Questions from Readers....

1) A reader reminded FAUXRUMORS a few weeks back, it has been over 6 months since we last had a post devoted to publicly answering our voluminous reader e-mail. For those who aren't aware, we can be reached via Fauxrumors5@yahoo.com Unfortunately the last post where we answered those questions did not survive the hostile computer hacking job that temporarily disabled our site for 2 weeks in early March. (About 2/3 of the original pre-March posts were saved, but that wasn't one of them.)


2) One of the most frequently asked question we get is "Why Don't You Just Use Your Real Names?" and " Why are all posts in the 'third' person? There are a few answers to that question(s), but first and foremost the answer is that it keeps things interesting. ; ) Many of our sources would be less likely to talk if we used our real names, since some of our real names could potentially link us to certain hockey people and perhaps make them a bit exposed. If we stay anonymous then they can talk to us under this extra layer of anonymity. WE write in the third person because this isn't a one man outfit. We ALL take the credit/blame for our posts, so we decided long ago to not only do that, but write the posts to reflect that philosophy.

3) Also, we think who we are is far more boring than what FAUXRUMORS has become. It is even more boring than when people say they have "figured out" who we are. A few bloggers who have claimed to be us, we have actually become friendly with. Believe us, they are even more interesting than we are. LOL On occasion we have considered dropping the anonymity bit, but then we think, “What fun would that be?”Our identities would be a big story were we Gary Bettman, Ted Saskin or Stan Fischler, and although we never confirm or deny anything, we will tell you all that we are not any of those folks!! LOL


4) We also get many questions are always about the rumors we put out there. A few words about rumors to clarify how we work here. How we do things is a tad differently than many other rumor sites and therefore is often misunderstood. There are the Several Rules of FAUXRUMORS and Hockey Rumors.

• Rule #1. We report on what we hear from MANY NHL contacts at all levels. We spend way too much time on the phone and, quite often, we run over our allotted minutes per month. Which is very scary in of itself. LOL
  
  
• Rule #2. We don't make things up. Quite often we put out something that may not make sense, but you never know. For instance: Clarke is no longer GM in Philly, Garth Snow is the GM in NY. The Fedorov and Thornton trades, etc. If had we had them and tried to put out those rumors, would have gotten ripped apart if they didn't happen.
  
  
• Rule #3. Since we are writing almost everything we hear, most of what we write will NEVER happen. Many try to use this fact against us, but our loyal readers understand that this is how that part of the NHL works. Based on what we have learned, only 5%(or less) of what is discussed between GMs or GMs and agents ever amounts to anything. And yet ofcourse they are always talking. We know that we manage to dig up only a small percentage of that huge amount of discourse. So you do the math. If we nail ten things a year, we're very happy. We write this stuff, because who doesn't like to look at a trade possibility and think about whether or not they would do it? At least here you can be assured that it came from a source that is trusted. People used to try and trick us all the time, and this last year we fell for a few of them. Now we don't report a rumor unless the source has proven to be reliable, we have talked to them on the phone or they have confirmed they are on the inside through a mutual hockey friend that we trust.
  
  
• Rule #4. We don't always get the complete deal correct. Often we get some of the names that are being discussed. This is something that we seem to have had to write a thousand times. Especially if the deal doesn't make "cap sense." What is fun for us is if we get a solid rumor that a deal doesn't make cap sense, because that leads us in the direction of what kind of deal will get made to clear up space.

• Rule #5.(Most important!)It's only hockey, so try and have some fun here. We don't remove any comments even if they don't bring anything to the table or are just intended to rip us. Rip the trade if you think it is a bad move, but don't shoot the messenger. ; ) We enjoy the discussions that the rumor posts invariably evoke. That's why we're here; to discuss what we all love most, NHL hockey!
  
  
• Rule #6. Don't believe everything you read about us on other blog sites. There is a TON of misinformation about us. There are also some really great writers and some really bad ones. Many of the good ones and some of the bad hold some sort of hatred for us that we have never fully understood. Many times the mere manner in which we write our posts(numbered) garners ire. We have repeatedly tried to reach out to them, as we did with Eklund last month. Like we said, It is only hockey, and in our opinion the more bloggers the better. We grew up in a time where the only hockey we read was in 'The Hockey News' once a week. We think this is much better! Don't you?
  
  
• Rule #7 We also put out personal rumors about players ONLY if we know them to be fact (Via multiple reliable sources). Our expose on the Pronger/Malkin situations and allegations are prime examples where we feel we did our best investigative work!
  

5) We also have subtly altered our blog over the past year or so. We started off this enterprise about a year ago this time. Like now, there was very little NHL news so that inspired some unscrupulous folks to start blogs and lie about who they were. One that we recall came from an individual who had folks believing he was a lawyer working for the Montreal Canadians: http://nhl-insiders.blogspot.com/ He had poor saps eager for news hanging on to his every word. Of course(as you can read on that now defunct blog) we at FAUXRUMORS knew early on he was a fraud. However, that inspired us to begin our own, factually based blog with our very own Faux sources.



6) Since we are a totally non-profit outfit(and always will be!) we don't always have rumors to share. We refuse to make up rumors out of thin air. Others are much more adept at this than us anyway. ; ) Therefore we altered our initial rumor site into a general hockey discussion site and since this change the number of regular readers has grown, even after the late February hijacking.



7) Our long and extensive road trip around the league last fall really opened our eyes to how many hard core fans the league has, and we thank everyone who has written us and ofcourse who we have met in our travels. We look forward to continuing this for many years to come; possibly adding additional writers and ofcourse sources. Thank you again to all of you. Without whom we wouldn't be writing this blog!