Posting and Commenting Guidelines

We've had a bunch of new members, in the past couple of weeks (I wonder why that happened), so I figured it was time to post the rules again.

What we have here is a community where we can chat, argue, complain and praise what is happening with our Blue Jays. To keep it a civil community, we have rules.

Most of the rules fall under the umbrella of one idea: this blog is our living room. Make yourself comfortable, we like having you. Act like you'd like to be invited back. Remember, the last beer is mine.

• No derogatory references to race, nationality, sexual orientation or ethnicity at all, ever.
• Let's try not to be too sexist. I know sports blogs tend to be a men's club, but try not to act too stupid. We may be mostly guys but we have female members. And my wife may look in. You get on her bad side, I have to ban you.
• A word that pops up a bit is retard. This word, or any version of it, is totally unacceptable around here.
• No suggestion that violence towards any person or group of people are allowed, ever.
• Also, not so much a rule, as a request, we get new folks here all the time, it would be nice if we were a little friendlier to new folks. We want to site to continue to grow and to grow we need new people. We were all new at one time.
• Discussion of illegal streams is not allowed at all. SB Nation expects others to honor their copyrights, we honor others'.
• 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 (I let them in my living room) and I prefer not to see my friends insulted. Calling someone stupid, crazy, etc. doesn't make for rational debate. IF you feel you have to insult, you've lost the debate.
• Some of us have been friends for a while and some ribbing takes place. Try to take it in stride. Generally it means we like you. I get emails about this quite often, 'someone made a joke about something I said'. I'm sorry if you feel insulted, but I like joking around.
• Expect that people are going to challenge your opinions. Roll with it. Expect folks aren't going to just take your word. Defend your position. Just because someone questions your opinion doesn't mean they are insulting 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, if you are that smart, you'll know you don't have to be condescending.
• Profanity isn't allowed. Try to keep George Carlin's 7 words out of it (I'm showing my age with this reference). Part of being an adult is being able to express yourself real words. As well, I'd rather we stay away from using His name, in vain or otherwise. On top of that never ever direct profanity at the players. A play may have been %#$%# but calling the player #$#@$# is not allowed.
• Unless the player is Roger Clemens.
• I've noticed people using one of the 7 words but putting a * in one (or more) of the letters. Still not allowed.
• Don't copy and paste an article from another site. If you see something cool, post a link. That way you drive people to their site.
• Insulting Jays players is allowed, within limits, but remember this is our team. If you say something juvenile, you might get called out on it. Telling us that our player X is about to strikeout doesn't go over big. We cheer for our team.
• Don't try to annoy people or start fights. If you do things just to piss people off, you'll be banned. If asked to stop doing something, stop. Basically try not to be intolerable.
• We aren't grammar police, don't worry about getting things perfect. But, if you want things read, make them readable. All capitals makes it look like you are shouting. If you are posting something long, use periods and start sentences with capitals. If it is easier to read, more people will read it.
• Don't argue with the moderators about rules. If you are asked to stop something, stop it. Moderating isn't fun, don't make it worse. It doesn't add to a thread to turn into a debate on the rules. I especially hate this in GameThreads. I love the threads, but I mostly love watching the game. If you want to try to distract me from the game with an argument about rules, we won't be friends. Got a complaint, email me and then I can deal with it at a time of my choosing.
• No religion or politics please. What I mean is let's not start arguing politics. The casual mentioning of a politician isn't a big deal. Starting a Liberals vs. Conservatives argument is a bigger deal. Religion....let's stay away from that all together.
• Don't use this place as just a way to promote your site. Best way to get some promotion is to email me or one of the people that do link posts here and say 'hey, I've got something that your readers might be interested in'. More flexibility will be shown to people that contribute to our site. SB Nation doesn't exist to give free promotion for other sites.

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. The other is ‘flag' which marks it the mods. 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'. We can't see everything that happens on here, so if you flag it, we can take appropriate action.

Please don't take it upon yourself to tell people to stop saying something. We have mods for that. If you want to be a mod, send me an email, but a quick way to get on my bad side is to tell people what they aren't allowed to say on the site.

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.

If a FanPost or a comment crosses the line, it might be deleted.

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 very rarely send warnings but it does happen. A warning isn't personal, so don't take it personally.

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 can read but not comment. Sometimes it gets to the point that someone is more trouble than they are worth. Running the site is a hobby for us, we aren't willing to put up with much aggravation. There has been the odd person that figures their role in the world is just to aggravate others. That said, other than spammers, we've only banned a handful of people. Our members are great.

Generally, we don't ban someone until they become intolerable. I have to come to the site every day, if there is a poster that is making me not want to come, then, sorry, it is you or me and I've got the button. If you want to send a note telling me you didn't deserve to be banned, (we do all have bad days), try being reasonable and we will consider it. Half the time I get an email telling me how terrible the site is, and then, an hour or two later, they sign up under a new screen name thinking I'm not going to notice.

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