PBSL Magazine

[garbageman]

I. PBSL Magazine Proposal

PBSL Magazine will be a collection of articles released at four key times throughout the season. Issues will be comprised of recurring features and more in-depth articles. The collection will be released once towards the end of preseason to wrap up the previous post-season and preview the upcoming season, once towards the beginning of playoffs to preview the playoffs and recap the season, and twice during the regular season (once around halfway to the trade deadline and once a little after the trade deadline).

Recurring Features Can Include Things Like:
* Power rankings
* Interviews with players (will be especially cool once fake dudes come in)
* Hot and Cold players
* Weird Stats

Since the issues will be staggered to integral points throughout the season, timely, longer form articles are in store for things like:

* Season preview
* Speculative trades and signings
* Playoff predictions
* Etc.

It would be cool to incorporate things like timely 5 on 5s, and even some backstage features (things like analyses of the value of points, analyses of how fan attendance and success correlate, etc.)

I think for this to be worthwhile, we'd want a minimum of 5 articles per issue, which translates to less than an article per GM per season. It's a reasonable goal that I foresee us being able to smash, but if not everyone's gung ho about contributing, it'll fizzle out pretty spectacularly, so be sure to really think about whether you'd want to put time and effort in to make PBSL magazine work.

A vote for PBSL Magazine doesn't stop you from posting ad hoc articles. Either way, you'll get points. I think it makes sense to incentivize article writing, but to keep quality at the forefront of article writing (and to prevent points hoarding), I think it might be smarter to roll off article writing limits per season rather than to go all Wild West and take them away.


II. Points Distribution

In order to increase the amount of articles while maintaining high quality and somewhat of a points balance, I propose to begin with, that we take away the cap of 15 points per season on article writing and move towards more of a sliding scale.

We'll also separate the points you're used to getting into effort points (guaranteed for every article that isn't utter garbage) and quality points (which will be bonus points for quality given out at the end of the year by end of season voting).

Your first 5 articles will get 3 points each automatically.
Your next 5 articles will get 2 points each automatically.
Any articles after that will get you 1 automatic point, but if you're writing more than 10 articles a season about fake basketball, you should seriously reevaluate your life priorities.

To promote the success of PBSL Magazine, any GM that writes at least one article for an issue of PBSL Magazine will receive a one-time 3 bonus points for the season--at least in the first year, and possibly ongoing depending on the success of the magazine structure.

Each article written adds 3 points to a points pool that will be distributed out to top articles as judged by end of year voting. This will need to be refined, but initially, I think the payout structure should start at the top 20-25% (if 20 articles are written, 4-5 get bonus points based on vote) with the 1st place finisher receiving the largest share of the point pot (something like here http://www.homepokertourney.com/payout.htm). If a co-authored piece wins any bonus points, the co-authors will have to split the share of points.

An additional prize of points could also be added for the sportswriter of the year as well. This could work the same way, percentage-wise, with a point added for each unique author who contributed at least one article.

III. Magazine Staff

This would add at least one volunteer responsibility (PBSL Magazine Editor) unless it was combined with Media Points Coordinator (current responsibilities of the MPC would be only a minor addition to the role). It's a heftier undertaking than many current positions, so it could be split into two roles, or I'd suggest a donation based point system to be split amongst the staff (for example, if you like PBSL Magazine and want it to keep being compiled, donate 1 point. If half the folks in PBSL donate a point to be split among staff, it'll be a worthwhile venture. If not, it's a sign that the magazine is a flop or that people are cheap).

[IamQuailman]

This is a fantastic and well thought out idea. I think that there definitely should be one position dedicated to the Magazine, and that the responsibility of the Media Point Coordinator should be to assist with the PBSL Magazine as needed (facilitating point distribution, soliciting submissions, etc.)

I also like the points scales too, as you have some pretty nice incentives for submitting.