A big thanks to all the writers who filled out the Writer Survey.

We communicate with a lot of the writing community directly via email and bulletin boards, but we would like to perform periodic suverys of this nature.

The information provided will  help us figure out how we build new features, and what kind of improvements people would like to see. It is also interesting to learn how writers are finding B/R, and which experiences have mattered the most to them.

Hey all,

First, I want to respond to a few of the comments I’ve received from some of our sports communities not equally represented here.

We are constantly working on ways to incorporate more and more of the quality content coming from all of our communities, and over the coming weeks and months, we will break through not only with Foxsports.com and CBSSports.com, but many more outstanding sporting sites found all over the Internet.

In the meanwhile, sit tight and whenever I see an opportunity to incorporate more of our content, I will do my best to continue this wave of momentum.

Back to last week’s syndications.

Monday on CBSSports.com: Michael McNeil (fantasy football, twice), Daniel Damico (college basketball), Jeff Allen (college basketball).

Monday on Foxsports.com: Erick Blasco (NBA).

Tuesday on CBSSports.com: Greg Checki (fantasy hockey), John Lorge (fantasy basketball), Dean Holden (NBA), Carter . (NHL), Travis Rand (NHL), Daniel Damico (college basketball).

Tuesday on Foxsports.com: Thomas Halzack (NBA), Dean Holden (Funhouse-NBA), Kris Pollina (Funhouse-humor), James Williamson (Funhouse-NFL), Buddy Smith (Funhouse-Oprah).

Wednesday on CBSSports.com: BabyTate (college football), Jameson Fleming (college basketball), Ron Van Lew (NHL).

Wednesday on Foxsports.com: John Lorge (NBA).

Thursday on CBSSports.com: Larry Burton (college football), Greg Checki (fantasy hockey).

Thursday on Foxsports.com: Andrew Ungvari (NBA).

Friday on CBSSports.com: BabyTate (college football), Sean Crowe (NFL), Michael Moore (MLB), and crawling out from under the stall to get his Big East preview in, Tony Bishop (college basketball).

Friday on Foxsports.com: Matthew Petersen (NBA).

Best,

Aron

Thanks to Lisa and everyone else who raised concerns about the b/rCS. We’re working through the issues, and we’ll announce next steps shortly.

Today, Bleacher Report has released two powerful new writing tools. Last week we pushed out Writer Polls, which have instantly improved the manner in which readers and writers interact. This evening, we are releasing two new ones…

The first feature we are pushing is one that users have been requesting for months…

Auto-Save

Effective tonight, every article will get auto-saved every ten minutes. If a writer gets logged out, loses computer power, or spills beer on their keyboard, then they will automatically recover their article the next time they open the “Write” form.

Writers can also auto-save whenever they like by clicking ’save draft’ on the Write interface.

The site will remember every writer’s most recent work-in-progress until they have successfully submitted the piece.

The second feature is a simple and subtle one, but still quite important:

Pagination.

Though it may seem like a minimal addition, page breaks are very important, and there are several reasons why we have added them:

*Research consistently shows that users are more likely to avoid reading articles that appear very long and therefore time-consuming. It’s that simple. Since Bleacher Report has so many great writers who put a lot of time into their articles, we felt that we needed page breaks as an option in order to limit how many readers bypass longer content.

*It’s the industry standard, and Bleacher Report is committed to giving our articles no less than the full treatment.

*It will help us learn a lot about what kind of articles users read, which in turn, will help us pass valuable information to our writers.

Help us understand more about Bleacher Report’s readers!  Please take this short survey here.

PC Magazine has just released its list of “Top 100 Undiscovered Websites,” and Bleacher Report has earned recognition.

According to the published criteria, Bleacher Report scored well when the judges rated the “content, update frequency, design, innovation, and usefulness or entertainment value (or both)”

This serves as a pat on the back for all of our talented writers, without whom we would not have the content worthy of such praise. This is yet more external verification that Bleacher Report’s writers can compete with the big names found on other networks.

The breadth of coverage was also highlighted, as PC Magazine was in disbelief at the site’s active Cricket community. But make no mistake about it: the diversity of coverage, and the number of writers that Bleacher Report has for each sport (even ones that aren’t popular in America) is just one more strength that sets us apart.

Want to let everyone know that our friends (and close neighbors) at Citizen Sports just launched a fantasy football app on Facebook for the 2008 NFL season. Part of the spiel is that you’ll have a shot to get into a custom celebrity league, where you’d rub elbows with some pretty cool folks (see below).

It looks like a good time, so if you’re interested, check out the description and sign up.

The 2008 NFL season marks the unveiling of Citizen Sports and SI’s new Fantasy Football 2008 on Facebook. In celebration of this occasion, Citizen Sports and SI will be hosting a celebrity fantasy league for the upcoming season – and as part of the promotion, one lucky fan will have the opportunity to take part in the league. Anyone who creates or joins a league will get a chance to participate in the celebrity league.

Whoever wins the spot will have their work cut out for them.  Celebrity participants include Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane, NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott, NHL star Jeremy Roenick, SI swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker, SI football writer Peter King, professional poker player Phil Gordon, former NFL star Brent Jones, author Michael Lewis, Jeff Ma, the real-life inspiration for the recent movie 21, film critic Ben Lyons, and CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz. All celebrities will be competing for charity, with the winner receiving $5,000 for the cause of their choice.

So who’s the smart money on? Well, Peter King has been covering football for SI for a long time now, but he frequently admits his own fantasy shortcomings in his online column. Brooklyn Decker is the youngest participant, and youth usually equals strong familiarity with Facebook.  It would be dangerous to underestimate her chances.

Brent Jones and Ronnie Lott were both really, really good at football, so it’s a good bet that they know how to evaluate talent.  But a Super Bowl ring (or several apiece) does not guarantee they’ll be adept at scouring the waiver wire for a mid-season sleeper.

It’s easy to call Billy Beane the favorite, since he does the GM thing for a living – with a real team. And Michael Lewis wrote Moneyball, a big bestseller about how good Billy is at what he does. It’s a different sport, though, and it’s no fun to pick Billy to win at everything, so we’ll peg these two as most likely to engage in a mutually destructive late season trade.
Expect Gordon and Ma to know the numbers back to front. They should both be in the hunt. Jim Nantz knows his football, and it would be foolish to overlook him. Roenick’s chances seem good, but anything can happen.  The smart money, though, goes on Lyons. Why? Because when you work as a critic, you better be able to back it up with results when all is said and done.

Think you can do better?  Only one way to find out…

Free signup for Fantasy Football 2008 is available anytime on the web at http://apps.facebook.com/fbfantasy/.

Quick searches have just become a LOT easier.

Today we rolled out a wonderful new feature that complements our search. All you have to do is begin typing in the “search” box at the top of the page, and it will bring down a menu of people and teams that you might be seeking. This list includes your favorite teams, Bleacher Report writers, and the athletes you love (or love to hate).

So give it a try.

Just begin typing into the Search box as normal, and watch as the magic begins to happen.

It was everything the Draft wasn’t: short, simple, to the point.

In the time it took the St. Louis Rams to decide on Mr. Irrelevant, you could have taken a crash course on the Top Five Games to Play During the NFL Draft. And to make it all the way to the David Vobora pick at 252, surely you must have been playing at least one of those games.

Out of more than forty entries, James Christensen authored the winning article in Bleacher Report’s 2008 NFL Draft Challenge. For his efforts, we’re sending James and a guest to the opening game of his choice this September.

Runner up honors go to Sean Crowe, who went for the sure thing… stoking the Raiders’ fire.

Good thinking, Sean. However, this is the NFL Draft we’re talking about, and even the best-laid plans have a tendency to backfire. Still, we’re sending an autographed, framed picture of Mel Kiper Jr. your way. He says you have “tremendous upside,” and are the odds-on favorite to win the 2009 Draft Challenge.

Congratulations to James and Sean, and thanks to all who participated.

Well after taking some time off from blogging to focus on building the community post-launch, we’re back now at the Bleacher Report blog and will be posting more regularly with updates, stories, and other random notes relevant to the Open Source Sports Network.

We’ve also got a great new blog template to match the Bleacher Report site, thanks to superb design work on both by our designer Shaun Andrews of Upstate Interactive.

There’s a lot of cool stuff going on here at Bleacher Report—from the development of new communities and the emergence of some fresh writing talent, to some cool new features we have in the works.

Keep checking back here for all the latest on what’s up at BR.