Hello all! I hope your day is going swimmingly. My day has had me floating on Cloud 9 with the Udell Chambers story being posted by my good friend Ben Hochman over at the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Udell’s family are such good people and I’m glad their uncle/brother gets the credit he deserves as a baseball player and a Vietnam Vet.

As many of you know, when I took the reins at Braves Journal, I wanted to update the site to bring it some new life and so we did it and it worked! We have kept the design and it’s pretty wild that it’s been about 4 years since that day. However, the site is in need of repair and updating again. We are falling behind the times and I want to share with you all the visions I have for the new site.

One Post a Day Doesn’t Keep the Doctor Away

Since Mac built Braves Journal, it has been a one post per day place that is comments driven. That’s what makes it THE place to keep the regulars coming back. Every now and again, we will grab another person’s interest, they’ll start to comment, and WALLAH! A new regular. However, this is happening much less frequent than what we need for longevity. I’ve talked about it before, but in order for Braves Journal to stick around, we cannot continue to do the same thing and stay in the blogging business. It’s just harsh reality.

In a conference call with Alex R, Jonathan F., and TFloyd, I discussed this idea of “The Bar”. We regulars have referenced this place as the “Cheers of Braves Blogs” because everyone knows each other and, for the most part, enjoys each other’s company. As stated above, it’s the reason we come back. However, there’ll be a tweak to the bar that will give us more content, but also provide what we all desire on this site and that is to communicate in a streamlined way with the people we love hearing from.

Here’s an Example of what a day on the new format could look like:

  1. Monday Morning at 8:42, Alex R posts a piece on Dansby Swanson’s 2022 season. At the end of the piece is a hyperlink link to click that says “Join the Bar”
  2. Monday Morning at 10:45, Ryan C posts a piece on a SS Trade Proposal. At the end of the piece is a hyperlink link to click that says “Join the Bar”.
  3. Monday Afternoon at 3:00 P.M., Jonathan F. posts a piece on “Reflection on the 2022 Crapshoot”. At the end of the piece is a hyperlink link to click that says “Join the Bar”
  4. Monday night at 8:00 PM, Ryan C posts a piece about the Braves re-signing Jesse Chavez. At the end of the piece is a hyperlink link to click that says “Join the Bar”

The Bar will hold ALL comments and will be reset about every 2 days. I’ve yet to figure where we can store the comments, but I assure you that I’ll figure that out, as I know it’s something that we go back and reference on a regular basis.

So, in a nutshell… Braves Journal needs more daily content, but we don’t want to do away with our current commenting system. This should be a healthy way for everyone to get what they need.

How Can You Help?

I’ve had a few super people reach out to me in regards to the overhaul. Yes, when building a site out, there’s cost. I’m very thankful to the several people that have supported the site through Patreon. I’ll be pulling out that $ to help cover the cost.

Others have reached out to me about doing a raffle of sorts. While I won’t say who, there’s someone that was willing to raffle off their timeshare in New Orleans for a week’s stay. There were also some that reached out saying they’d help fund the project with cold hard cash. I’m not picky. The rebuild, the new design, and all that comes with a new looking site isn’t cheap. The site will need more space, which means more monthly cost. If you’re willing to help in some way, you know where to reach me. I plan on being open with where the money goes, and will provide cost breakdown via invoice to people that would like to see them.

I do have a lot of Hammers shirts still sitting in my closet and would be willing to sell those to help raise some funds. Shipping runs about $7 for each shirt, so selling each for $20 would help tremendously. If I sold them all, that would provide about $500 of the upfront cost.

Thanks for making this your daily stop on the Internet. I want to maintain the integrity of the blog, while growing it at the same time and I think we can do that in a way that makes us all feel proud to be a part of Braves Journal.

~Ryan