Many thanks to those of you who emailed me this past week after I wrote asking for a touch of assistance this offseason with some housekeeping type tasks. MUCH appreciated and I'll be sure to be taking each of you up on the offer. There was more response than I anticipated so bear with me as I figure out some helpful but interesting ways to harness your good will. For a couple of you, I'd hope to have posts like these done once a week and perhaps even twice depending on the volume of fanposts the site continues to receive. My intention is to keep incentive high for collaborative publishing, which I feel is more likely to happen if there's some system in place to keep the conversations visible and active amidst the fast paced nature of the site lately.
I thought I'd start just to give an idea of what I'd be looking for and then I'll hand off to several of you after emailing you later this week. Thanks.
* There's an interesting debate started by a nicely written post by tobiath about whether the Steelers could be better off just remaining patient with the current group of offensive linemen. His take? There's two first year starters, a new journeyman at center who is getting used to new teammates and a new offense, and a T in Max Starks that's not getting the recognition he deserves as a bonafide starter in this league. Regardless of one's take, there's no denying the fact that it is a young group, with onlly Justin Hartwig over 30 years old and only Chris K and Max Starks anywhere near 30 amongst the remaining starters.
* He's baaaack! robert ethan that is, only thankfully he's decided he's forever branded himself ridiculous round these parts and has taken his one-trick show to other places. If you're newish to BTSC, you'll help yourself out for future jokes by understanding what the name robert ethan means to BTSC after reading through some of these search results. When the going inevitably gets tough down the road, some new fresh haters will emerge. When we compare them to RE or beerman, you'll understand.
* On the draft front we have:
- phxsteeler's post about the possibility of taking a CB in Round 1.
- betelguese'spprofile of DT Tyson Jackson.
- spartansteelers musings on various offseason decisions.
- BlackandGold writes about West Virginia's Pat White and his lfelong dream of playing for the Steelers. B&G isn't exactly endorsing White as a viable pick, merely bringing up the discussion. Others in the comments lend their voice, saying there are other more pressing needs than someone cut from the same cloth as current backup QB Dennis Dixon.
* 13thieves wastes no time taking a look at next year's compartively soft looking schedule.
* One of BTSC's longtime stalwarts and true diehard football fans 5020 sums up the season nicely here. While I had called the defense Championship Caliber for much of the year, it turns out that it was every aspect of the Team that delivered at various critical stages.
* BTSC has welcomed lots of new guys and gals to the fold lately. That's a good thing. One is MarkJoel66 who introduced himself with his story about heading down to Tampa for Super Bowl XLIII.
* It's on the main page already but if you haven't yet taken a read at RomainEl82's personal story about the place the Steelers hold in his life during these otherwise trying times, do yourself a favor and take 5 minutes to do so.
* There are others worth of being included but let's cap it here for now. In particular there are some fanposts already in the featured section due to being recommended a certain number of times. Those remain prominently displayed.
Keep the good stuff coming y'all. It's what makes the site truly go. Remember to 'Rec' (reccommend) those things you find interesting, well written, etc. Same with comments - done by clicking actions first, then Rec. The point of this exercise of course is to keep good dialogues going rather than having them over and over again so be sure to see if something's being talked about before letting your three sentence thoughts be known in a new post. If something requires a full length post though and you have intentions of fleshing out your ideas beyond what's normal for a comment, then by all means.