RealGM

Posting this thread to ask if anyone views Ted's Take (http://www.tedstake.com) - mods feel free to merge into another thread if another one has already been started.

Has anyone hard any success in posting any comments that simply don't sing his or Wizards praises? His so-called mods (I suspect Ernie Grunfeld) delete just about every negative comment that is posted over there. I wanted to get our boards' thoughts. Feel free to use this thread to post what was deleted on Ted's blog.

My latest offering:

Ted-

Interesting assessment of the Washington Wizards by Stan Van Gundy:

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/22 ... ber_Player

I happen to agree with him!

I attended the Wizards-Mavericks game a few nights ago and found it to be a suboptimal fan experience (not just because of the usual home loss). The highlight of the evening was my brother popping up on the 'dance cam'. Perhaps it was the lack of energy in the Verizon Center that contributed to the overall feeling of lethargy, but many of my group felt that the majority of the Wizards players just seemed to be just going through the motions. All of us pay our hard earned money to watch to be entertained by what is supposed to be a professional team in the Nation's Capitol. We fans have not gotten that consistently for a long, long time. Because this team and the organization refuse to invest into the culture of winning, I certainly won't be attending another Wizards game any time soon.

I posted the following on Ted's Take regarding Bradley Beal getting ROTM:

Beal was terrible in December. He shot 36% from the field and 18% from 3-point range while leading his team to a 3-11 record. His on/off differential was -11.0, which means he made a real bad team that much worse when he was on the floor. I appreciate that Mr. Leonsis is supporting his players, but Beal absolutely did not deserve the award. By any reasonable measure, both Andre Drummond and Michael Kidd Gilchrist outplayed Beal in December.

Beal has had a nice couple of games to start the month of January, so let’s hope that continues. Maybe he’ll actually earn the ROTM award in January.

It still says "awaiting moderation". I don't know if anyone else can see it.

.

I must "lead the league" in the number of comments that are never published. And I'm not a bomb thrower (or don't think I am).

At this point, Ted's blog has all the credibility of the Iraqi Information Minister to my eyes. He's destroyed his brand and comes off as an unknowing guy who likes to pretend to be a doer, but only has the wherewithall to take care of the brainless stuff -- urinal cakes, painting the stairs at the Verizon Center, fast food menus, etc.

My dos centavos.

I gave up on posting comments there. Critiques I attempted to post there were similar to things I've posted here, but with less snark. I don't think any of them made it through the moderation process.

Ya, I've posted some very civil comments on his blog that never show. Anyone notice that most blog posts only have 3 or 4 comments? It's like the moderator just picks a few to publish to give the illusion of open conversation.

I posted this a while back hoping that it would make an impression which it obviously did not...

...I find it ridiculously disrespectful that you delete so many of your comments. Just so you know, they have been re posted elsewhere and after reading them, I must say it reflects very poorly on you. I understand if they are inappropriate or profane, but civil comments should not be moderated. So when you say that you understand the "fans frustration," pardon us if we laugh in your face.

I have had a few negative comments get though. Others have been deleted. I definitely haven't been as harsh as i would be on here but there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason as to which ones get published. I had a couple deleted that i thought were pretty benign.

As someone who makes his living in public relations, the team's PR strategy (assuming their is one) is baffling. They use the en vogue buzzwords like transparency, openness, authenticity, accountability, but then Ted produces this poorly written blog that's -- as pine suggests -- is the equivalent of Baghdad Bob. I get few comments on my blog, but the only ones I delete are the ones posted by spammers. I could understand deleting or editing out profanity, but comments being deleted don't contain that kind of content.

The thing with using those PR buzzwords is that they create expectations of certain behaviors. We expect the owner to offer some authentic information when he's making public statements, for example. Be optimistic by all means, but be realistic as well.

We also expect genuine information, for example, about Wall's knee. When they announced the injury and the timetable, it would have been a good idea to actually say what the diagnosis was and give the timetable as a range. Don't say "8 weeks" if that's a "best case" scenario. Tell the truth -- 8-12 weeks, possibly longer. Certainly, once it was clear that Wall wasn't going to be back on the court anywhere near 8 weeks, a more detailed explanation was warranted.

What's pretty clear to me is that they want to create the IMPRESSION of being open, transparent, authentic, etc., but they don't want to actually BE those things. They're still spinning, still trying to keep information to themselves, still trying to prove how clever they are. I'm not suggesting they start publishing data from their missile tracking cameras. But real injury information is low-hanging fruit. An honest and realistic assessment of the team from the owner -- low-hanging fruit.

Unless, of course, what's posted in Ted's Take is TRULY Ted's view of the team. Honestly, that would be worse. I've been interpreting his blog as disingenuous puffery -- basically his attempt to persuade the average fan that the Wizards are closer to turning things around than the Media Establishment would have them believe. If he actually believes what he's writing, then he's deluded and there's very little hope for the Wizards to become a winner.

Well, it looks to me like he had every intention of being open and transparent but found that 1) it was a TON of work and 2) experiments in transparency NEVER work, as Ted found out.

When Ultima - Ascension came out the developers made a point to visit the discussion threads and talk up the game and generate buzz. What ended up happening is a ton of people started demanding certain features be included in the game and having a snit fit if it didn't happen (and the developers spent a lot of time adding stupid little features to the game that took away their time from more important things).

It's impossible to control the message with the amount of genuine morons out there. It happens EVERY SINGLE TIME someone attempts this strategy. Better to just slam the doors shut and not engage the idiots. You can't win.

Apparently what Ted ended up doing is have some folks moderate the blog and just delete everything that's critical, regardless of merit. Really the only other solution was never to have done the blog and the email thing in the first place.

Zonkerbl wrote:Well, it looks to me like he had every intention of being open and transparent but found that 1) it was a TON of work and 2) experiments in transparency NEVER work, as Ted found out.

When Ultima - Ascension came out the developers made a point to visit the discussion threads and talk up the game and generate buzz. What ended up happening is a ton of people started demanding certain features be included in the game and having a snit fit if it didn't happen (and the developers spent a lot of time adding stupid little features to the game that took away their time from more important things).

It's impossible to control the message with the amount of genuine morons out there. It happens EVERY SINGLE TIME someone attempts this strategy. Better to just slam the doors shut and not engage the idiots. You can't win.

Apparently what Ted ended up doing is have some folks moderate the blog and just delete everything that's critical, regardless of merit. Really the only other solution was never to have done the blog and the email thing in the first place.

You also can't control the message when you make mistake after mistake while claiming to be "clever". The message won't be well received in that case.

Yeah. Really the best strategy is not to try to put out a message in the first place. Can go wrong in so many ways and essentially never goes right, especially with sports fans.

Maybe a reverse approach, posting a response filled with effusive praise, detached optimism, and cherry-picked evidence for why "the plan" is working exactly as intended. We could have a contest and vote on whose response was the most over-the-top.

I don't think the problem is necessarily "transparency" but the execution of it. If it was me, I wouldn't have suggested an owner's blog, and I would have recommended against accepting any comments. I'd also have strongly recommended that his posts be thoughtful, well-written and edited.

Whatever. They're not paying me for PR services.

Worse yet: comments are disabled on the Wizards blog. No point fans talking to each other when they find the site. Or chatting with your radio announcers like they used to. That was great, rare real openness among diehards. There's enough of a stigma being a Wiz fan, why not reward them for their loyalty by allowing dialogue. Passion is good, apathy is the true death of a fanbase.

Passion is good, apathy is the true death of a fanbase.

^ as per Pine's post in the Incred sucky Ted thread

it's Friday night, a good team is in town and while I would
personally like to go to the game, because my daughter is
playing, my duty and preference is clear. Yet I have gotten
one nibble on anyone to buy my seats. This is a basketball
town in spite of the Wizards. Imagine what it would be like
if we had simply an occasional + .500 team

I get why you'll are pissed but it is his blog. He can do as he wishes with it. Sure he could shut down the comments section all together but he clearly wants to have some interaction. There is just a limit to it.

There are plenty of other places to post negative stuff if you want. It gets done here in spades. You can comment on the WP pages. There are a few other forums like this as well. You can start your own blog, etc.

My feeling is that as of right now, Ted isn't really interested in hearing more of the same because he is waiting to see what the team looks like with Wall, Trevor A, etc. All 15 practiced for the first time yesterday. He isn't making any moves until after he see the core in place which should happen over the week or two.

Then they will evaluate what they have in total and what they need to do next.

I know everyone is frustrated. I'm frustrated. Actually, for me what is more frustrating is that at this point, if they do look good once they are all out there, now you have to start worrying about lowering your odds at a higher pick. Now that is frustrating because you feel like you lose either way.

Why couldn't have just all been healthy to start the year? Then if they were good, we would know and we would have enjoyed more wins. If they were bad, we would know and you would hope they would have made a move. What we are getting is the worst option. They are bad but you don't know for sure if they will be when healthy so they don't makes moves. Then they get good when everyone returns but its to late and now being good is bad.

Now that sucks. Even success will piss some people off.

there is no excuse for 4-25

injuries schminjuries

4-25 is inexcusable

dobrojim wrote:there is no excuse for 4-25

injuries schminjuries

4-25 is inexcusable

4-26 is okay, though, right?

whatever, it's hard to keep up (at my advanced age)

Too much running. It rattles the brain.