KingsFans.com is Absolutely Ridiculous

And I realize this sounds petty and sour grapes-y, so I'll just mention that I do glance at KingsFans probably once a week, just to see the major topics and how those folks feel. I know some KF contributors have come over here, and I imagine a bunch read both. One of KF's things in the past has been worrying that people would spam their forums because KF has great traffic and we want to steal it. I'd like to assure you all this post has nothing to do with boosting traffic. I don't need to. I don't want, and have never wanted, traffic for the sake of traffic. I want good community members, readers and posters who actually add to the discussion... and I've been really lucky so far. (Thanks again.) This isn't a pissing contest for online community superiority, there's room for everyone. It's just highly frustrating when one echo chamber with a big bullhorn acts so ridiculously -- it starts to make all of us look bad. Look at what's happened to the Celtics fan community online -- you've got two (awful) blogs constantly sniping at the big guns for no apparent reason, distracting everyone from what should be a great summer. So yeah, I'd prefer that didn't happen to us.

Also, I should mention I haven't talked to Henry about this at all. He hasn't asked me to write about this or anything. Just a bunch of festering stuff gurgling into my fingers.

Great post.

The thing about the blogoshpere is that there is a lot of mutual respect among people who do this on a daily basis.  

Scoop Jackson stealing from Yay Sports caused a huge uproar.  Schrutebag Cowherd from ESPN stealing stuff from a Michigan Blog as using it as his own almost had people calling for his head.

And thats how it should be.  I hate it that Blogs tend to get less credit than mainstream media since major media feels that blog writers "haven't earned their stripes."

Just because you have been writing for someone for a long time does not make you a talented writer (Cough Jay Mariotti Cough).

First off good post TZ.

I've never been to Kingsfans.com but I don't really want to either. I doubt the level of discourse is anything near as high as here and anybody that steals anybody else stuff isn't worth that much anyway.

That being said you've reminded me, and everyone else, and you aren't alone as I've seen others on other sites point this out too, that blockquoting too much is against blogging rules (or whatever etiquette fill in the proper word). I do my best as I wouldn't want my stuff ripped verbatim on some other page either. I feel it's a crock you care about traffic because you would do t shirt give aways like Dave on Blazer's Edge or something. You could do any number of things to boost numbers traffic. And you don't which keeps some of the crap conversations and crap idea's away from this fcrum.

I'm proud this blog is a forum, and not full of bullshit censorship (and I've had stuff taken off this site that wasn't appropriate), and that so many new fans are finding their way to this site on a daily basis. I hope it continues TZ, both for your sake, and everyone else looking to build the best Kings fan community site anywhere.

Wow, the numbers have sure spiked since I started writing "front page" articles...ha!...I can't even finish that without breakfast backing up on me.
I can't comment on Kingsfan because I've never been there. No need. Everything I need is right here. Great posts, some inspired writing, informed and intelligent opinions that agree and disagree with my viewpoints (and a few that even changed my mind!), links to other great articles on other great websites (that give credit where credit is due).
I've said this before. I am very protective of our community. On the one hand I like the traffic (who doesn't want their stuff read?) but on the other hand I don't want to see the level of conversation deteriorate. And I'm telling you, it is a high level of conversation. Have you ever gone back and read a comments section from start to finish after 10 or more comments have been submitted? It is usually informative, funny, and sometimes even brilliant. It is collaborative writing at it's finest.
TZ, Louis and all of the members of STR, a toast to you for a job well done here, every day.

There is of course a sidenote to all this pertaining to ESPN and truehoop in all of this. And that sidenote is that Henry Abbott's stuff is free, while the worthless insider is not, and that's the real dirty secret in all of this. There is no worthy nugget of information through insider, outside of a few words written on a blog that give you insight to poor thought and journalism on several individual's part, and there is a ton on True Hoop. Unlike other parts of ESPN TrueHoop is always respectful of where it gets it's information from, because after all, Henry Abbott is a blogger himself. He wouldn't quote something without a link (I've seen him post long quotes but those are rare) and I've seen 8000% times more useful information from espn.com since TrueHoop became a part of ESPN. Abusing this privilege (it's so friggin easy to link to TrueHoop...IT'S PART OF ESPN) that eventually (and I'm so hoping this doesn't happen any time soon) ESPN will realize TrueHoop is worth paying for. God I hope that doesn't happen though.

I found sactownroyalty by a poster on the ridicoulously negative and sometimes foolish bee comments page who recommended it for it's quality discussions.  And I am glad I did. This is a classy site with informed and reasonable opinions by all.  

I have never gone to kingsfans.com and after this article I don't plan to.  That is blatently disrespectful and I definitely encourage you to inform Abbott of this theft.  

And as far as the traffic on the site:  I feel it is better not to be flooded with traffic because that will only bring more uninformed, biased, and rediculous comments(ex. prosportsdaily forums) which this site has been relatively free of.

This reminds me of the Gilbert Arenas fiasco. At least Gilbert's lame excuse with regards to him stealing another person's joke is that he made that comedian popular. On the other hand, that is what KingsFans is trying to avoid.

I've never posted at KingsFans although I do drop by occasionally. I can honestly say that this is my favorite Sac King related site. Props to you TZ

P.S. I'm still waiting for a KF fan to defend their community by commenting on this article. I don't think we need to monitor what KF fans say in their community since it's very apparent that they would delete anything that has links to another Kings' site. The workaround, if they want to discuss this article there, they should just <strike>steal</strike> copy and paste this post without linking it.

Cheers!

kingme without the 18 :)

There are plenty of reasons to dislike aspects of kingsfans.com (and I love this blog), but this seems like such an arbitrary and petty thing for a rant.  If something is attributed and linked to, I don't really see the harm.  I read True Hoop in an RSS reader.  Does that make me evil too because I'm not generating ad revenue for ESPN?  Come on.

I read this blog in RSS reader too, so hey -- not generating ad revenue usually for Sactown Royalty either.  I guess I'm going to hell.

I blog, and I could give a crap if someone posts the entirety of one of my posts if they give me a link back.  It's the way the world works.  You read a portion of something and if you like it you want to read more.  To read more you have to go to the site.  So you click on the link!

Come on, this is just beyond ridiculous.

I am a fan of both sites. KF.com has a excellent posters on it that make for some cool discussions. I have, however, seen what is being talked about here. There rule is that articles must be linked to. But, that even applies when someone posts the whole article.

As far as I'm concerned, it is completely irresponsible to post someones whole article. Nbrans, its not just about the money, its also about credit.

Failure to give one credit for their work is a lot like your wife yelling out someone else's name in a moment of passion: You still appreciate the opportunity to ply your craft but you also feel a little empty inside. Not that this has ever happened to me...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!  I love the % increases for STR.com.  Kicking ass!

So I assume their policy of allowing full articles to be reprinted on the site will not be changing anytime soon?

I read and post to both STR and Kingsfans, and I'm on friendly terms with one of the mods there.  I think their moderation is heavy handed, and I've told them as much in the past.  No criticism of the site or moderation is allowed, and I don't think that's a healthy way to run a site.  That being said, it's their site and they can run it the way they want.

IANAL, but reposting an article in its entirety is plainly copyright infringement (though copyright infringement IS NOT theft).  My understanding is that one of their moderators is a lawyer, and I would assume he knows better.

The Bee's policy:
You will not reuse, republish or otherwise distribute the content or any modified or altered versions of it, whether over the Internet or otherwise, and whether or not for payment, without the express written permission of sacbee.com or the copyright holder.
http://www.sacbee.com/static/live/bee/legal.html

You do have a fair use right to excerpt an article and link to it, but not to republish it in its entirety.  Think about it this way: It would obviously be illegal to take HoopsHype's content without their permission, print it and publish it in a newspaper where you're selling ads.  That's essentially what KingsFans is doing.  

I wouldn't get as upset about it as TZ did, though I would be mad about being shut down when I pointed out the problem and I think their response is completely inappropriate.