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Saturday, December 15, 2007

About BamaFootball4Life

Some have wondered, "What is BamaFootball4Life?" The short answer is BamaFootball4Life is a blog I created on November 22, 2007 while off a few days for the Thanksgiving Holiday. The long answer is a little bit more detailed.

We went to my sister-in-law's for Thanksgiving lunch (hey JN! - she's a BIG Bama fan) and upon returning I was cruising the web looking for Bama news. I got frustrated having to go to so many sites. I thought it would be nice if the news came to me, instead of me going to it. Well, after an hour or so of reading about RSS feeds and Blogger, I started setting up what I called my "Bama portal". It was just a shell web site with a lot of Bama news feeds. It was functional, but kind of bland looking.

To dress the site up, I decided to add a picture and give it a title. A couple of years ago we took the digital camera to homecoming and took a lot of pictures. The shape of title banner did not really fit well with the pictures. So I focused in on the end-zone of one of the pictures and added the title and graphics.

All Bama fans are members of one or more informal networks. When you see a good article or joke you forward it to those four or five people in your network. I was a member of a couple of these networks. For many years I have collected Bama quotes and jokes. It was my goal in 2007 to sort and organize them. It soon became apparent that the only way it would get done was if I set a goal of doing one a day. To force myself to stick with that goal, I emailed the "quote of the day" to my informal network. That's why the first quote posted on the blog was #242 - I will eventually cycle back through to numbers 1-241.

While researching the RSS feeds, I saw where FeedBurner would manage and deliver the blog's content for free. I opened up the blog to the world, added a sign-up box on the site and started posting the quotes on the blog. This allows people to freely sign up or opt out at their discretion.

I think it would be helpful if I addressed a few questions that have come up.
  • Q1: Is the blog open to anyone?
  • A1: Yes, to anyone that loves Bama Football.
  • Q2: I saw where you can subscribe to the content. How much does it cost?
  • A2: Nothing, it is absolutely free to the reader. Blogger and FeedBurner (both are owned by Google) are providing the platform for all this to happen. They make their money on the ads displayed on the sight (Full disclosure: Supposedly I get a small cut, but I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon:)
  • Q3: If I enter my email address will I start getting Spam?
  • A3: Not from me or FeedBurner.
  • Q4: Are the jokes posted going to be clean? Is it safe for my kids to read?
  • A4: Yes. I am a Christian and adhere to Christian values. I have two kids (12 and 10) that read the site.
  • Q5: Is this going to turn into one of those subscription only sites like Rivals and Scout?
  • A5: I don't have the time, resources, contacts or desire to manage anything like that. I am just an average guy that loves following Bama football.
  • Q6: Will this be another site filled with rival fans talking smack?
  • Q6: No. If you or I want to see that, there are plenty of other sites that cater to that environment. This is a Bama site for Bama fans.
  • Q7: If I see something interesting, can I send it to you?
  • A8: Yes, please email it to BamaFootball4Life@gmail.com (email address is also on the bottom of each web page). If I think it is something that the wider group would be interested in, I will post it on the blog. Yesterday two people emailed me the article Auburn losing recruiting war with in-state rival that I posted on the blog. Quite frankly, I would not have seen it if it had not been emailed to me.
I am sure I have missed some questions that have have come up. If I missed yours, send me an email and I will address it.

Sorry for being so long winded. One day I may wonder why I ever set this thing up. At least it is documented now. :)

Roll Tide!

1 comment:

  1. Hey!
    Check out this hilarious satire on the BCS Committee! They better be talking about Bama this year!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFws5ri5Tb8

    ReplyDelete