MorganWick.com – Page 107 – Author and Thinker

Random Internet Discovery of the Week

November 5, 2009 by Morgan Wick

It’s like taking philosophers and running them through Word’s Auto-Summarize tool!

Why “Lists” are my Favorite New Twitter Feature

November 4, 2009November 3, 2009 by Morgan Wick

My first reaction upon learning of Twitter’s new “Lists” feature was “What the hell would the point of that be?” It seemed like a needless gimmick that didn’t really necessarily add anything to the Twitter experience.

When I entered the list-access group, and started to explore what lists were really like, I realized that not only were lists substantially more useful than I had supposed, Twitter had seemingly read my mind. If you’ve ever had or at least considered or heard of a stereotype of men as sorters and categorizers obsessed with organization, you’re talking about me. (Not that it helps me with physical things, like my bedroom, mind.) The Lists feature seemingly anticipated projects I had been considering involving creating a one-place resource for tweeters or even web sites in specific categories.

Now, to attempt to find all the tweeters in a given category would involve an insane amount of work, and I can’t create more than 20 lists anyway to cover all the categories I’d like to cover. Nonetheless, I’ve spent the past week (meaning “more time than I should have over the past week”) tracking down as many tweeters in the categories I was most interested in as I could. But I still need your help, so tweet me if you have a like-minded list. (One particular idea I’m interested in is at the end of this post.) Also tweet me if you know of any tweeters in any category I’ve left out – if I was the one who created the list. (Thanks to Listorious for many of the lists that aren’t mine.)

Sports business and media (the people who cover it)
The major National Sports News sites
Official tweeters for Professional sports leagues (with some omissions) and College conferences
NFL and NBA players
National (and global) news organizations (and breaking news tweets from the same organizations, and for more news tweets than you could ever need click here)
Technology news
Webcomics, at least the first such list with enough recognizable names for me to consider it acceptable (and any old comics creators)

I’m also looking for Twitter lists for news for particular metropolitan areas – as I’ve said in the past, I’m fascinated by the centrality of cities in America. I can’t possibly handle all such lists myself, so I need you to create lists for your hometown containing ONLY:

All major TV news operations’ tweeters (for Seattle, that would be @komonews, @KING5Seattle, @NWCN, @KIRO7Seattle, and @Q13FOX)
All local newspapers’ tweeters (at least @seattletimes, for example)
News radio stations (@973kiro and @komonewsradio

In addition, I’d like city-by-city sports tweeters containing ONLY:

Every team’s OFFICIAL Twitter account
Every sports news tweeter that’s a spinoff of the news tweeters above
Every regional sports network
Every sports radio station

2009 College Football Rankings – Week 8

October 30, 2009 by Morgan Wick

This was a wild week for the C Ratings – and this was a week in which in many ways, the C Ratings were justified! Every so often I find myself wondering if the computer on which the calculations are done affect the resulting rankings. Just look at the turnover on the rankings this week – what are TCU and Boise State doing as the next-best teams behind the Big Four, in the year of one of the largest gaps between the BCS and non-BCS conferences I’ve ever seen? What are Pitt and Penn State doing in the Top 10? Did Oklahoma State really just zoom into the Top 20 after weeks of waiting on the outside of the Top 25 looking in? Tennessee at #29 despite being in negative B Points? Blame some of the surprising results we had in college football this week – especially Alabama needing a last-second blocked field goal to beat Tennessee, causing a flip-flop with Texas to put the Longhorns back into the top spot of the C Ratings. This week’s C Ratings do not include games already played.

How the C Ratings are tabulated: First, A Ratings are tabulated by multiplying the total score ratio, which is expressed by (points-opponents’ points)/points, by the winning percentage. Score ratio minimizes the effect of running up the score. Next, B Points for each game are tabulated by (margin of victory)/(opponent’s A rating)+/-1 for wins, and -(margin of loss)/(1-opponent’s A Rating)+/-1 for losses. The “+/-” is + for road games and – for home ones. The total number of B Points is multiplied by the A Rating to get the B Rating. Conference Ratings are tabulated by averaging the B Ratings of all teams in the conference. (Independents are counted separately, and Army and Navy are counted as one conference.) Finally, the C Rating is tabulated by taking the difference between the team’s B Rating and his conference’s rating, taking a fraction of that equal to the fraction of Division I-A the conference makes up, and taking the result off the B Rating. The three ratings go A, B, C across. Click here to see the complete ratings.

1	Texas (7-0) Big 12 Leader	.803	35.247	31.282	The Longhorns followed a worrying effort against Oklahoma with an impressive one against Missou to retake the top spot – but people are still too enamored of the SEC. But Oklahoma State could very easily be a trap game.
2	Florida (7-0) SEC Leader Princeton-Yale Title	.810	33.170	29.735	Florida may have missed an opportunity to return to #1 by letting a weak Mississippi State team get too far into the game. Will the refs have to save them again at the World’s Largest Cocktail Party?
3	Cincinnati (7-0) Big East Leader	.798	28.076	26.174	Cincinnati’s own coach told ESPN’s “College Football Live” Wednesday he voted his own team fifth. Did no one notice the Big East had a nonconference on par with any other BCS conference? More on this next week.
4	Alabama (8-0)	.801	26.665	23.881	So much for the darling of the blogosphere – Alabama should be worried that they’re fourth despite playing one more game. They better fix the problems with the Tennessee game, because LSU comes to town after the bye.
5	TCU (7-0) Non-BCS Leader	.779	25.582	21.911	BYU’s poll ranking is mostly driven by their success in seasons past, but 38-7 is 38-7, especially against their best A Rating faced so far. Could this be the BCS buster that finally makes the title game?
6	Boise State (7-0)	.802	22.322	18.742	Assuming both stay unbeaten and neither make the title game, with the proven appeal of the underdog, I’d like to see the Sugar or Fiesta Bowl select a non-BCS team with their first pick and book a 2008 Poinsettia Bowl rematch.
7	Iowa (8-0) Big Ten Leader	.668	20.409	17.742	If the Hawkeyes want to be in national championship consideration, especially with the stigma the Big Ten has picked up, they’ve got to stop escaping close games against teams they should beat handily.
8	Pittsburgh (7-1)	.629	16.310	15.192	Want to know how good the Big East really is? Pitt just demolished a South Florida team that was unbeaten two weeks ago. Their rating is almost entirely driven big Big East opponents. How big might the Cincinnati game be?
9	Penn State (7-1)	.709	16.797	14.461	Big win over a Michigan team that’s not the team that lost to Appalachian State. They need Iowa to lose twice, though, and three of the Hawkeyes’ remaining four are at home to mediocre teams.
10	Oregon (6-1) Pac-10 Leader 2006 Boise State Title	.591	15.233	13.086	People are talking up USC as perhaps a better national title contender than Cincinnati or Iowa. If the Ducks can knock the Trojans off in Autzen, with a better loss, will people say the same things about them?
11	Virginia Tech (5-2) ACC Leader	.465	15.315	12.947	V-Tech slips for the bye, but they’ll slip again next week because they just lost a close one to North Carolina. Will people interpret this as “the ACC is better and has more parity than we thought”, or “V-Tech was never that good anyway”?
12	Oklahoma (4-3)	.412	11.932	10.299	Oh ye of little faith, who dropped Oklahoma out of the polls entirely after losing Sam Bradford for the season. They showed a good Kansas team that for all the crap teams they’d beaten, they still kept it close in every loss.
13	USC (6-1)	.609	12.138	10.248	USC slips a couple of spots despite handling a pretty good Oregon State team relatively easily because Washington lost again – badly – and so did Washington State, even if to another USC opponent in Cal. Need to beat Oregon to prove their poll ranking.
14	Ohio State (6-2)	.545	9.707	8.021	Get back on track by beating Minnesota, and will now have a tune-up against New Mexico State before a couple of litmus test games against Penn State and Iowa. They still control their own Rose Bowl destiny.
15	LSU (6-1)	.560	9.027	8.007	Handled Auburn properly. Now Tulane is going to be a tuneup for the Alabama game, at which point LSU will either shock the college football world and sneak into the SEC Title Game, or prepare for the Capitol One Bowl as an afterthought.
16	Oklahoma State (6-1)	.617	5.409	4.428	With no wins against teams in positive B Points and a 5-point squeaker over Texas A&M, OSU hadn’t done enough to justify their poll ranking – until allowing a season low against an FBS school v. Baylor. But Bryant’s gone, and Texas ain’t Baylor.
17	Clemson (4-3)	.357	5.531	4.141	The moral, as always: the C Ratings know best. Clemson’s still not ranked in the polls, though they have votes across the board, and even here they’ll slip after playing I-AA Coastal Carolina, but they’re in pole position in the Atlantic.
18	West Virginia (6-1)	.571	4.288	3.972	The Mountaineers foiled what could have been a good story about the Huskies overcoming adversity to win, but still, they entered this week one of three teams unbeaten in conference. But the meat of the schedule is still to come.
19	Georgia Tech (7-1)	.554	5.240	3.879	The pollsters are still overrating G-Tech on the outskirts of the Top 10. Handling Virginia is good, but Vanderbilt will hardly be a test. Still, they, not V-Tech, control their own destiny in the Coastal.
20	Nebraska (4-3)	.379	4.326	3.454	What happened? One minute the Huskers are blowing out Missouri and challenging Kansas for the Big 12 North, the next they’re losing to Texas Tech and freaking Iowa State, and no longer control their own destiny. At least KU is losing too.
21	Texas Tech (5-3)	.414	3.237	2.474	The only people who saw Texas A&M upend Texas Tech were in the stadium. The Red Raiders finally faltered at home, and now don’t look so hot. Fortunately, the Jayhawks come into town reeling too.
22	Arizona (5-2)	.433	3.654	2.472	Lost in all the talk about the big Oregon-USC showdown this weekend is that the Wildcats, now ranked in the polls heading into the bye, still control their own destiny – and get Oregon at home. Sure, they have to play in the Coliseum, but still.
23	Utah (6-1)	.557	4.021	1.967	Hold steady because they beat a good Air Force team, but not by a lot. That doesn’t inspire the confidence the polls have in them. Need to blow out Wyoming to stay on this Top 25.
24	Notre Dame (5-2)	.413	1.836	1.836	Back on the Top 25 after beating Boston College, but they’ve gotta stop being the Cardiac Irish. Having a performance that sluggish against lowly Washington State will send you right back off again.
25	Mississippi (5-2)	.469	2.137	1.806	They were just outside the Top 25 last week and did what they needed to do this week against a good Arkansas team – but only move up one spot. Now they travel to play a reeling Auburn team.

28 teams total with positive C Rating (none with negative B Rating)

Off Top 25: #26 Connecticut (was #22), #31 Kansas (was #18), #37 Virginia (was #21)

Watch List: #26 Connecticut, #27 Miami (FL), #28 South Carolina

Other Positive B Ratings: #30 Fresno State, #32 Oregon State, #34 Central Michigan*, #40 Northern Illinois, #41 Houston*, #43 Temple* (*=Newly Positive)

No Longer Positive: #29 Tennessee, #31 Kansas, #37 Virginia, #38 Florida State, #42 Michigan, #46 South Florida, #47 Arkansas, #53 Arizona State

Bottom 10: #111 UAB, #112 Illinois, #113 Eastern Michigan, #114 New Mexico State, #115 Washington State, #116 Miami (OH), #117 Tulane, #118 New Mexico, #119 Western Kentucky, #120 Rice

Conference Rating: #1 Big East (-.460), #2 SEC (-1.175), #3 Big 12 (-4.399), #4 ACC (-8.368), #5 Big 10 (-8.684), #6 Pac-10 (-10.537), #7 Mountain West (-23.363), #8 WAC (-25.415), #9 MAC (-31.941), #10 Conference USA (-37.528), #11 Sun Belt (-39.691)

Best game of week: Texas @ Oklahoma State, 5pm PT, ABC or ESPN2

All logos taken from Sportslogos.net, and are the trademarks of their respective schools, used without permission under fair-use clause of United States copyright law. Some logos may be out of date. Use of logos for commercial purposes without consent of the respective schools is prohibited.

Sunday Night Football Flex Scheduling Watch: Week 7

October 30, 2009 by Morgan Wick

NBC’s Sunday Night Football package gives it flexible scheduling. For the last seven weeks of the season, the games are determined on 12-day notice, 6-day notice for Week 17.

The first year, no game was listed in the Sunday Night slot, only a notation that one game could move there. Now, NBC lists the game it “tentatively” schedules for each night. However, the NFL is in charge of moving games to prime time.

Here are the rules from the NFL web site (note that this was written with the 2007 season in mind):

Begins Sunday of Week 11
In effect during Weeks 11-17
Only Sunday afternoon games are subject to being moved into the Sunday night window.
The game that has been tentatively scheduled for Sunday night during flex weeks will be listed at 8:20 p.m. ET.
The majority of games on Sundays will be listed at 1:00 p.m. ET during flex weeks except for games played in Pacific or Mountain Time zones which will be listed at 4:05 or 4:15 p.m. ET.
No impact on Thursday, Saturday or Monday night games.
The NFL will decide (after consultation with CBS, FOX, NBC) and announce as early as possible the game being played at 8:20 p.m. ET. The announcement will come no later than 12 days prior to the game. The NFL may also announce games moving to 4:05 p.m. ET and 4:15 p.m. ET.
Week 17 start time changes could be decided on 6 days notice to ensure a game with playoff implications.
The NBC Sunday night time slot in “flex” weeks will list the game that has been tentatively scheduled for Sunday night.
Fans and ticket holders must be aware that NFL games in flex weeks are subject to change 12 days in advance (6 days in Week 17) and should plan accordingly.
NFL schedules all games.
Teams will be informed as soon as they are no longer under consideration or eligible for a move to Sunday night.
Rules NOT listed on NFL web site but pertinent to flex schedule selection: CBS and Fox each protect games in five out of six weeks, and could not protect any games Week 17 in 2007. Unless I find out otherwise, I’m assuming that’s still the case this year, especially with no tentative game listed Week 17. When looking up info on what the protected games might be, I found out that games were protected after Week FIVE this year, and presumably in some of the previous years. Previously all I knew was that games were protected after Week 4 the first year of flexible scheduling.
Three teams can appear a maximum of six games in primetime on NBC, ESPN or NFL Network (everyone else gets five) and no team may appear more than four times on NBC. A list of all teams’ number of appearances is in my Week 5 post.
A rule that may have come to light late last year but that, given its restrictiveness and lateness in coming to light, I’m having trouble accepting, is that the balance of primetime games taken from FOX and CBS can’t go beyond 22-20 one way or the other. The current tally is FOX 15, CBS 20; with tentative games, the tally is FOX 19, CBS 22. With this rule in place, Weeks 11 and 14-16 cannot be flexed away from NFC road games without making up for it in Weeks 12, 13, and 17, and even with that at least one more game would have to be flexed to an NFC road game in said weeks.

Here are the current tentatively-scheduled games and my predictions:

Week 11 (November 22):

Tentative game: Philadelphia @ Chicago
Prospects: 4-2 v. 3-3. Could still keep its spot if the competitors aren’t overwhelmingly appealing, but Da Bears have to stop the slide.
Protected games according to this: Jets-Patriots (CBS) and Redskins-Cowboys (FOX).
Other possible games: Giants-Falcons is the main contender for a flex, though the Giants are in trouble, with Colts-Ravens fading and 49ers-Packers looking to be as good a game as the tentative. Look out for Chargers-Broncos as a dark horse if the Chargers keep winning and the Broncos pick up a loss or two.

Week 12 (November 29):

Tentative game: Pittsburgh @ Baltimore
Prospects: 5-2 v. 3-3, the Steelers are defending champs, and it’s a rivalry game – and the pickings are very slim otherwise. Very good chance of keeping its spot.
Protected games: Bears-Vikings (FOX).
Other possible games: It’s Thanksgiving Weekend, so there are some slim pickings for games. Colts-Texans involves two teams over .500, but it’s lopsided. Jaguars-49ers is a battle of 3-3 teams – it’s not beating Steelers-Ravens.

Week 13 (December 6):

Tentative game: New England @ Miami
Prospects: 5-2 v. 2-4. This game is becoming lopsided.
Protected games: Cowboys-Giants (FOX) and Titans-Colts (CBS).
Other possible games: Eagles-Falcons is a battle of 4-2 teams. Vikings-Cardinals might be better, at 6-1 v. 4-2 and the Favre factor, which could tip the balance in its favor for a flex. Keep an eye on Jaguars-Texans.

Week 14 (December 13):

Tentative game: Philadelphia @ NY Giants
Prospects: It’s an NFC East game (always = ratings), and it’s 5-2 v. 4-2, currently the top two spots in said division (even if the Eagles are still tied for #2). Still a pretty good shot to keep its spot – the Giants’ troubles might help it in the long run if the game would have become lopsided as opposed to potentially having the division lead on the line if the game was played today.
Protected games: Chargers-Cowboys (CBS) and Packers-Bears (FOX).
Other possible games: Bengals-Vikings, Broncos-Colts, and Saints-Falcons remain strong contenders. Broncos-Colts is still the only compelling candidate to flex away from Eagles-Giants (without a loss between them), given the NFL’s reticence to pull the flex – though with the Favre factor, Bengals-Vikings looks mighty compelling, and Saints-Falcons might be the Saints’ best chance for a loss all year.

Week 15 (December 20):

Tentative game: Minnesota @ Carolina
Prospects: Still lopsided, with the Vikings 6-1 and the Panthers 2-4. There are better chances to worship at the Favre altar the previous two weeks, against teams that are actually winning, not to mention the Giants Week 17 if that game has playoff implications.
Protected games: Packers-Steelers (Fox) and Bengals-Chargers (CBS).
Other possible games: Falcons-Jets is the best, at 4-2 @ 4-3, followed by 49ers-Eagles and Bears-Ravens. Those are mediocre enough games that Vikings-Panthers might keep its spot yet.

Week 16 (December 27)

Tentative game: Dallas @ Washington
Prospects: Lopsided at 4-2 v. 2-5, but it is the NFL’s biggest rivalry so never count out its chances of keeping the spot.
Protected games: Ravens-Steelers (CBS).
Other possible games: Broncos-Eagles and Jets-Colts, with Jaguars-Patriots a dark horse. Right now the main attraction of those games is the unbeaten Broncos and Colts playing teams with similar records to the Cowboys, so there’s nothing terribly compelling if both unbeatens lose but the games remain lopsided.

Week 17 (January 3):

Playoff positioning watch begins Week 9.

College Football Schedule – Week 9

October 29, 2009 by Morgan Wick

My laptop screen is cracked and between using the lab computers at school, dealing with both what to do about the laptop and setting up a new bank account, and being distracted by Twitter’s new Lists feature (more on that in a post when it goes live for everyone), I’ve been spending virtually no time at all on the college football posts. I’m taking care of the schedule now since we’re already behind a game and another game has probably already happened, so this will make the rankings obvious. With the laptop busted, I can’t post directly from Word from a school computer, so for this week only (because WordPress’ WYSIWYG editor seems to have never heard of tables) we’re going to experiment in making it look like I’ve always intended it to look and arranged it to look in Word but which always gets mangled in the final product. All times Eastern.

TOP 25 GAMES
#1 Texas	@	#16 Oklahoma State	8 PM	ABC/ESPN2	Sean McDonough, Matt Millen, Holly Rowe
#2 Florida*	v.	Georgia	3:30	CBS	Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson, Tracy Wolfson
#3 Cincinnati	@	Syracuse	Noon	ESPNU	Clay Matvick, David Diaz-Infante
UNLV	@	#5 TCU	4 PM	VS.	Tim Neverett, Glenn Parker, Lindsay Soto
San Jose State	@	#6 Boise State	3 PM	Gameplan	Mark Johnson, Tom Scott, David Augusto
Indiana	@	#7 Iowa	Noon	ESPN	Mark Jones, Bob Davie
#9 Penn State	@	Northwestern	4:30	ESPN	Carter Blackburn, Chris Spielman
#13 USC	@	#10 Oregon*	8 PM	ABC/ESPN2 HD ABC only	Brent Musberger, Kirk Herbstreit, Lisa Salters
North Carolina	20-17	#11 Virginia Tech	7:30 TH	ESPN	Chris Fowler, Craig James, Jesse Palmer, Erin Andrews
Kansas State	@	#12 Oklahoma	7 PM	FSN	Joel Meyers, Dave Lapham, Jim Knox
New Mexico State	@	#14 Ohio State	Noon	BTN	Matt Rosen, Anthony Herron
Tulane	@	#15 LSU	8 PM	Gameplan	Doug Greengard, Rene Nadeau, Kevin Guidry
Coastal Carolina	@	#17 Clemson	1:30	ESPN360	Ryan Rose, Jeremy Bloom
#18 West Virginia	@	South Florida	8 PM FR	ESPN2	Joe Tessitore, Rod Gilmore
#19 Georgia Tech	@	Vanderbilt	7:30	CSS/CN/CST	Doug Bell, Chris Doering
#20 Nebraska	@	Baylor	12:30	VS.	Ron Thulin, Kelly Stouffer, Lewis Johnson
Kansas	@	#21 Texas Tech	3:30	ABC	Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham
Wyoming	@	#23 Utah	8 PM	mtn.	Ari Wolfe, Blaine Fowler, Sammy Linebaugh
Washington State	v.	#24 Notre Dame	7:30	NBC	Tom Hammond, Pat Haden, Alex Flanagan
#25 Mississippi	@	Auburn	Noon	SEC Net	Dave Neal, Andre Ware, Cara Capuano
WATCHLIST AND OTHER POSITIVE B POINT TEAMS
Rutgers	@	Connecticut	Noon	B.E. Net	Mike Gleason, John Congemi, Quint Kessenich
Miami (FL)	@	Wake Forest	3:30	ABC/ESPN2 HD ABC only	Bob Wischusen, Brian Griese
South Carolina	@	Tennessee	7:30	ESPN	Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge, Erin Andrews
Utah State	@	Fresno State	5 PM
UCLA	@	Oregon State	4 PM
Central Michigan	@	Boston College	3:30	ESPNU	Todd Harris, Charles Arbuckle
Akron	@	Northern Illinois	Noon	ESPN+	Michael Reghi, Doug Chapman
Southern Miss	@	Houston	1 PM	CSS	Matt Stewart, Chuck Oliver, Allison Williams
Temple	@	Navy	3:30	CBS CS	Dave Ryan, Randy Cross
THIS WEEK’S OTHER HD GAMES
East Carolina	38-19	Memphis	8 PM TU	ESPN2	Rece Davis, Mark May, Lou Holtz, Rob Stone
Purdue	@	Wisconsin	Noon	ESPN2	Pam Ward, Ray Bentley
NC State	@	Florida State	Noon	Raycom	Steve Martin, Rick Walker, Mike Hogewood
Missouri	@	Colorado	1:30	FSN	Bill Land, Gary Reasons, Emily Jones
California	@	Arizona State	3:30	ABC	Terry Gannon, David Norrie
Michigan	@	Illinois	3:30	ABC/ESPN2	Mike Patrick, Craig James
Eastern Michigan	@	Arkansas	7 PM	ESPNU	Eric Collins, Brock Huard
Mississippi State	@	Kentucky	7 PM	SEC/FSN	Bob Rathbun, Dave Archer, Jenn Hildreth
New Mexico	@	San Diego State	7:30	CBS CS	Tom Hart, Aaron Taylor
Michigan State	@	Minnesota	8 PM	BTN	Wayne Larrivee, Chris Martin, Rebecca Haarlow
Marshall	@	Central Florida	8 PM SU	ESPN	Dave Lamont, JC Pearson
BIG 12
Iowa State	@	Texas A&M	3:30
ACC
Duke	@	Virginia	3:30	ESPN360	Frank Giardina, Danny Kanell
MOUNTAIN WEST
Air Force	@	Colorado State	4 PM	mtn.	James Bates, Todd Christensen, Roger Bailey
WAC
Hawaii	@	Nevada	4 PM	CSD.com	Jim Leahey, Russell Yamahoa
Louisiana Tech	@	Idaho	5 PM	ESPN+	Trey Bender, Jay Taylor
MAC
Ohio	@	Ball State	Noon	CSD.com
Western Michigan	@	Kent State	2 PM	CSD.com
Toledo	@	Miami (OH)	3:30	Gameplan
CONFERENCE USA
SMU	@	Tulsa	2 PM	CBSCS XXL
UAB	@	UTEP	3 PM	CBSCS XXL
SUN BELT
Louisiana-Lafayette	@	Florida International	Noon	CSD.com
Western Kentucky	@	North Texas	4 PM	CSS/CST	Todd Kalas, Derek Rackley
Middle Tenn. St.	@	Florida Atlantic	4 PM
Louisiana-Monroe	@	Troy	7 PM	CSD.com
BOWL SUBDIVISION
Arkansas State	@	Louisville	3:30	SNY	Drew Deener, Doug James

Random Internet Discovery of the Week

October 28, 2009 by Morgan Wick

It’s a time-appropriate RID… and one of the oddest Halloween costumes I’ve ever heard of. “I’m 2-D!”

No strip image because this isn’t really about OOTS. And a project that should have taken three days got wrapped up with another one and has taken over a month.

October 27, 2009 by Morgan Wick

For better or worse, in the absence of any sort of paywall on the actual content and enough readers to justify a thriving ad market, most webcomics are reliant on merchandise to make money, usually T-shirts and reprint books. I may complain about the effect this has on which webcomics can be financially successful, but unless micropayments miraculously start working or webcomics can gain significant traction on a subscription model, that’s the way it is.

One of the challenges of needing to sell webcomic merchandise – and there are a lot of challenges for selling merchandise – is finding a place to sell them at. Many if not most webcomics sell merchandise through print-on-demand outfits like Cafepress, but sometimes that’s not the ideal approach, especially when production of many things gets cheaper per-order as more of them are ordered, and especially when many such places have an iffy reputation for the quality of the resulting merchandise. What’s more, print-on-demand shops are usually intended for reeeeally amateur operations – you could sell T-shirts and mugs with your kid’s random crayon drawing on it at CafePress. I’m not sure that sends the best message when Girl Genius is selling merchandise at the same site as “Billy’s T-Shirt”.

Last week Rich “Order of the Stick” Burlew announced he was opening up Ookoodook.com to sell his merchandise, instead of using, in his words, “a game manufacturer who was just doing me a favor by retailing my stuff” in APE Games, a partner in the new site. But Rich also intends the site to sell products not only from himself, but from “other independent and self-publishing creators”, and that “[w]e hope this new venture will allow us to spotlight other self-published products that you may not be aware of yet by working with their creators directly.” The site seems intended for publication of a wide variety of material, so long as it’s unlikely to sell through traditional retail channels, but it still seems fit for webcomics to take to it like a glove. If webcomics have their own ad service, why not their own store?

Ookoodook isn’t perfect – it appears you need to handle production yourself, implying your product needs to already exist, and the only other webcomic to sell merchandise on the site, Schlock Mercenary, hasn’t even advertised its existence – but I can’t help but wonder what it presages for webcomics.

Three of… well, the more interesting games of the weekend

October 26, 2009 by Morgan Wick

Interestingly, both of my lineal title games are among the more interesting games in college football this coming weekend. Florida will be facing Georgia, while USC plays Oregon in what could be an effective Pac-10 title game, even if it has minimal national title implications.

In the NFL, if, as I’ve heard, we’re now going to start seeing Miles Austin double-covered, will that mean Roy Williams will now have a chance to show Jerry Jones didn’t completely waste his money on him? (Yeah right, like the stinky Seahawks will have any effect on them.)

Sunday Night Football Flex Scheduling Watch: Week 6

October 23, 2009 by Morgan Wick