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PaulPettengill

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    Anthony Bonner

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  1. Thanks for all the kind words on the site! Feel free to email me directly at [email protected] if you ever see anything off, or if you have any suggestions for improvements. In the meantime, I've got about 50 or so features on my to do list that I need to get working on to help make the site the best it can be.
  2. Hey Billikens, My name is Paul Pettengill, and I started Verbal Commits a little over a year ago as a fan frustrated at how tough it was to keep up with recruiting for my alma mater, NC State. Initially I wanted the site to be a data aggregator of all the information out there presented in a clear manner with links back to the source of the information gathered. We try to provide the source of our information in every update. In this case it was the information on the New Orleans roster that was our external source. One of my main concerns for the site is that it is accurate and reliable, and doesn't participate in speculation. Until a couple of months ago, I was the only person working on Verbal Commits. This is why I wrote algorithms to try to bring in information from around the web on offers and commitments, as there was no way for me to keep up with all of the information personally, especially not while also trying to build the site. One of the automations I created was the "Recent Activity" section on each team's page, so it would be easy for fans to see what has been going on with their school. Unfortunately when we were creating a new team page for New Orleans due to their move back into Division 1, we saw that Max Banchy's New Orleans bio had him as a former Billiken, so when we attempted to create an accurate profile for Max Banchy to include his time SLU, this information then showed up on your team page. We've since amended Max Banchy's profile so that it no longer appears on SLU's chart. Typically we indicate (FWO) next to former walk-ons who leave programs. However in this case since he never played for SLU, and wasn't listed on the official rosters, I think that removing his name rather than adding (FWO) seemed more appropriate. I really appreciate the candor of this discussion. I do think we have a lot of room for improvement on many fronts. In terms of humanizing the site, in the past two months, we've brought on two amazing individuals, Nathan LeClair and Jordan Kendall, who have taken on the role of actively engaging with College, HS and AAU coaches. They've also been attempting to keep up with all of the major twitter and news sources to help with some of the stale issues you've been encountering. In terms of interest levels High,Medium,Low, we try to take the highest reported interest level we find for a player and a school. I'm hoping that moving forward we can more actively engage with the players themselves to find their interest levels in the schools recruiting them. As RUBillsFan mentioned, we do have a feedback site, and it is answered by real live human beings. Outside of a glitch a few months back where the feedback wasn't getting to us, we're pretty good about getting things updated and getting back to you. I'd love to hear other ways we can improve the site. Best of luck to your Billikens on the court, and on the recruiting trail! Paul
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