What Are the Uses of a NotGraphs Chat?

The third-ever NotGraphs Chat will take place tomorrow (Thursday) at 3pm ET. Here are some assorted thoughts ahead of same.

Allow us to re-introduce ourselves.

The attentive reader will probably know that we at NotGraphs have, in the course of the last month, hosted two chats (this first one and this second one).

Insofar as said chats have been mostly pleasant and have begotten other posts (like this one and this one), I’m prepared to describe the chat experiment as a success thus far.

Yet, it’s also clear that there’ve been some questions — both among the readership and inside my own brain — about what a NotGraphs Chat actually is and how it differs from other chats at FanGraphs.

For while, in the typical FanGraphs Chat, it’s generally the case that readers submit questions about specific players or teams — with the author answering them in turn — that’s obviously not a useful model for the authors of NotGraphs, for whom performance analysis is res non grata (which, I understand that maybe that’s not a real phrase).

To that end, I submit this post, wherein readers might suggest how these sorts of chats ought to go.

For my part, I assume some discussion of books and movies and other cultural artifacts is a possibility. Or the aesthetics of the sport, generally — including the quality of broadcasts, the best camera angles, or the very best in the mustache-related arts. Mostly, I suppose, I view it as an opportunity for people who like baseball and one other thing — whatever that thing is — to meet each other and have fun.

But, like I say, I’m curious if the bespectacled readership has any input on this matter, as well.