We’ve also got 6 additional people who would like to play - so, if this idea appeals to you and you haven’t spoken up yet, just leave a comment.  I’m happy to organize a second league if there are enough people.

This was definitely a bit outside the box for me, as I’m not known to be the organizational type and tend to just go with the flow, at least when it comes to extracurricular activities.  But hey, I really wanted to play fantasy football this year, so I did something about it :)  Can’t wait for the season to get started …

While I won’t re-visit all the back and forth, Louis’ post actually became the impetus for what has become a great (and now official … keep reading) relationship. In the days that followed his post, we (at Mashable) updated our attribution policies, and in the months since, I think have generally moved in a very positive direction editorially, both in terms of how we source our stories and our overall quality, reader engagement, and relationships with other bloggers. I discussed these “lessons learned” in a post a couple weeks ago.

Moving onto the news of the day, I’m super excited to announce that Louis is joining ReadBurner in an official role as an advisor. Louis has followed the emerging RSS/aggregation space as close as anyone, and his daily insight into the products and innovations taking place there have been invaluable to us. Having him in our pocket now as we craft our product and test our ideas over the coming months will be a huge asset.

Louis has posted more details about the new relationship on his blog, and you can tune in live tonight to our weekly podcast @ 10pm ET/7pm PT to chat about the news with both us and Louis.

This year, I’ve decided to do something for us virtual workers (or, really for anyone that wants to play, but this should guarantee I get to field a team!) that want to play fantasy football.  I’m starting at least one league (and however many more are required based on demand) for people to join.  The only (very loose) requirements are that you be in some way connected to the Web/social media space, ideally with a Twitter account (mine is here) so everyone can publicly talk trash on Sundays and Mondays when the week’s games are done.

Since I’m not going to go on the record for organizing gambling, but do want everyone to have some skin in the game so they’ll actively participate, the entry fee will be $20.  The winner of the league will donate the pot to the charity of their choice at the end of the season.

If you’re interested in playing, please drop me an email at ostrow [at] gmail [dot] com and let me know what you do, your Twitter URL, and what charity you would like to play for.   It will be first come, first serve (up to 10 teams), and I’ll open up additional leagues if there is demand.

Meanwhile, some imagery to get you ready for the football season:

I was the first blogger (to my knowledge) to cover Summize’s re-launch as a Twitter search engine back in April, and low and behold, 3 months later they were acquired. Along the way, I covered several additions to both the company’s product and its business strategy, and actually met a couple of the employees at an event in Washington DC. Of course, the lifecycle for most companies is a lot longer than three months, but the Summize story was a nice microcosm of my blogging career.

That story aside, 1,000 posts is a good opportunity to reflect on what I’ve learned in the year and a half or so of “professional” blogging (getting paid to blog versus my much less frequent personal ramblings here and on MindSay).

1. You can never read enough – While people are often well-justified in complaining about information overload, if you’re looking to write for a living, especially about time-sensitive news topics, reading is just about the most important thing you can do. Assuming you have the fundamentals down as far as the writing goes, being well-read is the key to a) presenting a logical argument b) painting a complete picture c) being able to react quickly to breaking news … among many other things. My favorite ways for keeping up: Google Reader, Techmeme, and of course my own ReadBurner.

2. You can’t please everyone – I know some people that pride themselves in responding to every email, IM, phone call, etc. I’m not one of these people. It’s simply too time consuming, and the reward of doing so just doesn’t seem that great to me. If the message is important enough (for my end goal … producing quality content in this case), chances are it will get through one way or another. On the other hand, it’s also reminded me that outside of my blogging career (i.e. – my businesses) that persistence and building relationships pays off.

3. You can always get better – When I look back at some of my earlier writing, I sometimes cringe! Not necessarily because an article was poorly written or I got the facts wrong, but because I know how much my knowledge of the subject and ability to analyze it have improved since I wrote it. That comes with sticking to my first point and just reading as much (including multiple takes on the same story) as I possibly can every day.

4. Mainstream media is a friend, not an enemy – While many bloggers love to write the “newspapers are dead” post, citing declining readership and dismal corporate earnings, mainstream media still serves a vital role, and delusions of our own grandeur are silly. For one, there is still the element of fact checking and copy editing at (most) newspapers – if you read something in The Wall Street Journal, you can still be fairly confident it’s true from top to bottom. While as bloggers, we strive to reach this level of trust and brand equity, it’s simply not there yet, and the error rate is just way too high. The economics of blog publishing (breaking news quickly and an increasingly strong emphasis on analysis) simply do not support all of the tenants of traditional print and broadcast journalism. Additionally, we’re kidding ourselves if we think our reach comes close to that of mainstream media. Take for instance the profile of Twitter in Monday’s USA Today. That press is worth many multiples more than that of any coverage that any one tech blog could provide. Additionally, most mainstream media no longer hate us either. They’re increasingly turning to bloggers for quotes and research to improve the quality of their stories for their audience. In the past couple months, I’ve personally been quoted in articles pertaining to the social networking space in BusinessWeek, The New York Times, and MSNBC, among other publications.

5. You must do *something* not involving the computer at least once per day – For a time last year, I recall several instances where I went on 3-4 days stretches without leaving my house. By the end of the summer, I was in the ER with my first ever migraine (It wasn’t really that serious … I’m a bit of a hypochondriac, but you get the idea). Working long hours is a way of life for a lot of people in tech, but you need to realize when you’re getting yourself into an unsustainable physical and mental state. Take an hour each day to go to the gym, cook yourself a decent meal, watch a TV show, or whatever else is a pleasant change of pace for you.

6. Criticism is a good thing, and even might make you friends – You may remember earlier this year Louis Gray was heavily critical of Mashable’s attribution policies. A dialogue between him and me ensued on our respective blogs, and I quickly implemented a number of changes to Mashable’s policies. Since then, Louis and I have gotten to know each other quite well – he’s written about my company ReadBurner numerous times, made a guest appearance on our podcast, and we actually sent him some ReadBurner schwag for his two new twins. The lesson here is simple: while my immediate reaction was to punch a hole in the wall and get defensive, by taking some time to think about the issue before responding, I realized Louis was (mostly) right, updated our policies, and in turn made a great new contact. I also think Mashable’s attribution and linking policies now rank among the best in the tech blogosphere.

So, there you have it, 6 (admittedly rather generic, but true) things I’ve learned over my last 1,000 blog posts. Do I have another 1,000 posts in me? I’d say so, though it may take me a bit longer to get there, as my writing has gone down to 2-3 posts on most days, as I spend more time tending to my responsibilities in the role of “Editor” at our growing media outfit. It’s been a fun ride so far, and thanks so much to everyone who reads my work and keeps those page views loading, which keeps my paychecks coming

The show ran about 90 minutes, but if you have nothing better to do at work on the day before a holiday weekend, give it a listen

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