My Fellow Bloggers

New York Islander Fan Central | 2/12/2008 01:42:00 PM |






I wanted to do a blog today to express my thoughts in an e-mail response I sent to my fellow blog boxer Tom Liodice Monday on a bunch of items concerning my fellow members of the Islanders blog box and perhaps let some folks know a little about me because they have not seen me at the blog box and will not.

Tom, as some may know is my former co-moderator from HF who also wrote at the site for a while after me and always goes out of his way to give me a lot more praise and thanks then I deserve for his hard work to become what I consider an excellent upcoming writer, who today does a great job on his blog at Tiger Tracks where in my estimation he has a wonderful gift where he can cover a game live and does it so well you feel you are in the building which is a talent that I do not think can be taught.

Tom as many know not only goes to the Coliseum but goes to Harbor Yard and had been doing that for years before the Isles announced a blog box. When his work was featured in a paper last year, I sent it to him a link to it and when the Isles singled out our blogs together earlier this year I got more satisfaction seeing both blogs listed than I ever would have just seeing my own because I know how dedicated he was. If you listen to him on Hockey Night on LI among the radio shows, he does a fantastic job.

Tom in his e-mail had some questions and concerns so I thought I would address them here even though I did respond to him.

Anyone who has visited this blog from the beginning knows how I would be doing hockey content but I have been forced to re-examine things at times and this is one of those circumstances.

With regard to myself and as I have written on several occasions my blog was added after the season began quietly which is exactly how I wanted things to be so even though this blog started in July it was not on the Islanders website until around November.

I made it very clear to the folks from the Isles beforehand I am not interested in sitting in the blog box or interviewing players because I have no interest in a journalism career or to become a member of the media.

My thoughts at that time and and now are those seats should be reserved for folks who want a career in journalism or who will go interview the players for everyone.

My opinion is we need these folks in the blog box at the games to break through into an industry that I feel has no fans of this team covering it in the print media that you have seen me hold under the spotlight and will continue to.

Truthfully, I wish I was younger and had a background in journalism or this offer was made back when I was at games the team was winning the Stanley Cup but I do not have that background nor do I feel it is a strength of mine and my time for that has passed.

I offered my blog because I thought I could do something to help the Islanders for the thirty years of great memories they have provided me and because I care. My only motivation in offering this blog was to try and do something that could help but do it in a way where I am not the story but the Islanders are.

Having written that Mr Botta/Mr Witt were still willing to offer me a place at the blog box and have done nothing but go out of their way to acknowledge the blog on the teams website.

Doing a blog like this has a lot of things that surface unexpectedly that have presented some challenges for me this year which I wish to share with my fellow bloggers at the box and my readers because I have had a dilemma with the coverage as I look at things and make my own determinations as to what is a media source?

When Brian Bohl had Peter Botte's spot at the Daily News earlier I asked this question, when Kevin Greenstein wrote about the Isles in the New York Sun I asked again.

My cyberspace hockey background from Islanders-Sound Tigers and HF guidelines was to always use what was termed
" credible media sources " which has always been understood to mean a newspaper and a professional writer so when I set out to do this blog I have kind of kept to the same template which you see in the daily articles coverage as I link the publication and a professional writer.

Everyone is familiar with the debate between bloggers and professional hockey writers and I have written here this blog is not a media source and I stand by that.

Having written that I went on IslesNation last night with Steve and Tony who do a great job and Hockey Night on LI with Alex and Steve earlier this year who also do an excellent job but are not established newspaper media sources and yet I linked them to this blog just as I would a newspaper?

It made me wonder have I crossed a line without even knowing it and perhaps without considering it have not written about the other folks who are in the blog box attending games?

I know Tom and linked his work here because we did co-moderate at HF, but what of the other bloggers who put in all this time and effort for us?

My first impression was a lot of folks from the blog box likely do not visit this blog and I did not consider it which I had not, but I'm not going to give myself an easy out here.

Even thought I am not a member of the media I try and hold this blog to a very high standard which begins with my example which means I should have considered the bloggers.

What I wrote the other day about the other bloggers is how I feel. They all do a great job for the fans and all of them offer something special and worth your time to visit and be a part of. These folks get into the trenches and interview which I am not interested in and do the heavy lifting for us as I sit here and write a game summary and tell you what a link to an article says and provide commentary.

Beyond what I just wrote there were other concerns that I will share.

* Did these folks want me to link their blogs here or mention them? As I told Tom I check out the other Islander bloggers about once a week and I noticed most do link to the other blogs as they see one another at games and as Tom told me are a pretty tight-knit group and the bonds they have are unmistakable.

These folks do outstanding work but how would they feel about me placing their work on this site without permission?

I have written on some of these blogs and praised the work but to this point only one blogger (besides Tom) wrote this blog and that was back in the summer.

* I was also concerned if I am critical of the print media would this make problems for them linking their work here being that they have to see these folks at games?

It still leaves me with some of the same dilemma's in terms of blogging from outsides websites and what to post here, plus I need my fellow bloggers input as to where to go from here in terms of their work?

Having written that if the members of the blog box wish to have me link their sites, have suggestions or wish to have their work included here in some manner it would be my pleasure if they would contact me and offer advice.

Beyond that all I can do is thank my fellow bloggers for the great job you do for us and hope to see you covering our team in the print media if that's what you wish to aspire to because the work in all of them have been outstanding.