The article contains a not so subtle dig at all those not present in the list. According to Swimming World, in order to be their friend you must meet the following criteria:
"these blogs and sites do things the right way by citing-and-linking to sources, and not stealing intellectual property. These blogs and sites also are good neighbors within the online community by citing inspirational posts when they decide to do additional commentary or analysis from another site's original concept."
Although I don't think this blog has run afoul of the first part, it probably has violated the second. It's clear that Swimming World doesn't think this blog, not to mention far more notable exceptions www.swimswam.com and theswimmerscircle.com, is a good neighbor. It's also clear (and not just from their Windows XP web design) that Swimming World is hopelessly out of touch with what the internet and blogs are.
That Swimming World is still a significant website is evidence of how far swimming is behind the sporting world. In terms of blogging, we lag behind even our fellow less followed brethren. Don't even think about comparing us to a major sport. But Swimming World are far behind even in there own peer group. When Mike Wallace died recently at age 93, I couldn't help but think he never would have been able to work at Swimming World. He would have asked somebody powerful too hard of a question.
If you look at it that way, then we should be proud to be on the other side, with sites that represent an exciting future for swimming. So to all those who didn't make the cut: keep up the good work!
I love how their website needs to refresh itself every 5 seconds.
ReplyDeleteThe website refreshing is planned to get their advertisers (and website stats) more traffic. Now, isn't that a little sneaky and underhanded??
DeleteActually, the refreshing looks like it is to circulate the ads, not give fake impressions like you are suggesting. It's obviously not a full page refresh - you don't really know what you're talking about, do you? Check your Facebook news feed some day; you'll see it perform similar actions.
DeleteSoooo...when a page refreshes, you don't think that a "page view" is in your statistics??
DeleteAnnnnd...1 point me.
Except it's not the whole page that refreshes, it a component, and that component is probably not part of any stats. Or, the stats are written to add those types of refreshes to an exempt list. Who wants to see fake stats?
Deletethey (Swimming World)have the worst site! It soooo boring -- I only use it about once a yr to look up a couple of things but it is hard to navigate.Also, I like a little fun and humor-- The Swim Brief ,Swim Swam, and The Swimmers Circle are my favorites.
ReplyDeleteI went back and read your article from last year and laughed my head off and how behind the times they sound.And Im a middle age mom!
You could be right about why SwimBrief is not included - heck, I wouldn't include you either if I were them. While I love the stuff you write, it's not something I would want on a news site - too sensationalist I guess you could say. Would you not agree?
ReplyDeleteI don't think SwimSwam and TSC are being excluded for the same reason you are; I would imagine they are being excluded because their main writer is a content thief, from all angles. It's quite obvious that many of his articles are directly taken from other news sites and blogs, not just swim sites, and half of his opinions I have read verbatim in forums BEFORE he posts them. If Swimming World and all other news sources stopped posting swimming news, he would have nothing to write, because previous to SwimSwam, he never got the information himself.
Plus have you ever seen how creepy he is on Twitter? Please don't jump into the Twitter convo I was having with my teammate, remarking how you would "love to see pics of the sorority girls next to me." Ew.
I am glad someone else picked up on the creepy factor, particularly when it comes to minors and Twitter. It is one thing to follow professionals or national team members; it is another to follow 17-yr-old girls who have never even finaled at nationals. I'm sorry, but I'm not convinced that you need to post a minor's Twitter status to get "street cred."
DeleteI heard one coach refer to him as the National Enquirer of swimming, and the other coaches at the table joked about making up a rumor to see how fast he would post it as his article. Unfortunately, they don't need to. Just a few recent "rumors" that ended up as front page "news" before having the facts- Kim Brackin working for NITRO (No- just renting lane space at an available 50m pool), Josh Morgan fired (ooops, we'll update that after one of our readers let's us know the real story), etc...
I'm not a Swimming World fan by any means, but I don't see their authors desperately trying to be accepted by the cool kids. I actually will take a sell out over the tabloid writer with Bieber (I mean Andrews) fever.
Thanks for letting me vent, and while allowing me to vent would put you on my friend's list, you made the list long before that for addressing the Wieglus questions head on. Bravo and thank you!
SCAQ made the cut? That guy's an irrational flame-thrower! Chris, I may not always agree with you, but you always explain your position clearly, and listen to counter arguments. Thanks for what you do, and I'll gladly keep coming back here.
ReplyDeleteHey " Anonymous - Apr 17, 2012 01:16 PM "
ReplyDeleteFirst off you have my permission to never go to the SCAQ blog - look at you. You can't even compliment these fine people at SwimBrief without having to hide your name.
Second, Swim Brief is an outstanding blog and it truly is better written than the SCAQ blog.
Finally, SCAQ made the cut and I think it was courageous of Swimming World for putting me on their site especially since my rhetoric is often quite hot and often controversial.
But let's talk about irrational: ABC and ESPN didn't think the SCAQ Blog was irrational when they came to it asking if there was anything real or imagined about the sex abuse scandals. In fact, i got a personal thank you from the producer who won a journalistic award for that seminal 20/20 News segment that actually improved the sport in a big way.
How irrational was I when I let John Leonard make a "jackass" of himself when he threaten to sue me claiming ASCA was really a corporation when the facts clearly showed ASCA really isn't? (Phone numbers, names, and websites supplied to verify the accusation was accurate)
How about that leaked letter from FINA stating the "fix was somewhat in" on tech suits, or outing the fact that a FINA exec actually owned a consulting company that got Dubai that infamous open water race held in outrageously hot water which ultimately took Fran Crippen's life?
Yeah, I flame people. I also praise. Perhaps you are one of the people I have flamed?
Tony, I think the primary difference between us is not content. I do think you've probably written more inflammatory stuff than me, so for anyone to think that the Swim Brief is not on there because of that is silly. You've done more to make nice with Swimming World over the last year, and I suppose if I'd done the same I might find myself on their special list.
DeleteWhat I have done "to play nice." Give me specific instances, please?
DeleteCould it be that post, "Is john Leonard giving us the finger? - Nope, that one was yours. Could it be my satirical illustrations of a priest wearing a USA Swimming collar or an exorcist standing near an USA Swimming banner?
The post where I did defend Swimming World was when the editor of SW refused to have a comment I wrote criticizing John Leonard removed. Ultimately they let me rewrite the comment; (I made it harsher), and I signed my name to it.
Don't brand me as a sell out!
Tony,
DeleteTotally don't think you are a sell out. I definitely didn't make my point above, so I'll try again. I disagree with the commenter who thinks that I was not included because my blog is controversial. Yours is at least as controversial (if not more) and I think you agree with me. For whatever reason, you've been able to have a constructive dialogue with Swimming World and haven't pissed them off as much as I have. I'm actually giving you credit for that. In much the same way I don't consider myself a sell out for meeting with Chuck Wielgus, you shouldn't consider yourself a sell out for having a dialogue with Swimming World.
Dearest Chris,
ReplyDeleteI've read this blog from Day 1 and I love it. As long as you continue to lampoon Craig Lord and Swimming World, I will still love it. And when you start lampooning SwimSwam, I've gotta be honest, I'm still going to love it. I think some people just take themselves far too seriously. I hope that you, me and maybe Jason Marsteller (can he swim?) can all race a 50 Br one day and maybe go for beers after. Also, I'd like to point out, in Swimming World's defence, that your site's design is pretty XP itself ;)
Sincerely,
Davis Wuolle
Chief Content/Advertiser/User/Contributor Stealer at SwimSwam.com
Davis,
DeleteThat's no fun. You would beat me by a mile, I would beat Jason by a mile. Where's the fun in that? This site is pretty XP too I admit although that's what you get for the $10 it costs me to run it. Also because we never let/got you to design us a much prettier one.
Chris,
DeleteA mile? I'm Canadian, so I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure I can't swim that far. I think you underestimate how fat I've gotten since I stopped swimming. There's a reason I challenged a 50 and not a 100... Well actually it's mostly because I've never been able to swim a full 100. My days of *ahem* glory were cut short more by the IOC not adding stroke 50's and less about my vital organs ceasing to work.
Also, $10? I think you undervalue your time. Either that or Blogspot is ripping you off. Or are you matching what USA Swimming is paying Gustafson?
I would have designed you a prettier one, but Gustafson kept insisting that that photo of him remain central to the overall look and feel. Call it artistic differences.
$10 is what I pay godaddy every year for www.swimbrief.net. Blogger isn't charging me any money. None of us have any webdesign sense, although Shawn did make the banner which is basically the coolest part of this page. We've thought, at various times, about adding advertising but then I think about them threatening me after I make some rant and I never pull through. Plus I doubt advertisers are beating a path for our 500-1000 views a day. Maybe if I could get the site to refresh every few seconds like swimming world I could sell them on more views but I don't know how to harness that part of the web.
ReplyDeleteWell, there is a way of coding a page to refresh every 5 seconds, but you have to be fairly web savvy. It's probably cheaper just to hire some children in a third world country to refresh the pages manually, but you may get accused of stealing Swimming World's business practices.
DeleteNo, Chris... the commercial I made is the best part of this site. As a matter of fact, if SWIMSWAM wants to be on our friends list they need to post it on their main page with a link so we can get some free advertising.
Deletehttp://www.swimbrief.net/2011/05/here-it-is-our-first-ad.html
This is all pretty ridiculous. The paragraph pertaining to stealing content and having an honest website, c'mon man. Get off your high horse SW, everyone steals from everyone. The best coaches do it, hell, most of the big names advertise it.
ReplyDeleteI am only pretty sure floswimming was showing workouts before they became a fixture on SW and when floswimming grew tired of GM (or whatever the hell the owners of flo decided to do with the guy that made floswimming popular) SW brought him in to do the same thing he was doing on floswimming..
Remember, the sport is called swimming. not Chris Desantis, Craig Lord or swimmingworld.com. It was here before all of us were born and it will be here when we are all dead and gone. SW.com and everyone else, let's not think for one second that we are bigger and better than anyone else or this amazing sport.
Alright, I'm outta here. I hear that Asteroids machine calling my name from the gameroom, so Peace.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHow many of these "Anonymous" commenters do you think work for SW? Half?
ReplyDeleteChris - be sure to let us know what Jason's response is, presuming he has the balls to say something to your face.
I think that Jason has already responded above, just anonymously. He has been known to frequent blogs and make anonymous comments. I have not heard from him directly nor do I expect to.
ReplyDeleteJason emailed me to deny that he is posting anonymously, in fact he says he has not done so since prior to 2008 Trials. I do not believe this. Maybe I should ask him what he thinks of Swimnews stealing content from us without attribution?
DeleteWhile I don't want to jump head first into the "rip on swimming world" pool (since I don't feel they are really in the same business as us bloggers)... I have to say I was a little surprised to see SwimNews listed since we all know they are pretty good about not linking out to sources like us poor misguided bloggers... besides the obvious post about the superhydrophobic spray a few months ago, I must say a point of pride for me as a blogger was being called "the helmet and horns of a different opinion" by Craig Lord, and I never even got a link to let people know he was referring to me. Craigy-poo-- that hurt my feelings.
ReplyDeleteI am going to start a petition to get SwimNews off of that friend list, dammit!
Come on Jolly Jonah... give us some link love!
I can't access the "friend list" -- is it still up? When I click on it nothing happens.
ReplyDeleteahh Now I see. The list is below the tab.
ReplyDelete