Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

A Very Scottish Weekend Indeed

Travis — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:55:47 EDT

2007 British Open - TNT, ABC - Thursday July 19-Sunday July 22 The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews will host the Open 2007 "a.k.a the British Open." This can be seen stateside on TNT beginning at 7 a.m. on Thursday as well as every early morning until Sunday. The Carnoustie is deemed by some to be the toughest golf course in the world. Remember this guy? His name is Jean Van de Velde and he provided one of the biggest meltdowns in recent sports memories. In 1999 when the Open was last held at "Car Nasty" VDV had a three shot laid on Hole 18, he needed a six to win, when he laid down a triple bogey, a seven shot for the hole. He eventually lost in a three-way playoff with some dude named Justin Leonard and some other dude named Paul Lawrie. Speaking of Lawrie, he is paired with Woods and Justin Rose. Their group begins at 9:09 a.m. on Thursday and 2:20 p.m. on Friday. According to the players and the scribes, this won't be the same Carnoustie as '99. The R&A (Royal and Ancient Golf Club) widened the fairways and the sun is planning on making an appearance all weekend in Angus, Scotland. All you Tiger haters will be praying that the winds off the North Sea show up too. MLS All Stars vs. Celtic Football Club - ESPN2 - Thursday, July 19th, 9 P.M. EST The Celtic Football club is an old world and very famous club. Here is a chance for the MLS to show what it is made of. No David Beckham won't be there, either will Freddy Adu. Somewhat known Landon Donovan will be there. We will get to see some of the up-and-comers that will be stars of the up-and-coming league. Eddie Johnson, Ricardo Clark, Juan Toja, Jonathan Bornstein, and Michael Parkhurst are all 23 or younger. New York Mets @ Los Angeles Dodgers - FOX - Saturday, July 21, 3:30 EST The Dodgers are in first place in the west and the Mets are likewise in the East. Brad Penny vs. Jorge Sosa. But the question is do we really think either one of these teams can win a playoff series?Los Angles Galaxy vs. Chelsea - ESPN - Saturday, July 21st, 8:30 PMThe MLS will attempt to show the world it can compete against clubs from Europe. At the time of this article, David Beckham's status is questionable and unknown [UPDATE: He'll play.]. Originally this was the David Beckham opening act. In fact, ESPN will air a one hour pre-game David Beckham hype session. However, Beckham may not play in the game later that night. FIFA Under-20 World Cup Championship - ESPN - Sunday, July 22nd, 3:15 ESTBig game for the hardcore soccer people, but it seems they have a World Cup every month now.

Travis Duncan is a writer for The Indy Sports Blog