Taco John
05-10-2012, 12:08 AM
I wanted to let everybody know that we've posted some new forum guidelines. There's nothing earth shattering in them, so far as I can tell. It's basically the same way we've operated, but in written format. I've held off on writing formal guidelines for the longest time for a reason - I've always felt strongly that a real community can, for the most part, police itself (if you let it). I've always felt that rules and rigidity can rob the organic soul of a forum. Many of us on this forum can remember the days when we came from forums that had no moderators whatsoever - it was just a wild, wild west of forums. Pure forum anarchy isn't as much fun as it sounds - though there is something to be said for it. I founded this place hoping to capture a little bit of the wild, but appeal to people's desire to make a name for themselves within the community by distinguishing themselves through the content that they add to the forum. This worked well for a very long time.
It's stopped working as well in recent years. I'm to blame for much of it. In the early days, I had less responsibilities and more time and energy to pour into this site with content of my own, and lead by example moderation. Kids, increased responsibilities at both work and home, and life in general has competed for my time, and I haven't been able to provide the example that I was able to in early years. This has left a hole, and as a result some of the moderating has become inconsistent, despite best intentions. I take responsibility for this and apologize to every one here for it.
Other dynamics have come into play as well. Rapid contractions and expansions in our user base due to the dynamics of the subject matter we follow have caused some discontinuity in the community. We lost several good posters when Shanahan was fired. We gained a huge influx when Tebow was drafted, and in the process, we lost some of our identity.
In an effort to introduce consistency and put down in written word the original vision for this site, I've put together some forum guidelines. These guidelines are intended to maintain free expression, while at the same time keeping the forum focus on building community around the team that we all share a common bond with, not create divisions within it.
To that end, we've worked on some new forum guidelines to help steer this community going forward. I don't see these as "changes" so much as what we've been attempting to do all along, but now in written form.
Knowing that there are a lot of people who seem to seek drama in this community, I expect there to be some amount of upheaval. Now that things are more spelled out, some people will feel like they're having their tongues cut out of their skulls. But, as always, the storm will pass in due time, and the forum will be stronger for any addition by subtraction. In the end, I expect to see this forum return to a place where people with strong opinions rally together in agreement, and challenge each other through their content in disagreement (rather than simply their name-calling abilities).
Without further adieu, you will find the new forum guidelines here:
http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=105484
It's stopped working as well in recent years. I'm to blame for much of it. In the early days, I had less responsibilities and more time and energy to pour into this site with content of my own, and lead by example moderation. Kids, increased responsibilities at both work and home, and life in general has competed for my time, and I haven't been able to provide the example that I was able to in early years. This has left a hole, and as a result some of the moderating has become inconsistent, despite best intentions. I take responsibility for this and apologize to every one here for it.
Other dynamics have come into play as well. Rapid contractions and expansions in our user base due to the dynamics of the subject matter we follow have caused some discontinuity in the community. We lost several good posters when Shanahan was fired. We gained a huge influx when Tebow was drafted, and in the process, we lost some of our identity.
In an effort to introduce consistency and put down in written word the original vision for this site, I've put together some forum guidelines. These guidelines are intended to maintain free expression, while at the same time keeping the forum focus on building community around the team that we all share a common bond with, not create divisions within it.
To that end, we've worked on some new forum guidelines to help steer this community going forward. I don't see these as "changes" so much as what we've been attempting to do all along, but now in written form.
Knowing that there are a lot of people who seem to seek drama in this community, I expect there to be some amount of upheaval. Now that things are more spelled out, some people will feel like they're having their tongues cut out of their skulls. But, as always, the storm will pass in due time, and the forum will be stronger for any addition by subtraction. In the end, I expect to see this forum return to a place where people with strong opinions rally together in agreement, and challenge each other through their content in disagreement (rather than simply their name-calling abilities).
Without further adieu, you will find the new forum guidelines here:
http://www.orangemane.com/BB/showthread.php?t=105484