MASN Takes On The Natosphere

Meant to mention this earlier, but lord it's a chore writing anything about this team right now. Apparently MASN, no longer content with providing thoroughly mediocre quasi-HD baseball coverage that consistently shorts its DC-based junior partner (and slipping us a few bucks in a plain white envelope every month) has branched out onto teh interweb in a big way.

The new venture is MASNFantasyCamp.com, an online community for fans of the Nats, Orioles and Ravens. Shamelessly cribbing from the press release:

At MASN Fantasy Camp, fans are encouraged to build a personal profile page to connect with other fans, post videos and photos, write their own blogs and organize fan events in their area.

Fans will be able to upload and organize photo albums and video clips, contribute their thoughts on the community message boards, and have their opinions heard through their very own MASN blog. Select member contributions will also be featured on MASN's official website at MASNsports.com.

Now if Facebook and Barack Obama have taught me anything, it's that online communities are the wave of the future, if you expand "the future" to include 6-18 months into the past. Nevertheless, more online watering holes are never a bad thing, particularly as BallparkGuys.com teeters on the edge of insolvency and Yuda's Gameday Chats seem to be in their own twilight hours. I must say though, MASNFantasyCamp.com's business model seems based on some questionable assumptions:

1. Ravens fans know how to use the internet correctly. The results of this ESPN Sports Nation poll suggest otherwise. (H/T to NTP's favorite futbawl blog.)

2. The general antipathy that Nationals fans feel toward their crapbag, skinflint, Keystone Kops franchise hasn't metastasized into a loathing of other Nats fans, who must be farking idiots for continuing to watch this unmitigated natural disaster masquerading as a baseball team.

3. Every sentient human on Earth who wants a blog doesn't already have one.

Still, I have no doubt that MASN Fantasy Camp will meet, nay exceed, the standards set by MASN's broadcasting and journalism divisions. Which means there's no truth to the rumors that the host servers are parked in a basement in Gori.