ArmchairGM
Type of site | Wiki |
|---|---|
| Owner | Wikia |
| Created by | Dan Lewis, David Pean, Rob Lefkowitz, Aaron Wright |
| URL | armchairgm.com |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional |
ArmchairGM is a sports-forum and wiki site. It was created by four people, Dan Lewis, Aaron Wright, Robert Lefkowitz and David Pean. It was put on the website in early 2006, and so far has nearly 1,500 users. While the site was initially US-based, it has sought to improve its links to sports associated with Britain in particular over the past year. It has recently entered the top 100,000 websites in terms of traffic ranking according to Alexa.[1]
Special technology
The site's main developer on the technological side was David Pean. While the site was based on the Mediawiki software used on Wikipedia, other things have been developed.
Voting
First, on any opinion, News Article, question, or showdown, users have the ability to vote for the ones they like. This feature is useful as it determines the content on the front page. The articles that get the most votes within a period of time end up being displayed on the front page.
Comments
In the same way that blogs have the ability to have people comment about their articles, the site allows users to place comments on the article to discuss the content of the article. Users are able to plus or minus comments depending on how they fell about them.
News and Opinions
Users have the ability to write several different types of articles. Two of the most prominent types are News articles, and Opinions. News articles can be an announcement about anything related to sports, but without the writers personal opinion inserted into the article. Opinions, on the other hand, allow users to write what they think about different sports-related topics of the day. Depending on the topic, users may research the topic before hand, or they might work on it over an extended period of time.
Other Articles
Beyond the basic News and Opinions articles, there are several other types of articles that users can create.
- Questions - Users can ask about something sports-related, or site related and have their fellow users answer their questions.
- There are two types of lockerrooms, the first of which is a site announcement. On occasion, Users have something related to the site to say to the community, and they post it as a lockerroom. These vary from announcements about scheduled downtime, or upgrades/new features to the site; to providing the information for Fantasy Sports leagues so other users can join. Users cannot vote for lockerrooms.
- The final type of non-encyclopedic articles people can write are called showdowns. On occasion, two users feel strongly about a topic, and are on opposite sides. In a showdown, users post, as comments, their stance on the topic, and their response to the other side. The rest of the community give out pluses to those comments they agree with, or feel are good arguments.
Beyond the above types, users are able to write general encyclopedic entries about sports-related topics, and write reviews on books and movies related to sports.
Top Users
Beyond that, the site has a "Top Users" section, that run in seasons throughout the year. Users are awarded an unknown value for editing, posting articles, and writing opinions. Although the results have no real value about peoples opinions about users, some users have a bit of fun trying to compete with other users for their positions.[1]
Challenges
Users have the ability to issue a "challenge" to another user. A challenge works similar to a bet, but is not for any real value. A challenge can be about the result of any sports event, or something else related to sports. The losers have to write bios about topics of the winners choice.[2]
Embedded Videos
Another unique feature is the ability for users to embed a video into an article. This allows any sort of clip from Youtube or any other video hosting site available to be seen on the site instead of having to click on an external link in order to see it.
Other features
- A category of online sporting Blogs
- Affiliates with other blogs, something currently being developed.
In the news
Wikia purchase
The site was recently bought by Wikia, a company founded by Jimbo Wales, for $2 million.[2] The four developers have since shared their technology on Wikia, and have recently extended their range by providing Politics, Entertainment, Local services, Music, Video Games, Cars, and Health
Charity donations
For Super Bowl Sunday, the site made charity donations for every comment posted. The main hub of this commenting was done in a Live Blog of Super Bowl XLI.[3]
Ebay Devil Rays Blog
A regular contributor, Manny Stiles, recently sold his blogging services on ebay. He posts the resulting blogs on both a special blog he subsequently created, and ArmchairGM. Tampa Bay Devil Rays President Matt Silverman bought the 33 year old blogger for $535, before adding another $1000. The money went to AIDS awareness.[4]
External links
References and notes
- ^ "Alexa Traffic Rankings". Alexa. 2007-02. Retrieved 2007-02-18.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Amazon puts Time and Money into Wikia". MercuryNews.com. 2006-06-12. Retrieved 2007-02-18.
- ^ "Online Sports Community ArmchairGM Seeks to Turn Super Bowl Sunday into Charitable Fund Raiser". eMediaWire. 2007-02-02. Retrieved 2007-02-18.
- ^ "Rays' newest investment is online". St. Petersburg Times. 2007-03-11. Retrieved 2007-04-10.