Thursday, September 9, 2010

Now With 30% More Fiber!

We mentioned at the top of the summer that we would be looking to expand our coverage here at Without a Peer. We're a fan blog, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to drop in on us for most of your RPI Hockey needs. We'll still be bringing you the news, opinion, live tweets and juvenile humor you've come to expect, but there's so much more potential out there than just weekly roundups and oddball photoshops. So we've got a whole slew of new features that you should be able to look forward to as we creep up on the start of a brand new season.

The Without a Peer podcast: This one is already underway, in fact, we conducted a dry run last night. It was an hour long presentation in which we touched on some of the key things to watch for around the men's and women's college hockey universes and chatted with NBC Sports' Joe Yerdon (also an occasional WaP contributor) about the outlook for the men's ECAC this season. It wasn't advertised ahead of time because we wanted to get a dress rehearsal in before committing to doing regular podcasts - but it turned out very well, so we're proud to offer it to you right now. We still haven't landed on a regular schedule for the near future, but we'll have another one before the men's schedule gets underway and we'll let you know well in advance what the schedule will look like.

You can already check out the Without a Peer podcast homepage at Blog Talk Radio: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/withoutapeer/ (We'll have a little widget over to the left eventually). From there, you can play the podcast from last night on demand.

In-game chats: Can't make it to the game? Well, you've got options. Old and busted: Message board game threads. New hotness: Live in-game chatter with your fellow fans! Seriously, it's 2010, who has time to hit the refresh button 200 times an hour to see what your RPI compatriots are saying about the game in progress? Early in the season, we're planning to do a test-run over the course of the first five games - the New Brunswick exhibition, the Colorado College games, and the Northeastern/Bentley weekend - to gauge whether to make this a regular feature. We think you'll enjoy the instant gratification that'll come with being able to interact with other members of Puckman Nation more easily.

Mid-week chats: Want to know how your favorite Engineer feels about upcoming opponent? Want to ask him or her about something that happened in another game? Dying to know what their favorite color is? Need to needle a member of the media on a recent opinion piece? Well, look no further than Without a Peer. With the cooperation of the RPI athletic department, we are planning to bring you occasional moderated chats with players, coaches, personnel, and local media figures (when it can be fit into their busy schedules) to give you some first-hand insight into the Engineers, the ECAC, and the NCAA.

More interviews: We've already brought you a handful of interviews last season and a couple of media interviews this offseason, but we plan to pick even more brains in the near future - occasionally in conjunction with the podcast, but if there's someone out there who doesn't have the time to appear with us on the air, we'll be sure to get their thoughts regardless.

A sparkly new logo! Keep your eyes peeled - as with any product upgrade, there's always going to be at least some minor rebranding.

While all of these features will be offered to you, our dear readers, for the low, low price of FREE, not all of them will be free to us, the site administrators. In an effort to keep advertising away from WaP as much as possible, we are instead going to put a donation button at the top of the page on the right. If you enjoy Without a Peer regularly, we'd like to ask you to consider hitting the tip jar to help us offset some of the costs of operating a modern website. Don't worry, you won't be contributing to expensive dinners or the beer fund - 100% of the proceeds from the donation button will be put directly into Without a Peer. Anything you can offer will be much appreciated not only by Gary and myself, but other readers as well.

I know exactly what you're thinking - what would legendary pitchman Billy Mays have to say about all of these new WaP features? Well... I think he'd approve.




1 comment:

  1. If you're interested in learning more about your exhibition visitor UNB ... drop me a line. I do colour for their radio and TV broadcasts.

    dkilfoil [at] unb.ca

    ReplyDelete

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