Article: Five Years of Twins Daily - BYTO Edition

[Brock Beauchamp]

So goodbye, BYTO.

Where the dogs of society howled.

 

Five years ago, four bloggers – whose writings were widely shared on the BattleYourTailOff.com forums – gathered their considerable baseball knowledge and passion to form Twins Daily, eschewing their individual sites in favor of a single site for All Things Twins.Initially, I was on the outside, looking in at this curious experiment and was intrigued, to say the least. The writers were some of the best in Twins country but the site was rough around the edges and the forums were in their infancy. It just so happened that I ran a forum…

 

Courtesy of Nick Nelson, a long-time BYTO contributor, a meeting was arranged with the rest of the Twins Daily founders. We talked ideas, vision, and I was on board almost immediately. After a bit of back-and-forth, we agreed on a plan and began work to fold the Battle Your Tail Off forums into Twins Daily in the next few days. We haven’t looked back since that time.

 

I’m immensely proud of what the Twins Daily forums have become, largely due to the diligent (and, at times, exhausting) efforts of our moderation crew – ashburyjohn, ChiTownTwinsFan, diehardtwinsfan, glunn, nicksaviking, Riverbrian, snepp, stringer bell, twinsnorth49, and USAFChief – and how the forums have complemented the four founding writers. While the front page writers are front and center so often (as they should be), I view the forums as the backbone of Twins Daily and the work those ten perform on a daily basis keeps that backbone from curling in on itself and ultimately snapping in two is vital to the site's continued success. As I’ve said many times when discussing forum policy for Twins Daily, “this isn’t RubeChat”. We expect civil discourse and the moderators are the people who make this site such an enjoyable place to hang out and talk Twins.

 

It wasn’t always sunshine and roses. As some of you surely remember, the BYTO forums were a bit… volatile, to put it kindly. During the transition, we lost many great posters that I still miss to this day, posters who either couldn’t or refused to tone down their style to fit the curated and tempered approach to forums we strive toward on Twins Daily. I’ll never forget the BYTO wiki, the expansive word filters (at one point, we had filters in place for the entire 25 man roster), the meltdown threads, and a certain fella from Alaska who reported me to the FBI for… well, I still haven’t quite figured out why I was to blame for any of that in the first place or what he was going on about in general, actually. There’s a lot I miss about BYTO and I’d be lying if I said I don’t look back fondly at that site whenever I’m faced with the overwhelming desire to really go for the jugular when posting on the forums.

 

But what emerged from that integration was the best Twins forum I’ve ever seen on the internet, and I’ve been participating in Twins forums since 1999, when I found the dedicated ESPN team forum and later, the Dickie Thon Fan Club. We encourage (and, unfortunately, sometimes demand) reasoned, intelligent takes on the Twins and baseball in general.

 

It works. Twins Daily continues to grow year-over-year despite the Twins fielding something that more resembles a clown car than a functioning baseball team for four of the past five years.

 

It’d be easy to congratulate myself and call it a day but I’m not the one who made that happen. All you great posters from BYTO who stuck around (many of whom later became moderators on Twins Daily), all you posters who followed John, Seth, Parker, and Nick over from their blogs, and all you new posters who were first introduced to us through Twins Daily itself, you made that happen.

 

So congratulations to all of you for making Twins Daily what it is today.

 

I also blame you for every headache I’ve had over the past half decade but I’ll save that missive for the ten year anniversary post.

 

On that note, I have a fun surprise for those of you who have stuck with us since the BYTO days. While putting together my notes, I dug into my old BYTO design archives and pulled out the best shirt designs we had over the years.

 

Enjoy. I couldn’t stop laughing when I opened the folder and saw its contents.

 

Download attachment: Back-Shirt-Logo.jpg

 

Download attachment: Moneyball.jpg

 

Download attachment: Black-Dominated-Shirt.jpg

 

Download attachment: 7-31-07.jpg

 

Download attachment: Black-Shirt-Lohse.jpg

 

Download attachment: Rally_Monkey.jpg

 

Click here to view the article

[PseudoSABR]

Cheers, Brock. At first, I was bit jaded by the demise of BYTO, but I'm thankful for the move to Twins Daily.  This community has provides some of those most thoughtful discourse on the interwebs, at least in the Sports Bar.   I count many of the posters, mods, and owners of this site as friends, and appreciate everyone's ongoing contribution, thoughtfulness, and respect. 

[Vanimal46]

We heard John's side of the story that you misunderstood the initial offer and John became a petulant, pouty ass as a result of it. What's your side of the story, Brock? 

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

We heard John's side of the story that you misunderstood the initial offer and John became a petulant, pouty ass as a result of it. What's your side of the story, Brock? 

I barely registered it happening, to my recollection. John had to fill me in on the details a few days ago and I vaguely recall something happening but it wasn't earth-shattering to me at the time. We had a bit of back-and-forth during the integration talks but I just considered that part of the process.

 

There was a lot of emotional stock invested in our respective sites. BYTO was dear to me, just as the four writers' blogs were dear to them. It was expected that we'd get a little salty over giving up those sites unless certain terms were met (and, as it turned out, all of our terms were very reasonable, we simply weren't communicating them very clearly).

[kydoty]

"It was dirt, not pine tar."

 

We lost longtime posters over that debate.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

"It was dirt, not pine tar." We lost longtime posters over that debate.

Hahahahah, yes. The pine tar debate that raged for months.

[USAFChief]

Twins Daily >>>>> Avian flu

[kydoty]

Hahahahah, yes. The pine tar debate that raged for months.

The only thing missing from that debate was Godwin. Beyond that, it had everything. A heated debate over something that couldn't be proven and was absolutely pointless anyway, the political like absolutism that you must pick a side, posters (mostly Kobs and yarnivek) virtually wishing death on each other's families, etc.

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

We heard John's side of the story that you misunderstood the initial offer and John became a petulant, pouty ass as a result of it. What's your side of the story, Brock? 

 

I thought we had someone around that could handle these SCORCHING hot takes.

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

The only thing missing from that debate was Godwin. Beyond that, it had everything. A heated debate over something that couldn't be proven and was absolutely pointless anyway, the political like absolutism that you must pick a side, posters (mostly Kobs and yarnivek) virtually wishing death on each other's families, etc.

 

Those were the days...  That site was not for the thin of skin.

 

Some of the world filters were pretty amusing too. 

[Vanimal46]

 

I thought we had someone around that could handle these SCORCHING hot takes.

That's what I'm here for! To spew the takes, and ask the HARD HITTING questions. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Those were the days...  That site was not for the thin of skin.

 

Some of the world filters were pretty amusing too. 

The Scott Baker word filter was a thing of beauty. To prevent a recursive loop that printed something like "Timothy Scott Moonshot Moonshot Baker Moonshot Baker" endlessly, we had to put 3-4 filters in place that ran one after the other. It was ridiculous.

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

The Scott Baker word filter was a thing of beauty. To prevent a recursive loop that printed something like "Timothy Scott Moonshot Moonshot Baker Moonshot Baker" endlessly, we had to put 3-4 filters in place that ran one after the other. It was ridiculous.

 

yes, I remember being very confused at first when typing Terry Ryan and seeing it show up as Jerry Ryan.... 

[kydoty]

2003, the year I learned that "rocketpig" can also be a verb.

[TheLeviathan]

I miss BYTO, there was a little bit more of an "unhinged" element to the conversations and I miss that.  Things wheeled a bit more freely and as a result there was some pretty awesome stuff we came up with over the years.  We were our own little whacky society of Twins fans with our own language, memes, etc.  I miss the hell out of that.

 

That said, I see the vision for Twins Daily and I've come to appreciate it's existence as well.  Like Pseudo said, most of us have known each other for a huge portion of our adult lives so the sense of community from BYTO is still here.  And the baseball content here is really, really good, so it's been fun to merge those elements. 

[Ex-Iowegian]

"Take me to your leader"

 

Good one.

[Han Joelo]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing.  Maybe BYTO community members should get a little asterisk or badge by their name.  That way, I'll know when there is a conversation within a conversation going on, and I won't feel stupid for not knowing what the heck is so funny.

 

This is a great community.  I'll never forget the semester I read Crime and Punishment and Moby Dick, and I'll never forget this winter, when I read 5000 Dozier to LA comments.

[SydneyTwinsFan]

Fairly sure I still have my BOOF! T-shirt somewhere. The debate about the HR hitting prowess of Eric "40 jacks" Munson was a personal favourite. Good times, but appreciate the evolution that has happened here over the years too. Well done to all of Brock, Nick, Seth, Parker and John for each bringing something a little different and combining it into a great online community, even for those of us spread around the world.

[TheLeviathan]

 

Great stuff, thanks for sharing.  Maybe BYTO community members should get a little asterisk or badge by their name.  That way, I'll know when there is a conversation within a conversation going on, and I won't feel stupid for not knowing what the heck is so funny.

 

This is a great community.  I'll never forget the semester I read Crime and Punishment and Moby Dick, and I'll never forget this winter, when I read 5000 Dozier to LA comments.

 

Scarlet BYTO labels for us all huh?

 

*Eyes suspiciously*

[ashbury]

<BYTO in-joke>

 

_{^{/ not having been a part of that scene, I can't dial one up at the moment}}

[ashbury]

I'll never forget the semester I read Crime and Punishment ..., and I'll never forget this winter, when I read 5000 Dozier to LA comments.

Is the latter a crime, or a punishment? The lines blur.

[Squirrel]

Okay ... so ... the other day I thought something was off with the site because the photo that showed up on the homepage of the original look of the site. This morning it was ... both a feeling of all is right and wrong (in a good way) seeing that BYTO logo pop up on my screen.

 

As for a badge or an asterisk by our names ... I want a badge of honor, courage and bravery for living to tell about it later.

[Han Joelo]

 

Scarlet BYTO labels for us all huh?

 

*Eyes suspiciously*

Not scarlet!  I was thinking more secret society-like.  Skull and crossbones...maybe redone as a catchers mask and crossed bats?  Honestly, the way you guys talk affectionately about that site makes me a little jealous.  Cool kid envy, you know.  It is probably the way my wife feels when I get together with river guide friends and we start laughing our asses off at "remember that one time" (while never finishing) or just saying the punchlines to old jokes.  Actually, its exactly like that.

[Blake]

What's interesting is that this site could easily have become a Frankenstein monster. Instead, it's butterflies, unicorns and skittles. (Hey, the Twins season hasn't started yet, so, I'm optimistic. And maybe on drugs)

[Dman]

I was late to the blogs and forums and just found Twins Daily a few years back so that is all the history I have.  When I found this site I was in heaven.  So much good conversation and the moderation kept things from getting off track and out of hand.  This is the site I come to more often than any other.  So many other sites are just personal attack sites and two or three people can hijack a thread and make it pointless.  That doesn't happen here.  

 

I really have enjoyed what you guys put together.  For me it is the best site I visit bar none.  I wish more sites could be like this.  Keep up the great work!!!

[John Bonnes]

 

We heard John's side of the story that you misunderstood the initial offer and John became a petulant, pouty ass as a result of it. What's your side of the story, Brock? 

 

I barely registered it happening, to my recollection. John had to fill me in on the details a few days ago and I vaguely recall something happening but it wasn't earth-shattering to me at the time. We had a bit of back-and-forth during the integration talks but I just considered that part of the process.

 

There was a lot of emotional stock invested in our respective sites. BYTO was dear to me, just as the four writers' blogs were dear to them. It was expected that we'd get a little salty over giving up those sites unless certain terms were met (and, as it turned out, all of our terms were very reasonable, we simply weren't communicating them very clearly).

 

Yeah, Brock didn't know anything about it. Basically it went like this....

1) We made an offer to Brock...

2) but there was a miscommunication about it, so he turned it down....

3) and talked about other ways we could get together in an email...

4) I saw that he had turned it down in the first couple of lines and basically fired off a butt-hurt email to Nick, Parker and Seth that said "F this guy" and didn't read much further.

5) Nick did reach much further and figured out that we hadn't been clear with our original offer and Brock was turning down a much worse offer than we intended to make, so he shot an email to Brock clarifying it. 

6) Brock replied something like "Oh, I see, that changes everything" and things honestly couldn't have gone smoother since. 

[DaveW]

R I P

 

MackBrownSwallows

Statfreak

Richard McBeef

Narf

rongardenhire

AJ

Trolpo

Klobs

itstimetotakeit

Brock1978

Shorty

Frodaddy

ofx

dankind

Sydney Ponson

Edited February 16, 2017 by DaveW

[DaveW]

I would honor this momentous occasion with an act of Rocketpigging, but then I realized that London has some pretty strict obscenity laws...

[GCTF]

 

I would honor this momentous occasion with an act of Rocketpigging, but then I realized that London has some pretty strict obscenity laws...

They don't sell Frankenberry? gasp

[notoriousgod71]

My favorite BYTO memories:

 

trolling the Giants ESPN message board by taunting them about Liriano's greatness in 2006 by only typing in Spanish

 

Joining a certain unnamed website using Lion King monikers as user names

 

The day I ran into Pat Neshek while wearing my Avian Flu > Juan Castro shirt and he asked if I wrote for that website and I lied and said yes.

 

The greatness of Haessig (also Haessig being apart of the forum for about four months and still being a top ten poster well into 2010) and Kobs arguing about the Gambler's pinetar/dirt usage

 

StatFreak's mental midget meltdowns

 

Trolpoisms

 

The initial Veteran Presence photo of Castro's dropped pop up in Anaheim

 

And of course the legendary SL--S Rule!!! thread carried over from ESPN.

 

I'm sure I'm missing hundreds of other great moments.

 

 

Edited February 16, 2017 by notoriousgod71