eating lunch, etc.
Overall, I like the content. More of the same please.
I have this site in my “Blazer” tabs, so it gets opened multiple times a day. You are good at posting content regularly, but it would be even better if content was posted more frequently, even a list of links (e.g. truehoop bullets) would be nice and would increase traffic.
damn hoopsworld….always jacking around.
thanks for the reply jason…..good to know. and sorry for all the hassle. but hopefully you will continue to find your blazers/nba fix here regardless.
looking forward to “more of the same”- and then some – myself.
good looking out nathan. thanks. it’s in the works….
[...] The Latest: In the comings days I’ll be plugging this post from Monday every now and again. It’s a chance to gather some reader feedback for the upcoming re-launch of Beyond The Beat. Details inside…. [...]
Don’t change a thing, at least here.
Now, if you could get you editors at HOOPSWORLD to stop insisting quotes be introduced by stating “(insert name here) told HOOPSWORLD”, that would be a bonus.
trust me brother, you are preaching to the choir on this one.
it’s all about the exclusive with editors.
Love the blog. I think you are very insightful in your Blazer coverage. You let us see a side of the team that most other writers don’t… a behind the scene’s take with a personal spin.
When I read your blog, I definitely feel like I’m learning something about the Blazers that I can’t get anywhere else.
Keep up the great writing.
thanks denis….guys like you make the writing worth while.
appreciate the kind comments.