Picture of Paul Westerdawg

Per request. He's in this picture.

Life Calls

We are taking advantage of the bye week for non-blog related work. If the posting or comment moderation is less frequent. That's why.

Life calls.

PWD and TD

Follow me on Twitter

Remember, the humor is attempted, not guaranteed.  By the way, if you were following earlier, I am posting more than the links to the blog, so you'll need to find another reason to not follow.  Like your jealousy of my luxurious whitefro...

Like this, but only with more gray and less eyesex with the camera. (Image:Kegsneggsblog.com)

Follow me here.  Thanks, TD.

A Little Test

Just testing a mobile blogging app for my Android based phone. If you know of a solid app that plays well with Blogger, a virtual keyboard, and Android, please let me know.

This was posted with Blogaway, which seems to work fine, but just curious if anyone else has used other apps. I know the Blogger mobile app leaves something to be desired.

TD

Comments Publishing More Frequently

I was blocked from Blogger.com from work about a year ago. So, I couldn't access the site to publish/release comments in any sort of a timely fashion.

Tyler isn't blocked currently. So, the comments will publish more frequently.

At some point, I'll get off my rear and research some decent authentication software that will allow us to "white list" regular posters. If you know of blog software like that for comment moderation (that is free and plugs directly into Blogger.com's template), let me know in the comments below.

PWD

Follow Tyler on Twitter

You can follow Tyler Dawgden on Twitter.

Well...

Update: He will be posting under the username Tyler Dawgden.

If all goes well, I'll soon be adding a new writer for the site. He's a long time reader and participant in the online Bulldog conversation, and he'll start posting in the next few weeks.

Just wanted to let you guys know.

The site has really changed over the past 5+ years and 10+ million page views. A new writer is just one more step in the evolution of our online presence. Quinton, Dawgnoxious and I will continue to post very sporadically.

PWD

About the Blog

I've obviously not been posting as much the past few months, and I'm not sure when or if the level of activity / posting will return to the ultra high-level of the 2008 season when we were at our peak.

Some of the reduction in posts is due to increased work related travel. Some of it is due to tighter work related IT firewalls. Some of it is due to burnout. And some of it is due to quite a bit of courting on my end. Yeah me.

This isn't an excuse post. I'm just telling you what the deal is because many of you have either emailed me or posted in the comments. I don't know what's in store for the site long term, but I know I'm NOT shutting it down.

I'm just reassessing things. I've got an idea or two to make the blog better (beyond simply posting more often). We'll see if I get to them any time soon.

I'm happy with the decisions and priorities I've made regarding this site and my spare time (this isn't my profession). Just bear with me. I imagine that I'll catch my second wind sooner or later.

Go Dawgs.

Paul Westerdawg
Georgia Sports Blog

New Site Look

I'm redesigning the site. Almost finished? What do you think?

Check it on a Blackberry. It's much, much, much more usable on mine. I'm curious if it looks any better on an iPhone.

Commenting is Back On

For now, there are two stipulations with commenting:

1. You can't post anonymously. You'll need a create a username.

2. All comments are moderated. They go to me first, and I'll release them as long as you're not the jerk who was posting all the problematic stuff on Wednesday.

By tomorrow night (update: maybe Monday night...I got distracted), I hope to have a new commenting system in place that will allow me to ban problem children users by email, IP address, domain and/or username. I've got something picked out. I just have to figure out how to implement it.

Frankly, this is for the best. The tone of the comments the past few days had slipped into near 10th grade level. So, this will make the user experience better for folks with something interesting to say. And it'll save the rest of you the hassle of having to read that trash.

If you're wondering what this is all about...this explains the issue.

PWD

comments have been hacked

Update 12/10/09 at 5:35 pm:
The site wasn't "Hacked"...that's really not the right term/technical definition, but I wasn't in position to go into any details last night because I was at Madison Square Garden trying to lock down comments using someone else's smart phone.

Here's the deal. Yesterday, an individual impersonated / spoofed me in the comments area of this blog. During the process, he posted a barrage of porn links, hate speech, threats, and extreme profanity. I'm exploring what can be done in terms of comment moderation using different tools to prevent this from happening again.

I'm sorry if you went to some of his links or read his comments. It was not posted by me.

Just to be clear, he did not gain the ability to post content to the site. His attack was limited to the comments area. I take this sort of disruption of my business very seriously.

PWD

The comments...

I've been away from the computer all weekend following my own advice....which is to let myself settle down before posting half cocked.

To clarify, there was no symbolic reason for leaving the comments open after the game. The battery on my wireless device died, and I couldn't close the comments until I got back home Saturday night. The comments were fast and furious, but they were mostly fair. There wasn't as much profanity laced tirades as I used to get after a loss. Thanks for that. I'm guessing that's at least partially because the earlier start kept booze consumption lower. Well...for you...not so much for me.

I did lock the original post below from the game. Nothing is gained by going back there.

I have a post that I'll get up shortly about what I think about the game. There are really two separate issues. One is the state of the program. The other is the state of this particular team.

PWD

Could Adams pull a Dick Cheney?

Our high regard for Michael Adams is well known. Today it was announced that Mike Adams is going to chair the search committee to replace Myles Brand as NCAA President. It is difficult to know what impact chairing the search committee might have on his rumored candidacy for the job. He appears to be downplaying any interest in the position.

"I am not a crook." Deloitte & Touche still disagree.

It's not as outlandish as it might seem. The average tenure for a college president is 8.5 years. Il Duce is getting long in the tooth, as college presidents go. The NCAA job is high enough profile to be appealing. Might Adams follow in the footsteps of a previous search committee chair who found none as qualified as he? Do we want him to?

While "Adams Steps Down" has the mellifluous sound of a choir of angels, might he do college football more harm than good as NCAA President? Adams is a well known, if poorly received, advocate of a playoff system. Current contractual arrangements notwithstanding, he would certainly be in a position to impose a playoff system as NCAA President. BCS fans, take heart because he is also a well known hypocrite and sellout. This story is going to be interesting to follow.

UPDATE: AJC reports Adams is on the shortlist to replace Brand. His statement "I'd never talk publicly about two things, jobs or money. I love the University of Georgia. My plan is to be here until retirement," is positively Saban-esque.

Baseball Coverage

UGA had two big wins against the Top 20 ranked Clemson Tigers this week, and we've got a gigantic series against the LSU Tigers this weekend in Athens. UGA is ranked #1 in multiple polls, and the Tigers are ranked as high as #2 in the Baseball America poll. This weekend is as big as it gets for college baseball fans in Athens, and this team is really fun to watch.

However, we don't cover every baseball game with recaps. It's just too time consuming.

Quinton and I have the bandwidth in our real jobs to combine to cover about 1 or 2 things at a time. Right now, it's the basketball coaching search for me. Quinton does a Monday or Tuesday recap of the weekend series, and he sets up the next week's series in an article each week. We also do a baseball poll blurb when we can.

It's not like we're totally oblivious to the Diamond Dawgs. In fact, I'll be attending one or two games on average for the rest of the season. We just don't have time for more coverage. If you want more baseball coverage, you should check DawgSports.com's exhaustive recaps. Kyle King is long winded in his baseball post-game articles, but if you want coverage he has most certainly got it.

Coverage of baseball will ramp up some after the Basketball Coaching Search and Spring Football end.

As for football....we haven't done much of anything on Spring Football. That's mainly because I'm bored to death by Spring Football this year. I haven't expected anything of interest to come out of Spring due to the overwhelming number of injuries, and the lack of position changes. And so far I'm right. The beat writers have the info here.

So that's why we cover what we cover right now.

PWD

Baseball Coverage

UGA had two big wins against the Top 20 ranked Clemson Tigers this week, and we've got a gigantic series against the LSU Tigers this weekend in Athens. UGA is ranked #1 in multiple polls, and the Tigers are ranked as high as #2 in the Baseball America poll. This weekend is as big as it gets for college baseball fans in Athens, and this team is really fun to watch.

However, we don't cover every baseball game with recaps. It's just too time consuming.

Quinton and I have the bandwidth in our real jobs to combine to cover about 1 or 2 things at a time. Right now, it's the basketball coaching search for me. Quinton does a Monday or Tuesday recap of the weekend series, and he sets up the next week's series in an article each week. We also do a baseball poll blurb when we can.

It's not like we're totally oblivious to the Diamond Dawgs. In fact, I'll be attending one or two games on average for the rest of the season. We just don't have time for more coverage. If you want more baseball coverage, you should check DawgSports.com's exhaustive recaps. Kyle King is long winded in his baseball post-game articles, but if you want coverage he has most certainly got it.

Coverage of baseball will ramp up some after the Basketball Coaching Search and Spring Football end.

As for football....we haven't done much of anything on Spring Football. That's mainly because I'm bored to death by Spring Football this year. I haven't expected anything of interest to come out of Spring due to the overwhelming number of injuries, and the lack of position changes. And so far I'm right. The beat writers have the info here.

So that's why we cover what we cover right now.

PWD

Problems with Remote Publish

I'm having some problem publishing blog articles. I wrote something up at 5 today, and it hasn't published. Someone kick the server again for me.

Update....this is what I wrote earlier this afternoon. Weird.
ESPN reports that Mike Leach has pulled his name from the search process at Washington. Too bad, the idea of him having an actual Pirate Ship anchored behind the stadium in Seattle should've been enough to lure him away. The NY Times also confirms the story, and suggests that he's now the front runner in Auburn. I still don't see the personality fit.

In other news, Mack Brown feels confident that he can keep Will Muschamp in Texas and avoid his return to Auburn.

Meanwhile, Auburn's solid recruiting class is getting a bit shaky. Scout.com has downgraded two three star linebackers to "soft verbal" in the wake of Tuberville's departure. More importantly, Raymond Cotton (4 star QB commit) will take some additional visits to Ole Miss and Arkansas pending the new hire. Cotton's father also says that Philip Lutzenkirchen (4 star TE commit) will attend college at the same place as Cotton, and both kids are now opening their search a bit.

Typically, you can expect the kids to waver, but most usually stick to their commitments. The exceptions are when the coaching staff brings in a disruptive / wildly different system OR the former recruiting coach goes to a rival school and calls on the kid. Given Auburn's situation at quarterback, Cotton is a MUST sign kid for the incoming coach.

PWD

Problems with Remote Publish

I'm having some problem publishing blog articles. I wrote something up at 5 today, and it hasn't published. Someone kick the server again for me.

Update....this is what I wrote earlier this afternoon. Weird.
ESPN reports that Mike Leach has pulled his name from the search process at Washington. Too bad, the idea of him having an actual Pirate Ship anchored behind the stadium in Seattle should've been enough to lure him away. The NY Times also confirms the story, and suggests that he's now the front runner in Auburn. I still don't see the personality fit.

In other news, Mack Brown feels confident that he can keep Will Muschamp in Texas and avoid his return to Auburn.

Meanwhile, Auburn's solid recruiting class is getting a bit shaky. Scout.com has downgraded two three star linebackers to "soft verbal" in the wake of Tuberville's departure. More importantly, Raymond Cotton (4 star QB commit) will take some additional visits to Ole Miss and Arkansas pending the new hire. Cotton's father also says that Philip Lutzenkirchen (4 star TE commit) will attend college at the same place as Cotton, and both kids are now opening their search a bit.

Typically, you can expect the kids to waver, but most usually stick to their commitments. The exceptions are when the coaching staff brings in a disruptive / wildly different system OR the former recruiting coach goes to a rival school and calls on the kid. Given Auburn's situation at quarterback, Cotton is a MUST sign kid for the incoming coach.

PWD

Why I Turned Off Commenting

First off, Quinton didn't have comment lock ability or we would've locked commenting earlier. I only deleted extreme whack job profanity that I saw during a quick skim of the posts. All in all, the comments weren't that bad.

Before I get into why I locked commenting, I just want to say this. Today sucked. Anyone who has given their time or money to support the program has the right to be pissed, angry, disappointed, etc. And if you're a Gator, you have the right to gloat. A lot.

If you interpret those "rights" as a license to deliver drunken rants and raves in favor of or against the Dawgs after a loss, there are message boards, bars and front yards for you to blow off steam.

But I'm too swamped with work and travel to delete the profanity and referee the inevitable personal attacks that fall out of those colorful exchanges. So I cut off the comments for a few days until everyone has a chance to cool off a bit.

Said differently -- I don't worry much about our regulars. It's the guys that hit the site via Google and post hit and run tirades that cause me 98% of my headaches.

We could all use a pause.

Lastly - I realize I didn't post much of note last week. The dynamics of my professional situation have changed a bit in terms of work load and travel*. If you've read the blog for a long time, you know the frequency and depth of the posts goes through peaks and valleys. It will always be like that. It is what it is. I appreciate your understanding, your readership and your feedback.

Thanks.

PWD


*No worries dad.

Why I Turned Off Commenting

First off, Quinton didn't have comment lock ability or we would've locked commenting earlier. I only deleted extreme whack job profanity that I saw during a quick skim of the posts. All in all, the comments weren't that bad.

Before I get into why I locked commenting, I just want to say this. Today sucked. Anyone who has given their time or money to support the program has the right to be pissed, angry, disappointed, etc. And if you're a Gator, you have the right to gloat. A lot.

If you interpret those "rights" as a license to deliver drunken rants and raves in favor of or against the Dawgs after a loss, there are message boards, bars and front yards for you to blow off steam.

But I'm too swamped with work and travel to delete the profanity and referee the inevitable personal attacks that fall out of those colorful exchanges. So I cut off the comments for a few days until everyone has a chance to cool off a bit.

Said differently -- I don't worry much about our regulars. It's the guys that hit the site via Google and post hit and run tirades that cause me 98% of my headaches.

We could all use a pause.

Lastly - I realize I didn't post much of note last week. The dynamics of my professional situation have changed a bit in terms of work load and travel*. If you've read the blog for a long time, you know the frequency and depth of the posts goes through peaks and valleys. It will always be like that. It is what it is. I appreciate your understanding, your readership and your feedback.

Thanks.

PWD


*No worries dad.