Voice of the Customer for officiating.com

[PABlue]

I joined the paysite because I was mistaken in thinking I needed to to be able to post on this forum.MY BAD!Some of the articles have been good and some not to good at all.I have almost another 11 months to make up my mind on if I should renew my subscription.

[jumpmaster]

Originally posted by umpduck11
Jump:
It's a shame you had to publish a disclaimer. It
would seem that the management of Officiating.com
would be interested enough to have done a "poll"
themselves.Recommendations from paying customers,
and/or potential paying customers should be taken
under consideration,at least. [/B]

Let me be perfectly clear...

Carl and the staff at officiating.com have NEVER, EVER threatened, pushed, cajoled, insinuated or directed that I should (1) write only what they approve, (2) issue a disclaimer, and (3) follow the "party" line. In fact, I have had a couple of rather heated disagreements with Carl concerning my articles. Bottom line is that he published my views, despite his disagreement. I know many editors that would not do such a thing.

I issued the disclaimer because it was the right thing to do. Carl didn't tell me I had to, nor did he suggest that I should. I chose to because I wanted to eliminate any possible appearance of impropriety. That is the kind of person I am.

FWIW, I appreciate the comments of those who were honest. Of course, there are some who, just like Pavlov's dogs, start salivating at the mere opportunity to stomp on Carl. Seems kind of childish to me...

[UmpJM]

I am in category A.

I signed up as a subscriber earlier this year. I am quite pleased with the value I have received for my money.

Two things motivated me to subscribe:

1. I did not have a copy of the BRD and I wanted to get one.

2. I had perused the archives and was interested in reading a number of the articles I found there.

From my perspective, either one of these was worth the price of the subscription (a little over $4.00 a month).

I already had the J/R, a JEA, and a 2002 copy of the MLBUM. I have found the BRD to be an exellent addition to my collection, and I often turn to it first when I have a question.

The article archives are a treasure trove of information. I believe that most of the posters on the forum would find the archived articles written by:

Bob Jenkins,
Carl Childress,
Dave Emerling,
Peter Osborne, and
Jim Porter

alone worth the price of subscription.

At the time I subscribed, Tim C. was not yet a writer for the paid portion, but I certainly look forward to each of his articles. From my perspective, they are all good and they continue to get better.

As a coach, I realize I may be looking for different things than many of the subscribers, but I would also recommend the articles by:

Michael Byron (write more)
Blaine Gallant
Rich Ives (Hey, I'm a coach! And Rich does know what he's talking about.)
Alan Roper (more, please)
Roland Wiederanders

I realize that Roland has taken a lot of flak on the forum for his articles. While I agree that the paid site would be improved if other writers were more prolific and Roland's pieces did not constitute the majority of the baseball articles, that's not really Roland's fault. I enjoy reading what he writes, but perhaps my expectations are different from yours.

There are a number of authors listed on the paid site who have one, two, or zero articles. In this category, I would be interested in seeing more articles from:

Garth Benham (0)
Steve Freix (2)
Rich Fronheiser (0)
Don Guinn (1)
Dave Hensley (1)

While Garth adopts a somewhat negative and curmudgeonly persona in his posts on the forum, I found his recent "A Modest Proposal" post exceptionally well-written and "on point". I agree that all of his suggestions would improve the value of the website. I may be wrong, but I would guess that Garth could be a quality writer for the paid portion of the site.

I have inferred (perhaps incorrectly) from the posts on the Forum that there is some "unpleasant history" between Carl and Garth, Steve F., and Rich F. that is the underlying reason that the latter three are not published on the website. Personally, I think it would be good if all of the parties involved could put that behind them and collaborate to make the website better. Perhaps that's not possible. Such is life.

Finally, I would just like to thank Alan for starting this thread. When I first saw it, I did not think he was doing it on behalf of Officiating.com - but, I applaud his "class" in clarifying that he did it on his own initiative.

To any I may have "insulted by omission", my sincere apologies. I haven't yet been through all of the archives.

JMO

JM

[DG]

Originally posted by CoachJM
I already had the J/R, a JEA, and a 2002 copy of the MLBUM.

I wish I had a JEA or a MLBUM. J/R is easy to acquire.

[Rich]

Originally posted by CoachJM
I am in category A.

I signed up as a subscriber earlier this year. I am quite pleased with the value I have received for my money.

Two things motivated me to subscribe:

1. I did not have a copy of the BRD and I wanted to get one.

2. I had perused the archives and was interested in reading a number of the articles I found there.

From my perspective, either one of these was worth the price of the subscription (a little over $4.00 a month).

I already had the J/R, a JEA, and a 2002 copy of the MLBUM. I have found the BRD to be an exellent addition to my collection, and I often turn to it first when I have a question.

The article archives are a treasure trove of information. I believe that most of the posters on the forum would find the archived articles written by:

Bob Jenkins,
Carl Childress,
Dave Emerling,
Peter Osborne, and
Jim Porter

alone worth the price of subscription.

At the time I subscribed, Tim C. was not yet a writer for the paid portion, but I certainly look forward to each of his articles. From my perspective, they are all good and they continue to get better.

As a coach, I realize I may be looking for different things than many of the subscribers, but I would also recommend the articles by:

Michael Byron (write more)
Blaine Gallant
Rich Ives (Hey, I'm a coach! And Rich does know what he's talking about.)
Alan Roper (more, please)
Roland Wiederanders

I realize that Roland has taken a lot of flak on the forum for his articles. While I agree that the paid site would be improved if other writers were more prolific and Roland's pieces did not constitute the majority of the baseball articles, that's not really Roland's fault. I enjoy reading what he writes, but perhaps my expectations are different from yours.

There are a number of authors listed on the paid site who have one, two, or zero articles. In this category, I would be interested in seeing more articles from:

Garth Benham (0)
Steve Freix (2)
Rich Fronheiser (0)
Don Guinn (1)
Dave Hensley (1)

While Garth adopts a somewhat negative and curmudgeonly persona in his posts on the forum, I found his recent "A Modest Proposal" post exceptionally well-written and "on point". I agree that all of his suggestions would improve the value of the website. I may be wrong, but I would guess that Garth could be a quality writer for the paid portion of the site.

I have inferred (perhaps incorrectly) from the posts on the Forum that there is some "unpleasant history" between Carl and Garth, Steve F., and Rich F. that is the underlying reason that the latter three are not published on the website. Personally, I think it would be good if all of the parties involved could put that behind them and collaborate to make the website better. Perhaps that's not possible. Such is life.

Finally, I would just like to thank Alan for starting this thread. When I first saw it, I did not think he was doing it on behalf of Officiating.com - but, I applaud his "class" in clarifying that he did it on his own initiative.

To any I may have "insulted by omission", my sincere apologies. I haven't yet been through all of the archives.

JMO

JM

I've written dozens of articles for the paid site -- why don't you or some of the other subscribers ask Carl what happened to them?

[UmpJM]

Rich,

I believe I just did.

I, for one, would be very interested in reading what you wrote.

I would appreciate it if you would both "bury the hatchet".

Perhaps that's not possible. I don't know the history, and I'm really not interested.

FWIW, I would respect the party that initiated "putting it in the past".

I've recently had a "spirited debate" with Pete Booth in another thread on the Forum. I disagree with him, but I have a lot of respect for his point of view. He obviously knows what he's talking about. While I continue to disagree with him on this particular point, I'm trying to honestly consider his point of view. We may ultimately "agree to disagree" on the point in question.

This will in no way diminish my respect for him. I will continue to look forward to reading his posts and argue or agree with him as the case may be. That is how we all learn. When we stop learning, we are dead - or might as well be.

JMO.

JM

[Carl Childress]

Originally posted by CoachJM
Rich,

I believe I just did.

I, for one, would be very interested in reading what you wrote.

I would appreciate it if you would both "bury the hatchet".

Perhaps that's not possible. I don't know the history, and I'm really not interested.

FWIW, I would respect the party that initiated "putting it in the past".

I've recently had a "spirited debate" with Pete Booth in another thread on the Forum. I disagree with him, but I have a lot of respect for his point of view. He obviously knows what he's talking about. While I continue to disagree with him on this particular point, I'm trying to honestly consider his point of view. We may ultimately "agree to disagree" on the point in question.

This will in no way diminish my respect for him. I will continue to look forward to reading his posts and argue or agree with him as the case may be. That is how we all learn. When we stop learning, we are dead - or might as well be.

JMO.

JM

Coach: All articles by Mr. Fronheiser and Mr. Benham are now accessible to paid subscribers.

[UmpJM]

Carl,

Indeed they are.

Thank you very much.

JM