Any interest in a "Resources" or "Best Threads" thread?

[jalbright]

I've created stickied threads in the Negro Leagues and International forums which contain various resources in the form of links to other posts (and to a few select sites). In this forum, other than possibly a link to Baseball Think Factory and maybe Cooperstown's site, I don't think we need to go outside this site for much. I wouldn't unsticky any existing stickied threads here, and adding one more might not be to everyone's taste.

Is there interest in such a stickied thread here? That's the first question. I'll even include a poll for opinions to be registered. I will make it so that poll responses are anonymous so no one has to fear recriminations over his/her vote.

The next question, if we decide to have such a thread, is what threads from this forum other than those already stickied would you nominate?

I look forward to your feedback.

Jim Albright

[Mariano_Rivera]

Sure thats a great idea!!!!

[cbenson5]

I think it would be a nice feature to add to the forum.

[jalbright]

We could try it, and if it doesn't work out, ditch it. The biggest problem I see is I want some standards as to what threads make it and which don't. I've decided against voting on it, as somebody who "loses" might get bent out of shape, and it's not worth that. I'm leaning toward a requirement that the thread either be a) involve a lot of posts and/or be heavily visited (but no padding posts permitted), b) involve multiple players (best 3B, etc.), or c) include valuable resource material, and preferrably meet more than one of these standards. I also want the threads to deserve to stay for the forseeable future rather than become stale at some obvious fairly near time(like about the 2007 Veteran's Committee vote). If there is interest (as early returns suggest there may be), I still need nominees from threads that aren't stickied.

Jim Albright

[Bill Burgess]

Go For IT!

[SABR Matt]

Sorry I havben't gotten back to you Jim...

I haven't had much time with my sister having all kinds of health problems and college starting in a week...things are backing up.

I don't unfortunately remember all of my history here so it's going to be tough to locate the "gem" threads I was witness to...going ot have to do some research when things calm down.

[leecemark]

--I'd prefer limited stickies in all forums and this helps achieve that while still keeping important stuff readily available. Perhaps this could be the ONLY sticky. This may pre-date your involvement, Jim, but there was a series of threads called "the rest of" that went over the best non-Hall of Famers by position. They are buried deep in the archives now, but fit the description of what you are looking for.

[Freakshow]

--I'd prefer limited stickies in all forums and this helps achieve that while still keeping important stuff readily available. Perhaps this could be the ONLY sticky. This may pre-date your involvement, Jim, but there was a series of threads called "the rest of" that went over the best non-Hall of Famers by position. They are buried deep in the archives now, but fit the description of what you are looking for.
Yeah, those were deserving threads. It reminds me of another series of threads looking at candidates in upcoming BBWAA elections for each year, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.

[Bill Burgess]

I think one of the beauties of this idea is that it allows for many present stickies to be 'unstuck'.

I'd keep the current Fever Hall of Fame Voting Thread stuck, and put all the other stuck threads into the new stuck thread, consisiting of a menu of the best past threads.

Three I'd nominate might be:

Poll: Best Player not in the Hall of Fame?

Poll: How many of the following players do you feel SHOULD get into the Hall of Fame?

Joe Jackson 1919 Black Sox & Pete Rose.

Just for starters. I haven't gone back and looked at the rest. One way to ascertain popularity is to see which ones were 'viewed' the most. Crude but effective yardstick.

The huge Hall of Fame thread might deserve to go at the top of the menu.

[jalbright]

Here's what I came up with in a long search of this forum's archives:

No duplicates (we're not covering Pete Rose/Joe Jackson multiple times, nor any individual), it has to be from this forum, I don't want it to become stale (thus no cases on guys not yet before the BBWAA) and I allowed for a few heavily viewed threads on individuals:

Best Player not in the Hall of Fame? http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=10326
Should Bill James be inducted to the HoF as a "pioneer"? http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=24971
Koufax maybe undeserving!?!?!?!?! http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=45443
Hall of Famer Comparison: Dick Allen http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=45609
Would you still vote for any of these guys? (Steroids) http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=32146
Steve Garvey is a Hall of Famer!!!! http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=9147
Masked Injustice: Catchers and the Hall of Fame http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=43305
The Modern Reliever and the Hall of Fame http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=43304
Best outside the Hall by position and era http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=42720
No Respect For Thirdbase http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=16635
Best 2Bmen Outside the Hall http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=43040
Get Gil Hodges in HOF http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=5752
Mazeroski: What a Farce http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=39903
Blyleven and His HoF Peers? http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=39244
Edgar Martinez in the Hall?? http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=8496
19th century guys- too many or not enough? http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=34601
who would you rather be un-banned and allowed into the HOF? http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=27261
Weak HOFers http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=28895

If this is too many, I can easily be persuaded to eliminate the threads on individuals, but on further reflection, I thought it would be positive to let people get a little flavor of the forum (especially if the thread morphed beyond its title). I also vetoed several part threads on one position or the like, so as not to omit portions of the discussion. This is preliminary, and can clearly be changed. Mark, if the threads you mention are in here and you can bring them up with a search, they certainly sound interesting, though I suspect some of them might have gone down to my distaste for multipart discussions (when you're looking through this much stuff, you wind up with arbitrary decisions).

[Bill Burgess]

Jim,

I think that that is not too many. But the important thing is how you present them. If your presentation is clean, uncluttered, obvious, attractive, inviting, with perhaps a word of explanation, it should work nicely.

I invite you to see how I've done it in History.

http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=48941

I tried to keep it as clean/simple as humanly possible. Also helps if you add Poll/Survey when applicable. It takes a member moments to vote on something interesting.

Good job.

Bill Burgess

[jalbright]

I think one of the beauties of this idea is that it allows for many present stickies to be 'unstuck'.

I'd keep the current Fever Hall of Fame Voting Thread stuck, and put all the other stuck threads into the new stuck thread, consisiting of a menu of the best past threads.

Three I'd nominate might be:

Poll: Best Player not in the Hall of Fame?

Poll: How many of the following players do you feel SHOULD get into the Hall of Fame?

Joe Jackson 1919 Black Sox & Pete Rose.


Just for starters. I haven't gone back and looked at the rest. One way to ascertain popularity is to see which ones were 'viewed' the most. Crude but effective yardstick.

The huge Hall of Fame thread might deserve to go at the top of the menu.

I'm using postings and views as a tiebreaker between similar topics, and for threads on individuals. I'm simply waffling on individuals. The presentation will be cleaner than above, to be sure. That's going to be a problem, trying to organize them properly.

As for unstickying existing threads, if there's significant (at least a majority, and some real numbers, not 3-2) support for moving my musings thread into the Resources thread, I'll do that. I'm not moving the two voting threads (Timeline and BBF HOF), and I'm not going to move the BBF HOF discussion thread without significant support from the voters there despite the drop in discussion in the newer thread.

BTW, if anyone can tell me the exact title of the old thread and/or can suggest a place on the internet where it might be archived, I'd love to hear it. I would love to recover the value in that old thread. Truthfully, if I did that, I don't know how many of these threads are really needed, as we covered most of these topics there--and the idea I'm working on is to give folks a taste of the forum. I'd put that and an intro (trying to encourage folks to search for an existing thread on the HOF candidate/ existing HOFer they wish to discuss, as my search for threads revealed a distressing amount of plowing the same fields repeatedly.

Jim Albright

[Ubiquitous]

When posting right above the area you are typing in is a menu bar. One of the icons is blue ball (earth) with a chainlink at the bottom corner of the ball. That is the links button. You hit that icon and it will ask for an address, you give that address and then depending on whether or not you are in the advance setup it will ask you for text (if you are not in advanced). At this point simply type in what it is the links is going to be about. Like "Tris Speaker general discussion thread". When you post the message "Tris Speaker general discussion thread" will become the link.

This is what it would look like:
Best Player not in the Hall of Fame? (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=10326)

That is about as clean and neat as you are going to get with links.

[538280]

Here's another good one, Jim:

Beyond Santo: Third Base and The Hall (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=43328)

[Bill Burgess]

The rest of the catchers
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=15384

Rest of the DHs
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=16036

Rest of the 1B
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=16062

Rest of the 2B
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=16062

Rest of the Managers
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=16636

Rest of the SS
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=16757

Rest of the LFs
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17100

Rsst of the CFs
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17268

Best of the LH relievers
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17414

Rest of the RFs
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17624

Rest of the RH Pitchers (Old Timers)
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17752

Rest of the RH pitcher (Modern, Post-1900)
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17754

Rest of the RH Pitchers
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17803

Rest of the RH Relievers
http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=18100
-----------------------------------------------
Finding them was a breeze.
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:0kzmdkUlp4AJ:www.baseball-fever.com/archive/index.php/f-51-p-2.html+%22Hall+of+Fame%22+%22the+rest+of%22+%22Bas eball+Fever%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2

[Ubiquitous]

The rest of the catchers (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=15384)

Rest of the DHs (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=16036)

Rest of the 1B (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=16062)

Rest of the 2B (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=16062)

Rest of the Managers (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=16636)

Rest of the SS (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=16757)

Rest of the LFs (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17100)

Rest of the CFs (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17268)

Best of the LH relievers (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17414)

Rest of the RFs (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17624)

Rest of the RH Pitchers (Old Timers) (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17752)

Rest of the RH pitcher (Modern, Post-1900) (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17754)

Rest of the RH Pitchers (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=17803)

Rest of the RH Relievers (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=18100)

[jalbright]

I definitely like Ubi's style of presentation and will try to utilize it. I think I'd rather have those "The Rest of...." threads than the ones on individuals. I may have to decide between some duplicates, but that's not a biggie.

Jim Albright

[jalbright]

I like the regularity of the Rest of ... Series of posts, and would add the following:

Would you still vote for any of these guys? (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=32146) (Steroids)

Best Player not in the Hall of Fame? (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=10326)

Best outside the Hall by position and era (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=42720)

19th century guys- too many or not enough? (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=34601)

who would you rather be un-banned and allowed into the HOF? (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=27261) (Pete Rose and Joe Jackson)

Weak HOFers (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=28895)

It pares down the earlier list (including some threads covering the same ground), and gets rid of the arguments over individuals.

Jim Albright

[Sliding Billy]

If this is too many, I can easily be persuaded to eliminate the threads on individuals, but on further reflection, I thought it would be positive to let people get a little flavor of the forum (especially if the thread morphed beyond its title).
From a newbie perspective, I think it would be a great contribution to discussion to keep the threads on individuals, as those seem to recur frequently.

If contributors were urged to post within existing threads--after reading them--the record of the conversation would be in one place for everybody, and new insights would come up within a contextual background.

[jalbright]

From a newbie perspective, I think it would be a great contribution to discussion to keep the threads on individuals, as those seem to recur frequently.

If contributors were urged to post within existing threads--after reading them--the record of the conversation would be in one place for everybody, and new insights would come up within a contextual background.

I understand, but we at BBF do have a search feature that could solve much of your problem presented in your post. Additionally, it keeps me out of the middle in picking which of several competing threads on the same person to pick. In my position, I trust you can see why I might prefer that. Finally, if I start picking posts on individuals, I can't do everybody, and then I must decide where to draw the line. In the final analysis, the decision on threads on individuals is based on the idea that since I can't possibly please everyone, one of the people I am going to satisfy in this regard is me, aka the guy doing the work. Sorry if that comes off harsh, but it's a blunt truth. Sorry.

Jim Albright

[jalbright]

I'm going to post my first try at this thread under this title, which will be stickied: Introduction to HOF talk forum/Resources I welcome feedback.

Jim Albright

[jalbright]

Can anyone help me locate the old BBF HOF Discussion Thread? That huge and important thread is still around here somewhere, and may also be archived on the net somewhere. However, I cannot seem to get any whiff of how to recover that thread in any form, and I'd dearly love to do so.

Jim Albright

[Bill Burgess]

Can anyone help me locate the old BBF HOF Discussion Thread? That huge and important thread is still around here somewhere, and may also be archived on the net somewhere. However, I cannot seem to get any whiff of how to recover that thread in any form, and I'd dearly love to do so.
Under normal circumstances, one can always locate a massive thread in any given Forum, simply by going to the front page of any forum, and clicking onto either Views/Replies. That should do it. The largest will pop up right on command.

Bill

[jalbright]

Under normal circumstances, one can always locate a massive thread in any given Forum, simply by going to the front page of any forum, and clicking onto either Views/Replies. That should do it. The largest will pop up right on command.

Bill

Bill,

Back in March, the Chancellor was trying to do some housecleaning, and the thread in question disappeared into cyberspace. So the usual remedies don't work.

Jim Albright

[Bill Burgess]

Jim,

I like the clean look of your new thread. Kudos.:clapping :clapping

Question. I especially like the way you avoided the linkage code. You made the thread title the hyperlink.

I would like to do the same in History. How did you accomplish that. I need the procedure.

Bill

[jalbright]

Bill,

Ubi's post on using the link feature tells you almost everything. I'm not using advanced, and couldn't easily figure out how to get there. The way it's worked for me is when I click on that icon, I get a box asking for the link. After I supply it via cut and paste techniques, it appears like this:

URL="http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=48836&page=4"]http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=48836&page=4[/URL which displays like this:

http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=48836&page=4

(Note: the links in this post are irrelevant except as examples. I've also deleted the first and last brackets just so I could better show what it looks like)

The stuff between the brackets is highlighted. I then go to the top of the page I'm copying and copy its title, and paste it in the highlighted area to get this:

URL="http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=48836&page=4"]HOF Bottom Five [/URL which displays like this:

HOF Bottom Five (http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=48836&page=4)

[Ubiquitous]

It looks like the advanced mode option has been removed and everybody has the same options now. It used to be that in the advanced mode it would just lay the tags down and you do the rest while the beginner mode would pop up a box in which you input your info.

[Bill Burgess]

I've gotten it! I simply went to Jim page as reference, clicked onto edit, to see exactly what his procedure was, copied it, pasted it to my own History thread, and imitated excastly what he did.

Works like a charm. Will take me about 15 more minutes to complete the whole thing.

Thanks, Jim/Ubi! Much obliged. Good teamwork.

Bill