IPB Blogging Questionnaire: HabsFan29 Edition

Another response to the IPB Blogging Questionnaire has come through, hot off the wires. This one comes from HabsFan29 of Four Habs Fans. We’re super excited to have found this response in our email inbox, as FHF is an entirely new blog to us. After taking a look around we’ve got to say it looks great, so you should totally check it out (although perhaps not while you’re a work)!

1. What was your motivation for starting blogging? Has that changed at all in the time you’ve been blogging?

Fun, and a place to vent. I had a group of friends that used to email each other with witty comments and the occasional good analytical point. We made each other laugh and think, so we figured it might make others laugh and think too. And we felt there was a big hole in the Habs blogging world - the funny / snarky / no holds barred type of blog in the best DS / KSK tradition. I wanted to read that blog, and it didn’t exist. We thought we could fill that niche.

I think while that overall goal hasn’t changed, the motivation sometimes gets lost as we just try to keep up. 82 games (plus playoffs god forbid) is alot to cover if you’re going to do previews and recaps for all of them, plus all the other good hockey stuff we want to comment on, given we all have real jobs.

2. What do you think your blog contributes to the hockey conversation?

Truth and honesty. We tell it like it is with no holds barred, and want our commentors to do the same. You rant and rave about your team in a bar, drunk and laced with expletives. You should have a place to do that on the interweb too, with a group of people who are as passionate about something as you are. Unedited and unmoderated. That’s what we try to provide.

3. What do you want to get out of the blogs you read?

That same truth and honesty, and to make me laugh. Some of the best / funniest writers working today are in the blogosphere imho, and they have the bonus of generally not being limited by editors or editorial policy - to me that’s a good thing.

4. What determines which blogs you read and which you don’t?

My own taste I guess, and the skill of the writing. I’ll read a couple of posts and if I see if there is something there, whether it’s talent, a good hook, or anything unique, I’ll be back.

5. How important is the issue of gaining press access to you as a blogger?

Absolutely no importance whatsoever. In fact, I am against it. If I have a chance to talk to Patrice Brisebois and find out he’s a decent person, how can I rip him every day like I do? Well I could, but I would feel bad about it. I don’t want that. I want that separation, that arm’s length.

But this gets into the larger issue of are bloggers journalists. I am of the opinion that they can be, but are not necessarily so. Bloggers are of two types imho - reporting stuff and talking about stuff (simply stated). While occasionally the FHF report things, it’s never original, just linking to sports news sites, and our own reactions to it. We fall into the latter camp - we just talk about stuff. That’s commentary, not journalism. But you can be a journalist as a blogger. And if you want to go that route, I imagine press access would be important.
Of course, the question is moot in Montreal where bloggers would never get access - with all the MSM coverage, there is just no room!

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?

None. I feel we should, as writers, stand by our opinions, but again, they are just that, opinions. I really don’t think people come to us for facts. Yes, I want to make sure that if we do a game report the score is correct, for example. But with that said, I stand by everything I’ve ever written (my obsessive editing of myself notwithstanding), in terms of that was exactly what I felt about something. But being held “accountable” for an opinion is oxymoronic imho.

On our blog, I do not expect our readers are concerned about any sort of authority or accountability, because we never represented ourselves as journalists, just commentators (and smut peddlers). However, if you are going to represent what you do as some form of journalism, your readers should absolutely be concerned about authority and accountability, and call you out when you’re bullshitting or just wrong. *Cough* Eklund *cough*.

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?

Again, it comes down to how you represent yourself. If you are telling me that you are “reporting” news about your team or sport, I am very concerned about your authority, and will hold you accountable for mistakes. As it should be. But do I get my hockey news from MYFO? No. I dont give a crap about any authority there, they just entertain me.

I personally think I am smart enough to distinguish the two types of sites, and thus am in a position to judge their authority. But to be honest, if I want actual news, I tend to turn to a MSM outlet to get it.

8. What value, if any, do you think blogging brings to the NHL?

Well in the broader NHL, it brings exposure. What e.g., Ted Leonsis does is understand that hockey needs all the exposure it can get and harnesses blogs to do that because he doesn’t get that from the MSM. Again, though, in Montreal that’s a moot point.

[Originally sent in email on 12/14/07 by HabsFan29.]