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State of the Huddle Address - 2016


Jeremy Igo

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Friends, Huddlers, Lurkers, 

The time has come for the annual State of the Huddle address. Each year I look back and review how we did in addition to looking forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead of us.

The Huddle had its busiest year to date. Most of this traffic was from Huddlers constantly refreshing their browsers in the hopes of having more @BlauOzean pictures from the Jacksonville pool, but that is neither here nor there. 

The day after the Superbowl the Huddle served over 2 million page views to over 500 thousand people. If you will remember, we upgraded the servers last offseason. Thankfully, the new Huddle Server performed like a champ. There is no scheduled server upgrade this offseason. 

The Huddle continues to grow and gain influence. While other media outlets are freezing wages, the Huddle is looking for new ways to innovate and expand, much like @SCP's colon 12 hours after a porterhouse dinner. 

The Huddle was represented at every game, both home and away, from Jacksonville to the Superbowl. Not many local media outlets can make this claim. 

Our admins and mods did a fine job of keeping this joint at a good balance between open discussion and rule enforcement. Big thanks to them. 

Our social media presence made great advances this season. We now have over 8 thousand twitter followers and 27 thousand facebook followers. This expands our reach and helps draw attention to important Huddle causes like black helmets and logos at midfield. 

Most of all, Huddlers displayed why this joint is what it is, with the best commentary and conversations ever to grace the interwebs. Big thanks you everyone not named @PanthersUnited(currently banned).

 

Enough review, lets look ahead to 2016.

As mentioned above, the Huddle is always looking to innovate and expand. As such, I will be looking to add staff this year. Things behind the scenes have officially gotten beyond my ability to manage by myself. I am now in the process of deciding which essential Huddle activities to delegate to Huddle staff. I don't have many details to give right now, but will be updating you throughout the offseason. 

If you have any special skills that don't involve your ability to consume alcohol or perform bodily functions, please get in touch with me. I am especially interested in hearing from folks with social media skills, video production, and/or systems administration in a linux environment. 

As staff is added, more unique content will follow. In turn, you will be able to waste even more time in this joint while pretending to work. 

 

In conclusion, the Huddle in 2015 made huge strides towards its ultimate goal. Which is.... 

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Love,

 

Management

 

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Nice! 

Jeremy, I have an idea for an offseason project. Being there are many new Huddlers, what are your thoughts on a "History of the Huddle" segment?  I have seen this place change a ton over the past what, almost 9 years since I have been a Huddler! 

Anywho, I think it would be pretty cool to feature and am glad to help. 

Love this place, thanks for making my pooping sessions and downtime that much enjoyable!

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Congrats Jeremy & all who make the Huddle work.  Great season.  Incredible how well the servers handled all the extra traffic with the Super Bowl run....  Impressive.

It's fun that my inaugural season as a member and not a lurker was a 17-2 NFC Championship winning season.  It still hurts that we lost the SB in the way we did.  But I can only hope it makes the Panthers stronger as a team.  There's so much promise in this team, hard not to be excited for next season.

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I've been here since the FIRST beginning.  I've witnessed all the transitions from the early crashes, locker room, bants and banns and SCP's bowl movements.  One thing about this message board is, even though we disagree sometimes, all get along with very few exceptions.  Early days saw some very unprofessional discussions but that has been handled in a very loving and effective manner.  We lost some good people because of that.

My hat is off to Jeremy, Zod, Igo, or what ever he maybe called (PU) from time to time.  You have to meet Jeremy if you haven't already.  My first face to face with him was at a tailgate.  The first words out of his mouth when we introduced ourselves was, 'Oh you're TPF, I don't agree with you but respect you'.  I'll never forget the sincerity he had with that statement.  He never explained what he disagreed about ( he may have been drunk) or what ever.  Jeremy is like a fine single malt scotch, he'll warm your heart.

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