Kelly Dwyer's blog sucks
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Or so say his brilliant, incisive readers at the new Yahoo! Sports NBA Experts Blog. Eight days in on Jamie Mottram's first big move as the Y!'s blogging maven, here's a sampling of responses to Dwyer's 13 (!) posts yesterday:
There's plenty more talk radio-level analysis to be found; one post alone--"Players who have scored more than Jason Collins scored last year"--collected at least two dozen slams. And not the Nick Young kind.
As a result, gauging the blog by readers' responses--something certain critics have been known to do--leaves a dismal impression, with more than one comment suggesting Dwyer should be looking at J-Jobs.
Exactly what we bloggers were saying all along, right?
The guy was born to blog. But what has he been doing? I get emails all the time. Where's Kelly Dwyer?One blogger, two completely different languages. What gives?
-True Hoop
Some big news in the basketball blogosphere: Kelly Dwyer, of SI.com fame, has a wonderful new basketball blog at Yahoo! Sports.
-Brew Hoop
This may be the best news for fans of good NBA news in a long time — Kelly Dwyer has a blog.
-Forum Blue And Gold
I am shocked and appalled at myself for failing to link to this earlier, but the venerable Kelly Dwyer has taken over the Yahoo hoops blog. This is huge. Kelly has the heart of a blogger but for whatever reason tried to be a columnist for SI.com. Well, I suppose that worked out fine for him too, but this is really where his talents belong.
-Celtics Blog
From an objective standpoint--say, using the same criteria we applied to newspaper blogs--Dwyer's totally acing every measure for a great site. He's prolific and blog-friendly, the words are sharp, the length is right, and the analysis is tight.
And for better or worse...folks are reading!
But while the bloggers who get what Dwyer's doing love him, many Y! members seem to be unfamiliar with the blogging model. As a result, their expectations are totally misaligned; short posts like "Players who..." do seem like "pointless articles" next to Kenny Smith's latest 15-paragraph cliche. Yet let's not cut them too much slack; while the Y! executive editor believes the site has "an audience and community that is desperate to interact with each other," all we've seen so far is the lamest form of community-building: Picking on the new kid.
Look, Dwyer doesn't need our random, infrequently updated blog defending him--the guy wrote for SI.com and better-connected friends have his back (An overdue full disclosure: Our riters liked Dwyer's stuff a lot, often discussing his pieces back when we launched WRG; now that he's been linking to us, it's safe to say we love his stuff). We doubt he's going anywhere, even if commenter Michael L. calls Dwyer a "bumb" who needs to be fired. The uninitiated will catch on eventually.
But until the learning curve for the Y! readers wears down--or the noise trickles out--Dwyer could use all of us who enjoy his work. Leaving the occasional positive comment, balancing out the harsh, or even helping a perplexed new reader understand exactly how this whole blogging thing works.
We realize, this is a totally prescriptive post, and we're not super-comfortable with offering it--we prefer sticking to basketball insights, Orioles complaints, and the occasional cheese-related observation. And really, do you owe Dwyer (or more specifically, Yahoo! Sports, which unfortunately forces commenters to register)?
So think of it this way: The sports blog readership is growing, but it's still a trickle compared to Yahoo! Sports' audience in a given month (4.9 million unique visitors in December 2003; 20.2 million in August 2007). And to have someone of quality repping the blog game, who can emerge for the masses like Henry Abbott at ESPN's True Hoop? Every new reader that Dwyer sells on sports blogs, every person who follows a link--that's a win for all of us.
And when those wins add up...well, we don't know what motivates you, but the more mainstream sports blogging gets, the better chance you'll have of turning a profit on your words, getting picked up by a newspaper, or finding that girl who thinks that writing posts for an audience of three at four in the morning (or just reading them) is a normal activity.
Thus inspired, take up your keyboards and enter the fray. The ties that bind us are fascinatingly diverse, but when we're under attack by legions of teenage fantasy football players, Blogfrica should stand together.
Labels: kelly dwyer, NBA, yahoo sports
posted by Crucifictorious @ 03:48,
18 Comments:
-
At December 13, 2007 10:14 AM,
goathair said...
-
My sentiments exactly. SAVE KELLY DWYER
-
At December 13, 2007 10:28 AM,
said...
-
Dude, this blog sucks. You say nothing of any value. You should really go listen to Stephen A Smith sometime. He knows what's going on.
-
At December 13, 2007 10:51 AM,
J.E. said...
-
1st!
-
At December 13, 2007 11:02 AM,
Crucifictorious said...
-
Yes! An idiot, a hater, and a token fan.
All we need now is four more "Your the worst writer ever" comments and WE will be KD's blog. Minus the analysis and frequency.
(Or to borrow Goathair's mathmaticsized brilliance: KD's blog + crappier production values - analysis / frequency = WRG) -
At December 13, 2007 11:06 AM,
Crucifictorious said...
-
The post didn't mention this, but should've: Rod Benson's Y! blog, written like a conventional journal (even if the topics are completely unconventional), is getting a much more positive reaction...even if readers are oddly fixated on his math skills.
Conclusion? The Y! readers aren't born to hate... -
At December 13, 2007 11:24 AM,
said...
-
Think comment moderation is on now, it isn't bad today.
-
At December 13, 2007 11:41 AM,
JC said...
-
Most people just like to hate.
Although, the only person to ever hate on me quickly changed his mind upon reading my WRG interview.
Thanks, dudes! -
At December 13, 2007 11:55 AM,
said...
-
the yahoo fans are being stupid, but what's so special about kelly dwyer. he's getting paid to do this, i think he can take it.
-
At December 13, 2007 2:10 PM,
Hot Shit College Student said...
-
I really miss the days of Henry Abbott's moderated comment section.
It's worth pointing out Dwyer has been writing about basketball on the internet 4ever. OnHoops heyday, and Desipio 4ever. -
At December 13, 2007 2:35 PM,
Doctor Dribbles said...
-
Dwyer's posts are punchy, pithy, and funny; he also appears to read and link every NBA blog on the 'net. Decide for yourself if that's valuable.
HSCS, there's more clutter now, but there's more funny too. -
At December 13, 2007 2:50 PM,
Hot Shit College Student said...
-
Doc, you're barking up the wrong tree. I already backspaced over a remark about Y!'s comment superiority to Deadspin.
-
At December 13, 2007 2:58 PM,
said...
-
So Mottram linked to a post talking about his great decision to hire a guy for Yahoo. Yeah, that's not a conflict of interest.
-
At December 13, 2007 3:25 PM,
kellydwyer said...
-
Find me a blog post Jamie could link to about what a lousy decision he made, and we're even, Dr. Anon.
Cheers, Crucifictorious. -
At December 13, 2007 5:00 PM,
Crucifictorious said...
-
Jamie took some heat for Blog Show numero uno...but he didn't hide from it. He also made clear on Mr. I that he wouldn't talk up the Dwyer or Benson blogs, given his bias.
But beyond some awkward Blog Show dance moves...has Jamie made any major missteps, when you think about it? Maybe having his name linked with "Cold Pizza" in a Google search, but that's about it. Otherwise, SBL->FanHouse->Blog Show->Yahoo is a stellar track record. Kind of unrelated, but as long as we're being meta.
Welcome, KD. -
At December 14, 2007 10:48 AM,
JonMVNbasketball said...
-
I wouldn't have a problem if Mottram did talk up Dwyer and/or Benson. That would be Boom Tho. Conflict of interest my ass. The competition is with mainstream media acceptance and not the blogosphere.
-
At December 14, 2007 11:11 AM,
Steven said...
-
I saw all the dumb comments last week, but the board has turned remarkably friendly, about the time your post went up I'd bet. So We Rite Goode either has tremendous pull or Yahoo has gotten smart about who gets to comment.
-
At April 8, 2008 2:04 PM,
RocketFan said...
-
Dwyer may be the worst sports writers I've ever read. His writing is as stilted, pretentious, and mechanical as I've seen. Try reading his trash out loud with a British accent. It totally works.
-
At December 1, 2009 2:33 AM,
said...
-
Kelly Dwyer is a Fool. Hey Kelly hint: Rodney Carney doesn't play for Minny no more he is with Philly.
