!Watercooler2 Mornin.' Over the past few days, I've been rasslin' with an infrastructural issue at this weblog. Our traditional format relies heavily on posts called Your Call, or Crisis Center. These are the posts where you're invited to chat about anything, including on-going matches - especially when some of your pals on-line can't watch a match that's streaming on your computer or television. They're valuable posts, for sure, but I hear frequently that the lingo (especially when the said YC or CC post also has a thematic title) can confusing or even off-putting to new visitors to*Tennis.com* (where the headlines for the five most recent posts are displayed in the TennisWorld box).
What is someone new to the site supposed to make of the hed: TMF Rules Roost (YC)? Or, IWCC, Day 3?
But I've also seen during the past few days of experimenting that even if I go with all red-meat posts (there are degrees of red, after all), and leave off our Tribal lingo, the discussions still trend to chatter and match-calling. It's distracting for those who want to have an on-topic conversation, and those who want to have a lively discussion are confused, intimidated or too polite to go off-topic. The basic scheme - red-meat posts are for on-topic comments, YC, CC, and Deuce Club posts for chatter and socializing.
So I've decided to try something both familiar and a little different, partly because it's not a good time to be pestering our IT folks with specific TW issues (Tennis.com is in the midst of a massive re-design, and it's going to look great!). Besides, the options are limited as long as I stubbornly cling to my desire to keep TW simple and streamlined, rather than breaking it up into separate, linked spaces or rooms.
So as a band-aid, I'm reviving the Watercooler concept, because it makes for a more palatable hed and it will serve as the chat room you all enjoy so much. I will not write a new post each day, because that will become too repetitive, especially on the home page, for potential newcomers. The most recent Watercooler will remain the place for off-topic comments, although it will be cleaned up and updated as need be. Typepad has a function that allows you to keep a designated post on top; I may experiment with that in the coming days as well.
And when I return from my trip to Montana (I'm there all of next week) and then the re-designed website launches (TW itself will probably remain exactly as is the forseeable future), I'll revisit our options.
Enjoy today's tennis - I'll be back very soon with some interesting red meat from John P. McEnroe, and an update on yet another tough decision faced by Flavia Pennetta.
-- Pete
PS - Any ideas you may have concerning these issues are welcome, just post them in the comments, or email me via the Contact tab.