Greetings, VEB!

I'm here today to tell you about a new semi-regular feature of VEB that I will be organizing. After the brief success of the Roger Dean Project, and considering how fruitful has been the recent presence of some of our rival blogs' members, I thought this off-season about a way to increase this sort of inter-blog discussion so that we might broaden our perspectives and learn more about our opposing teams from those who know them best.

The current plan is this: During many series opening games, there will be a parallel gamethread in the fanpost section where we will discuss the game as it unfolds with any members from our opponent's blog who wish to join us. This fanpost will be a neutral place, where our guests have the same rights as we. Any trolling from either side will be quickly addressed, but difficult questions will certainly be fair game. Remember, of course, that this project will be contained in its own threads, and will not affect the regular gamethread.

A week or so prior to a game for which we will have one of these threads, I will put up a fanpost on our opponent's blog, introducing them to the plan and inviting them to join VEB as members.

My plan is to begin this on April 20th against the Pirates. We'll continue each first game thereafter we see a new opponent. Whether or not we repeat these in subsequent series will depend on how recently we've played them, and how well it went the first time. I will remind you all the day before we do one of these.

I'll be semi-moderating these threads, and will hide anything that gets out of hand, but "flag and ignore" is, as always, the proper response to any problematic guests.

My ultimate hope is that we will learn a lot from these discussions, though of course some will be more useful than others.

Please let me know of any concerns or enthusiasms this plan might engender in you, and I'd love to hear suggestions.

Yours,

Fink