State of the SA Address
Here's how things currently stand at Seahawk Addicts. Chris Sullivan, who technically owns/runs this website, is AWOL. I've tried contacting him multiple times over the last few weeks, as has Mike Parker, to no avail. (Chris, if you're reading this, check your damn inbox.) As for the rest of us, Mike and I are up to our eyeballs in non-SA editing and writing projects, Steve Middleton is busy, and Bill Tomisser has been mostly retired from writing for months now. Heck, I was hoping to put this notice up a while ago myself, but I've spent most of February attending funerals out of state. 'Tis the season, I suppose.
As for all the ads on the site, that isn't up to us. The people at Bloguin set the template for the blogs they host, and apparently they've decided that they like ad revenue more than readable content (for the record, none of us make a cent off our work here -- well, Chris might, but I'm not sure if he does either). I'd like to move the site to somewhere less advertisement-crazed, but since Chris owns the place he's the one who would have to do the deed, and in order for that to happen he would have to at the very least respond to his email occasionally.
We all love the Seahawks and this website, but currently none of us have enough free time to keep the place humming along. Mike and I will finally have some free space on our schedules in time to cover the NFL Draft in April, but that still leaves a lot of silence between now and then.
In the meantime, I've got two options. First, I could mothball the site until the draft, effectively taking us off the air until late April. Or second, I can open things up to any of you who want to try your hand at writing for the site. If you're interested, send your Seahawks-related articles, whether proposed or finished, to me at
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and I will do my best to get them published in a timely manner. Just be sure to include your full name so I can give you credit for your work, and please steer clear of obscenities and invective-laden screeds -- really, those are the only two things that would keep an article from getting published.
And hey, if you write a few and find yourself having fun and wanting to write a whole lot more, let me know and I'll see if I can't figure out how to give you access to post as you see fit.
UPDATE: I've just received an email from Chris, and he has informed me that he's retiring from the site. I'd like to thank him for all the long hours of work he put in to keep this place running after original SA founder Michael Steffes left, and I wish him nothing but the best.
Hey Mathew:
Great idea to let the nuts who frequent this site submit articles. I may just write one myself.
Thanks Chris.
Running a site like this takes an enormous amount of time and energy. The money is probably not very good. The only way to find out how bleeping much time and energy it takes to run a site like this is to do it. Now Chris knows. I give him credit for putting himself out there in harms way.
Way to go!
1) It's kind of a dick move to not inform your collegues that you're retiring from the site. 2) I think Field Gulls will actually improve (gasp!) with John's retirement from that page. There are only so many 150-paragraph breakdowns of one prospective linebacker's career, play-by-excruciating-play, one can take before having one's hair hurt. There is analysis, then there is paralysis by analysis.
To address some of your concerns, nothing's been finalized just yet, but I'm hopeful that Seahawk Addicts will live on. In the next few days you will start seeing articles by some new writers, and in the weeks ahead you can look forward to a new template with fewer ads, and I will see what can be done about bringing forums back to the site (the software for the old forums was discarded by Bloguin due to some major security issues).
As for bringing back Strategerie, it was pretty clear from the comments for her last few articles that a majority of our readers hated everything she had to say with a white-hot intensity. I liked her well enough myself, but I'm not sure bringing her back to SA would be such a good idea.
Wow...this really is bad news, but I can see how running this site could demand most of your time. I hope things are going okay for Chris and wish him well. I love this site and don't know what I'll do if it disappears.
What's wrong with the forums on this site? I guess they just don't exist at all. I've been looking for a new Seahawks community since Morgan left Field Gulls. This site would be a lot better if it actually worked.
Yeah that's true. But they still got some decent info on there. The Curry piece is pretty good.
@UWAlum09 What Field Gulls? John Morgan up and quit. No reason to even bother with that site anymore.
BTW....Marshawn Lynch will be signing this Sat Feb 26th from 3-4 PM at Mill Creek Sports. I went down there last night to buy some photos of his "Beast Mode" run against the Saints...(I still get goosebumps remembering that run, it will forever be cemented in my memory with a smile attached, mainly cause I was there) Anyways...the pics they have are awesome and not a bad price.....and no!! I am in no way affiliated with Mill Creek Sports...just spreading the word!!
I think opening it up to the public is a great idea. Why let the website fail. Find new ways to keep it going and innovate it with new ideas. So what if Chris owns it, it belongs to the Seahawk faithfull!! I view this site at least twice a day for any interesting or unusual articles. I refer to this site more than I do Seahawks Insider. I think writing for this site would be a fun gig, Too bad I've never written anything substantial with any meat to it, except college term papers!!.
I sent you an email Matthew. Didn't know there were any issues with the site or Chris. This is all news to us and I hope to hear back as we're appreciative of your efforts and respect the community you have built around the site.
