The Battle of Alberta: The Oilogosphere

Monday, November 19, 2007

The Oilogosphere

David Staples has written a story on the Oilogosphere for today's Edmonton Journal. Covered in Oil, mc79Hockey, Irreverent Oil Fans, Hot Oil, Lowetide and BoA are all featured (Mirtle and Cosh make appearances, too). An article on the fine ladies of Hot Oil is in the sidebar, and an extended interview with Tyler Dellow of mc79Hockey is up on Staples' site. It appears that more extended interviews with Oiloggers will appear there (on Staples' site), so stay tuned. I'm a little worried now about all the things I said during my conversation with Staples. Some of the things I said in the main article are bad enough, and we talked for at least an hour. It being early is my only excuse. Caffeine hadn't yet cranked up the volume on the "no talk dumb" button.

Many thanks to Staples for putting in the time and effort to learn about our little world. The only complaint I would have, content-wise ("Sacamano" is spelled incorrectly, and there are no web addresses for the sites in the story), is in including the forums, boards and static sites in a definition of the Oilogosphere. Myself, I think of the Oilogosphere as a much more restricted group than that. I think of it as a community of posters, commenters and readers tied specifically to a select number of Oilers blogs. But that might just be my own understanding. Other card carriers may disagree.

Thanks, as well, to the Journal for putting in a picture of me that I can stand (and to Larry Wong for taking one). It was my biggest fear in doing the story, and I am pleased that I can actually tolerate looking at myself. Phew. David has also agreed to do an interview with Matt and I for this site (which we hope to get to soon), and I want to thank him in advance for that. Thanks to the other members of the Oilogosphere--bloggers, commenters, voyeurs--as well as our Honorary Member, Mr. Matt Fenwick. Lastly, welcome to all who have found their way to the Battle of Alberta and the Oilogosphere. Matt, Sacamano and I hope you enjoy. Here is a trusty link explaining more about this site, one on the Oilogosphere as a whole, as well as last season's Glossary of Terms (a new one will be up later this week). There's also a handy blogroll to the left, which will point you towards some other excellent hockey blogs. Oh, and for any Flames fans who have found their way here...welcome...I guess.

GOILERS!!!

# posted by andy grabia @ 3:33 am

Comments:

Wow, he not only misspelled my real name, but my fake name too. Sigh, I suppose that's what you get for retiring.

Still, a nice bit of navel gazing.

My only quibble . . . am I crazy to expect that an article on a topic related to the World Wide Web might, you know, want to include a few urls? This probably isn't on Staples (since they don't even link directly to his blog), but honestly.

# posted by

sacamano : November 19, 2007 6:12 am

I just mentioned those points in an edit. The lack of the big "K" is probably on me, but I'm not responsible for the "Sacamano" error. There isn't a sidebar with urls in the actual paper, either, which I find strange. If you think about it, though, it really is an example of perfect irony, like the time I ruined a pair of pants I was wearing on my way to return them. That's a great story. See, I was on the phone with my friend, Bob Sacamano....

# posted by

andy grabia : November 19, 2007 7:00 am

Hey...you can't tell that story - Peterman owns the rights!

# posted by

Oilman : November 19, 2007 11:19 am

It was a nice article, congrats boys.

-therealdeal

# posted by

Anonymous : November 19, 2007 11:35 am

Does this story get run in the paper version as well? I think it's a great article and really does an excellent job of touching lightly enough on all of the heavy hitters so that the outsider feels warmly introduced as opposed to overwhelmed. Congrats to all!

# posted by

Showerhead : November 19, 2007 1:01 pm

new readers are going to want to get up to speed on this one:

worst. retirement. ever.

# posted by

Pete Evans : November 19, 2007 1:38 pm

Sigh, I suppose that's what you get for retiring.

Look for next week's article when Staples runs out of ideas and runs with "the Oilogosphere is dead! Look, Sacamano's even retired!"

# posted by

Lord Bob : November 19, 2007 2:08 pm

Someone needs to make a family tree of the oilogosphere.. or at least a flow chart.

# posted by

Loxy : November 19, 2007 2:52 pm

I swear Andy gave me the the "k" spelling, though I misspelled Sacamano all on my own, but will correct it on my upcoming blog post. Sorry about those errors, which would have got my story an "F" in journalism school.

In the next week or so, I'll be running more extended posts on each of the other Big Six bloggers in turn. Well, maybe not Hot-Oil, as the sidebar pretty well covered them.
Cheers, David.
Oh, the urls, I guess I should have put them in, but space is limited in the paper, and I figured anyone who uses the Internet is now adept enough to google "Battle of Alberta" and "Oilers"

# posted by

dstaples : November 19, 2007 3:24 pm

Someone needs to make a family tree of the oilogosphere.. or at least a flow chart.

I love it, but it HAS to be a family tree! Go big or go home!*

*realizing he had quoted a phrase from a trucker hat he saw long ago, Showerhead then ran far, far from the internet as fast as his legs could take him.

# posted by

Showerhead : November 19, 2007 3:51 pm

In the next week or so, I'll be running more extended posts on each of the other Big Six bloggers in turn. Well, maybe not Hot-Oil, as the sidebar pretty well covered them.

How well was Hot-Oil covered if there was NO mention of Marty Reasoner?

I love it, but it HAS to be a family tree! Go big or go home!

I nominate Pat.

# posted by

Loxy : November 19, 2007 4:18 pm

So no photos of the Hot Oil girls? Back to canoe.ca for me, I guess...

# posted by

Anonymous : November 19, 2007 5:39 pm

so is the plan to focus on the media coverage of your blogs as opposed to the real reason any of us read the blogs in the first place. i really enjoy most of the blogs you mentioned on this list but i'm already getting pretty bored with the posts about staples and his writing about the blogs in the journal, etc, etc. there is some real oiler related news to talk about today such as the pathetic performance by lowe on oilers live today. let the readers know when the bloggers' love-fest for one another and for staples is going to end so we can check back for some oilers content.

# posted by

Anonymous : November 19, 2007 6:05 pm

Ah Anonymouse, you always come through.

# posted by

andy grabia : November 19, 2007 6:17 pm

so we can check back for some oilers content.

Dude, in case you haven't noticed: THIS TEAM IS BORING.

Try not to get your panties in a bunch over 2-3 posts about hockey blogs.

Also, we'll post whatever we want.

# posted by

mike w : November 19, 2007 6:55 pm

Nice to see you guys getting a little past-due credit. Does this mean the Oilogosphere is now part of the "MSM"? ;)

Andy - try to let us know how Pat's visit goes this weekend. Maybe add Suede to your list of late night stops. I saw Ales Hemsky there last Saturday.

# posted by

Anonymous : November 19, 2007 8:37 pm

Andy - try to let us know how Pat's visit goes this weekend. Maybe add Suede to your list of late night stops. I saw Ales Hemsky there last Saturday.

No one cut him in the neck with a broken martini glass, right?

# posted by

andy grabia : November 19, 2007 8:57 pm

Mr. Nasty:

Let me give you another reason to hate me ... The Journal subscribes to Reuters and Getty Images (imageview.com).

I am sorry to disappoint you.

That said, this is a serious issue. Photographers take this issue very seriously, and whenever possible, I'll be taking extra care to give credit to any news service or photog if I use their material, just as I give credit to other reporters and bloggers if I'm writing about their material.

# posted by

dstaples : November 20, 2007 8:50 am