Recently, MLB Trade Rumors launched a brand new official Instagram account: @TradeRumorsMLB. Each day, we’ll be sharing conversation-inspiring images about the hottest topics in baseball. From there, we invite you to give us a like, weigh in with your thoughts in the comments section, and even share the link with a friend.
Jeff Samardzija’s name has popped up on MLBTR quite a bit in recent weeks and Wednesday’s image parodying the iconic Jaws poster asked followers to weigh in on where he might land. Today’s Instagram picture asks you to predict what the 38-44 Reds might do at the deadline. Previous entries feature Brewers star Carlos Gomez, Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, and a closer showdown between Jonathan Papelbon and Francisco Rodriguez.
So, what are you waiting for? If you don’t have an Instagram account, this is the perfect excuse to sign up and get one. Follow us on Instagram today!
If I want to see pictures, I use google images, if I want to see funny baseball pictures, I follow mlbmemes. I’m not sure how successful mlbtraderumors will be on instagram.
I have social media burnout. I don’t even have a Facebook account now. Just need simplicity. Info at the touch is great…but only if it’s not a torrent.
Woah, I can up-vote now. Nice.
They’re clearly trying to get win back some interest after the mass of users who undoubtedly left after this new commenting system debacle.
If I were paying for mlbtr I’d be much more unhappy, but as it stands I’m getting value out of a free service. The notification system remains a mess. But I can find other things to waste my valuable time and concern on.
It’s in the best interest of this site to have things fixed and working reasonably, simply on a business model that needs page hits to justify ad space. I’m holding out for a solid mobile site with comment section, and I’d ask that the app request minimal permissions.
I’m guessing that Tim and the other managers of this site fore saw the backlash. My only input was that it could have been possibly better timed perhaps just following the WS during a brief slow down in baseball. Also that input should have been requested prior to a launch. A few things like editing, notification could have been worked out before grinding this to a halt.
Well, we’ve never made a decent-sized change that no one complained about. Including going from a black background to a white one.
Timing could have been better, but it’s a double-edged sword because waiting until September would have kept comments out of the app until at least then. September is a slow month for us, but November is not. Since most commenters seem mostly OK with the system as it is now, we endured less than a month with some missing features. As I’ve mentioned, I felt the best move was to put the new system out there as soon as possible and then continually improve it.
I’m happy with the quick progress. The only issue I have currently is the notification system, but I realize that it’s an ongoing process. I try to be completely fair. I had some conversation with the person who must be doing much of the programing…and he was having the same issues, so it’s being noted. At this point people are beating a dead horse. I’ve seen an uptick in commenting the past few days.
Sure, Tim, you’re in a no win situation making any changes.
I’ve always enjoyed this site…about 50/50 split between enjoyment of content and enjoyment of commentary. I’ve compared it to a coffee house.
Nah, Instagram and the new commenting system are entirely unrelated.
I’ve been impressed and surprised at the early success of it. With a quarter of our users on Instagram regularly, those people are generally happy to have us have a presence there. It’s not replacing anything, so there’s no effect on anyone who’s not a fan.
Frankly, if I want trade rumors I want text, not images as a jumping off point for discussion. No need to silo content over on Instagram.
Instagram is not for everyone of course…more than 3/5 of our readers don’t use Twitter regularly, but we still need to be there for the others.
Great…, can’t wait to see all the “this is fire” and little flame emoticons over and over again. I haven’t looked so maybe I’m dead wrong, but if they had to have help monitoring comments on the old system, who has the fun of deleting all the massive spam comments and ridiculous emoti-speak that overwhelms instagram.
Not sure I understand the flame stuff you’re talking about, but moderation hasn’t been an issue over there. I think we were overdoing moderation on the comments here, so we’ve backed off that quite a bit.
I’ll say this for the actual moderation here…they tended to be fair. Maybe there were word “triggers” but I’d have many comments sent to moderation, and couldn’t conceive of why. I intentionally try to write in ways that don’t break comment protocol, even when sharing honest criticism. I suppose the moderation fascinated me more than anything. My concern was that moderators might skim out comments that they didn’t agree with from a point of view perspective… But I can’t say that happened.
I’d also say that most regular commenters have a healthy sense of site ownership themselves…which is very nice…and they hold down the fort on trolls. I’m actually a little surprised at how high the degree of conversation is here…it’s enjoyable.