Site Stuff: A place for a safe, smart, respectful back-and-forth

Mar 9, 2024 • 12:05 am

BOSTON -- For all the fuss stirred up over the Penguins trading Jake Guentzel, along with my column that slammed it, the one inarguable point I'd raise was that more citizens would be standing in line Downtown for the final round of Jake's Shakes at the Milkshake Factory, than what'd be watching the actual hockey team practice up in Cranberry.

Sure enough, this was the scene an noon on Fifth Avenue, where the line would wrap around PNC Tower well onto Wood Street:

One last Jake Shake Day at the Milkshake Factory. Fans are lining up downtown. #WTAE pic.twitter.com/kgjzMFB7Rs
— Marcie Cipriani (@MCipriani_WTAE) March 8, 2024

And this was the scene at noon inside the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex:

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

What was the point?

Nothing, really. I'd asked Dali if she could snap whatever she'd see on her walk to our HQ/shop less than a block away, and I snapped my own scene from practice. Just having fun.

I mean, it's why we do this, right?

Meaning all of us who follow sports, who cover them, who organize or officiate them, who participate in them, whatever.

Earlier this week, I met at our HQ with one of the ace developers at BoomPress, Tom Altieri, and we had a talk about the future of our app and related platform that was as uplifting as I've had on the subject ... like, ever. It was mostly about how best to continue serving our amazing worldwide commenting community, how to make it everything that everyone would hope.

This wasn't on the agenda but, at one point, I asked why it seemed our place was the only one that appeared to outwardly encourage negativity. Upon discussing it further, I wondered aloud if we're the oddity in displaying a minus count on individual comments. Meaning our down-cups vs. our up-cups, of course. And the only one I could find was Reddit, which is a 1990s-looking message board, something of a relic. Facebook doesn't have a thumbs-down. Twitter doesn't have a dis-like. And YouTube, which might have my favorite of all these forums, does have a thumbs-down, but it doesn't track a number. It doesn't shove a total in anyone's face.

Our place ... man, you open up almost any thread, and it's a sea of minuses and red numbers.

That's going to change soon.

I've no doubt our more experienced members can handle the way things are now. But I still hear from so many readers complaining about a negative feel to the place, how they don't feel their input's welcome, how they feel turned off after the very first thought they'll share. And when I hear that from someone who's wholly new here, I really get put off.

We'll still have up-cups and down-cups. They're part of who we are, and I'm big on preserving identity. But there won't be any display showing any negative number or red color to that number. The lowest number will be zero, and I guess that'll make zero the new benchmark for what constitutes a really crappy comment in the eyes of most. But ideally, it flips the other way, where more people than ever use the up-cup to reward the polar opposite of a crappy comment.

Being honest here, back when we built our first platform to have these cups, my goal wasn't to use the cups to signify agreeing or disagreeing with a given stance. Rather, it was to reward good work or imagination that someone had invested in a comment. There were a bunch yesterday, for example, that I up-cupped even though they expressed an opinion that didn't come close to matching my own. They were just really good comments that made me think, and I appreciated it.

What's more, we'll push harder than ever to prevent anyone from being attacked on here. The new platform will include ways to report any such comments with a single-touch, alerting us to check it out. Being passionate about sports is one thing. Getting personal over them ... uh-uh.

I don't have a specific timeline on when this will be done, but there's a ton more to share on that front, which I'll do soon. The project's absolutely underway.

INSIDE THE WORKS

• Per Adam Bertram at BoomPress, the Jake trade brought the most simultaneous users we've ever had to the platform, with more than 5,000 populating at a time. Between that news, our Feed and a live game file that night, thousands of comments ... yeah, that was something. And we held up well enough technically, too.

• I'll be in Boston for less than a day, a rare out-and-back trip for me. With Penguins-Bruins happening in mid-afternoon, it seemed worth the while to spend my Saturday night in my own home. I'll also cover Penguins-Oilers the following day at PPG Paints Arena, then fly to Ottawa for the Tuesday game there. At month's end, I'll fly back to Florida to cover the Pirates' season-opening series, March 28-31, in Miami. And I think there's a trip to Newark in there somewhere, as well.

• Grateful that so many of you have followed through on our request to support us without spending a penny, by simply leaving us good reviews on outside platforms. There've been hundreds of reviews already. For anyone who hasn't yet, feel free to add your own on our Google listing, our Apple or Spotify podcast channels, our YouTube channels for the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates and, last but definitely not least, our own app, whether it's the Apple or Android version. And again, thank you!

• Reminder: Our 10th anniversary is July 23 at the Downtown HQ/shop. We've already heard from quite a few of you planning to attend, including some from well out of town. For anyone interested in the latter, know that the Pirates and Cardinals have a three-game series at PNC Park at that time, so it's a nice double-dip.

• Everyone still loving being ad-free? If you're not there yet, it's only for paying subscribers. If you aren't subscribed yet or if your subscription's expired: this is our new subscribe page. Make sure you're logged in, tap on the link, and thumb down to the bottom for the SUBSCRIBE button to buy/renew at the monthly or annual level. We also have discounts, as ever, for student subscriptions and senior subscriptions.

• For anyone asking, yeah, there's still a subscription level. It's the level where there are zero ads, first and foremost. It's an infinitely better experience. It's also the level at which readers have access to our Live Qs, our commenting platforms, our in-person meetings and many other perks. We feel it's a really good value.

BACK TO BUSINESS

• Our page-view numbers for the past week were an all-time record 1,203,304, with an also-record 72,816 unique users over the most recent full seven-day span, March 1-7. Our most-read original piece was the aforementioned column on the Jake trade, at 35,187.

• On the multimedia front, our podcast downloads for the past week were 99,338, plus another figure we can't access yet on a second platform, and our YouTube video views for the past week were 116,562.

• Our company social media accounts are at 53,504 followers on X, 40,423 on Facebook, 29,784 on YouTube, 14,963 on Instagram ... and already 4,075 on the new Threads!