OPEN INVITATION TO PEOPLE WHO REALLY KNOW HOW BASKETBALL GAMES ARE WON
2010 INVITATION TO THE PUBLIC AND THAT INCLUDES YOU
We are not just a fan site only. Those sites are a dime a dozen. Whether as of 2010 Quest for the Ring is literally unique is technically unknown, but is actually possible. Our approach is rare, and much more valuable to basketball players, coaches, managers, owners, and fans.
Our approach is a unique bridging of the normally very wide gap between serious scientific and academic statistical work with basketball as subject matter on the one hand and sports writing on the other hand. It's sports writing juiced up by hard and valuable information not normally seen in a site intended for the general public, a kind of free professional education for the public if you will.
While we already know a whole lot, we are continuing every year to learn more about exactly how and why pro basketball games, especially NBA playoff games, are won and how they are lost. And about how teams and franchises succeed or fail. The main mission of Quest for the Ring is to report on our knowledge and on our new discoveries about how and why basketball games are won, and about how teams and franchises are won and lost, so to speak.
After you read this outline, you will see that we have done about everything possible to get new people involved with the Quest. If like the vast majority of blogs and sites in general we never generate any public participation to speak of, at least no one will be able to say we didn't go all out to generate it! And quite honestly, we can live very well with whether we get any public participation or not. Even with the very limited staff we have for the foreseeable future, we will be able to produce an internet site with more real knowledge about NBA playoffs basketball winning than any other we know of (and we know about hundreds of them, by the way.)
Although as of 2009 we discontinued the proposal to take on partners directly on the main Quest page, we are in 2010 continuing the 2009 framework of offering separate page promotion and support to writers. However, since we have become even more convinced of the special value of what we are doing, and since we are more convinced than ever that we do not, as other sites may, need any public participation at all in order to survive and prosper. we have made a few modifications to some of the detailed specifications to the framework.
But keep in mind as you read this offer of a promoted and free place to publish your writing that we are not looking for perfection or just for people who are "right" or "correct" all or most or much of the time. (If you had to be right all the time we would have to shut ourselves down, laugh out loud.) Just being correct some of the time or even just once in awhile is good enough, laugh out loud.
Specifically, we are looking to sponser those who can be right at least some of the time about how pro and especially pro playoff basketball games are won and lost, and about how pro basketball franchises set themselves up to be able to on a regular basis truly contend in the Quest for the Ring.
The Quest for the Ring has established not one, not two, but three ways that just about anyone can write "in our building." Each way to participate represents a different level of interest and commitment. You can start at either level one or two, your choice. Level three will be for those who have shown they have some real basketball winning knowledge and commitment while at level two.
LEVEL ONE THE QUEST DISCUSSIONS SITE
This page is intended for comments about any Quest report. Instead of allowing comments at the bottom of each post on the home page, we have created a page for all comments about all reports. Unlike at most other sites that have comments, you don't have to click around different topics to find discussions; all our discussions are in one place. If you want to make comments of any length and/or to see all Quest comments in one place, this is where you go.
Like all serious sites, Quest welcomes constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement. Comments will be lightly monitored and everything is allowed except for:
--comments that have nothing to do with basketball
--comments that are extremely objectionable, for example
----clearly racist comments
----comments loaded with profanity
----comments that make ad hominen, and/or purely personal attacks on a NBA player or employee or on any Quest writer
--comments that have been made mostlhy for a commercial or promotional reason
Disallowed comments will either never appear if comment review before publish is in effect or will be removed within a few days if comments are published pending review.
LEVEL TWO: THE MY QUEST FOR THE RING SITE
This is an open to the public blog format site. This page is intended for those who have something more to contribute than comments about Quest and/or about pro basketball. Your articles (or reports) could be especially long and detailed comments on Quest reports, or your own material not tied to any Quest report. Like any blog post editor, the Google blog editor allows for more than does the comment editor that is at Quest Discussions (level one). At My Quest (level two) you can post text, pictures, music, and videos, with any basketball related content you think is useful.
If you want to post your articles, reports, videos etc. on My Quest, you simply email your request to start posting to questforthering @ gmail.com. Include the email address you want to use to be able to post on My Quest, and we will add your address to the "permitted authors" settings of the site.
LEVEL THREE: YOUR OWN SITE ASSOCIATED WITH AND ASSISTED BY QUEST
This is for anyone who after a few weeks, months, or years at Level One and/or Level Two (the time will depend on how much you do at those levels, and on your wishes) has shown a real knowledge of and commitment to NBA basketball, and especially knowledge of and commitment to discovering exactly how NBA playoff games are won, and who has decided to be even more committed going forward. At this level, we will sponsor and promote a page for you that will have some of the same features that are on the Quest Home Page. You post whatever you want whenever you want. You have total control over your content, while we maintain for you some Quest features (other than reports) of your choosing at no cost to you. This would be a no-lose situation for you, especially since you can monitor your traffic, do your own advertising if you want, and quit at any time.
Unless you post complete garbage all the time, or abandon basketball, or don't post anything for six months, we will never interfere with your operation. Your site would be linked to from the horizontal navigation bar of the main site, along with the other highest priority out links. You could have comments on your site if you wanted, and we would not be the least bit surprised if your site eventually became more popular than the original Quest site.
THE QUEST WILL LIKELY IN 2010 OR 2011 WIN THE QUEST FOR REVENUES
Currently we are a completely non-profit organization, but gradually increasing traffic and an ever expanding quality and quantity of basketball reports, makes us confident that we will be able to begin receiving advertising revenues sometime in 2010 or 2011. Advertising is currently free to smaller enterprises that have one or more basketball goods or services for sale. When paid advertising begins, revenues will be shared with all level three writers in a justifiable, reasonable, planned basis.
IT'S YOUR BALL MY FRIEND; TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT
We are not just a fan site only. Those sites are a dime a dozen. Whether as of 2010 Quest for the Ring is literally unique is technically unknown, but is actually possible. Our approach is rare, and much more valuable to basketball players, coaches, managers, owners, and fans.
Our approach is a unique bridging of the normally very wide gap between serious scientific and academic statistical work with basketball as subject matter on the one hand and sports writing on the other hand. It's sports writing juiced up by hard and valuable information not normally seen in a site intended for the general public, a kind of free professional education for the public if you will.
While we already know a whole lot, we are continuing every year to learn more about exactly how and why pro basketball games, especially NBA playoff games, are won and how they are lost. And about how teams and franchises succeed or fail. The main mission of Quest for the Ring is to report on our knowledge and on our new discoveries about how and why basketball games are won, and about how teams and franchises are won and lost, so to speak.
After you read this outline, you will see that we have done about everything possible to get new people involved with the Quest. If like the vast majority of blogs and sites in general we never generate any public participation to speak of, at least no one will be able to say we didn't go all out to generate it! And quite honestly, we can live very well with whether we get any public participation or not. Even with the very limited staff we have for the foreseeable future, we will be able to produce an internet site with more real knowledge about NBA playoffs basketball winning than any other we know of (and we know about hundreds of them, by the way.)
Although as of 2009 we discontinued the proposal to take on partners directly on the main Quest page, we are in 2010 continuing the 2009 framework of offering separate page promotion and support to writers. However, since we have become even more convinced of the special value of what we are doing, and since we are more convinced than ever that we do not, as other sites may, need any public participation at all in order to survive and prosper. we have made a few modifications to some of the detailed specifications to the framework.
But keep in mind as you read this offer of a promoted and free place to publish your writing that we are not looking for perfection or just for people who are "right" or "correct" all or most or much of the time. (If you had to be right all the time we would have to shut ourselves down, laugh out loud.) Just being correct some of the time or even just once in awhile is good enough, laugh out loud.
Specifically, we are looking to sponser those who can be right at least some of the time about how pro and especially pro playoff basketball games are won and lost, and about how pro basketball franchises set themselves up to be able to on a regular basis truly contend in the Quest for the Ring.
The Quest for the Ring has established not one, not two, but three ways that just about anyone can write "in our building." Each way to participate represents a different level of interest and commitment. You can start at either level one or two, your choice. Level three will be for those who have shown they have some real basketball winning knowledge and commitment while at level two.
LEVEL ONE THE QUEST DISCUSSIONS SITE
This page is intended for comments about any Quest report. Instead of allowing comments at the bottom of each post on the home page, we have created a page for all comments about all reports. Unlike at most other sites that have comments, you don't have to click around different topics to find discussions; all our discussions are in one place. If you want to make comments of any length and/or to see all Quest comments in one place, this is where you go.
Like all serious sites, Quest welcomes constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement. Comments will be lightly monitored and everything is allowed except for:
--comments that have nothing to do with basketball
--comments that are extremely objectionable, for example
----clearly racist comments
----comments loaded with profanity
----comments that make ad hominen, and/or purely personal attacks on a NBA player or employee or on any Quest writer
--comments that have been made mostlhy for a commercial or promotional reason
Disallowed comments will either never appear if comment review before publish is in effect or will be removed within a few days if comments are published pending review.
LEVEL TWO: THE MY QUEST FOR THE RING SITE
This is an open to the public blog format site. This page is intended for those who have something more to contribute than comments about Quest and/or about pro basketball. Your articles (or reports) could be especially long and detailed comments on Quest reports, or your own material not tied to any Quest report. Like any blog post editor, the Google blog editor allows for more than does the comment editor that is at Quest Discussions (level one). At My Quest (level two) you can post text, pictures, music, and videos, with any basketball related content you think is useful.
If you want to post your articles, reports, videos etc. on My Quest, you simply email your request to start posting to questforthering @ gmail.com. Include the email address you want to use to be able to post on My Quest, and we will add your address to the "permitted authors" settings of the site.
LEVEL THREE: YOUR OWN SITE ASSOCIATED WITH AND ASSISTED BY QUEST
This is for anyone who after a few weeks, months, or years at Level One and/or Level Two (the time will depend on how much you do at those levels, and on your wishes) has shown a real knowledge of and commitment to NBA basketball, and especially knowledge of and commitment to discovering exactly how NBA playoff games are won, and who has decided to be even more committed going forward. At this level, we will sponsor and promote a page for you that will have some of the same features that are on the Quest Home Page. You post whatever you want whenever you want. You have total control over your content, while we maintain for you some Quest features (other than reports) of your choosing at no cost to you. This would be a no-lose situation for you, especially since you can monitor your traffic, do your own advertising if you want, and quit at any time.
Unless you post complete garbage all the time, or abandon basketball, or don't post anything for six months, we will never interfere with your operation. Your site would be linked to from the horizontal navigation bar of the main site, along with the other highest priority out links. You could have comments on your site if you wanted, and we would not be the least bit surprised if your site eventually became more popular than the original Quest site.
THE QUEST WILL LIKELY IN 2010 OR 2011 WIN THE QUEST FOR REVENUES
Currently we are a completely non-profit organization, but gradually increasing traffic and an ever expanding quality and quantity of basketball reports, makes us confident that we will be able to begin receiving advertising revenues sometime in 2010 or 2011. Advertising is currently free to smaller enterprises that have one or more basketball goods or services for sale. When paid advertising begins, revenues will be shared with all level three writers in a justifiable, reasonable, planned basis.
IT'S YOUR BALL MY FRIEND; TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT