We’ve gotten our first response to the IPB Blogging Questionnaire. This comes to us from the incomparable Katebits of The Willful Caboose. You can read her answers here, or over at her blog.
1. What was your motivation for starting blogging? Has that changed at all in the time you’ve been blogging?
For me (because I only started watching hockey a few months ago), hockey and blogging go hand in hand. I don’t know one without the other. Reading blogs contributed hugely to my very earliest development as a fan. Without a doubt, my interest in hockey grew as I delved deeper and deeper into the rich hockey blogosphere. I came to realize that because of my “newness” my take on hockey might be different and possibly interesting to readers. My motivation (beyond fame and fortune, obviously) was to share the experience of the first year of my hockey fandom in a funny way. Truthfully, I wanted a platform to attempt to be funny, and hockey is pretty funny to me.
2. What do you think your blog contributes to the hockey conversation?
Because I know very little about hockey, I often feel like I have no business penning a hockey blog. On the other hand, my inability to seriously analyze hockey has really freed me up to explore the more, um, whimsical aspects of my fandom. Because I don’t have the experience or the hockey knowledge to articulate what I am watching from an analytical standpoint, my posts end up reflecting a purely emotional response. Honestly, I think it’s the emotional response that makes sports blogging appealing as a reader.
I’m also probably a pretty good sample subject for studying the mythical “new hockey fan”.
3. What do you want to get out of the blogs you read?
I want to laugh, and I want to get a better idea of how other people relate to their team. My eyes just glaze over when things get too statbitty. I live in a community where hockey is covered pretty thoroughly by the MSM, so I seldom turn to blogs for information about the Sabres. I enjoy reading about what people are thinking and feeling about hockey.
4. What determines which blogs you read and which you don’t?
I think a personable tone and a healthy sense of humor are probably the things that attract me to some blogs more than others.
5. How important is the issue of gaining press access to you as a blogger?
Before I answer this, I would like to say that so far, unbelievably, neither the Sabres or the main-stream media has contacted me to offer me writing opportunities and unlimited player access. I know! It’s outrageous!
I would love to have some access to the team and the players, but not if that access means I’m expected to behave like a traditional journalist. I would never ever want to mask my fandom, which seems to be a requirement if you want to sit in the press box. So, I guess the answer is that I don’t care about press access at all. To be quite frank, I don’t see sports as a topic which requires traditional objectivity in very many circumstances. This isn’t politics we are talking about. It’s sports. The entire concept of sports is that we are fans. The illusion that anyone is devoid of team loyalty seems like a pretty shoddy platform in the first place, and perhaps this is why I prefer bloggers to journalists. At least bloggers are honest about where their emotional loyalties lie.
To take the glee/agony of being a fan out of the equation just so that I have the privilege of standing next to Bucky Gleason in the locker room?- meh. I’ll pass. (That said, if you’re reading this Toni, CALL ME! I’ll happily stand next to you in the locker room. Anytime.)
6. To what extent do you feel accountable for the content of your blog? How concerned do you think readers should be about the authority and accountability of your blog?
Well, I’m not in the business of breaking news on TWC, and at least 75% of what I write is pure fiction, so, the answer is yes, I feel hugely accountable for what appears on my blog. My approach may be goofy, but I do spend a significant amount of time on this stuff, and I’m proud of what I write. That said, my readers should probably be very concerned about the information they get on TWC. Heh.
7. How concerned are you about the authority and accountability of the blogs you read? Do you find it difficult to judge the authority and accountability of the blogs you read?
I actually think the blogosphere has created a pretty accurate system of checks and balances with how we link to one another. If someone is spouting lies, it doesn’t take long for the entire blogosphere to be up in arms. In a lot of ways, I approach blogs the way I probably should approach the main stream media, with a critical eye. Reading something, and then finding out later that that something is not true happens pretty much every single day, both online and in the papers. It’s a part of being alive and it’s not at all unique to blogging. (See: MainStreamMedia + Iraq War) I don’t sweat it too much. Certainly not when it comes to sports.
8. What value, if any, do you think blogging brings to the NHL?
My personal experience has proved to me that blogging can enrich the fan experience tremendously. It seems that not every hockey fan is as lucky as I am to live in a community chock full of hockey fans. Hockey blogging connects fans to one another, and increases interest in teams beyond our primary focus. Most importantly, blogging gives the fans an empowering voice, and creates a deeper connection to the the NHL product.
[Originally written for The Willful Caboose, 12/04/07 by Katebits]
It seems that not every hockey fan is as lucky as I am to live in a community chock full of hockey fans.
Word to that. Good answers!!