Post by Mike Andrews on Jul 8, 2012 17:16:04 GMT -5
1. Be civil to each other
a. It's okay to criticize each others' ideas (ex. “That idea is baseless”)
b. It's not okay to criticize each other personally (ex. “You’re an idiot”)
c. Don't argue just for the sake of arguing
d. Don't argue on irrelevant points
e. Don't state your opinions as fact
f. If somebody criticizes your ideas, don’t whine about it
g. Don't bait other members into arguments
h. This board is meant for the free exchange of ideas, so expect that people may disagree with you
2. Maintain an intelligent level of posting.
Our goal is to keep this board one of the more intelligent discussions about baseball, the Red Sox, and Red Sox prospects on the internet. Unfortunately, that means some posts or threads that are foolish, immature, irrelevant, harassing, or just plain uninformed will be deleted or moved to the thread graveyard. Such posts and threads reflect poorly on the site and the community in general. Like it or not, readers can sometimes associate that type of low-level discussion with SoxProspects.com or the SoxProspects community, so it's not fair to the rest of us to allow that type of stuff to stay on the main board. Accordingly, moderation is necessary to keep out the noise. I'm sure you all have seen what happens when message boards go un-moderated. They don't last long, and they're not worth visiting.
3. Maintain at least a minimum level of class
a. Don't use racial, gender-biased, or homophobic slurs. Those such posts will be censored and won't be tolerated.
b. Steer clear of too much profanity, obscenity, and graphic images. There's really no need for it.
c. No text-message shorthand/chatspeak/SMS. Please make every attempt to use proper English. If English is your second language, that’s okay - we'll do our best to work with you.
d. Don't brag about how often you get drunk. I'm not sure why this gets brought up here that often, but for a while it did. Maybe it's because we have a lot of college-age members. If you love to party, great. But to brag about how often you get wasted on a message board is bush league.
4. Respect the Players
a. Keep in mind that many of the players and their family members visit the site.
b. It's okay to comment on the players' strengths and weaknesses on the field, just keep in mind that, for the most part, these are young kids doing what they can to get by in baseball, riding a bus from point a to point b, not making a ton of money. It's our opinion that the players have not opened themselves up to being personally disrespected in any way. (That said, discussion of off-field transgressions is OK, just don't speculate on unknown facts that might be slanderous to a player's character).
5. No Spamming
This should go without saying, but some people just don't get it. This is now bannable on the first offense.
6. Do NOT infringe on copyrighted material
a. If you are going to cut and paste snippets from another article or a picture, ALWAYS cite where you got the info from
b. NEVER cut and paste entire articles ... you may only use small clippets, or "the minimum amount necessary" to comment on the article. This will be strictly enforced for articles behind pay walls.
c. Embedding videos is OK if the originating site allows it. Videos from milb.tv are not allowed.
7. Contacting Players
Some members have contacted players, draftees, scouts, and writers in the past, looking for prospect information. While we appreciate the information-gathering efforts, and everyone is obviously free to contact whomever they like on their own, I just want to add a reminder to make sure that people are not characterizing themselves as representatives of SoxProspects.com when they initiate these communications. The only members who are authorized to portray themselves as representatives of SoxProspects.com are the Staff, and even then they have to go through the proper channels before doing so. Violation of this rule will result in a permanent ban.
8. Starting New Threads
a. Please check recent posts before you start a new topic (the first two pages of the main forum - no need to dig up topics older than that)
b. If there’s already a topic on your issue, don’t start a new one
c. No need to start a new topic for every little piece of news, but it's almost better than cramming all info into one massive unrelated thread. Just use your best judgment
d. It's okay to start a new thread on a big piece of Red Sox news (or rumor) even if it's being discussed in a larger general thread. (ex. the GameDay thread)
e. It's not okay to start a third thread on the same piece of news.
f. If you are going to START a new thread, we expect a high level of grammar, spelling, and relevance in the first post. Especially the title, which gets rolled onto the home page of the site. I know everyone may not use perfect grammar and spelling all the time, but try to at least do your best in the first post of a new thread. Please also triple-check your spelling in the thread title.
g. Try to do the tiniest bit of research before asking a question. Sometimes it will be faster to find what you are looking for here or on Google than it would be to actually ask the question.
h. Moderators, please be liberal in allowing new threads. Threads should stay as long as they are relevant and adhere to the ground rules laid out in this subsection.
9. Straying off topic
a. It's okay to discuss any relevant topic you want here. But if you feel like your topic is becoming a whole new discussion, start a new thread.
10. Leave the thread policing to the Moderators
Let the moderators do their job. If you feel like they're not cutting it or that we need more moderators, PM me. Please do not take policing into your own hands.
11. Special Threads/Sub-forums
a. SP Meta Forum - Discuss anything about SoxProspects.com. The rankings, ETAs, projections, comments, corrections. That stuff should stay off the main board - the point is that this site itself is not the story, the players and the teams are.
12. Send any personal issues my way
a. Send me a private message; or
b. Email me at mike@soxprospects.com
c. Don’t take them up on the board
d. For those who don’t know me, my name is Mike, I'll try to take care of your business.
If you haven't signed up yet, and you plan to, please note that there are also a couple simple rules to applying for membership (don't sign up using multiple usernames, and keep your username short and unoffensive). Last, just use your best judgment in general. In the past we have given several warnings before bans.
Thanks for posting.
Mike
a. It's okay to criticize each others' ideas (ex. “That idea is baseless”)
b. It's not okay to criticize each other personally (ex. “You’re an idiot”)
c. Don't argue just for the sake of arguing
d. Don't argue on irrelevant points
e. Don't state your opinions as fact
f. If somebody criticizes your ideas, don’t whine about it
g. Don't bait other members into arguments
h. This board is meant for the free exchange of ideas, so expect that people may disagree with you
2. Maintain an intelligent level of posting.
Our goal is to keep this board one of the more intelligent discussions about baseball, the Red Sox, and Red Sox prospects on the internet. Unfortunately, that means some posts or threads that are foolish, immature, irrelevant, harassing, or just plain uninformed will be deleted or moved to the thread graveyard. Such posts and threads reflect poorly on the site and the community in general. Like it or not, readers can sometimes associate that type of low-level discussion with SoxProspects.com or the SoxProspects community, so it's not fair to the rest of us to allow that type of stuff to stay on the main board. Accordingly, moderation is necessary to keep out the noise. I'm sure you all have seen what happens when message boards go un-moderated. They don't last long, and they're not worth visiting.
3. Maintain at least a minimum level of class
a. Don't use racial, gender-biased, or homophobic slurs. Those such posts will be censored and won't be tolerated.
b. Steer clear of too much profanity, obscenity, and graphic images. There's really no need for it.
c. No text-message shorthand/chatspeak/SMS. Please make every attempt to use proper English. If English is your second language, that’s okay - we'll do our best to work with you.
d. Don't brag about how often you get drunk. I'm not sure why this gets brought up here that often, but for a while it did. Maybe it's because we have a lot of college-age members. If you love to party, great. But to brag about how often you get wasted on a message board is bush league.
4. Respect the Players
a. Keep in mind that many of the players and their family members visit the site.
b. It's okay to comment on the players' strengths and weaknesses on the field, just keep in mind that, for the most part, these are young kids doing what they can to get by in baseball, riding a bus from point a to point b, not making a ton of money. It's our opinion that the players have not opened themselves up to being personally disrespected in any way. (That said, discussion of off-field transgressions is OK, just don't speculate on unknown facts that might be slanderous to a player's character).
5. No Spamming
This should go without saying, but some people just don't get it. This is now bannable on the first offense.
6. Do NOT infringe on copyrighted material
a. If you are going to cut and paste snippets from another article or a picture, ALWAYS cite where you got the info from
b. NEVER cut and paste entire articles ... you may only use small clippets, or "the minimum amount necessary" to comment on the article. This will be strictly enforced for articles behind pay walls.
c. Embedding videos is OK if the originating site allows it. Videos from milb.tv are not allowed.
7. Contacting Players
Some members have contacted players, draftees, scouts, and writers in the past, looking for prospect information. While we appreciate the information-gathering efforts, and everyone is obviously free to contact whomever they like on their own, I just want to add a reminder to make sure that people are not characterizing themselves as representatives of SoxProspects.com when they initiate these communications. The only members who are authorized to portray themselves as representatives of SoxProspects.com are the Staff, and even then they have to go through the proper channels before doing so. Violation of this rule will result in a permanent ban.
8. Starting New Threads
a. Please check recent posts before you start a new topic (the first two pages of the main forum - no need to dig up topics older than that)
b. If there’s already a topic on your issue, don’t start a new one
c. No need to start a new topic for every little piece of news, but it's almost better than cramming all info into one massive unrelated thread. Just use your best judgment
d. It's okay to start a new thread on a big piece of Red Sox news (or rumor) even if it's being discussed in a larger general thread. (ex. the GameDay thread)
e. It's not okay to start a third thread on the same piece of news.
f. If you are going to START a new thread, we expect a high level of grammar, spelling, and relevance in the first post. Especially the title, which gets rolled onto the home page of the site. I know everyone may not use perfect grammar and spelling all the time, but try to at least do your best in the first post of a new thread. Please also triple-check your spelling in the thread title.
g. Try to do the tiniest bit of research before asking a question. Sometimes it will be faster to find what you are looking for here or on Google than it would be to actually ask the question.
h. Moderators, please be liberal in allowing new threads. Threads should stay as long as they are relevant and adhere to the ground rules laid out in this subsection.
9. Straying off topic
a. It's okay to discuss any relevant topic you want here. But if you feel like your topic is becoming a whole new discussion, start a new thread.
10. Leave the thread policing to the Moderators
Let the moderators do their job. If you feel like they're not cutting it or that we need more moderators, PM me. Please do not take policing into your own hands.
11. Special Threads/Sub-forums
a. SP Meta Forum - Discuss anything about SoxProspects.com. The rankings, ETAs, projections, comments, corrections. That stuff should stay off the main board - the point is that this site itself is not the story, the players and the teams are.
12. Send any personal issues my way
a. Send me a private message; or
b. Email me at mike@soxprospects.com
c. Don’t take them up on the board
d. For those who don’t know me, my name is Mike, I'll try to take care of your business.
If you haven't signed up yet, and you plan to, please note that there are also a couple simple rules to applying for membership (don't sign up using multiple usernames, and keep your username short and unoffensive). Last, just use your best judgment in general. In the past we have given several warnings before bans.
Thanks for posting.
Mike
