As I alluded to in the last thread, after briefly returning to these threads last week, I decided to sit out based on the tone and general atmosphere of the GDT not being enjoyable. However, after making that post I received several comments both publicly and privately from other posters who agreed that GDTs had become difficult to participate in thanks to certain behaviors and undesirable posts.
With that in mind I spoke to the admins and have the go-head for the following:
Starting from this thread, we will be enforcing HF's rules on threadjacking and disruptive posting. Specifically:
For our purposes, that is primarily going to be addressing drive-by or "tantrum" posting. What I mean is repeated, aggressive, crass, and/or disruptive posts, especially those that are sharply, possibly insultingly critical/negative of the team or players with no real interest in interacting with other posters and often divorced from the entire context of the game. If you're only showing up to angrily rant about things you dislike, especially with rapid-fire and repetitive posts, while rarely or infrequently offering neutral or positive reactions and/or not engaging with other posters in actual discussion, that's a problem. If your posting habits become predictable and repetitive to the point that posts are essentially interchangeable with one another, that's an issue.
Admittedly this will be a bit of a feel/context issue in terms of what is disruptive and what isn't. But for most people it should be relatively obvious or apparent what would cross the line. It's important to note that this IS NOT a ban on criticism of the team, management, or players. Or even repeated criticism. It's a ban on such criticism that is relayed in an over-the-top way that impacts the enjoyment of other posters. You can say that Kirk sucks during a game or that Lukes has had trouble all season. But repeatedly name-calling players as you cuss them out and belligerently insult and demean them and the team while not engaging with other posters or being willing to discuss your views is where it begins to be an issue.
For total transparency, posters who are found to be in violation of the above will face the following sanctions in escalating order, with the deletion of offending posts being standard across all levels:
This seems harsh, but I felt that rigid, escalating, and specific responses create the least leeway or confusion over consequences. And realistically it takes until your third strike before things start seriously ramping up so it's not like you can be caught unaware when you get to the serious consequences. And if you believe you have received punishment in error or excessively you are welcome to take it up with a moderator or use the "contact us" link at the bottom of a page to send a message to the site administrators for independent review.
that about covers it. Apologies for taking so long on the front end of this thread to prattle on about the rules, but I really want the GDTs to be enjoyable for as many people as possible again and I honestly do think that the people this will significantly impact in a negative way will be extremely minimal.
With that done, Monday kicks off a 3-game set at home against the Braves, with two evening games and one afternoon one. Easton Lucas takes the mound for game 1 after being rained out in the Baltimore series, followed by Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt. Let's hope these can be the start of some good games for the Jays and better times in the GDTs for all involved.
With that in mind I spoke to the admins and have the go-head for the following:
Starting from this thread, we will be enforcing HF's rules on threadjacking and disruptive posting. Specifically:
For our purposes, that is primarily going to be addressing drive-by or "tantrum" posting. What I mean is repeated, aggressive, crass, and/or disruptive posts, especially those that are sharply, possibly insultingly critical/negative of the team or players with no real interest in interacting with other posters and often divorced from the entire context of the game. If you're only showing up to angrily rant about things you dislike, especially with rapid-fire and repetitive posts, while rarely or infrequently offering neutral or positive reactions and/or not engaging with other posters in actual discussion, that's a problem. If your posting habits become predictable and repetitive to the point that posts are essentially interchangeable with one another, that's an issue.
Admittedly this will be a bit of a feel/context issue in terms of what is disruptive and what isn't. But for most people it should be relatively obvious or apparent what would cross the line. It's important to note that this IS NOT a ban on criticism of the team, management, or players. Or even repeated criticism. It's a ban on such criticism that is relayed in an over-the-top way that impacts the enjoyment of other posters. You can say that Kirk sucks during a game or that Lukes has had trouble all season. But repeatedly name-calling players as you cuss them out and belligerently insult and demean them and the team while not engaging with other posters or being willing to discuss your views is where it begins to be an issue.
For total transparency, posters who are found to be in violation of the above will face the following sanctions in escalating order, with the deletion of offending posts being standard across all levels:
This seems harsh, but I felt that rigid, escalating, and specific responses create the least leeway or confusion over consequences. And realistically it takes until your third strike before things start seriously ramping up so it's not like you can be caught unaware when you get to the serious consequences. And if you believe you have received punishment in error or excessively you are welcome to take it up with a moderator or use the "contact us" link at the bottom of a page to send a message to the site administrators for independent review.
that about covers it. Apologies for taking so long on the front end of this thread to prattle on about the rules, but I really want the GDTs to be enjoyable for as many people as possible again and I honestly do think that the people this will significantly impact in a negative way will be extremely minimal.
With that done, Monday kicks off a 3-game set at home against the Braves, with two evening games and one afternoon one. Easton Lucas takes the mound for game 1 after being rained out in the Baltimore series, followed by Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt. Let's hope these can be the start of some good games for the Jays and better times in the GDTs for all involved.
