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| NISB Message Board Talk high school sports with the best fans in the area! |
Columns and More
from the guy behind
the website ...
from the guy behind
the website ...
| Northern Illinois Sports Beat http://www.northernillinoissportsbeat.com |
Hello Everybody!
Five years ago today, the high school sports fan community was hit hard by the sudden
shutdown of NCIpreps. Hard to believe that was five years ago today. The sudden nature of
it all left some of the followers wondering, “What do we do?” “Where do we go?” High school
sports discussion will always last, but on what platform? That platform was needed.
Out of the ashes of NCIpreps came Northern Illinois Sports Beat. “Out of the ashes” turns
out to be nothing more but a cliché. One cannot build anything out of ashes. It falls down a
lot easier. It collapses by the wind. And, like Jenga, you touch it in the wrong place and it
falls down.
After about, oh, eight times, you realize that it's hard to rebuild with those same ashes. The
rebuilds got worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse ...
There have been nights, in the past year or so, that I've said, “That's it. I'm pulling the plug.”
Those nights were those in which I had a bad day at work. Work is where I make my money. I
once tried to make NISB profitable, but this involves business law, contracts, and visitors
wanting to purchase ad-blockers. I couldn't even pay anyone to do that stuff for me.
Money is a luxury I don't have. But still, I spend it on travel, batteries, food, the occasional
software that never works, and new equipment. One of these nights that I thought about
throwing it all away, I thought about all the money I spent on high school sports in the past
few years. And all the time I spent. I'd probably have a lot of money by now. I'd be out of
school, or at a four-year by now, I'd probably even be working at a newspaper. I'd also
probably have a social life, and who knows, maybe a married life with kids. Maybe.
But no, I'm presenting another State of the Site Address, talking about failure.
My hand was wrapped around the cord that night. I let go. My commitment to high school
athletes and teams would be thrown away. I feared that if I distanced myself from high school
sports, I would be further apart from my paradise as a high school sportswriter. I don't want
to do anything else. I don't want to spend the rest of my life doing things that I don't want to
do.
Keep trying.
But if I keep trying, It'll just be the same result.
Keep trying.
I thought of all the sacrifices I already made. I thought about sacrificing things on the site.
Get rid of things that are not working, keep things that are working, and run on that. I hadn't
tried all of the possibilities to make it work. Many possibilities are out there. One of them HAS
to work.
I went back to the drawing board ... again.
I wrote down ideas, cuts ... again.
I pre-wrote the Address using the same template as last year ... once again.
Then something happened. Yahoo! GeoCities was going to shut down later this year. I had
revisited the idea of going back to that cord and yanking it. But no. I told myself I wanted to
give it one more good shot. So I soldiered on.
I registered a domain name on GeoCities's replacement: Yahoo! Small Business. It all ended
up being yet another server switch, which I was doing a couple of years ago at this time.
The end result? A domain name with a simple URL, and unlimited space.
Http://www.northernillinoissportsbeat.com.
Nothing but another server switch, mixed in with the ideas I had wrote up before the
GeoCities shutdown. Switches are the best times to decide what gets carried over and what
does not. One of my ideas was to cut the things that were not working, or just too much work.
Here was what was cut:
Coverage Area: AlWood, Burlington Central, Cambridge, Galesburg, Galva, Hampshire,
Putnam County, Richmond-Burton and Streator Woodland.
The NISB Blog: Because I Said So. I never really made postings in it. It was simply a refuse
for discarded columns. The NISB Mailing List was also cut due to low popularity. The NISB
Record Book was abandoned last year, and is finally cut this year. Jon Lewis, who
contributed much about Orangeville football during this school year, has left us. Advertising
possibilities, I had mentioned earlier, just will not work at this time. The guestbook,
testimonials and want ads were good things when the site began, and have just run it's
course.
I am also making a cut to one of the longest running features on the site: Athlete Q&A. I
never really did any in the past couple of years. It's not going to be entirely cut, but may be
reformed at a later date.
While keeping what is left, I did decide to add a couple of things.
I'm putting my photography to the test. I've shot a lot of pictures for various things recently.
I'm liking how I make my photos more of an Ansel Adams black-and-white feel. Let's see how
this works. There is also a button for audio clips. I don't know exactly what will go in there
yet. I'm also looking forward to a video presence on NISB. Currently, the camera I have can
snap 30 seconds of video at a time – real poorly!
As far as design goes, I took off the ticker. Apparently, it will not work on the new setup due
to some sort of HTML disagreement. But I did make a real navigation bar! The layout of the
text and front page picture is similar to the prototype PSO webpages I worked on earlier this
decade.
A couple of weeks ago I began the hardest part of the transition. That's moving the stories
from GeoCities to Small Business. I decided it was best, and less time wasting, to only carry
over a few stories. All of the other available stories I'm leaving on the GeoCities server until
it shuts down. I'll be reworking the NISB Story Archive after today.
All of the Friday 5's will be carried over. That's a feature I'm really working hard on getting
released each week. There was no “F5” last week because of the transition. As explained in
an earlier F5, as the high school sports season winds down, information for publication in
the Friday 5 becomes somewhat scarce during the summer months. We'd like to keep it
running for as long as possible. Stories normally covered in full during the prep sports
season will be a part of the Friday 5 during the summer months.
Another feature that's been popular lately has been the NISB Track and Field Honor Roll. I
started it after a six-year hiatus (last done on NCIpreps with “rt20”). It seemed to go real well.
I feel like sticking to it next year.
If you haven't also noticed by now, the NISB Message Boards have not changed. Of course,
we'd like to make it a more busier place. Believe me, it's very hard to do that. I don't have to
repeat my thoughts about getting more posters. I have tried posting more general questions
lately, in order to get some “yes”'s and “no”'s, and some “why”'s too.
Finally, I'd like to end on the college update. One more year left. I graduate Sauk in Spring,
2010. After that I'm taking a break from college studies. I've thought about doing the rest of
my work toward a bachelor's little by little. The Shell gig will do, but of course I'd rather be
doing something else.
There's only two ways you're gonna pry NISB out of my hands. One, if the lovely wife says
so. Two, if I get that job I covet the most. But I'll always save NISB, just in case something
gets out of hand in paradise.
Full speed ahead!
Thank you for your support, and God Bless!
Cody Cutter
Publisher, Northern Illinois Sports Beat
Five years ago today, the high school sports fan community was hit hard by the sudden
shutdown of NCIpreps. Hard to believe that was five years ago today. The sudden nature of
it all left some of the followers wondering, “What do we do?” “Where do we go?” High school
sports discussion will always last, but on what platform? That platform was needed.
Out of the ashes of NCIpreps came Northern Illinois Sports Beat. “Out of the ashes” turns
out to be nothing more but a cliché. One cannot build anything out of ashes. It falls down a
lot easier. It collapses by the wind. And, like Jenga, you touch it in the wrong place and it
falls down.
After about, oh, eight times, you realize that it's hard to rebuild with those same ashes. The
rebuilds got worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse ...
There have been nights, in the past year or so, that I've said, “That's it. I'm pulling the plug.”
Those nights were those in which I had a bad day at work. Work is where I make my money. I
once tried to make NISB profitable, but this involves business law, contracts, and visitors
wanting to purchase ad-blockers. I couldn't even pay anyone to do that stuff for me.
Money is a luxury I don't have. But still, I spend it on travel, batteries, food, the occasional
software that never works, and new equipment. One of these nights that I thought about
throwing it all away, I thought about all the money I spent on high school sports in the past
few years. And all the time I spent. I'd probably have a lot of money by now. I'd be out of
school, or at a four-year by now, I'd probably even be working at a newspaper. I'd also
probably have a social life, and who knows, maybe a married life with kids. Maybe.
But no, I'm presenting another State of the Site Address, talking about failure.
My hand was wrapped around the cord that night. I let go. My commitment to high school
athletes and teams would be thrown away. I feared that if I distanced myself from high school
sports, I would be further apart from my paradise as a high school sportswriter. I don't want
to do anything else. I don't want to spend the rest of my life doing things that I don't want to
do.
Keep trying.
But if I keep trying, It'll just be the same result.
Keep trying.
I thought of all the sacrifices I already made. I thought about sacrificing things on the site.
Get rid of things that are not working, keep things that are working, and run on that. I hadn't
tried all of the possibilities to make it work. Many possibilities are out there. One of them HAS
to work.
I went back to the drawing board ... again.
I wrote down ideas, cuts ... again.
I pre-wrote the Address using the same template as last year ... once again.
Then something happened. Yahoo! GeoCities was going to shut down later this year. I had
revisited the idea of going back to that cord and yanking it. But no. I told myself I wanted to
give it one more good shot. So I soldiered on.
I registered a domain name on GeoCities's replacement: Yahoo! Small Business. It all ended
up being yet another server switch, which I was doing a couple of years ago at this time.
The end result? A domain name with a simple URL, and unlimited space.
Http://www.northernillinoissportsbeat.com.
Nothing but another server switch, mixed in with the ideas I had wrote up before the
GeoCities shutdown. Switches are the best times to decide what gets carried over and what
does not. One of my ideas was to cut the things that were not working, or just too much work.
Here was what was cut:
Coverage Area: AlWood, Burlington Central, Cambridge, Galesburg, Galva, Hampshire,
Putnam County, Richmond-Burton and Streator Woodland.
The NISB Blog: Because I Said So. I never really made postings in it. It was simply a refuse
for discarded columns. The NISB Mailing List was also cut due to low popularity. The NISB
Record Book was abandoned last year, and is finally cut this year. Jon Lewis, who
contributed much about Orangeville football during this school year, has left us. Advertising
possibilities, I had mentioned earlier, just will not work at this time. The guestbook,
testimonials and want ads were good things when the site began, and have just run it's
course.
I am also making a cut to one of the longest running features on the site: Athlete Q&A. I
never really did any in the past couple of years. It's not going to be entirely cut, but may be
reformed at a later date.
While keeping what is left, I did decide to add a couple of things.
I'm putting my photography to the test. I've shot a lot of pictures for various things recently.
I'm liking how I make my photos more of an Ansel Adams black-and-white feel. Let's see how
this works. There is also a button for audio clips. I don't know exactly what will go in there
yet. I'm also looking forward to a video presence on NISB. Currently, the camera I have can
snap 30 seconds of video at a time – real poorly!
As far as design goes, I took off the ticker. Apparently, it will not work on the new setup due
to some sort of HTML disagreement. But I did make a real navigation bar! The layout of the
text and front page picture is similar to the prototype PSO webpages I worked on earlier this
decade.
A couple of weeks ago I began the hardest part of the transition. That's moving the stories
from GeoCities to Small Business. I decided it was best, and less time wasting, to only carry
over a few stories. All of the other available stories I'm leaving on the GeoCities server until
it shuts down. I'll be reworking the NISB Story Archive after today.
All of the Friday 5's will be carried over. That's a feature I'm really working hard on getting
released each week. There was no “F5” last week because of the transition. As explained in
an earlier F5, as the high school sports season winds down, information for publication in
the Friday 5 becomes somewhat scarce during the summer months. We'd like to keep it
running for as long as possible. Stories normally covered in full during the prep sports
season will be a part of the Friday 5 during the summer months.
Another feature that's been popular lately has been the NISB Track and Field Honor Roll. I
started it after a six-year hiatus (last done on NCIpreps with “rt20”). It seemed to go real well.
I feel like sticking to it next year.
If you haven't also noticed by now, the NISB Message Boards have not changed. Of course,
we'd like to make it a more busier place. Believe me, it's very hard to do that. I don't have to
repeat my thoughts about getting more posters. I have tried posting more general questions
lately, in order to get some “yes”'s and “no”'s, and some “why”'s too.
Finally, I'd like to end on the college update. One more year left. I graduate Sauk in Spring,
2010. After that I'm taking a break from college studies. I've thought about doing the rest of
my work toward a bachelor's little by little. The Shell gig will do, but of course I'd rather be
doing something else.
There's only two ways you're gonna pry NISB out of my hands. One, if the lovely wife says
so. Two, if I get that job I covet the most. But I'll always save NISB, just in case something
gets out of hand in paradise.
Full speed ahead!
Thank you for your support, and God Bless!
Cody Cutter
Publisher, Northern Illinois Sports Beat
