Saturday Site Stuff: These freaky Fridays

Yes. Ask us.

You're not getting player insights? I've never done more of that -- or anything even close to it -- than in these four months.

Wasn't trying to impart that we aren't getting player insights. We do and they're golden. Just one example was when you recently shared Neil Walker's words about Russell Martin coming back into the dugout after his very last at-bat as a Pirate. I'm talking more about how I miss, at least the frequency of, how you used to sit down with a player and just let him air his heart out at length. Like in the two examples I cited in previous comment. Wish I could find links to them.

"So you meant baseball insights."
Pirate ones! And Steelers one! Oh, and Pirate ones! :-D
No, seriously, was talking more about the in depth talks with a player, where you put us, the reader, right there on a chair beside the athlete, seeing his gestures, hearing his hopes, his frustrations. Anyway, this is just one guy's feedback, admittedly a little presumptuous, but in response to a post where I thought it would be relevant. Take it with a grain of salt. Or pass on the sodium completely. ;-)
Incidentally, it helped me to see your second answer to Deb ("They were terribly time-consuming with little reciprocation.) I was tending to agree with Deb. But if you don't get a response commensurate with the time you put in to those, then, no, they wouldn't make sense.
Anyway, I don't in any way want my comments to come off as complaints. It really is neat how you share the ongoing evolution of this site.

I just lost a lengthy, thought-out reply I had entered because I stupidly forgot to log in (which is on me because I've disabled cookies). Grrrr.
Anyway, YES, I get that you're not a baseball beat reporter anymore and that you've set forth on a new, unchartered course. I get it, I get it. And I'm not trying to talk you out of that. But I'll have to save my two cents for another day when maybe I can explain myself more effectively.

I don't follow you, Deb. That was a simple, nothing-to-it collection of links. Nothing more. This Friday Insider is original reporting. I don't see them as being in the same solar system.

Really, truly appreciate your kind words. Just trying to understand: What common ground do you see there?

While I don't view the Friday Insider as the same format of the former Morning Java, I miss the "nothing-to-it collection of links," because it gave me a broad view of the main subjects in Pittsburgh sports, even the ones I don't usually follow.

Dejan,
You need to review the Java pieces. Most times you had some original 'insider' comments, (especially early on...later it become more "link focused") and there were great discussions held in the comments by your loyal readers. FYI... random sample:

http://blog.triblive.com/dejan-kovacevic/2012/04/27/wakeup-call-steelers-get-their-guard/

Think you are a great reporter by the way, and as I said, just one persons opinion.

My main point is less about the links —I seldom clicked on the onew about basketball, and the ones about other sports were already on my RSS reader— than about context. I can see scores through the (spoiler-ish) titles of the "On location" links, but knowing what's news in Pittsburgh sports, that's not something you find necessarily in a score. Sure, there's the opinion piece, which more than satisfies the needs for the sport being featured there, but what about other stuff? Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about more columns, but maybe one or two paragraphs, or maybe even that's what you intend with the Morning Java videos, beside the non-Pittsburgh issues.

Thank you on both counts!

Opinions are available from other sources, but it doesn't hurt this site at all that neither Pittsburgh newspaper has had a columnist at Consol for the past two weeks. And one hasn't had one there pretty much all season. So don't assume there are as many options as you describe.

Thanks for the kind words, by the way.

You took the comment right out of my keyboard, sean.rogan. I don't think the Insider entries are better than the columns, but they're much more unique.

They've been surprisingly well received. Last week's got more visitors than that day's column.

Working on better audio and lighting. Next week.

I do very little reading of any kind anymore. I have an embarrassingly stack of unread comic books right now, and believe me, they'll come before anything related to sports.

To answer the question more directly, though, no, I don't. I'll scan headlines for hard news. That's it. I have a million ways to get original info, and I'll choose those every time.