Charles Fischer

I got a good look at Robby Ashford in this game against the Beavers, and I was surprised at his appearance. Often dual sport athletes like this are Dennis Dixon-type builds, but Ashford has big thighs and a solid build. He looks more like LaCorey Collins from 20 years ago who started as a slower WR, but ended up as a slimmer TE for the Ducks. His visage is impressive, and they reported on the Live Stream that he was the No. 1 Baseball player in Alabama. And he is an amazing athlete; this catch below should not have been made and saved the game....

Thus far in 2021 ... Oregon State, (ranked as high as No. 16) has not even scored on Oregon! This time it was Cullen Kafka for five innings and freshman Andy Mosiello for the final four innings of shutout pitching. The big play was a hit by freshman Josh Kasevich, that went deep to the right field corner by just a foot and scored two. Then Robby Ashford, (yes, him) hit an infield bouncer that he beat to first base. Thus far in 2021 it is 10-0 in runs versus Oregon State? Whoda-thunk-it! Coach Waz has this team believing! (And hitting!) Final game is tomorrow at 1:05 PM and can be watched live stream at GoDucks.com. (go to baseball schedule and scroll down to this game and click on link)

Beat me to it! Which championship have the Huskies NEVER won? No...it is not an Indoor Mens National Championship....it is the sport of any NCAA Mens Championship! I guess they don't make men of championship quality at Washington? (Whew!)

The Softball team had a slugfest in the first game, but needing to do so against Oregon State as they brought their bats to the Jane!

Can you imagine how cool it would be on a National Championship team? More tweets that are sweet!

This post below was in another thread by Bruce3404... Well, yet another Duck National Championship. Not only did the men win, but they overperformed the projections by 8 points and scored the second most points ever in a men's indoor championship with a total of 79. The stars were truly shining today. Soph Cole Hocker won both the mile and 3000 (upsetting teammate Cooper Teare who finished second). Remarkable performance considering he ran a mile semi, a mile final and the 3000 in a 25 hour span. This is Edward Cheserek kind of talent! Perhaps the biggest surprise was Emmanuel Ihemeje in the men's triple jump. Seeded a distant 5th, he won it all and got the additional gift of making the Olympic standard. As an Italian citizen, he's one Duck we will definitely see in the Olympics and his leap was 3rd best IN THE WORLD this year and would have gotten him 6th place in the last World's Championships. Did I mention that he's only a freshman? This must have been especially rewarding for coach Robert Johnson who was a triple jumper in college and despite all of Johnson's successes, this was the first time one of his TJers won a national title. Special mention to Reed Brown, who ran a mile semi yesterday, a gutty opening leg on yesterday's DMR and finished 5th in today's mile. Again, that's a lot of work in 24 hours and while he won't get headlines in the paper tomorrow, he's the sort of hard worker that all championship teams need. Meanwhile, another freshman, Micah Williams set a PB and won the 60 in 6.49, the third fastest time in the world this year and the kid is only 19! Oh yeah, he also carries a 4.0 GPA and he's an Oregon kid as Charles mentioned. Gaston Bouchereau, who wasn't projected to even make the final added another 4 points for the Ducks while finishing 5th. The Aussie Charlie Hunter was also a National Champ in the 800, running a brilliantly thought out race and winning by only .02 seconds. Huge props to Coach Johnson and distance coach Ben Thomas, who engineered the winning DMR race perfectly and juggled around his superstars to allow them to contribute the maximum points in the individual events. I do not think they could have been coached any better and there's a reason he was named the national assistant Coach of the Year last year and should repeat this year. If you're listening, Uncle Phil, we need to keep this guy around, much like Coach Johnson was kept in town during the Vin Lananna era.

You may think of it as intrusive, when all we are trying to do is make it easier on the readers. Pulling out big spaces means you don't have to scroll down the page as much to get to more replies. Adding paragraph spaces makes it a ton easier for older eyes to read. In the end...it is about being considerate toward the other readers and members. Do I beat up people in public for not fixing their posts? When it only takes seconds to click your cursor and backspace or hit enter/return a time or two? No, we just thought we would help...

Unbelievable, and the 34 National Championship for Our Beloved Ducks!

Well, it would be great if you could. For you and anyone else who can....please email me charles@fishduck.com

What Santa Rosa brought up about me being intransigent...is true, but I am very big on upfront disclosures. Before a writer comes on-board, he/she knows precisely how we do things, what is expected and when and the newbie simply decides how often to write and we have a schedule for them to check. For example, every-other-Friday, etc. So my process is tell the prospective volunteer up-front what we are doing, and then he/she can decide if they want to be a part of it. If they do, then they are expected to follow-through on what we agreed to as we are all adults here. But that is not what happens sometimes, as volunteers try to change the rules to their own tastes. I reaffirm our rules and they can then decide if they wish to follow or leave and often--they leave. My rules did not change, and they knew up-front what the expectations were, but sometimes when people are contributing a ton...they get the "you-owe-me" virus and try to apply leverage and follow up with ultimatums. Why would anyone deal with this stuff in his spare time like I do? I've asked myself that often, and I think that I am finally weary of it. To Answer Your Question: What Moderators Do *****The key component is having the time over a shift to come in every half hour and read the latest posts to check for violations. When one is found....the moderators can "hide" the post in two clicks and then Personal Message the member that Charles will get to him tonight with an email. Sometimes the post can be edited by the moderator and we communicate by text (since it does not happen often) and the moderator edits the post and tells them that Charles did it. (Because that is effectively true as the moderator is a proxy for me) --Beyond that, it is dependent upon how much time the moderator has during their shift. I would like three articles posted during their shift, and again--these are all things that I do too. It is not hard and if you are "on-shift" anyway...it helps the community as we have more content to read and discuss. --For those who want to....I allow moderators to go fix posts that hurt the eyes...that have no spacing, or monster spacing. I allow them to fix the titles in new topics to follow AP (Associated Press) style with capitalizing the first letter of every key word in the title. (Words like "the" "and" "in" and so on are not capitalized) They look better, but I do not expect members to do that automatically but if the moderators have time and want to--it adds to the feel of the forum. --Again...not key, but if you post game results and start the conversation--that is nice. But not crucial as eventually one of the rest of us will. So you see....the moderator volunteer position is the easiest I have among any positions I've had available over time. But the key component is whether or not you have the time during the weekday. I thought some retired guys would want to do it, but that turned out not to be true. And I did not have my parameters set yet because I was still learning what I wanted or not with the forum. What you see above is what my "job description" consists of at the moment.

Your comment is completely correct, as I am not easy to work with. Here is the reality; if you bend to what each person wants in order to have their volunteer efforts--eventually you no longer have a forum that is yours, what you intended. It becomes a mish-mash of strange rules and exceptions with a ton of ridiculous conflicts among rules that don't make sense. How do I know this? Been-there-and-done-that. In the beginning, I did not know how to manage a site/forum and volunteers and tried to please all the most important contributors of content and help. Then I got into big messes that took a ton of time and sapped my energy as I was dealing with people...and then they left anyway! So I determined to figure out what works, stick to it. There is a former corporate attorney who used to post a couple of times a day with his insights about college football, the state of the conference and even betting lines. He is a very talented writer and wrote a ton of articles for us on the FishDuck article blog as well. He is no longer with the site in any way as I would not yield to his new demands for exceptions and separate rules that benefit him, or other rules that would not apply to him. Nobody knows all the headaches I had behind the scenes, and I finally cut the cord. No exceptions, and I don't care who you are. I want low-maintenance people, as I have enough problems in my life. Keep in mind that according the ranking agency of Alexa (An Amazon Analytics company) and confirmed by Google Analytics....my FishDuck Article Blog was in the Top 1% in the World for 2020 (again) for pages read. The writers and editors will tell you that yes....I am anal about how things are done. But it works... So should I have to change what works from one of the best in the world with all-volunteers and only one article a day.....just to please someone? I would be an idiot to change what I'm doing over there. But that site is steadily declining as I am not recruiting, training and monitoring new writers. As people cycle out--they are not being replaced as I am tired of the volunteer rat-race. That might define the most what the real problem here is... The method of moderating the comments over there has been transferred to the forum; they have worked for the past three years and I see no reason to change them. I did want to apply publishing principles to some aspects of the forum--things that would not apply to members, but to moderators. But not enough people are available to cover/moderate during the day so... It's OK. I've had a good run, helped a ton of people gain skills that allowed them to get hired elsewhere, and made some great friends along the way like you. And yes...I would love to have that craft beer someday. I got a big kick out of the Media GameDay passes....

I can't do that during the weekday, as that is when most people post. But I do appreciate you thinking on our behalf for solutions...

You are very kind and I thank you. No, groups of people cannot moderate themselves. Keep in mind--back over in the comments below articles--I used to give warnings and explain our rules as they occurred. Then I switched to simply editing or removing the comment, and dealing with the offender privately by email. So you and everyone else did not/does not actually see the offending posts/comments unless you were one of the few that read it before one of us did in management. The rate of violations is quite low, but if left unchecked--they expand quickly as human nature takes over. (People become emboldened) I know people here have well-meaning thoughts, but they have not had the years of experience doing this that I've had. "Whatever you allow, you will see again." (Guaranteed) EVERYBODY messes up on occasion, that includes me as well. And in the past we fix the post, (edit or delete) and privately remind the regular, and then we forget about it and life goes on. My point is...even regulars mess up and with posts that can start WWIII if left alone. In the end...it has my name on it, and I would rather have no forum, than a cesspool. (Because within a month--that is what will happen) My thanks for your consideration.

I've been in this "volunteer" business for nine+ years, and I may have enough for one stretch, but not enough four months later. And then a year later?

The problem is the same with going to the old format of moderating comments below an article; somebody has to have the time during the day to do it. We cannot lock threads, and even with one unlocked....unless someone is watching--we have misbehavior or mistakes by members posting. I must have enough moderators and we don't...

"Intrusive" is an interesting word you choose, as it implies that the writer is given rights as-per his interpretation of what he can post, and anything different is "intrusive." By contrast....I have not been secretive...but blatant as heck; "Be polite and respectful, keep it clean and no politics." What could be misconstrued with that? And yet it happens a few times a week! An attorney told me a week ago he was leaving the forum because I deleted a line where he took a nasty shot at our own beloved "BigDucksFan" and while I left everything else he wrote--he left "because I like the rough-and-tumble of other boards." Baloney. He wanted free license to insult people. I asked him that "if you cannot make your point without belittling someone....how intellectual is that?" But in the big picture--you are right, in that it does turn a percentage away and I am fine with it. This software has a WONDERFUL function in that our moderators can "hide" a problem post so that no one can see it further and I can deal with it at night. Moderators do not have to deal with violators; I do at night. But yes...I want every post read and checked, and that is how I protect everyone from the Trolls, and from each other. WE ALL MESS UP on occasion, and both former moderators confronted me twice about posts I wrote that violated my own rules. They were right, and I deleted my posts. (And took a ruler to my knuckles) My point is, the work is hardly work--it is easy. But you are coming in every half hour and reading posts....and posting three articles a day. Not hard but you must have the time... I love what I created, but if the interest to keep it alive by doing your part is not there...then it is not there. I've done my part; I've spent the money and three months of my life perfecting it, and I was hoping that since it was a free forum--people would be willing to chip in some time and do their part. (But I know that is contrary to what most people feel, and I do understand) But heck....I HAD TO TRY IT. I've wanted to try to create a forum for years, and frankly--I am pleased with the result. But I have to go back to real work, and I am OK with hiding it and keeping it alive, but in mothballs. I know others would say, "Charles....let us moderate ourselves. We're adults!" Nope...nine years of moderating thousands of posts gives me reality. With no moderators--it turns into the cesspool that OregonLive comments were before they finally took them down. This sounds TERRIBLE, but I'd rather have no forum, than one like OregonLive had. I will miss this and all of you. Taking notes at a Spring Football Scrimmage years ago. (When scrimmages were open...)

Oh the pride of North Eugene, (Robert Ahlstrom) was a surprise start to me. He was beat-up a bit last year, was a stud before that and only pitched four innings last week, although did well. Today he was devastating for seven innings as the Beaver batters could not string anything together against his nasty left-handed wide curve-ball. Rico Tellache (the pride of Canby!) closed out the ninth inning after a superb inning from Hunter Breault in the eighth. The usual suspects, (Tanner Smith and Oregonian Kenyon Yovan) came through with big hits to drive in run totals that we've rarely seen in Corvallis. The only negative? Too bad there wasn't a crowd there to disappoint! Go to GoDucks.com for an update at 10:00 PM and all the official stats. My FishDuck Friends....this was a GREAT win from so many angles. The offense is already better than the prior coach, and the line-up has so many Oregonians, that it makes it so much more interesting for us. The way it breaks across the plate...whew!

I used to use a ton of UO students for the article blog, and in fact one year had the most UO Internships of any company registered with the Career Center at UO. Without going too much into it--let's just say that students have changed...a LOT in just five years concerning their attitudes, expectations and work habits. I have the occasional exception to that, (Alex Heining is our Editor-in-Chief and has been exceptional) but you have to go through too much of a haystack to find such a person--when it used to be the norm. So....their values are different than mine, and thus why I would not want a college student moderating my forum. I am very old-school, and let's just say that I have some legendary stories about students over the past nine years that back up my concerns. We do not have critical mass yet--not even close-to charge a subscription, and the other routes are more work than what the results would generate. I do have a running joke about the sites; they are not non-profit, but have always operated that way! My thanks.

There are some local radio guys bringing this up along with the scuttlebutt on Twitter; a number of big-name teams are out of their conference tourney and the NCAAs due to COVID transmission such as Duke, Virginia and Kansas. The thinking goes is that many think Oregon is now a No. 6 seed and you may not want to try to slide up. Keep your health and go home? I do see the other side of it; regardless of the NCAAs....you like to win the Conference tournament championship to stick-it to the other league members. And there is payback as USC did kick our butt recently, and the darn Buffalos have our number in their house--how about at Las Vegas? Also....they said that both OSU and Oregon have been tested and are fine for tonight's contest. I see value in both sides of this... What would Dillon say?

Oh baby....this is precisely what I hoped you would do Bruce and THANKS! It would be so cool to win one again... We have so much fun dumping on the Huskies in Football and Basketball--to see it in Track & Field as well is just too funny!

I would doubt that anyone would want to take over all the tech issues and the bills of the forum, but I thought I would reach out to everyone before I made any changes. Thanks Duckdude, as I appreciate your replies to posts.

The challenge is nobody being available to moderate posts during the weekday; I will not allow a free-for-all, which is what it would evolve into once people saw that there were no immediate consequences for impolite behavior, a bad word, or worse yet--a political comment. There could be an all-out political war that happened during the day before I see it in the evening. I need 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM covered during the week, as I will be responsible for the other 12 hours and for all of the weekend. (60 hours to my 108 hours, but the 60 are during the prime-time) Fixing the number of posts is something learned over time, and is not a biggie because people still like to read them, even if they don't respond. But enough people to rotate as moderators during the work-week? Without that the forum will have to be hidden from view, and we all lose in that scenario. You have been a GREAT member here Haywarduck--thank you.

I have dedicated three months of my life and a couple of thousand dollars to create this forum, but I am looking to put it into mothballs in the next few days. It is a neat creation and one that I would not want to destroy, but simply bring back at a later time when I can put more money into it. (Hence in mothballs and unavailable to us for posting) Below are some Facts: --I have to resume full-time work soon, and will not be around during the weekdays to monitor things. Somebody has to or bad things happen.... (Been-there-and-done-that) --If a ton of new stuff is not posted every day, then readers go away nearly overnight; we saw this earlier this week when I took a few days off from this forum. (So somebody has to be posting stuff throughout the day) --I had two moderators, but for various reasons it did not work out. I do not have the time to constantly be begging for new volunteers, training them and monitoring them. --We have a 12 hour window each day during the weekdays that I will not be around, and even if I divide that into four hour slots--there are not enough volunteers and they quit within three months as the last two did. --Putting this forum into mothballs would be terrible, as I love this community and want to discuss Our Beloved Ducks with you. But no volunteer wants to be posting stuff and hanging around the site reading/moderating posts for tons of hours per day during the week. I don't blame them, as I cannot either. And they will not do it long before they get tired of it. (The "COOL" factor dissipates soon) If you have ideas....post them here or email me charles@fishduck.com

David, this is a very thoughtful and insightful article that certainly altered my mind-set about the development of Herbert. My thanks!

The number of great Oregon Sports to watch and appreciate this weekend is amazing. We have the No. 23 Mens Basketball going for a Pac-12 Tournament title, the Baseball team ranked at No. 23 going up to Corvallis to face the No. 16 Beavers. In addition to this, No. 5 Softball taking on three games while the No. 1 Mens Indoor Track & Field team is going for National Championship! Wow! And boy....this has to be the biggest rivalry weekend ever? The Mens Basketball play Oregon State tonight at 5:30 PM on the Pac-12 Network, while the Softball team has Oregon State visiting on Saturday afternoon and the Baseball team has three games in Corvallis! FIVE GAMES against the Beavers? That is way-too-much orange for my tastes...