Why “Misconduct” & Other Questions You Never Asked

I didn’t get a chance to talk about it sooner and nearly forgot completely, but Christy’s post over at BtJ reminded me.

Hockey Night in Canada recently did a bit about hockey bloggers and their legitimacy, acceptance, etc. Bill from A2Y was briefly featured.

Since I try not to post video here, you can check out the piece on YouTube.

That HNiC is talking about bloggers ties into something that I’ve meant to do for awhile: Explain what “Misconduct” is meant to be and how it ties into the rest of DetroitHockey.Net.

I started DH.N (then called YzerFan19’s Detroit Red Wings Page) in 1997 as basically a place to post my thoughts about the Wings. Though the term wouldn’t be coined for another several months, it was operated as a weblog.

As I began to write more and more, I switched to a more formal style. My goal became less to provide thoughts on the team but to provide a record of the games.

I returned to the blog format for several months in early 2001 but it wasn’t as fun for me so I switched back at the end of that season (which is where DH.N’s archive begins).

By 2002 I had realized that my goal was not to be a writer but to be a web developer who also writes. Jenny Wilson had joined the DH.N (then still named drwcentral.net) staff, which allowed me to focus on building a bigger and better version of the site.

When Jenny left during the lockout, I had to determine what direction to take the site. I like to write but it’s not my primary goal. I realized that after a West Coast loss in a poorly-played, penalty-filled game, I don’t want to feel obligated to push out an article, and that’s how Misconduct started.

The name is due to the fact that I initially expected to do a lot of complaining about the refs, something that would garner the eponymous misconduct penalty on the ice. To date, I’m a bit surprised at how little complaining I’ve done.

The idea is that Misconduct is a part of DetroitHockey.Net but the two are not interchangeable. Through MyDetroitHockey.Net, anyone can start a blog and if I like the content being posted, maybe I’ll pull it onto the DH.N home page like I do with Misconduct.

How does that tie back into the HNiC piece?

I, like the Rodent, hate the term “blog.” I’ll use it, since people understand the word, but I’ve read enough awfully-written pieces in the mainstream media to know that there’s very little difference between some bloggers and some columnists when it comes to writing ability and research.

Bill rags on the Red Wings beat writers (aside from MacLeod) for never putting in any effort. How could a blogger be worse?

The other reason I dislike the term “blog” is a technical one. There is a blog vs. forum debate out there and the blog is winning. Just as the mainstream media (in general) looks down on blogging, many bloggers look down on the use of forums for communication. I can’t remember where I read it but I recently saw a piece that basically said blogs are trustworthy and forums aren’t.

From a technical aspect (remember, I said above that I’m more of a developer than a writer), there is no difference between a forum and a blog, aside from organization. A blog entry is an article followed by comments. A forum thread is a post followed by replies.

Where am I going with this thought? Not really anywhere, this was meant to be informational rather than editorial.

Should bloggers have media passes? I don’t care. I don’t want one. I consider myself a fan first and it would take away from the excitement of the game for me if I couldn’t go and cheer. In the locker room, the questions I would want to ask are the ridiculous ones.

“Hey Homer, how hard is it not to tell off the ref when he calls you for being in the crease but ignores when Chris Pronger spends 90 seconds cross-checking you in the back?”

I don’t want, nor should I be given, media access. But there are those who do want it and who do deserve it. Good luck to them.