TDG News, The Community and The Hall of Fame

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Couple of important tidbits on staffing here at TDG.  Some good news/bad news and a very important pair of TDG awards.  This is a watershed moment for the blog and there is a really big announcement at the bottom.

Sad News

Many of you may have noticed that Matt has been rather quiet over the past couple months and his usual barrage of recruit profiles on National Signing Day was suspiciously absent.  Well, Matt is hanging up his keyboard and retiring from blogging.  The blogger lifestyle is very much like that of a rock star with late nights, free flowing booze, women and everybody wanting a piece of you while living in your mom's basement.  OK, so none of that is true except for maybe the late nights part.  But sometimes life takes priority. Taking quality time to write words about Gopher sports for you guys is important but there is a point where family and jobs and life take precedence.

It is in that spirit that Matt is putting blogging on hold. We wish him the best and will miss him, but he will remain on the Masthead and knows he is welcome to chime in at any time.  Hopefully he gets the itch and comes back one day.

Happy News

The good news is that we are adding a new writer and it is one I have been wanting to add for quite some time.  Please give a warm, TDG welcome to Steve. He's been known and will forever be known around here as Zips of Akron.  Zips has been writing at From the Barn for several years along with brief stints at Gopher Hole and Off Tackle Empire.  He loves Gopher basketball and is an excellent addition to the team. If you aren't already familiar with his writing, you will end up being as pleased as I am that he's on the team. Between Zips and UStreet and mowe, Gopher basketball is going to be covered like nowhere else on the interewebz.

It'll be like having a backcourt of Al Nolen and Arriel McDonald covering Big Ten guards.  It'll be like Blake Hoffarber and Sam Jacobsen raining down bombs.  It'll be like...you get the point.  I'm very excited about our Gopher basketball coverage in the future, now we just need a team to cover.

TDG Community Awards

So every year we get a small report from the SBN folks telling us who the top commenters were for the year, along with most Fan Shots and stuff like that.  But the commenting awards are fun cause it tells us who is the most active in the community.

DarkKnight5 1302 The SartorialisT 1126 amiller92 1028 GoAUpher 923 bewilder2 779 michael.vinters 720 morrismpls 678 jimipig 537 IronMonkee 502 GophersinNY40 488

So first of all, life has stepped in to steal DarkKnight for the last few months of 2015, so he must have really been spending too much time here in the first half of the year. But he'll hopefully be back soon. Ultimately, he and GoAUpher don't count as they are part of the staff. (GoAUpher: /sniffles)

So now, without further adieu I'd like to pass out two very significant and prestigious TDG Awards.

2015 Commenter of the Year: The SartorialisT

Congratulations to the artist formerly know as Erik T.  Do not share this award with your significant other or they may encourage you to spend less time here, which would be a terrible idea.  1,126 comments is pretty good but you can do better. 1,126 would have been 9th in 2013.  But really you came out of nowhere to lead the pack last year and that is something to be proud of.

TDG Hall of Fame: amiller26

I'd like to introduce the very first member of the TDG Hall of Fame.  Amiller26 is being recognized for his lifetime commenting totals and being a consistent, level-headed and valued member of the TDG community for years.  I have stats on top 10 commenters for every year and he is consistently in the top 10, accumulating to be the site's all-time unofficial commenting champion (technically I think I have more but I commented a lot in the early years and I don't count). As I said he is a valued member of the community, respected in the comments and the place wouldn't be the same without you.  You keep up the good work.  What do you receive for being the first and only member of the TDG Hall of Fame? For a brief moment you have our admiration and respect, but that's it. Now get back to commenting but only if you agree with me.

That's all I've got.  We wish Matt the best, super excited about Steve and congrats to The SartorialisT and amiller26.

Source: TDG News, The Community and The Hall of Fame