HardyBoy

Zay had a real nice, tough catch over the middle today and a huge catch last week during the comeback...

Noooo! That was going to be my joke! Well done! I think the Gase hate might be overblown, Ross was a really bad owner who refused to rebuild...I say was because it looks like he gave the green light on the rebuild finally. I personally think the Jets roster is really top heavy...we'll have to see how it plays out, but I think the Bills will go on a mid season run as depth comes into play, and the Jets might fade. This move should be encouraging to a Jets fan for the following reason in my opinion. If I'm right and the Jets are top heavy, and the season goes sideways if the top players get injured, or are ineffective, this move leads me to believe the new GM would not try and keep it together by mortgaging the future (sort of like what the Texans are doing). That said, I'm not sure what's possible based on their salary cap situation...ex gm might have set you guys back a few years if these moves don't work out...btw, I'm rooting for the Bills to beat the Jets because the Bills are good, not because the Jets messed up their cap potentially and have a prolonged, but delayed rebuild as a result.

Or you let anyone create threads during games, which I know is a non starter What if as the game was going on, certain big topics would get threads created, and as soon as the discussions slow on them, they get sucked into the main thread...or stay as individual threads if they're a really big deal...would take mod involvement, but could be pretty cool engagement wise...you could have a game day thread builder who rotates week to week and only they would be allowed to create threads.

Absolutely, I'm saying just those three. So ignore ff, but just two threads...ageneral thread and a place where people can ask specific football strategy related questions. So something more involved than "look at that pass!" More football strategy focused (the lineman are kicking out or something...I dont know what to give as an example, I have no clue what I'm watching!). I like the idea of different threads to help differentiate the convo, but think I dislike the idea of having to jump back and forth (i think, but I don't use the threads game day that much, just more thinking from a design/flow perspective...most information with the fewest clicks). Is there a way for you to give different profiles different views? You could do some AB testing using the last preseason game and see what got the most engagement.

Maybe a few more general threads, but on topics and not position groups. 1) General game discussion 2) Football Xs and Os questions and observations 3) Fantasy football Maybe one or two dedicated threads to key things to watch, voted on by the board in the days leading up to the game. Is there a way to let people put a tag on the post if they post in the general thread and it subsets into the side thread, and then people can post from the side threads and it auto goes into the main thread with the tag on it? Note that if there was a way to navigate based on time posted (so go to page where the post was closest to X datetime) that would be so cool and might solve a lot of issues where people have to scroll through a bunch of stuff.

^I really like Foster, but I hope he's a solid #4 on this team...I hope he plays like last year and is a number 4 receiver, amd I think there's a chance that happens.

I dunno man, I appreciate what you're saying, but ultimately there really are a very few actual unique things/concepts in the world, and the variety is just the combination of those things in creative and analogous ways. I learned about football from my dad, who passed away from untreatable cancer when he was 49, two weeks after my 21st bday. Going to Webster park on the lake outside of Rochester, walking under the pine trees covered in fresh snow, and thick stillness of the silence, except for our feet in the snow (I can smell the smell of the scarf over my nose right now as I write this)...going home and having my mom make us hot chocolate as we put the Bills game on and we all watched it together with no distractions for 3 hours... My relationship with my dad wasn't built around the Bills and I never felt that his affection, admiration or love was based on my football knowledge (other things sure to an extent, but not football). Someone said it before, it's about moderation, and I would take it a step further, it's about generalization. Like I said, the world has certain universal underpinnings that are present everywhere. Things need to go in the right sequence in football for a play to even be able to be run, and that is the case in so many other things. Honestly, unless you're trying to do something incredibly applied, like be a mathemetician or being able to fix massive turbines, you don't need to specialize and would be better served generalizing. Life really requires looking at things more than just on their face and seeing that everything isn't just connected, but the same pattern is present over and over. You don't have to relearn things, you just need to apply what you already know to a different application. That is something I learned to do as I got older, because I started being able to see those connections. My suggestion, especially because you sound pretty thoughtful and introspective, is to look back on your football experience and see what similarities you can find in your everyday life, and other things you are more interested in now. Kindness comes from empathy, and empathy comes from connection, and connection comes from seeing the staggering sameness in everything when you remove the unimportant table dressings that seek to distract us from that universality...beneath all the different tablecloths, ultimately it's just a table, so might as well jump through it off the top of a van...

So according to the guys at hashtag sports, Wade can be placed on the practice squad without having to go through waivers, and being eligible to be claimed by others. He would be an exempt 11th player on the practice squad who cannot be signed by anyone else. That has to be done before the season, and if that happens, he is unable to play the entire season. Otherwise, they can put him on the active roster, at which point he loses the exemption, would need to clear waivers if he gets cut to go on the practice squad, and any other team can claim him off the practice squad. I think he's on a ine year deal too, so just because they develop him this year on the practice squad, doesn't mean Wade signs here again next year. I think they should try him on kick returns during the preseason, but punt returns as I think I saw mentioned earlier is a little crazy, he'll get blown up.

His rugby highlights look amazing, right?

An inside run game with Singletary, two tight ends and a fullback is crazy exciting. If you have a back who can set up runs in space, with two unaccounted for blockers, you're taking potentialy 20 yards in chunks. Also, I've said it before, I'm big on Wade. I think he has the same set up ability as Singletary just with different angles, though tap the breaks a moment, having to only beat one guy on a very hard to defend angle, and a full field open after isn't really fair. Might be hard to sneak him on the practice squad, especially if he showing film he's quickly picking up the angles through the rest of preseason. Kroft, Knox and Sweeney, blocking and catching as an onfield unit, and hopefully Croom makes the team on special teams, because he was a solid target last year and has been developing as a TE, is exciting. You could totally put the four of those guys with any of the backs and this gets exciting. Holy crap, we have Shady. I think a more nuanced style would do better, because the three backfield blockers would have the time to reach the key blocks, but it's easy to forget Shady McCoy somehow! Of course we'll have to see how the the oline prefers to play, that will drive a lot. Very excited to see the run plays this year, if Ford is RG and good, it's the best oline the bills have had in a while.

First preseason game...love the passion, but timings are going to be off, could lead to mistakes by players not at fault (have mor seen the game yet. Some of these guys are going to be determined by the 4th preseason game, not the first. Love the feedback on the negative plays...I'm not gonna have a chance to see the thread for a bit tomorrow..any chance you could quote this and give a few of the highlights? I literally saw two plays, and they were the Singletary run in short yardage (you know the one, unless there was another), and his catch on the next play. That run proved he's got plus nfl vision. Holy crap! If Singletary can translate his vision to the NFL right away...I'm not overreacting, he's not there yet even close, but his ceiling is Thurman right? Or maybe a Travis Henry, hit the hole type with better vision, patience and set up.

So to recap, you dropped a non sequitor whataboutism, coupled with an unsupported ad hominem and then crickets when I didn't take the bait? Taking it you cannot show me peer reviewed, statistically significant research, where I can look at the method section and the statistical analysis applied on said research to back up your point of view then? In that case, care to share what you are actually basing your ideas on then? Actually forget all that, I don't have time for this the way I expect it to go (I'm open to a constructive conversation though). One last thing and you don't even need to answer this question, but what objective evidence/proof that you are wrong would it take for you to change your mind on this (what it would take for me is in the second paragraph)?

Interesting, so basically, people were drawn to newspapers because of the national news, which now they can get elsewhere, valid point there. Long form investigative local reporting, in the form of a monthly print and online magazine would work in some places. Shoot, I lived in Boston and they had several of those that I would read on the bus...actually I think the Boston Phoenix just went out of business when I left to move to fort lauderdale, but if I recall there was much more to it than readership. Yup, Boston Phoenix died because a lack of national advertising, not due to low readership or lack of local advertising. https://www.wbur.org/news/2013/03/14/boston-phoenix-closing I remember reading people saying it was too adversarial a press institution and it turned off national ad sources, but I could be misremembering...the readers were there though, I like I said, I think they were speaking truth to power with well sourced and with high journalistic standards and got dropped as a result.

Ok, show me the evidence then.

It's literally their last remaining readers footing the bill as they die. What I don't get is why they haven't spent the money on vibrant local social networks. Obviously easier said than done, and my guess there is a business there for someone to develop out their with some venture capital money, but my have a hunch facebook and google are buying those companies before they have a chance to compete.

The real loss is all the local minutia, from high school sports, to the city council bond allocation meeting. That said, high school sports coverage is probably super interesting these days. I graduated high school (roc area) in 2002 and played soccer and lax, and we basically had the box scores in the D&C that coaches would call in, an article on your team and maybe over the course of the season you would you would get an article or two in there. Then you had your local town paper that covered all your high school's sports, so your team would get coverage that way more regularily, but a lot of it was just recaps, with some good quotes and observations for sure (biggest draw was the picture honestly, but I was pretty cool to get talked about in there). That was pretty much before social media, and definitely outside of basically anyone under 30 at the time. Now you have three generations of people well versed in the technology and have access to ubiquitous social networks where more people are on now than subscribed then to newspapers. I have to think you can get all your high school content on a facebook page, twitter, instagram, and through podcasts. It's just so different now. I missed the start of that phenomenon likely by seven years or so before all three generations were really at the right part of the adoption curve to have a true social media community to use for gaining information. Being in the Oregon Trail generation is so crazy sometimes, just things where on either side of me things are completely different, but I grew up in my formative years with it starkly both ways or in the middle or changing and blending. All that said, my real point is the biggest loss is going to be local municipal functions not being covered in an investigative manner. It's super important for the long term to keep people making long term decisions accountable at all levels to ensure they are keeping the people who will be paying for those decisions for the next 30 years firmly and primarily in their decision making. Not sure if you saw the water main break we had in fort lauderdale, but it came out that we need 20 billion dollars in infrastructure work over the next years, and we need it urgently. It should never have gotten to this point here, and I think a ton of it the lack of a powerful and objective local news system that everyone follows and acts upon the stories each election...a well informed electorate I suppose.

Do you have actual evidence of this outside of a few potential anecdotal examples? Like actual data that shows a significant number of young journalists take their stories directly from cnn, and are trying to further their own "agenda?" You're smearing an entire generation of writers, so I'm assuming you have some actual evidence, or did you just hear this and repeat it from someone who might be you know, lying to promote their own agenda...

I believe he's considered a freelance writer if you look at the staff...probably only has a contract to provide in season content based on the availability of the athletics nfl season budget.

https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html Here is the definition of fair use from the copyright.gov website, and it doesn't seem like a grey area to me...granted you are right that I have not looked at how this gets applied in the case law (wouldn't really know what I was looking at if I did either), but again, I genuinely don't see where the nfl would have a case based on that definition. Of course the judicial system has been bought by corporations, so maybe somehow the nfl successfully argues that it would impact them long term if this was widespread, but if that argument is looked at objectively, I think it very clearly fails to block fair use. Reason is, the nba allows people to post any highlight they want for the most part, without requiring it be covered under fair use even. The interest in that league is growing insanely, and I've read articles where the data shows a causal link between the ability to repost highlights and the leagues growing popularity. Therefore, using a 30 second clip of a 1 hr video of an event that actually happened, where you use the clip as a canvas for your original work and commentary sounds like the very definition of fair use. I haven't watched this yet, so it totally could say I'm a dumbass and of course what cover1 does violates copyright law...we can find out together Question: does the creator of the content get view counts when a youtube link is embedded like this and any potential ad revenue if the video is monetized?

You're right, it really doesn't my bad on the long tangent. I'm still clearly working through some residual feelings of a lack of control that I had in that entire situation, and it being hurricane season again brings some of those feelings up pretty strongly. Honestly, I felt it should have been stickied to the top of the main page. If there was an insane blizzard with 5 feet of snow forecasted to hit right after a crazy ice storm in Buffalo (knock on wood this never happens), I would damn well hope there was a thread stickied on the main page as well as a resource for people to get information. More people see it on the main page, and it is a lot easier to find. I understand we can't have a thread stickied for every incident, but 6m people were evacuating, and moral support within our community would have gone a long way.

People are saying his content is meh, because they personally dislike him. That could cause people to not go to his content when they read that here when they otherwise would have, because of...right, personal reasons. The guy has current players spending time watching film with him...are they doing that because they think his content is meh? 1) As far as the press pass, it's up to the bills, and as long as that's truly the case then fine, even though they are much more than just a blog. If instead it's really because the nfl is pressuring them, how is that not some type of anti-trust violation or something along those lines (the teams are supposed to be independent entities I thought). 2) I think it's very clearly been established in this thread that what they do over there is covered under fair use. It's literaly the same thing as someone taking a thirty second scene from a movie, breaking it down and turning it into a half hour youtube video (both are film study :)). Also, there is no copyright claim to be made, because if there was the nfl would have stepped in already. They aren't some tiny operation flying under the radar, and I'm sure there are people in the nfl office that have variable compensation based on the number of copyright claims they can get opened. Also, I get the sense that some people in here would relsish if that happened to him, and his dream died, which is unsettling. Now, there have been music companies that have put in copyright claims on people teaching others how to play a song in a video lesson. Mind boggling, but it's different because they are playing the full song there, so I could sort of see that, but here it is the same thing as an analysis of a movie scene and that is allowed.

Erik has done film reviews over Skype with both Poyer and Alexander, so yeah, there's that for everyone saying he's got nothing to offer and taking what in many cases seem like personal shots at someone. Frankly, I have disagreed with Erik many times on various topics, and we've had really good discussions about it every time, so maybe look in the mirror? Erik and cover1 have put together a really cool, engaged and educated community of not just great fans, but also great people. Nobody gives you crap for wanting to talk about something that has already been talked about, and we talk about things not related to football all the time, especially during the offseason...it doesn't hurt the experience, it makes it better. While some of you might have that sense of community here, it largely left for me when I had the north east eye wall of a category 5 hurricane projected literally to go over my house. My wife, 6 m/o at the time, and I were on vacation, and I flewback home myself, pulled an all nighter packing up my house by myself, and started driving with my wedding albums, 3 cats and a dog in a toyota corolla. I had to leave my ukulele up north, and last thing I told my wife before I went into the airport was to make sure he learned to play it, because deep down I wasn't positive I wouldn't get stranded without gas out on the road. Before I left I started a post here for other people in my position as both a source of information and a place for moral support. I then drove 8 hours that first day, only made it to Orlando (from ft lauderdale, should have been 3). The next day I drove 16 hours straight with literally three 15 minute breaks, with four pets in the car. On those breaks I tried to find the thread to get some motivation and inspiration, because this was literally the most terrifying time in my life, but they were pushed down the wall...I thought. When I finally got to my destination, turns out the thread was moved off the wall...wasn't football related...no crap, but as someone who has been an active part of this board since 2008 I deserved better. That was one of the most hurtful things people who were supposed to be on my side have done to me. That might sound hyperbolic, but again, Irma was going to level my house, literally. If it hit as a cat 5 there was a really good chance I would not have a home to go back to, and I would be separated from my family for a really long time. How about instead of wishing ill will against someone who is doing something he is extremely passionate about, and doing it well, we focus on maybe making this place a little bit better, because the way that I was treated during that emergency was piss poor. By the way, there were great tips in that thread that got pushed off the wall that would have saved me a couple hours of driving and a lot of moral support that would have really helped me mentally.

Great point! I will go write up a contract for my imaginary drug dealer and hypothetical high price call girl saying that they agree to the terms of the contract, and I'll just show it to the judge and get off with no consequences...thanks for the tip!!!

Try to put yourself in his shoes. You are about to take a test, let's say a math test. You're not the best in at the subject matter, because you aren't able to come up with the answer as fast as others, but you have figured out a way to work around it by really understanding the concepts and using deductive reasoning to solve the problems just about as well, and in some cases better than those that just flat out were born really good already. So you sit down for the test, but instead of the typical 2 minutes per question, you only have a minute. You've practiced at a minute per question, but the questions were easier and the stakes were much lower. So you bomb the test. Worst ever performance. Are you ensured to never do well again, and you should just quit and type on message boards all day? No, you didn't fail because you weren't capable, it's too early to say that based on the sample size. You need to practice more to get how you are good at the subject to align with the increased difficulty of the subject. That is Nathan Peterman. He terribly failed a few tests, but showed consistent improvement in getting his skill set upgraded. No his arm will never win games, but he didn't di terribly because if his arm. Most of that was him being baited into bad throws, because the game was moving too fast. It's too early to say he's the worst ever, or maybe that's fair, so instead unfair to say he will remain the worst ever.

And before the Brady did it early comments...first of all it's Tom Brady, second of all, Brady had every single thing I mentioned Peterman not having.