I founded Lakerholics 8 years ago in an attempt to resurrect the success of the defunct LA Times Lakers Blog, one of the launching pads for the careers of journalists like Eric Pincus, Mark Medina, and the Kamenetzky brothers.
While Lakerholics enjoyed modest success, it never approached the halcyon heights of the LA Times Lakers Blog. Fortunately, it also never suffered the vicious, divisive internecine fan warfare that led the Times to close its blog. Instead, it found its niche as an online home for expats from the LA Times Lakers Blog interested in engaging in online conversations about everything Lakers while the virtual landscape surrounding it evolved and transformed.
Blogs became prolific monetized aggregators, a wave of podcasters and videographers supplanted writers, and new syndicated sports networks dominated search engines as the Internet transformed sports journalism. The rise of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the social media explosion further fragmented the market just as brand expansion and consolidation further limited creativity as Lakers fan sites grew more indistinguishable.
That was the challenge I faced when I decided to devote myself full-time to transforming Lakerholics into a new kind of online Lakers fan community that could offer a richer experience than the cookie cutter aggregator sites. I wanted to create a site that offered compelling original content, engaging online conversations, and social networking opportunities that would enable it to become a virtual home for informed, intelligent Lakers fans.
It’s taken more than six months to finish the new Lakerholics website but I believe it’s going to be a one-stop source for diehard fans to get their daily Lakers fix and enjoy unique content and interaction with like minded fans. They’ll find exceptional original content including exclusive articles, videos, and podcasts, a blog timeline with breaking news and fan commentary, a compilation of intriguing polls, and library of links to everything Lakers.
Most importantly, Lakers fans will find a beautiful professionally designed easy-to-navigate interface, a portfolio of cool social media features making it easy to participate, and a fun community with whom to enjoy their team. What’s different about Lakerholics than other Lakers sites is its members. Where other sites are driven by teams of writers and news aggregators, Lakerholics is primarily powered by its users and its best original content are the posts, comments, and conversations by and between its members.
So if you’re looking for an online community where you can meet with other informed fans and have intelligent and respectful conversations about the latest Lakers news and events, please join us at Lakerholics.com.
Thanks, Tom. I am able to login now. This is a test comment. How do I edit my comment? never mind i got it.
You’re welcome, Buba. Hope you and yours are safe and healthy there in Atlanta. Please send a link to the blog to all of your Lakers friends in Georgia. Our hopes and prayers to your city and state during these terrible times.
I am very delighted with the new website, Tom. I like the fact that it shows only a portion of an article and you click to Read More. Makes it easier to quickly glance at the articles and scroll pass. There’s so much new content to explore and I find the Links page super convenient. I used to have to dig into ESPN just to see the schedule. The layout is clean and easy on the eyes. Great job and my gratitude for providing a home for us.
Thanks, Seely. Glad you like it. It will take time for everybody to get used to all the new features but I think it will help ex[and and streamline the conversations. Click on my name and take a look at my new profile. Or on Jamie’s. I’m hoping you and the other core members (those with blue check marks ala Twitter) will also complete your profiles to share with ther rest of us. Enjoy!
Also by having separate pages for Articles, Videos, and Podcasts, the Blog page will no longer have pinned or sticky posts so it should be easier to see what’s new. The Home, Blog, Podcast, and Video pages also have their own Recent Comments widget on the sidebar so you can always find the latest of each kind of post.
Not sure if I should share my real identity. They may have to relocate me.
What? You mean you’re not Seely Iggy? LOL. Easy to share but still remain anonymous, Seely.
How DO you edit your own comments?
There should be an Edit link directly below each comment you make, Seely. And a Delete button if you have second thoughts.
OK got it. Yeah, I always have second thoughts. Delete buttons are my best friends.
Tom I really dig the new, very modern site. You’ve really taken this in a bold new direction and I thank you for all your hard work and dedication!
Thanks, Jamie. It’s a cool site. WordPress + BuddyPress + Youzer. With a lot of great custom programming by our Webmaster Nikas Sikkandar, who’s been responsible for taking a lot of my crazy ideas and making them actually work as well as the great CSS formatting work that ties it all together in a smooth professional package.
Thank you Niyas for your great work.
Niyas has been such a great help in building the site, Seeley. I actually went through two other web designers and programmers before finding him, which is one of the reasons it took over six months to complete the project. The two guys I used first were from England and Australia and getting them to do what I wanted was like pulling teeth. Working with Niyas was such a pleasure. He not only understood what I wanted but was always patient and able to come up with great solutions as I struggled to cobble together my vision for the site. The technical problems he helped me solve could never have been solved by the other web consultants. We basically built a completely new structure for a website to replace the outmoded technology on our 8-year old previous site. Cost a lot of hard work and more money than I had hoped but I think it’s going to be worth it.
As always, thank you Tom for this purple and gold community!
Thanks, Bob. Great to see you join us on the new site. Hope all is well with you and your family during these tough times.
I like the site too, but it’s funky on my phone. I smiled at the mention of not imploding; came close a couple times during the lean years :).
Thanks for the feedback, John. I’ve been having issues with my iPhone. What kind of phone we’re you using? Apple or Android? We’re still troubleshooting some issues on smart phones, especially the sidebars.
Android. Some of the posts are very vertical, and a little jumbled. No sweat, the web is infinitely more readable on my PC; phones have just given us a shortcut.