ckparrothead
Premium Member
I just wanted to say in advance, thank you guys for all the compliments and respect that Boomer, KB21, and myself have received over the years from you guys.
Over the years you have all gotten to know me pretty intimately. I've notched 17,000+ posts with my furious typing and seemingly endless supply of words and sentences.
You guys ALL know Boomer and KB21. They have functioned as your local FinHeaven Draft Gurus for a long time and I hope you have come to enjoy their research, and respect their opinions as much as I have. Believe it or not, they have spent long, tireless hours engaging in professional grade film study and draft research to come by their unique level of knowledge. For myself, I have engaged in serious film study for only the last three or four years.
You guys have seen Saban's media policy. It is North Korea over at the Dolphins facility and the local 'professional' media are going nuts over it...endlessly taking veiled shots at Nick Saban and disregarding positive fan sentiment. The reason is simple: they no longer have the contacts to get the inside information, and so they must rely on their brains and knowledge to predict the Dolphins' actions. It now becomes a valid question as to just what kind of knowledgeable fans there are out there who are able to accurately analyze, assess, and predict moves and potential moves made by the Miami Dolphins better than the traditional local press. A great example of this would be Fineas' most recent Culpepper Manifesto.
With the help and support of FinHeaven, and the FinHeaven community, I believe we have an opportunity that few other fan communities of any other team can boast. With the burgeoning popularity of FinHeaven, and the tireless hard work of three of its home grown members, we can offer an entire smorgasboard of NFL Draft evaluation from the perspective of the Miami Dolphins.
Enough preamble. On to the subject at hand.
Draft Coverage
Boomer, myself, and KB21 are in the middle of conducting research on the possibility of rolling out systematic draft coverage aimed primarily at the Miami Dolphins fan community. This would involve professional bottom-up research and commentary. We are considering the following itemized products for the 2007 NFL Draft. Please vote on which products you would be willing to buy.
1. Weekly/Twice-Weekly Email Newsletter: $5 per month (Feb, Mar, Apr)
We are leaning toward the newsletter being sent twice per week. The email would include new pieces and commentary from myself, Boomer, and KB21. The commentary should cover relevant happenings during the week. During "dead" times when nothing new has happened worthy of discussion, the newsletter would focus on film evaluation and commentary on draft prospects that may be of interest to the Dolphins. The topics of discussion would probably be guided toward what seemed to be most on the minds of Dolphin fans at the time. The fee we would be charging would be $5 per month from February through the end of April. The newsletter would be the basic package from which you can add other items.
2. Unprecedented Fan Access Through Q&A: $5 (for all three months)
The idea is for fans to be able to ask us as many questions as they desire and have us give them answers in much the same way that Boomer and I have been doing in the Ask Boomer thread. Needless to say, for those who have subscriptions to other draft sites, this is not a common offering. We would hold live Q&A chat sessions, through IRC, subscription necessary to get in. We would also field email questions and would work your questions into a Private Q&A Newsletter that would be sent to all members of the Q&A offering. Note that subscribers to the basic Newsletter would not be sent the Private Q&A Newsletter, nor would subscribers be able to sign up for the Q&A access without subscribing to the base Newsletter. This is a package deal. $20 in February would get you three months worth of newsletters, and three months worth of Q&A.
3. Full Color Printed and Bound Draft Guide (Subscribers Only): $20 (plus S/H)
The Draft Guide would be printed, published, and shipped around the first week of April in order to give you plenty of time to digest it prior to D-Day. This would be a professional grade draft guide that would include: mock draft, position rankings, top 100 board, and individual player profiles. The player profiles would incorporate as available: accurate height/weight listings, NFL Combine measurements, Combine commentary (where applicable), Senior Bowl commentary (where applicable), college statistics, a draft grade (round), and overall commentary from the three of us. As you know, I am a statistical buff, so I am batting around the idea of using full Combine measurements in order to derive Madden-style player attributes.
4. Full Color Printed and Bound Draft Guide (non-Subscribers): $30 (plus S/H)
This would be the exact same as above. We want to encourage people first and foremost to be subscribers to our basic newsletter. If you are a subscriber by March, you will receive the Draft Guide at a $10 discount. If you are not a subscriber, the Draft Guide would cost you $30 per copy.
5. Draft Weekend Chat Admission: $5 (Saturday & Sunday)
I am not trying to get a big head here and I am not trying to say it is worth $5 just to rub elbows with the three of us. But, the fact of the matter is that Draft Day around FinHeaven will be a MADHOUSE. You saw all the server overload problems just when the fanbase expected Drew Brees to sign at any minute. We want to organize an orderly chat room that Boomer, KB21, and myself would all be in, where we could actively discuss everything that is going on during the draft, as it happens. But you just cannot do something like this for free admission, because everyone would come and it is no longer ORDERLY. We want serious discussion from serious fans, and charging admission is a good way to cull out the ones who just want to come into chat and take a crap all over everyone. This is pretty much the only aspect of this Draft coverage that the three of us are considering offering for the 2006 NFL Draft. The draft day chat room would likely be an IRC chat room, and the best way to access IRC is with mIRC. If you try to use the FH servers, you run into the overload problem that will undoubtedly happen on draft day. Last year, I just remember being very disappointed that I could not find a chat room where I could discuss things that were happening with reasonable, intelligent Dolfans, and I was very disappointed in that experience. All I am saying is the three of us will agree to be around to chat in an organized, controlled chat room for much of the two days of the NFL Draft...if you guys would pay a SMALL admission fee in order to guarantee the right and ability to discuss things intelligently.
So, now you have read the options. Please vote for as many as you think you would be interested in buying. Again, this is just MARKET RESEARCH in order to guide us as to what kind of coverage we should provide. We will not jump into this thing unless we feel it is going to be a rewarding experience for the FinHeaven Community.
As a little background for those that do now know us.
Boomer lives in sunny England and follows the draft like it's his job...and at various points, it has been his job. He works for the BBC and has journalistic experience. For those that know him, Frank Coyle has asked Boomer in the past to work with them at Great Blue North, but Boomer had to decline due to his child being on the way. Boomer is a film junky that speaks with the voice of experience, as he has been following the Draft since before I was even able to appreciate the merits of a nice set of womens' breasts.
KB21 is a 28 year old genius medical student. He's seen more A's on the report card than your local asian community. He attended undergraduate at Mississippi State and grew up playing baseball and football with Steelers standout guard Kendall Simmons. Keith is a film junky and an avid football nut. He would certainly welcome the opportunity to stack up his wonderlic next to anyone else in the world.
CKParrotHead (me)...I am...well let's see...mostly a know-it-all. Once upon a time I was a 16 year old smart@ss that loved to boast about his SAT score. Since then, I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics with a Minor in History from Georgetown University, and am currently working as an Equity Analyst with Raymond James Financial in St. Petersburg, FL. The research team I work on (about a half dozen to a dozen guys) currently manages around $5 billion in corporate and public retirement assets. I watch a lot of film, maintain databases on draft prospects, and I do statistical analysis because I like to do so. I speak with the voice of an Equity Analyst that evaluates stocks in much the same way that I've always evaluated individual football players and teams. This industry is practically a mirror-image of the football world, you would be very surprised. I have found a lot of success in both worlds by having experience in both areas. My financial experience has helped me to further understand the NFL, and my experience evaluating the NFL allowed me to "hit the ground running" with the Equity Analyst role.
Over the years you have all gotten to know me pretty intimately. I've notched 17,000+ posts with my furious typing and seemingly endless supply of words and sentences.
You guys ALL know Boomer and KB21. They have functioned as your local FinHeaven Draft Gurus for a long time and I hope you have come to enjoy their research, and respect their opinions as much as I have. Believe it or not, they have spent long, tireless hours engaging in professional grade film study and draft research to come by their unique level of knowledge. For myself, I have engaged in serious film study for only the last three or four years.
You guys have seen Saban's media policy. It is North Korea over at the Dolphins facility and the local 'professional' media are going nuts over it...endlessly taking veiled shots at Nick Saban and disregarding positive fan sentiment. The reason is simple: they no longer have the contacts to get the inside information, and so they must rely on their brains and knowledge to predict the Dolphins' actions. It now becomes a valid question as to just what kind of knowledgeable fans there are out there who are able to accurately analyze, assess, and predict moves and potential moves made by the Miami Dolphins better than the traditional local press. A great example of this would be Fineas' most recent Culpepper Manifesto.
With the help and support of FinHeaven, and the FinHeaven community, I believe we have an opportunity that few other fan communities of any other team can boast. With the burgeoning popularity of FinHeaven, and the tireless hard work of three of its home grown members, we can offer an entire smorgasboard of NFL Draft evaluation from the perspective of the Miami Dolphins.
Enough preamble. On to the subject at hand.
Draft Coverage
Boomer, myself, and KB21 are in the middle of conducting research on the possibility of rolling out systematic draft coverage aimed primarily at the Miami Dolphins fan community. This would involve professional bottom-up research and commentary. We are considering the following itemized products for the 2007 NFL Draft. Please vote on which products you would be willing to buy.
1. Weekly/Twice-Weekly Email Newsletter: $5 per month (Feb, Mar, Apr)
We are leaning toward the newsletter being sent twice per week. The email would include new pieces and commentary from myself, Boomer, and KB21. The commentary should cover relevant happenings during the week. During "dead" times when nothing new has happened worthy of discussion, the newsletter would focus on film evaluation and commentary on draft prospects that may be of interest to the Dolphins. The topics of discussion would probably be guided toward what seemed to be most on the minds of Dolphin fans at the time. The fee we would be charging would be $5 per month from February through the end of April. The newsletter would be the basic package from which you can add other items.
2. Unprecedented Fan Access Through Q&A: $5 (for all three months)
The idea is for fans to be able to ask us as many questions as they desire and have us give them answers in much the same way that Boomer and I have been doing in the Ask Boomer thread. Needless to say, for those who have subscriptions to other draft sites, this is not a common offering. We would hold live Q&A chat sessions, through IRC, subscription necessary to get in. We would also field email questions and would work your questions into a Private Q&A Newsletter that would be sent to all members of the Q&A offering. Note that subscribers to the basic Newsletter would not be sent the Private Q&A Newsletter, nor would subscribers be able to sign up for the Q&A access without subscribing to the base Newsletter. This is a package deal. $20 in February would get you three months worth of newsletters, and three months worth of Q&A.
3. Full Color Printed and Bound Draft Guide (Subscribers Only): $20 (plus S/H)
The Draft Guide would be printed, published, and shipped around the first week of April in order to give you plenty of time to digest it prior to D-Day. This would be a professional grade draft guide that would include: mock draft, position rankings, top 100 board, and individual player profiles. The player profiles would incorporate as available: accurate height/weight listings, NFL Combine measurements, Combine commentary (where applicable), Senior Bowl commentary (where applicable), college statistics, a draft grade (round), and overall commentary from the three of us. As you know, I am a statistical buff, so I am batting around the idea of using full Combine measurements in order to derive Madden-style player attributes.
4. Full Color Printed and Bound Draft Guide (non-Subscribers): $30 (plus S/H)
This would be the exact same as above. We want to encourage people first and foremost to be subscribers to our basic newsletter. If you are a subscriber by March, you will receive the Draft Guide at a $10 discount. If you are not a subscriber, the Draft Guide would cost you $30 per copy.
5. Draft Weekend Chat Admission: $5 (Saturday & Sunday)
I am not trying to get a big head here and I am not trying to say it is worth $5 just to rub elbows with the three of us. But, the fact of the matter is that Draft Day around FinHeaven will be a MADHOUSE. You saw all the server overload problems just when the fanbase expected Drew Brees to sign at any minute. We want to organize an orderly chat room that Boomer, KB21, and myself would all be in, where we could actively discuss everything that is going on during the draft, as it happens. But you just cannot do something like this for free admission, because everyone would come and it is no longer ORDERLY. We want serious discussion from serious fans, and charging admission is a good way to cull out the ones who just want to come into chat and take a crap all over everyone. This is pretty much the only aspect of this Draft coverage that the three of us are considering offering for the 2006 NFL Draft. The draft day chat room would likely be an IRC chat room, and the best way to access IRC is with mIRC. If you try to use the FH servers, you run into the overload problem that will undoubtedly happen on draft day. Last year, I just remember being very disappointed that I could not find a chat room where I could discuss things that were happening with reasonable, intelligent Dolfans, and I was very disappointed in that experience. All I am saying is the three of us will agree to be around to chat in an organized, controlled chat room for much of the two days of the NFL Draft...if you guys would pay a SMALL admission fee in order to guarantee the right and ability to discuss things intelligently.
So, now you have read the options. Please vote for as many as you think you would be interested in buying. Again, this is just MARKET RESEARCH in order to guide us as to what kind of coverage we should provide. We will not jump into this thing unless we feel it is going to be a rewarding experience for the FinHeaven Community.
As a little background for those that do now know us.
Boomer lives in sunny England and follows the draft like it's his job...and at various points, it has been his job. He works for the BBC and has journalistic experience. For those that know him, Frank Coyle has asked Boomer in the past to work with them at Great Blue North, but Boomer had to decline due to his child being on the way. Boomer is a film junky that speaks with the voice of experience, as he has been following the Draft since before I was even able to appreciate the merits of a nice set of womens' breasts.
KB21 is a 28 year old genius medical student. He's seen more A's on the report card than your local asian community. He attended undergraduate at Mississippi State and grew up playing baseball and football with Steelers standout guard Kendall Simmons. Keith is a film junky and an avid football nut. He would certainly welcome the opportunity to stack up his wonderlic next to anyone else in the world.
CKParrotHead (me)...I am...well let's see...mostly a know-it-all. Once upon a time I was a 16 year old smart@ss that loved to boast about his SAT score. Since then, I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics with a Minor in History from Georgetown University, and am currently working as an Equity Analyst with Raymond James Financial in St. Petersburg, FL. The research team I work on (about a half dozen to a dozen guys) currently manages around $5 billion in corporate and public retirement assets. I watch a lot of film, maintain databases on draft prospects, and I do statistical analysis because I like to do so. I speak with the voice of an Equity Analyst that evaluates stocks in much the same way that I've always evaluated individual football players and teams. This industry is practically a mirror-image of the football world, you would be very surprised. I have found a lot of success in both worlds by having experience in both areas. My financial experience has helped me to further understand the NFL, and my experience evaluating the NFL allowed me to "hit the ground running" with the Equity Analyst role.
