So earlier today, a good number of people all decided to forward an email they had received from ESPN wanting to know what it was all about. The message was in regards to something called FANography and my honest answer is....I have no idea what the heck it is. There was no press release on it and I haven't been able to find anything on the web. It's one giant mystery.

Here's the email message....

Welcome to ESPN FANography, Straight Talk from the Fans!

ESPN FANography is an exclusive online community made up of sports fans who are interested in sharing their opinions with ESPN. This is a forum for you to tell us about how we can better serve you – the fans!

As a member of ESPN FANography, you will get the opportunity to:

* Tell us about yourself and share your ideas on how ESPN can enhance your sports viewing, listening, reading, and accessing experiences
* Learn about the latest plans at ESPN
* Participate in surveys and join online discussion forums where you can share your ideas and input with ESPN and your peers
* Preview new creative concepts, then provide feedback on which ideas are best
* Receive updates that show how your input is making changes and improvements at ESPN

To join ESPN FANography, please click the NEXT button and complete the short survey which follows.

The goal of our first questionnaire is to learn a little more about you. You will be asked a series of basic demographic questions, as well as some more detailed questions about your usage of media (like TV, Internet, and Magazines), and your interest in sports. With this information, we hope to gain some understanding about your likes, dislikes, and opinions, so that we can deliver the best ESPN media products to YOU – the fans! If you’re ready, please click on the NEXT button below to begin.

New creative concepts eh? Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter....

When you click on the link button it takes you to a series of questions about your viewing habits, income and living situation and from there it takes you to a set of queries about ESPN itself. You have to respond to items about TV programs as well as Radio programs and there's even a neato drag and drop section for which ESPN the Magazine issues that you've recently read. The whole thing takes about 10 minutes and after answering all the questions and confirming your email addy you get the following messages....

Congratulations! Thank you for joining ESPN FANography – Straight Talk from the Fans! You have already provided us with some great information and we look forward to hearing from you in the future. On the next page, please include your name and email, then create a user name and password so that you can continue to participate in our panel.

Congratulations, you are now a panelist.

You can't do anything after that yet, but it still lists "me" as a "panelist". So I've got that going for me....which is nice. It's kind of ironic that I wrote earlier today about ESPN actually listening to the fans and making changes. Forget starting a blog or contacting the Ombudsman because apparently now you can actually be a "panel member" and work at ESPN for absolutely free! Good times.

Fanography (ESPN FANography)