Cubs Blog Army - Central Command

June 4, 2005

CBA E-mail #8: More Blogs, Email List Update

Hello Cubs Blog Army!

I've spent the last two hours working on things around here, catching up on the backlog of new Cubs blogs and updating the sections of the CBA.

Its been since mid-March when I sent out the last update, and since then we have had about 18 new blogs join the blogroll. Some of these have gone on to be studs, and others are already 'retired.' So, if you haven't been down to the CBA site (http://www.cubsblogarmy.com) recently, I suggest you come down and update your blogroll.

This morning I also added a new section because we have gotten so large. There are now "Editor's picks", "Daily Updates", "Regular Updates", "Newbies", "Intermittent", and "retired" blogs. Hopefully the new classification will help some of the newer blogs distinguish themselves and gain readership.

We truly are an army. At this point the email list stands at 109 individuals, so it is hard to keep it up to date. I strongly encourage you to email me (byron@thecubdom.com) if you want to be excluded from this list.

In the last three months we have had two instances of a spammed message being sent across the list. I promised a zero tolerance policy, but within an hour of the first spam I had received three emails asking me not to remove the list. So, I redesigned the form to avoid an inadvertent spamming, but it happened a second time... so I have changed some of the admin options on the list and you now must be a member of the list in order to send a message. Hopefully this will work in the future.

Finally, I want to offer an opportunity for everyone to get an @Cubsblogarmy.com email address!

I have a thousand email addresses that came with the domain, and I'm willing to offer the addresses free of charge. The email address can be set up to forward to another address such as Gmail (I have some Gmail invitations if you want too), or you can have your own email box with a webmail interface.

Let me know if you are interested in an email address, all the cool kids are doing it :)

Go Cubs!
Byron

Posted by Byron at 12:29 PM | Comments (1)

March 18, 2005

CBA E-mail #7: New, Old, Moving, and Listening Blogs

From: byron@thecubdom.com
To: -- Cubs Blog Army --

Date: March 18, 2005
Time: 21:57:09

Subject: CBA Email #7: New, Old, Moving, and Listening Blogs

---

Greetings Cubs Blog Army!

Wow, I can't believe its been over a month since the last update went out! Time has flown this Spring and spring training is moving along quite quickly.

Since the last update email, the CBA has grown by several new members. I encourage you to come by the CBA site (cubsblogarmy.com) and update your blogrolls. Our newest members:

Cub Town: http://cubtown.baseballtoaster.com/
WGN Sports Baseball Blog: http://wgntv.trb.com/sports/custom/weblog/wgnsports/
From the Corner of Grace and Wayne: http://graceandwayne.blogspot.com/
Goodbye 1908, Hello 2005: http://davecubsfan.blogspot.com/
The Cubs Scout: http://cubscouter.typepad.com/
I-55 Rivalry: http://www.timlybarger.com/2005Cubs.htm
Cubscast.com: http://cubscast.com/
The Cub Cave: http://cubcave.blogspot.com/
CubsBlog: http://chicagonlbaseball.blogspot.com/

A quick count tells me that this brings the CBA to 62 regularly updated blogs. That sure is a lot of variety to choose from. It also makes it difficult to keep up with the entire CBA. This is where syndication (RSS) comes in.

A few emails back I went into detail about RSS and its merits, so I'll save the sermon. Instead if you don't know what RSS is, and you want more readers, please visit cubsblogarmy.com/startupguide.html and read about it. I encourage all CBA bloggers out there to register your RSS feed with sportsblogs.org, it helps many readers stay current.

I also have a few other announcements: End the Drought and Let's Play Two have come back from a winter of hibernation. If you haven't been back in a while, or had dropped your link, go check them out again.

Also, Miss Fantastick of When is Next Year? has moved her URL to http://baseballmadness.blogspot.com/ Please visit and update your links.

I also wanted to mention one of the new blogs in particular, CubsCast.com. As opposed to a regular blog, these fellows are running a podcast site. Think a radio segment or two of Cubs talk. They are very entertaining, so if you haven't go check them out.

Finally, the 'e-mail the CBA form' is back up and working at CubsBlogArmy. So if you need to email the entire CBA for legitimate purposes, feel free to use it.

Thanks everybody and keep up the good work.

Go Cubs,
Byron Clarke

CubsBlogArmy.com
TheCubdom.com
GoatRiders.org

----

If this is your first CBA update, I have recently added you to the list. If you would like this to be your last CBA update, please email me at byron@thecubdom.com and I will promptly remove you from my list.

Posted by Byron at 9:57 PM

February 13, 2005

CBA E-mail #6: New Blogs, Friendly Competition, Email Form

From: byron@thecubdom.com
To: -- Cubs Blog Army --

Date: February 13, 2005
Time: 14:21:09

Subject: CBA Email #6: New Blogs, Friendly Competition, Email Form
---

Greetings Cubs Blog Army!

I'm sorry that I have been stuffing folks inboxes the last few days, but I needed to send out a test email of the newly revised form, plus its about time for a CBA update, so I combined the two.

First, spring training starts this week... Finally!

Second, we have some new blogs since the last time I emailed out one of these:

14 Days of Ambivalence: http://illini3sc.blogspot.com/
Die-Hard Cubs Fun: http://cubsfun.blogspot.com/
The Business of Baseball: http://baseballbusiness.blogspot.com/
Bleed Cubbie Blue: http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/
The Cubbie Corner: http://www.cubbycorner.blogspot.com/
Chicago National League Ball Club: http://cubsfansunite.blogspot.com/
Cubs Obsessed: http://nate.macosx.com/cubsobsessed/

That would be seven new blogs in the last 10 days. I wanted to make special mention of Bleed Cubbie Blue, which is Al Yellon's new blog. I know there have already been about three emails sent out about it, but go check out Al's new digs.

Otherwise, with our new additions, the CBA stands at 72 total blogs, 45 of which get updated pretty much weekly or better, and another handful that I expect will wake up from an offseason of hibernation in the next few weeks.

FRIENDLY COMPETITION:

A request for people interested in fantasy baseball went out with the last update, I'm going to turn over the list of folks interested around Monday at 5 p.m. Central time. Please email me before then if you are interested, otherwise it may be too late. YOU CAN'T MISS OUT ON THESE BRAGGING RIGHTS!

Joe at View From the Bleachers sent out an email this morning looking for participants in an NCAA tourney pool. Unless you are a college football coach, now's the time to get in. I don't think there will be anything but bragging rights on the line. All you Illini punks out there better be signing up. email joe@viewfromthebleachers.com if you are interested.

Finally, as has been alluded to a few times and an email was already sent out, you can now email the CBA by visiting the CBA site and clicking on the link: email the CBA.

After my first email, I found a few problems, got some addresses bounced, etc. So I fixed the script and things should work better now. Incidentally, this email may be the first time some of you hear about the email list for that reason. Hi Mike.

OK, also, I got another email from a longtime CBA member worried about spam security, here is what I wrote him back about how the form is set up. If you wish to be excluded from the form, I will take you off.

---> I have taken a few steps to avoid having this list spammed.

First, it isn't a single address that someone could send something too. It is everyone's individual address.

Second, the addresses are all hidden. The email is BCC to everyone on the list, so when you 'reply all' or try to see who else received the email, you can't (incidentally, I am the only one who got your reply.)

Finally, any email sent through this script has a message identifying that it was sent through the form, so if it gets spammed even once, I will delete the script. Once the script is gone, the spammer would need everyone's address, which they can't get because it is hidden in the BCC field.

I can't guarantee that there will be no spam, but I can guarantee I'll remove the script as soon as there is one.

If you still don't want to be on the form, or on the CBA list in

general, thats cool. I'll take you off one or both.

--->

OK, so if you want off the list, email me. Until later,

Go Cubs,

Byron Clarke
CubsBlogArmy.com
TheCubdom.com
GoatRiders.org

----

If this is your first CBA update, I have recently added you to the list. If you would like this to be your last CBA update, please email me at byron@thecubdom.com and I will promptly remove you from my list.

----
This email was sent from the 'Email the CBA' form...

Posted by Byron at 2:21 PM

February 3, 2005

CBA E-mail #5: New Blogs, Fantasy Baseball League

From: byron@thecubdom.com
To: -- Cubs Blog Army --

Date: February 3, 2005
Time: 21:27:40

Subject: CBA Email #5: New Blogs, Fantasy Baseball League
---

Greetings Cubs Blog Army!

Its been a few weeks since I've sent one of these out, but its about time. Now that Sammy is an Oriole, and Jeromy Burnitz has been signed, this team is looking like it might be set for when pitchers and catchers report.

Well, in case you haven't noticed, the CBA is busting at the seams. We have eight new websites since our last update just over three weeks ago. I highly encourage you to go over to http://www.cubsblogarmy.com/ to get the scoop and update your links... but without further ado:

CubsNet.com - Jason Steffens of the Cubs Chronicle is shifting his efforts to this site which aims to be a great Cubs fan online community. http://www.cubsnet.com/

theMinards.com - http://www.theminards.com/
Deep within the Vault - http://ericsvault.blogspot.com/
Electric Cubbie Bluegaloo - http://bluegaloo.blogspot.com/
the chicago cubs - http://the-chicago-cubs.blogspot.com/
Buffalo Cubs - http://www.buffalocubs.blogspot.com/
Death Taxes and Fifth Place - http://deathtaxes5thplace.blogspot.com/
Live from the Wrigley Field Jail Cell - http://www.wrigleyfieldjail.blogspot.com/

Again, you can get links and RSS feeds for all of these blogs at the CBA site.

FANTASY BASEBALL

Although I have sworn off playing fantasy baseball this year, I have seen a few people who were wondering about a CBA fantasy league. If you are interested in playing fantasy baseball against your Cubs Blogging Buddies, send me an email within a week and I'll send out an email next weekend to those of you who wanted to do something... just think about he bragging rights!

CUBS CONVENTION

Several of us made it up to the Cubs Convention two weekends ago. I'm sure you have read the posts. Unfortunately the lunch didn't come off due to the snow storm that kept a few of us home. I just wanted to thank those who tried to make it happen. We'll get it done next year, but at the right the CBA is growing, we'll have to reserve the southwest exhibition hall.

STUPID GROUNDHOG

Although the groundhog saw his shadow this week, Spring Training is coming up soon, even if winter has a while to go. I was walking by the football stadium at school today and the baseball team was practicing on the field. I stopped to watch for a few minutes and almost ended up balling my eyes out. I can't wait for the season to get underway!

Finally, one last nag. Please consider updating your links. It is made easy by copying and pasting the CBA links from http://www.cubsblogarmy.com/htmlcode.html

Go Cubs,
Byron Clarke
CubsBlogArmy.com
TheCubdom.com
GoatRiders.org

---
If this is your first CBA update, I have recently added you to the list. If you would like this to be your last CBA update, please email me at byron@thecubdom.com and I will promptly remove you from my list.

Posted by Byron at 9:27 PM

January 12, 2005

CBA E-mail #4: Cubs Convention Lunch, New Blogs, N Syndication

From: byron@thecubdom.com
To: -- Cubs Blog Army --

Date: January 12, 2005
Time: 21:21:27

Subject: CBA EMAIL #4: Cubs Convention Lunch, New Blogs, N Syndication
---

Greetings Cubs Blog Army,

I hope everyone is doing well and had a good holiday season. Of course, the best thing about putting the holidays behind us is that the baseball season is on its way (81 days til first pitch). But first, the Cubs Convention! It is coming up on January 21,22,23.

I have four blogs (5 people) who have indicated so far that they are interested in getting together for a meal during the convention, and I am planning on doing lunch in the Hilton Restaurant. If you will be at the convention, or in Chicago on that weekend and are interested, please email me back (byron@thecubdom.com) and let me know you want to come.

There are also a few new Cubs blogs out there since the last time I sent one of these emails out. There is:

Holy Cow Baseball Blog - http://holycowbaseballblog.blogspot.com/
True Blue - http://truebluecubs.blogspot.com/
and Stuck in Columbus with the Wrigley Blues Again http://www.wrigleyblues.blogspot.com/

Again, there are links to these sites available on CubsBlogArmy.com, with a little information about each of the blogs.

Also, I have fixed the Cubs Blog Army Code generator so that it actually matches what is up on the site. Even if you updated your links a month or so ago, I would urge everyone to consider doing so again, we've got 6 to 8 new Cubs Blogs, and most of them look like they are going to make it. The Code link is on the left hand side of CubsBlogArmy.com in white text, just above the links to the rest of the sites.

Syndication:
Syndication:
Syndication:

If you know what it is, you have probably already done this... but if you don't read up.

Syndication is essentially a text file that most web blog programs will publish in one of several formats. (Blogger uses Atom) This file can then be read by programs which comb through websites looking for updates. With over 50 Cubs blogs already, most of us don't have time to check all the sites daily, so some good blogs are getting lost in the shuffle (also Yahoo is starting to use these feeds in its search engine submissions, and is doing a great job of quickly indexing blogs so that search results will be more likely to come to your site). Help yourself stand out by making your syndication feed available.

How do I make my syndication available?
If you are using blogger go to...

http://[YOUR_WEBSITE].blogspot.com/atom.xml

So for instance, 1060 West's syndication feed is available at

http://1060west.blogspot.com/atom.xml

and their website is

http://1060west.blogspot.com/

OK, now that you have found your syndication feed, go to this website:

http://sportsblogs.org/suggestion.php

fill out the appropriate information and make sure to put your syndication feed in the form.

After a few days, Todd Muchmore who runs Sportsblogs.org will add your feed, and then whenever you post a new post, it will appear on the list of Cubs Blog Entries that his site provides. These entries are then picked up, and published by several websites, including: http://www.thecubdom.com/headlines.html

This is a sure fire way to get your site to stand out, and increase your readership. Plus it helps us all stay on top of the CBA (Cubs Blog Army) easier.

(If you have already submitted your site to Sportsblogs, but didn't have a syndication feed, email Todd Muchmore at support@sportsblogs.org and let him know the URL to your feed. He'll add it for you.)

OK, thats it for this CBA update. Remember to head over to CubsBlogArmy.com and check out the new (and old) Cubs Blog sites. Also, please kindly consider updating your link sections... even some of the very frequently updated blogs haven't done so in much too long).

Finally, a reminder from the last update: Joe Aiello and View From the Bleachers are running a poll for 'Best Cubs Blog of 2004 minus a few blogs such as Cub Reporter' check it out and vote for your favorite. http://www.viewfromthebleachers.com/ voting ends the 15th I believe.

Byron Clarke,
CubsBlogArmy.com
TheCubdom.com
GoatRiders.org

p.s. If this is your first CBA update, I have recently added you to the list. If you would like this to be your last CBA update, please email me at byron@thecubdom.com and I will promptly remove you from my list.

Posted by Byron at 9:21 PM

January 3, 2005

CBA E-mail #3: Cubs Blog Vote and More

From: byron@thecubdom.com
To: -- Cubs Blog Army --

Date: January 3, 2005
Time: 20:12:17

Subject: Cubs Blog Vote and More
---

Hello Cubs Blog Army!

It is the new year, another year of high hopes...another 'next year.'

Its been awhile since my last update, but I do have some news that is important, so read up:

--> I found someone selling tickets for the Cubs Convention, if you are interested, reply to me.

--> Joe Aiello over at View From the Bleachers is running his annual best Cubs Blog, read about it and go vote: http://www.viewfromthebleachers.com/item/358

--> I have added five more links to the Cubs Blog Army, the links can be found at CubsBlogArmy.com, the sites are:
A FistFull of Hugh's - http://fistfullofhughs.blogspot.com/
The Cub Ramble - http://cubramble.blogspot.com/
Baseball Diamond News - http://baseballdnews.blogspot.com/
Wrigley Rantings - http://wrigleyrantings.blogspot.com/
CubLog - http://cublog.org/index.php

Finally, I am going to try and arrange a Cubs Blog Army Dinner for the Saturday night of the Cubs Convention, if you will be attending the convention and are interested please reply to me: byron@thecubdom.com

Thanks all,
Byron Clarke
CubsBlogArmy.com
TheCubdom.com
GoatRiders.org

Posted by Byron at 8:12 PM

December 9, 2004

CBA E-mail #2: Cubs 4 Breakfast and More

From: byron@thecubdom.com
To: -- Cubs Blog Army --

Date: December 9, 2004
Time: 17:57:31

Subject: Cubs 4 Breakfast, and more
---

Hi fellow Cubs Fans,

I came across a new blog called: Cubs for Breakfast

Also, for you Goat Rider fans, after an interminably long downtime, Goat Riders is back up and open for business. I have seen that most of you have added it to your links, but this is a friendly reminder/encouragement if you have not. (http://www.goatriders.org)

I also posted today on CubsBlogArmy.com concerning Cubs for Breakfast, but I also included html for the complete CubsBlogArmy roll, so if you want to avoid the hassle of typing in 40 some-odd links, the hassle has already been done.

OK, thats about it, other than this: there are some of us Cubs fans who are still looking for tickets to the convention in January, if you have any extra, please let me know. I want one or two, and I have received a few emails from folks looking for them.

Dreams of a healthy Nomar,
Byron Clarke - Cubs Fan
CubsBlogArmy.com

and
TheCubdom.com
GoatRiders.org

email: byron@thecubdom.com

-----
If you wish to be removed from this list, please let me know by mailing byron@thecubdom.com.

Posted by Byron at 5:57 PM

December 1, 2004

CBA E-mail #1: Cubs Blog Army News

From: byron@thecubdom.com
To: -- Cubs Blog Army --

Date: November, 30 2004
Time: 21:50:14

Subject: Cubs Blog Army News
---

Hello Cubs Bloggers!

In case I haven't emailed you yet, my name is Byron Clarke and I run a blog called TheCubdom.com (http://www.thecubdom.com), most of you have linked to me, so I know you are at least aware of my blog.

I have some news which should be relevant to you all.

Myself, Kurt from Cubs Fan Nation, Billy from Rooftop Report, and Rob from Uncouth Sloth have started a new blog called "Goat Riders of the Apocalypse." It can be found at http://www.goatriders.org . We would appreciate links if you feel so inclined, and you all should already have a link from our site.

Also, because keeping track of the ever changing 'Cubs Blog Army' is nearly impossible, I have registered a domain: http://www.cubsblogarmy.com. My hope for this site is to eventually serve the rest of the Cubs Blog community by doing a few things:
1.) Maintaining a current list of Cubs Blogs
2.) Syndicate all of the blogs in the army, so we know who has updated recently
3.) provide that syndication to parties who want it
4.) provide html code of the list to help new bloggers quickly set-up links, and to allow us to update our lists easily, basically to standardize the CBA.
5.) Maintain an email list for the Cubs Blogging community to facilitate easy communication amongst us all.

If you have any other suggestions for the site, please let me know. Also, if you don't want to be in this email list, or included in the CBA, please reply and let me know.

p.s. I don't have email addresses for:
Desipio.com
Friendly Confines
Mike Ryan - Old Style Cubs
Yarbage Cub Review

if you have one of these addresses, please pass it along.

Posted by Byron at 11:25 AM