Your Call 10.7

Mornin', everyone. How about that Kei (pronounced, "Kay") Nishikori? Yesterday, he upset the eighth-seed in Stockholm, Marcell Granollers, and now gets former Top 15 player Domink Hrbaty or Nicolas Lapentti. Meanwhile, very much in line with our discussion of the Tennis Masters Cup race the other day, Stanislas Wawrinka appeared to buckle under the pressure and took a bad loss to relative unknown Philipp Petzschner in Vienna. But this morning, I'd like to reflect a bit on on TennisWorld, taking stock of where we are and where we're heading.

TW has been up and running for almost four years now, and if I've learned one thing through that time (All those battles! All those laughs! All those typos and factual errors!) it is that TW is a liquid entity. People wander in and out of this space;  some become addicted and have to quit cold, like certain people in 12-step programs, while more temperate types have been with us for the entire, long ride. Some people have lurked here forever, never to post a comment. Others, it seems, don't do anything but comment. It's all good. One thing I'm especially proud of is the way the vast majority of you have learned reacted to the occassional troll with the only viable strategy: ignore him (or her). If we were trout, we'd be brown trout - very hard to fool, even with a tempting bait.

So I'd like to do three things today: First, ask how you all feel about the present nature and direction of the site. Do you all feel comfortable and secure coming here? This is always an issue, because I get occasional complaints about the site being "cliquish." To some extent that's inevitable, and I've found that it's more of a reflection of the timidity of the "outsider" than any snooty or snotty intent by TW lifers. In fact, it gives me great pleasure to see how welcoming so many of you lifers are when someone new joins the conversation. How often have I seen a "welcome" comment from Tari (and others).

Some readers object to all the OT chatter, which is now built into threads like this one (a Your Call). But it's almost impossible to keep out, especially on threads that aren't dedicated "red meat" posts. The policy here has always been to encourage everyone to have a good time, and build a sense of community, but to keep the IM type comments to a minimum when they're clearly exclusionary of everyone else.

Second, I'm contemplating a weekly feature, probably for Friday publication, in which I'll  answer a particularly interesting question from one of you. Yesterday, for example, Roee posted a comment asking me what I thought about Shahar Peer's recent results. I didn't have the time to answer (besides, Master Ace jumped in with a pretty good analysis). You know, I don't always get a chance to read through all the comments, never mind respond to questions. And sometimes a question put to me is worthy of a general site-wide discussion.

Later today, I'll publish a red meat post based on an exchange of emails with Nick McCarvel, who worked here last year as an intern and has now landed a job with Seena Hamilton and Associates, the outfit that promotes the junior mega-tournament, the Easter Bowl. I'd like to make this a regular feature, so if you have a special question that's fit for discussion (Who do you think improved the most in 2008?, rather than How tall is Olivier Rochus?), email it to me via the Contact tab instead of posting it in the comments. Each week I'll choose one or two questions to answer, for the purposes of general jawboning. We'll see how it works out.

And lastly, I want to remind you all that TW is an open, inclusionary place, which - perhaps counter-intuitively - means that we have a set of standards. They're the guidelines used by the Mod Squad for moderation purposes, and I'll reiterate them here, although you can always find them under the Categories (TW Site Rules). These standards have been the same since I instituted them, back when this was more of a booming frontier town than a city on a hill. Here's the verbatim post:

In reviewing the site rules myself, I am extremely happy with how rarely they have to be invoked. They seem almost superflous, but it's always good to be aware of the potential issues. Y'all have formed a great, tight community. Thanks for that, it makes my job a real pleasure.

- Pete