Minor Website Changes on Pitcher List

Today is opening day. The best day of the year. It’s not-so-coincidentally also Nola Day.

There are many incredible additions that have already arrived in Pitcher List 3.0 – revamped GIF Database, new look, incredible writing staff, Injury Glossary, etc. – and many more features we can’t wait to share with the community, including our daily morning podcast, stat leaderboards, player article archives, and much more.

There are two more additions that I wanted to talk to you, the Pitcher List community, about. Our new partnership with FantasyDraft for DFS analysis pieces and a few sprinkled banner ads on the site.

I’ve been running this site since Pitcher List was actually called Pitcher GIFs back in 2014, and to see the current Pitcher List 3.0 in full stride has been a surreal experience. Back in November, I searched for a few new writers, as I needed some help in the database. What happened was over 25 new staff members coming aboard as I couldn’t find reasons to turn them away. With each new move, something fantastic was getting added, a new feature I’ve always wanted was being built, and the response we’ve had so far just in the pre-season has justified every push forward we’ve made at Pitcher List.

But there was a small problem. With all these incredible changes, I began to realize that I would need some extra help to afford the costs. I cannot thank enough those that support us on Patreon, as it’s helped the site stay afloat over the past year, and in order to keep moving forward, I had to explore other avenues to maintain the ever-evolving Pitcher List machine. It shouldn’t rely on you, the reader, to support the site, it should rely on us.

We wanted to achieve four things:

1) To keep paying our writers while continuing to add new features at Pitcher List.

2) Avoid any sort of paywall. We are 100% free and will always stay that way.

3) Not damper the experience of using our website.

4) Provide a monetary solution that doesn’t depend on the user.

With that in mind, let’s talk about these two additions that we think are acceptable compromises.

First is DFS analysis. We’re not the first site to have a daily sponsored DFS article, but I’m proud of how we’re doing it. The normal process is to rely on the readers to sign up and we’d get a portion of the money you would deposit on the site.

We’re not doing that. Play DFS, don’t play DFS, you do you. It’s on a “per article” basis, which means we’re here to help those that want to play DFS without forcing you to take part in it. That’s how it should be and we’re thrilled to be partnering with a company that shares a similar philosophy.

The second is a little different. Banner ads are a massive stigma on the internet and I have been avoiding adding them for all the reasons you know. With their introduction today, I made sure two things were kept in order: 1) They would be unobtrusive (i.e. never inside articles nor popping up), and 2) There would be few.

I understand if you don’t like them. I definitely don’t. They’re limited to underneath articles and a pair on the sidebar, sandwiching The List. That’s it. If you want to use Ad-Blocker, I have no problem with that. If you’re willing to turn it off for a moment to help keep us doing what we do, you’re awesome and we thank you for it.

I think we’ve achieved these goals with these new additions, creating a compromise that will help push Pitcher List further without taking a step back. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these changes and I hope this is the first step toward Pitcher List becoming a self-reliant machine that never stops churning.

 

-Nick Pollack, Founder