John Bonnes

Thanks Thrylos. It's good hearing from long-time bloggers like myself, as we tend to have a different perspective than most. I agree about the specific content, but that's one of the things I like about the organic model. It lends itself to surprising content. Tom's game recaps are a great example - I knew I wanted something like that on the site for a long time, but he brainstormed it and ran with it. Bat Girl's fan fiction and your spring training posts are other good examples.

Yes, we recognize this. We just havent had any luck in figuring out a way around the software package for it.

When we write a story, it automatically creates a forum post and links the comments to the forum post. I wonder if we could do something like that for blog posts. (And then link the comments from the blog post to the article when it is promoted.) Sounds daunting, but that would be ideal

I agree Andrew. That was the intention, but we need to work on how to best implement it.

Keep ‘em coming gang. I can’t respond or read them all right now because I’m in the middle of setting up my in-laws new PC, but I’ll be back.

Tom, I can't find your previous post about with technical suggestions. I liked it a lot. And I agree about the SEO. It was a priority for us early, we set it aside, and it got a lot worse with this platform. If you have a chance to repost those ideas, I'd love to start organizing them.

"The I don't know what they'd be looking for" is an interesting point. Here is something that amazed me very early about this site. Occasionally, I have an enterprising young person who want to be a sports writer approach me about writing for Twins Daily. And I tell them they already can, and give them a sheet on how to write a blog and invite them to personally email me when they have written and I'll review their work and work with them on getting it good enough to promote. In the five years since we've had this site, I think that has happened at least 15 times. And I think, at most, one of them ever wrote for TD. Because I think what they wanted was someone to tell them what kind of story to write. And while I'm willing to do a little of that, I don't have time to do that full time. And that isn't really what we were trying to do here. What we wanted to do is give people who want to write about baseball or the Twins the place to find their audience. That is different than wanting to be a sports writer. But having a place where we gather ideas for stories, or where people ask for topics, might be an interesting place. I'm not sure the cleanest way to do it.

You bring up an ongoing problem, that I recognize, but haven't really figure out a way to handle well: management is lacking on the site. Sitting down as a writing community, reaching out to super-commenters, organizing an editorial board - these are management. I'm not saying the guys who started this can't do that, but it's not necessarily their passion. Nick organizes the handbook, Seth his prospect book, John events, but mostly these guys want to write. It might be that we need to give some thought on what expanding the "organization" - in both meanings of the word - around the site.

Two very good points here. Thank you.

Cory, you mentioned some things that I’ve been thinking about. I think we will do more with events, and I think we need to find someone to run them. I also like the idea of doing some serious research around making TD blogs more friendly to multi-media.

Thanks for the feedback so far. There are already some great suggestions here. One thing that is clear is that after we finish examining this as a community, I’ll make sure to publicly do a second piece, detailing some of the lessons and some steps we’ll work on.

The mission of Twins Daily is to gather a community of passionate readers around a core of independent, intelligent, and entertaining Twins writers. The community has been wildly successful on the first half but I don’t see much progress on the second half, and I’d like the community’s and our writers’ candid thoughts on how to get better. It’s not a small question; failure to address it could result in the eventual end of Twins Daily.We haven’t had the success we anticipated we could have in developing a large group of independent Twins writers. When we designed Twins Daily, we attempted to create an organic model for growth. Readers become commenters, and eventually they try writing, which they do on their blogs, and then we promote those to the front page. Then we started paying the writers the $2 per 1000 page views that the site makes off those stories. We want writers to write and we want them to get paid. And yet, our number of regular writers is slowly fading, without enough new voices to replace them. That’s because we’ve failed on the implementation in a number of ways. I’ll count off a few of them: Management and Feedback on the Blogs – Initially, I curated the blogs. That included promoting stories, as well as writing to authors, giving them critical feedback, encouraging them, etc. As I moved to the business side (and as we launched Vikings Journal and Wild Xtra), I moved away from that role. Twins Daily member “Kevin” has helped us quite a bit over the years, and I’m eternally grateful. We would have run into a crisis far earlier but for his hard work. But there is more that needs to be done. For the most part, that organic model has failed. Most of our regular writers were not developed organically; they are people that we (especially Seth) recruit. To grow it organically requires everyday curating and gardening. I know there are people who poured their hearts into quality posts on their blogs, only to never hear from us. That keeps me awake at night. I remember how that feels. Metrics and Payment - There isn’t much of a feedback loop as far as promoted stories go. At the end of each quarter, I send out the total page views to all the authors and send them money based on it. But they don’t know if the story they wrote last night did very well, or even roughly how much each story they wrote was worth. In addition, the $2 per 1000 page views isn’t enough. A first time writer might not get 1000 page views of their first story, and it’s rare for any story to rack up 10,000 views in its lifetime. And to wait until the end of the quarter for the money (or longer, depending on when I get to the books) makes the financial piece almost … apathetic? It feels like we do it because we feel it’s important that we pay, but I suspect the writers don’t make enough to feel it’s important that they receive it. Publicity and Focus – In general, we don’t really emphasize that we want to develop writers. I feel like most people view Twins Daily as Seth, Nick, Parker and John’s place to write. But that was not the intention, and that is not the reality. Every year, we publish about 1000 stories, and each year about half of them are from other writers. Plus, I think we would like that ratio to be far higher. This isn’t a trivial problem. Eventually, Seth, Nick or I will need to step away from TD, just like Parker has had to. If the community doesn’t solve this problem, it creates long-term uncertainty about the future of Twins Daily. (Indeed, I’d say it creates long term certainty that Twins Daily won’t last.) Plus, this is a good time to talk about this because we’re planning on what we’re doing to do for 2018 and this is a big part of our goals. I ask that you kick around thoughts and solutions in the comments. I hope you’ll be candid to the point of being brutal. There is nothing off the table as far as I am concerned. The solutions might be structural, technical, managerial, financial or something else. I’m especially interested to hear from those who have tried their hand at writing, but I don’t want to limit the conversation to that. I’ll start out with some questions to get people started: If you’ve written for Twins Daily, what was the experience like?How do we better manage and administer the recruitment and development of independent voices?What is a fair price to compensate our writers? Or the person who curates/tends/ manages our writers?How can we give feedback to our writers as a community? Or let them know just how popular their stories are?How can we get the word out that developing writers is a focus of Twins Daily? How would we restructure the site to emphasize that? (And do you agree it should be?)Would you like to hear more voices? How can we best do that?I hate to hit you all with a heavy topic in the week between Christmas or New Year's, but the end of one year and the beginning of another seems like a natural time for some reflection. Thank you very much for your participation. Click here to view the article

If you want, you can email me their names at john@bonnes.com. But they can also just ask for them under your name.

1) If you ordered tickets, you just need to show up with ID. We'll check you in. 2) Guests should be announced the first week January.

If you’re panicked about what to buy the Twins fan on your holiday list (or your friends or family is panicking on what to buy you), here are some gift ideas from some folks that have supported Twins Daily in one way or another this year. Tickets to this year’s Winter Meltdown make a great stocking stuffer, and are at an unbelievable price for this week only.Speaking of the Winter Meltdown, AME Sports, who provided the Migueal Sano-signed bat for our 2017 Winter Meltdown, has a variety of great signed memorabilia for Twins fans, including a signed Jack Morris 1991 World Series Replica Jersey. They also have locations in Rosedale and Southdale, if you want to spend a lunch hour perusing…Sota Stick Co and Pick and Shovel both make great t-shirts for all Minnesota sports fans. I love Sota Stick’s Metropolitan Stadium tee and I also dig Pick and Shovel’s Batting Stance T-shirts. Click through to the sites and fall in love with some T-shirts that are a little more clever than your average sports team garb.In a similar vein, S Preston’s minimalist ballpark designs are some of my favorite baseball related art. At MLBShop, you can find this triptych poster set of Target Field, the Metrodome and Metropolitan Stadium. Or stop by his site for much more, and you can also sign up for his email list and get a free cell phone wallpaper of your favorite ballpark.Finally, Fan HQ has a ton of Twins autographed baseballs for sale online. They also have lots of events coming up at their Ridgedale and Eden Prairie Center locations.On behalf of everyone at Twins Daily, we hope you have a fantastic time with friends and family this holiday season. Click here to view the article

Aaron and John talk about the Twins optimism surrounding signing Yu Darvish, a summer of the Fernando Rodney Experience, the future-oriented baseball deal for Michael Pineda, the Twins gains and losses in MLB Rule 5 draft and their secret admirers in the Nippon Ham Fighters front office. Sponsored by Sota Stick Co. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. Click here to view the article

Twins fans, Twins writers, Twins executives, Twins prospects and Twins players all have joined Twins Daily's Winter Meltdown. And thru Christmas Eve you can reserve your spot for, well, kinda for free. This week only, through 12/24, you can buy presale tickets to January 20th's Winter Meltdown at Brothers Bar & Grill (4:30-7:30 PM). It's the Saturday of Twins Fest, so you can just walk over; it's only two blocks from Target Field. This week ONLY, we charge $15, but it's basically free. That's because the $15 is just a prepayment on two 612 Brew craft beers and the Winter Meltdown pint glass you'll get at the event. (We have to charge something up front, because we need to know how many people are really coming.) This deal ends this week and this event has sold out every year. When we offer tickets again in 2018, along with details of who our guests are, the cost will be $30. But we are offering this deal to people that visit the site in the dead of winter, or follow us on email or Twitter. That's our tribe.Besides the pint glass and two free 612 Brew beers, we have a Twins player come join us. We're not letting the cat out of the bag yet who our special guests are this year until after the new year, but in the past they've included LaTroy Hawkins, Tim Laudner, Scott Erickson, Jacque Jones and Mike Pagliarulo. There will also be some sweet raffle and door prizes, plus lots of time to talk Hot Stove and order some of Brothers great food. Warning: These sell out. They have every year. So even if your holiday shopping is done, you might want to grab some ASAP. Or let your family know THIS is what you really want. Or buy a pack and give your friends, family and coworkers a night to remember in the dead of winter. We'll see you there. BUY HERE NOW. Click here to view the article

'Baseball research' in modern circles tends to be seen solely in the analytical sense. However, the group for which sabermetrics was named (by Bill James), the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR), is so much more than analytics. In fact, they are a research society focused on every aspect of baseball research which includes committees ranging from ballparks and the Black Sox to statistical analysis and Women in Baseball. Not currently researching anything or not really planning on researching anything? No worries, most of us are just there because we enjoy talking about baseball. You don't need to be a researcher to be a member and take part.The Halsey Hall Chapter of SABR is based in the Twin Cities and welcomes everyone interested in baseball to come to any of our events. We meet semiannually at our chapter meetings (in the fall and the spring) and have a number of research presentations as well as guest speakers. At our most recent meeting in November, we had former Twins pitcher Dick Stigman and Gulf Coast League umpire Emma Charlesworth-Seiler. We have a number of events upcoming in the new year, including: Halsey Hall will have a table at TwinsFest, January 19th-21st. Stop by and say "hi"!We will be having our spring chapter meeting in April (specific date TBD)Our research committee meeting is Monday, December 18th at 7PM at the Hennepin County Southdale Library, 7001 York Avenue South, Edina. It is continuing its work on an exhibit displaying the names of Hall of Famers who played in Minnesota prior to the arrival of the Twins.The next Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be at 9:00 AM on Saturday, January 6 at Bunny’s Northeast, 34 13th Avenue NE, Minneapolis 55413In addition, the national organization has its Analytics Conference in Phoenix from March 9th-11th and its National Convention is in Pittsburgh on June 20th-24th. If you are interested in keeping track of what we are doing and want to know when our next event is, you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter (HalseyHallSABR). For more details about joining SABR or attending Halsey Hall Chapter events, feel free to contact me, Hans Van Slooten. We look forward to seeing you at our next event! Hans Van Slooten is the Membership Committee Chair for the Halsey Hall Chapter of SABR as well as the Manager of Baseball Operations at Sports Reference Click here to view the article

Aaron and John are at Tin Whiskers and talk about the Minnesota Twins' latest front office addition Josh Kalk, trading spending room for baseball prospects Jacob Pearson and David Banuelos, signing Yunior Severino for $2.5 million, Giancarlo Stanton to the Yankees, Shohei Ohtani to the Angels, the court battle over sports gambling, Thad Levine being true to this word, and the first batch of MLB free agent pitcher signings. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link.http://traffic.libsy...3?dest-id=74590 Click here to view the article