Blez sold out, nothing else to it.

second, you can start your own A's blog.  for free.  

if the people that blez has interviewed are upset, they probably wouldn't allow themselves to be interviewed by him again.  maybe if you created an alternative non-sellout blog they'd give you the interview instead.  

you've done nothing on this site except attack blez, which is getting a little suspicious.  
instead of being jealous, go do something worthwhile...

Start your own website if you dislike this so much.  Seriously.

Now, if you found out that Blez was going to personally work on 15 other web sites, and would be abandoning AN to go deal with other projects, then that would be a different matter.  But you haven't argued that and you've presented no evidence for that.  And Blez has a new daughter, so I doubt he'll be doing very much blogging anywhere for a while.  So here's the question: how do sites with similar formats make AN a worse experience?  Not, how does it impede your ability to taunt Mariners fans by saying, "Neener neener, our blog is better than yours."  How does any of this make AN worse?  Who the hell are you, Nelson?

As for your rights to speak, yes, you have a right to your opinion.  But you might have noticed that there's only room for 10 diaries at a time on the home screen.  That makes diary space a limited, shared resource.  So we have to use that resource responsibly.  If you actually have been lurking here for as long as you claim, I'm sure you're familiar with the "stop the Byrnes/Cameron diary" movement.  You're not the first person to be told to think twice before posting the kind of diary they put up.  I have the right to post 10 diaries in quick succession listing each of the opening day/night games I went to, and asking for comments.  But if I did that, the whole diary listing would be my little reminiscences.  I'm entitles to the memories, but not to suck up all the diary listing space to indulge my sense of their significance.

I'm glad he 'sold out'. The guy gets the best interviews with Beane and put together a great site (though the whole diaries scrolling off thing does need to be fixed). He should sell out more.

A site isn't about the look, it's about the people it attracts. A team isn't about the uniform, it's about the players and community.  And the other 29 teams aren't going to have the 'same' site because their teams are way less interesting and lovable than the A's.

By the way these4things, if you don't want to be called a troll, don't act like one. Keep the personal attacks down.  People have offered lots of good comments on yours and your response is always "it's my opinion that if other teams have our layout, then AN will suck". Is this a conversation?

This post might be a good test. If I get flamed and personally attacked, then these4things is a troll. If I get a reasonable response, maybe s/he is trying to have a conversation and is still getting the hang of it.

Is this mike on?

Having known many Giants fans, I think of them as generally good people with bad taste, not someone to maim in gangland warfare. And I'm glad they have a decent blog. As long as Blez doesn't stop getting us the exclusive interviews...  I mean, who else would spend time begging Beane to stay? Reporters are too "objective" for that...

I don't have an issue with your opinions.  Everybody has the right to express their opinions.  That being said, I have an issue of how you EXPRESS your opinions.  

Slow down, and take a good look at your posts.

When you're done, loot at cutthemullet's posts.  You two guys are saying the same thing, but the result is totally different.

Discussions with cutthemullet stay as civilized discussion and we remin to agree to disagree while you manage to rile up alot of AN in the wee hours of the morning, PST.  I was asleep for 6 hours and I saw like 50 posts added between the hours of 3 AM to 9 AM.

Look at the vocabulary of your posts.  You start out the gate attacking Blez almost personally.  That is not cool, how would you like if if some guy in the middle of the night emailed you and said your dad was a piece of shit?  You wouldn't.  And neither would I.

Look the format of AN is not unique.  Look at Sons of Sam Horn, a Red Sox Blog.  The the blog the Shilling posted on to "talk" with the fans before signing with Boston.  That's the same blog of which SI cut and posted pages of when they did a story of "drama of breaking the curse."

Blogs about baseball teams are not unique. The AN site was not unique to begin with because of help from Kos.  However the AN community is unique, you, me , Blez and everbody who posts here is what makes this site special.

Now, I'm done.

Blez please say something, anything to rectify this.  

Look, when I first saw the site layout of the Giants blog, I was surprised. I didn't feel betrayed; I didn't feel bitter. I just felt- surprised. I knew Blez had an explanation for what happened and I accept it. I really think it's no big deal. Like a lot of people are saying, if you don't like it then don't continue being a part of this site. I'm sure lopayroll really didn't like this site. No one told him to get out.

Blez really deserves more for what he's given to all of us. He spends his own time on this website. He takes time after work to give us incredible interviews and a place to interqact with A's fans. I have learned so much from this website in the six or so months I've been here that it's awesome. I wouldn't have known half the stuff I know now if it wasn't for this site.

these4things- I know you're upset. I think all of AN knows you're upset. It's no reason to go trashing on Blez. Yeah, the layout was AN's design at first, but it's Blez's design. He can do with it whatever the hell he wants. You aren't going to stop him from selling his design. I say, power to Blez. It's crazy cool that you are making a profit out of doing something as enjoyable as making us loyal ANers happy. Thanks for the awesome blog (with the exception of trolls here and there which isn't your fault.)

Look at it this way. Other people, other fans now have something AN does. If they didn't totally love it, they wouldn't have bought it. It's incredibly hard not to love it. I love the layout. It attracted me to this website too. And like someone said earlier, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

man invites his "friends" over to his house. man says "i've got a way to make a few bucks, what do you think?" "friends" start raggin' on him with philosophical arguements about how and why he shouldn't make a few extra bucks. man tells "friends" to "screw off and get out of MY house".

this is blez's site, he invites us in, if you don't like it, weeeeeell...read the above again.

Blez owns this site. He can do whatever he wants with it. If you don't like it, tough shit.

You can:

1)Stop coming here.

2)Continue to come here and enjoy it.

3)Continue to come here and complain.

Once or twice I understand, but you're complaining ad nauseum.

What do you hope to accomplish?

We all get it, you think he's a sellout.

So select from choice #1 or #2, because #3 is making you seem like a whiner.

...Because you don't understand a simple concept: AN does not belong to you.  It belongs to Blez.  It's his venture, his time, and his money.  He's not beholden to you or to me or to Billy Beane.  He can do whatever the f*ck he wants with this site, and while we can grouse all we want about it, we can NOT exepct him to answer to us in any way.

Does Blez make you pay to be a part of this site?  No.  So you gave him a few bucks back in the OG AN days?  Big deal.  He already made good on your desire for him to maintain and improve the best A's fan site on the Internet.

Blez owes you nothing.

to these4things, like others have said, it sounds to me like you are really bent out of shape about the wrong thing.  the look of AN may now not be unique, but that is all he is selling.  if it not LOOKING unique bothers you, you might consider hating all web sites.

It is the people and not the outline that makes a place so nice.  I like AN, I'm not really going anywhere.  Maybe to Barry Zito Forever, I really like BaZito!

I have absolutely no problem with Blez benefitting financially from this (um, does anyone understand that the links to things like carpet cleaning and such are the same thing; by that I mean, there is probably some sort of financial benefit to Blez from there...whatever it is, and in whatever form it takes (wampum? beads for breats? dubloons?...doesn't matter)

I love the site; I love being able to skip something at work to read info about the A's...or, even re-read it, like i watch the same History Channel doc. several times..

if someone doesn't like it, they're free to express their opinions, and so, here's mine.

AN makes Blez money = fantastic
AN makes me happy = fantastic

Time=Money, and this site certainly takes time to put together; I'm all for it.
*just go eazy on me if it becomes a subscription site! :+)

Catfish

In a way, this whole thing is like baseball itself.  Just like this site(and all the other future 29 or whatever), each baseball team has a set format (# of players, same positions, etc.) but it is what the teams do with that format that makes them unique.  That is why no other team is just like the A's and why no other blog will ever be just like Athetics Nation.  Thanks Blez--love the site, keep it up.  Now I feel better.  Gads, Mondays suck enough as it is....

we are not blez's wife. we are not his newborn daughter. most of us are not his personal friends. we are not his boss, coworkers, or family members.

if he benefits off this site, so what? are you saying the thousands of sites with ads on them that aren't businesses are selling you out too?

let it go, it's the fucking internet.