Community Update: The Daily Bee is Dead, Long Live the Daily Bee

Some of you may have spotted a notable absence in recent weeks, as Fear the Wall content started to ramp up again, ahead of the Bundesliga season, after a short break over the summer. FTW’s silly little daily news article, The Daily Bee (DB), that pretended to be a roundup of the latest BVB and football news, is gone. Today, I can officially announce that The Daily Bee has this summer retired from its position in the Fear the Wall regular rotation, after a long and prestigious career at the site.

A Fond Farewell

The Daily Bee has been a regular Fear the Wall feature as long as I can remember being a part of this community. From the days when I first started lurking on the site, to becoming a regular in the comments, before becoming a writer and eventually being one of those that had to regularly put together The Daily Bee myself. It has long been the unsung hero of the Fear the Wall community, providing a fresh canvas for everyone to join the discussion every day.

The loving father and dutiful maintainer of the DB, for much of its life, was FTW first ballot Hall of Famer, Gilles Hoffmann. He conceived of the idea way back in 2016, and the first ever The Daily Bee was published on November 9th (his first was genuinely better than any I ever wrote). Gilles was in charge of churning out DBs at a phenomenally consistent rate. He took on that challenge all alone, for years, quietly keeping the site afloat with little ditties of mundane BVB news that were just enough for people to care but not enough for them to deserve their own news article. No one truly understood the sacrifice he made for us. That is, until it was too late. Once Gilles had moved on to better things (and by better things I mean not writing the DB anymore), the task was left to us, your esteemed generals, to man the shit ship.

Having to replace Gilles has been the toughest task the second generation of FTW leadership has had to tackle. Initially Sean tried to shoulder that burden all by himself, but under the sheer weight of expectation, and in the shadow of one of the greatest to ever do it, it was simply too much for one writer. Instead, we split the responsibility between Sean and I. Leaders step up in times of crisis, and that is exactly what we did. But it was still too much to ask, and we soon had to rope Paddy and Zac into the regular duties as well. Before long the DB was crushing the souls of FTW’s entire superstar leadership team.

You see, the truth is, the DB is trash and I (speaking on behalf of everyone, apart from Gilles, that has ever written it) hate it with all of my heart. Waking up on a Thursday morning and remembering that the DB is waiting for me was dampening my otherwise bubbly, positive spirit, and I began to resent what was once a joyous thing (because it was not my responsibility). It has been vital in cultivating the FTW community, but it’s such a pain to write and I think it suppresses the creativity of everyone involved. It had to go.

What the Future Holds

Is this truly the end for The Daily Bee? Who knows. Maybe Gilles will make a heroic comeback and steer this beast back to its famous heights. But if the return of the DB would ever require me to write it even once more, then I will do everything in my power to make sure it is burned at the stake.

The plan, for now, is to focus on more regular news coverage, and trying to create the time and space for Fear the Wall writers to work on the kind of fun content that actually brings people to the site.

No one comes here expecting insider scoops or red-hot breaking news. Or at least, if you have ever come here expecting either of those things, you have been sorely disappointed. Instead, the role that FTW plays is a light-hearted, opinion-heavy fan site. We want to do more of that, and we believe scrapping the DB will make that possible.

Goodnight Sweet Shit Prince

It’s okay if you are upset. The grieving process is difficult. But just console yourself in the fact that The Daily Bee lived a long and fruitful life full of love and compassion. And then Gilles left, and since that day it has been miserable, until Sean, Paddy, Zac, and I finally took it out back and smashed it to pieces with claw hammers.

It got exactly what it deserved.

The Daily Bee is Dead, Long Live the Daily Bee!*

*Come back to us Gilles; we miss you, we love you, we forgive you.