2013 BTB Honor Roll: A Look At Significant Contributions To BTB

Every six months or so, we take a look back at some of our key user stats here on Blogging The Boys. But we're not doing this because we want to revel in our record page views or the number of new members we attract every month. Today, we want to recognize those members that have made significant contributions to making BTB what it is today: a vibrant and growing community.

BTB is more than just the sum of the front page writers, much more. While many of us may have stumbled on BTB via an article on the front page, we kept coming back and eventually signed up because of the quality of our community here. Different people contribute in different ways to the community. Many add comments, often on an almost daily basis. Some of you add Fanshots or even FanPosts. And each day, each of us adds a little more to the community. So this is where we say thank YOU, you the reader, you the commenter, you the contributor.

A little further below, we break down some BTB stats from the first half of 2013 to honor the most prolific BTB members, both in terms of quantity and quality, and recognize them for their contributions.

In September last year, SB Nation moved to the design we are currently using. Not everything went as smoothly as we would have liked with that transition, but by now we've ironed out most of the kinks (and added editable comments!). So let's see how our topline stats for the first six months of 2013 compare to the first six months of last year:

• Eight different front page writers combined to bring you 917 front page posts in the first six months of 2013, easily surpassing the 828 posts we put up last year. That's an average of slightly over 5.0 posts per day, every day, including Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. At the very least, we hope we've kept you entertained.
• 220 BTB members wrote 597 FanPosts so far this year, a negligible decline versus the 616 FanPosts penned by 235 BTB members over the same period last year.
  
• Fanshots on the other hand declined significantly. Where 229 BTB members published a total of 919 Fanshots in 2012, those numbers dropped to 554 Fanshots put up by 137 members. Overall, we're down versus 2012 but still ahead of the first six months of 2011, when we had 479 Fanshots.

If you've ever listened to one of KD Drummond's podcasts, you'll know that he calls the BTB writers "the most talented collection of Cowboys writers never to have had access to a locker room or press conference." Collectively, we take great pride not only in KD calling us that, but also in what we do here day in and day out to bring you the best non-accredited Cowboys coverage you can find.

If you've been with us for a while, you probably don't have to read the byline on most posts to quickly realize which of the eight writers on the BTB masthead wrote the story you are reading. Some of us like tables more than others, some like cheerleaders more than others, some like fantasy football more than others, some like the draft more than others and some dislike the mainstream media more than others. We trust that those likes and dislikes, in sum, have resulted in quality coverage for you.

Here are our numbers for the first six months of the year and how they compare to the previous two years:

The table below lists the 15 top contributors in the FanPost section. The tables are sorted by number of FanPosts in 2013, by the number of recommendations (rec's) received and by the number of comments generated by the FanPost and the ensuing discussion.

FanPosts are a key driver of the success of SB Nation sites, as they'll give you a much broader range of opinions than you'll get on the front page. But writing a FanPost - and a well-received one at that - is a lot of work, so if you see one you like, give it a rec'. And don't be stingy with those rec's. They are the most gratifying thing for most authors because they show a special appreciation for the work the author has put into his/her FanPost. And after a while, they become addictive, so if you want to see more from a given FanPoster, rec' him or her and watch how they come back again and again for those rec's.

In addition to the volume metrics above, we'll next look at a couple efficiency metrics and rank contributors by RpFPs (Recommendations per FanPost) and CpFPs (Comments per FanPost). Here's a look at the BTB top dogs in terms of recommendations and comments per post (min. three posts to qualify). You'll find most of the perennial BTB favorites on one of these lists.

After record levels of Fanshots in 2012, we've seen the numbers slow down in 2013. But the demise of the Fanshot is greatly exaggerated: the Fanshot activity has picked up considerably over the last few months as we've gotten used to the new format and as some of the issues with the Fanshot section have been fixed.

Tip of the hat to all of you who posted FanShots, the top 15 are below.

49 different bloggers made at least one of the tables above, but many, many more contributed to the blog this year. And if your name's not on any of the lists above, but you want to see your name up in the bright BTB lights, then simply post more stuff, more often!

Until then, thank you all for your great contributions.

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• Building The Cowboys Roster: 2014 Defensive Tackle Prospects
• Dallas Cowboys' Roster Transactions: 5/30 - 6/25; Roster Builder Update