Posting and Commenting Guidelines

I'm putting up the rules again, not because I think things have been bad around here, but we have gained a bunch of members and it's time we revisited this. Things got a little heated in the various Yu threads but thankfully our Mods did a great job keeping things from getting out of hand.

The one rule I'd like to highlight is the 'don't argue with the mods'. Please just take the mod's word on things. Being a moderator is thankless, at the best of times, so let's not subject them to arguments over rules. Add in that I'd rather threads stay on topic and not get hijacked into a discussion on rules. If you don't like the rules here, well, I guess you can write me and complain, but I like that we try to keep discussions civil around here, I'm not likely to change the rules for you.

The fun of the site is that with the comment areas, FanPosts, FanShots and Game Threads everyone gets to share their opinions. The idea is to build a community.

Most of the guidelines fall under the umbrella of one idea: this blog is our living room. Make yourself comfortable, we like having you. Don't say anything you wouldn't say in our living room. Disagree? Sure, but keep things civil. Remember we are trying to build a community, try to get along.

• Don't attack other posters. Disagree with their ideas, but try to stay away from calling them names. I consider that people here are my friends (we let them in our living room) and I prefer not to see my friends insulted. Calling someone stupid, crazy, etc. doesn't make for rational debate. This line gets smudged when we get fans from other teams chiming in.
• That said, some of us have been friends for awhile and some good natured ribbing takes place. Try to take it in stride.
• Don't get upset if we or someone disagrees with you. Intelligent people can disagree.
• Remember we are all fans here and all equal. You may think you are smarter than all of us. You might even be (isn't all that hard), but try not to be too condescending to others.
• Profanity is frowned on. We use the line about Hugo's mom reading this a lot. Try to keep George Carlin's 7 words out of it. You may be warned, your post maybe deleted or we might just watch to see if it continues to happen. Part of being an adult is being able to express yourself real words. Don't ever direct profanity at the players. A play may have been %#$%# but calling the player a #$#@$# is not allowed.
• Unless it is Roger Clemens.
• No derogatory references to race, nationality, sexual orientation or ethnicity at all, ever. Or sexism for that matter. We may be mostly guys but we do have female members. On top of that my wife or Hugo's mom will look in. Also a word that seems to have popped up a bit lately is retard. This word, or any version of it, is totally unacceptable around here.
• In Fanposts or Fanshots, don't copy an article from another site in whole. If you see something you think our members should notice, it is better to post a link. Please remember we want to be friends with the other blogs and news sites, if you post a link it drives people to the other site, which gains them views and makes them happy. If you copy their post, well, they won't be happy.
• Insulting Jay players is allowed, within limits, but remember this is our team. If you say something juvenile, you might get called out on it.
• Don't try to annoy people or start fights. If you do things with the purpose to piss people off, odds are you'll be banned quick. If asked to stop doing something, stop.
• We aren't grammar police, don't worry about getting things perfect. On the flip side, if you want things read, make them readable. All capitals makes it look like you are shouting, no one wants to read that. If you are posting something long, use periods and start sentences with capitals. It just makes your stuff easier to read and if it is easier to read, more people will read it. Having people read what you post should be your goal.
• Most of all, this is a Blue Jay fan site. We may rag on the team and the management, but we are fans. We aren't bandwagon jumpers. If you want to talk about other teams and how great they are, SB Nation has pages for all MLB teams, take it there. You want to say how great Red Sox Nation is, go to Over the Monster. Want to extoll the virtues of the Yankees, go to Pinstripe Alley, please.
• Try to stay on topic in the threads. Gamethreads discussions can go any direction, but in other threads, try to stay to the topic. I've generally allowed people to run off in different directions but the threads are getting too long to allow it to go off in different directions.

So what happens if you cross the line? Well, one of the moderators might ask you to stop. If you are asked to stop something, please do, don't argue. Pretend it is like arguing with the umpire, if you do you might get thrown out of the game.

If a fanpost or a comment crosses the line, it might be deleted. Don't get too upset if we delete something posted. It doesn't happen often and it doesn't mean we don't love you.

We may give a formal warning. If that happens the next time you log into the site the warning will come up. Consider it the equivalent to a yellow card in soccer. But, don't argue it. We don't want to send a lot of time debating rules. We have very rarely sent warnings but it does happen.

And we can ban. Banning would be the red card. If you are banned you will no longer be allowed to post on here. You would be able to come back and read but not comment. We haven't used the ban button very often. Sometimes if it gets to the point that someone is more trouble than they are worth, they are gone. Running the site is a hobby for us and we aren't willing to put up with too too much aggravation. There have been the odd person that figures their role in the world is just to aggravate others. That said, in the couple of years that I've been here, other than spammers, we've banned less than ten people. Our members are great.

When someone is banned, what tends to happen is that we get a email from the banned one telling us how stupid we are and how they hate coming here anyway, and then they try to join again under a different screen name. Generally we don't ban someone until they become intolerable. We have to come to the site everyday, if there is a poster that is making us not want to come, then, sorry, it is you or me and I have the ban hammer (is that all one word Johnny?). If you want to send a note telling me you didn't deserve to be banned, we do all have bad days, maybe try being reasonable, and we will consider it. Or if you are writing to tell me I'm a moron, use "you're a moron" not "your a moron". And, for the love of dog, try to be original. If you are going to take the time to write me and say I'm not worth your time to read, be creative about it. Don't just call me a $%^&head (my wife can do that), come up with something worth my time. Something that I can use and that will make me want to read to the end of your note.

What should you do if you feel someone has broken the rules? Under every comment there is a button that says 'actions', if you hit that, two other buttons come up. One is 'rec', which you can hit if you like that comment. If you hit flag a window pops up asking you to tell why you are flagging it and to classify the reason as 'spam', 'trolling' or 'inappropriate'. Sometimes we can't see everything that happens on here, so if you flag it, we can take a look and take appropriate action or just monitor the offending poster to see if more happens.

All that said, please if you have something you want to say, comment, write up a Fanpost or Fanshot. The fun of being here is reading people's opinions.

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