Changes coming - And an FYI on potential actions

[Ross12]

Yeah. I have a guess on what might have happened and it was not related to any public interaction(s) on the forum….

Still miss her enthusiasm She’s a true blue Pats fan.

It is what it is.

Ian and I both enjoyed working with her and she was of course a huge Pats fan, but at the end of the day we are all accountable and that is especially true for those of us with the power to hold others accountable.

 

[BaconGrundleCandy]

It is the personalities of the people involved. If you ban that subject, they will start the same type of spamming with a new subject. The personalities do not change if a subject matter is removed. It is like DKF, it was his personality, no matter whatever the subject he would be triggered. People don't want to be bothered to ban posters, and then ban threads, and eventually they are banning stuff more than reading healthy content.

Fwiw I don't want a ban but understand where you're coming from. I just want people to do the right thing. Like Ian has asked several times, several different ways. It's just not a productive topic rn but I hear you on personalities. People have the party lines it seems and it comes out.

I think one way would be to look at thing solely from 2019-20 on for a while. Judge the coach, players etc on recent actions but again I get where you're coming from. **** seems to spill out.

It is not like being in a bar together, a lot of the posters here would not feel comfortable chatting in a relaxed public setting. In a public setting the spammers would respect the other posters and not act like they do here.

No they would be very quiet lol. I actually think a twitter "spaces" would be enjoyable here for certain topics, after games, roster cuts.

 

[crawhammer]

What exactly is your end game here?

I don't have one. Most of the discussion points here are fluid given the NFL hasn't been disbanded.

At what point do you stop being a broken record?

Pretty much everyone has their talking points and strongly held opinions (and frequently repeats them).

But if you're specially talking about TB v BB then if it doesn't come up, it's a banned topic, or BB wins a SB w/o TB.

So do we apply that logic to every instance where someone says something we don’t like?
Pretty convenient. You’ve argued thinks based upon what Brady has said many times. So if you like what he says it’s a gotcha and if you don’t like what he says it’s a gotcha because he doesn’t say what he means.

I think that quote was a candid moment for Brady. I would also say most players don't talk trash about their former coaches especially if they're still active (and vice versa). I also don't think TB or BB need to participate in the debate for it to be relevant. It's mostly a debate for pundits and fans. If it's a banned (or segregated) topic here then so be it, that's not my call.

 

[Tunescribe]

I generally don't have that kind of self-restraint and admittedly will bludgeon my point to death. I can understand my persistence is this regard is tiresome to some.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

I think that quote was a candid moment for Brady. I would also say most players don't talk trash about their former coaches especially if they're still active (and vice versa). I also don't think TB or BB need to participate in the debate for it to be relevant. It's mostly a debate for pundits and fans. If it's a banned (or segregated) topic here then so be it, that's not my call.

its a banned topic because you bring it up every. single.day. and before you say I do the same thing, i haven’t forayed into the BB vs TB debate in over a year…it’s mainly you, SB1, and a bunch of other posters who left the forum the day Brady announced his retirement...

 

[Ian]

It is what it is.

Ian and I both enjoyed working with her and she was of course a huge Pats fan, but at the end of the day we are all accountable and that is especially true for those of us with the power to hold others accountable.

One other thing I think is frustrating is that, at the end of the day, it's all about doing the right thing regardless of who it is, and I feel a responsibility to everyone here to get that right. Some day, after I'm long gone, or the site is gone, or whatever, I don't ever want people to look back and think of me as someone who didn't at least try to always do that.

Speaking of which, if anyone believes for a moment that I would ever ban a girl who spent a decade here as both a member and someone I liked enough to make her a moderator, without a jaw-dropping reason that made me not only remove her as a mod but also as a member, I don't know what else to tell you.

I mean, she's essentially my daughter's age and someone who I was pretty protective of in here. I'm not going to rehash it or get into details, but if anyone in here, especially someone who has been here a long time, doesn't know me well enough to realize that, I'm essentially at a loss for words.

She's a good person, and I wish her the best, but it doesn't change the fact I'm still disappointed in what she did that left me having to make that call. It sucks, and it still bothers me. But I don't regret doing it, only that it happened to begin with.

Also, as far as in here goes, this issue, which is essentially "opinion spamming", has been brewing for a while and it's a big problem. There are quite a few threads that evolve in a shouting/quoting battle between people about unrelated topics that go on for multiple pages, which breaks up the normal discussion and makes the thread unreadable.

While many already utilize the new single-thread conversation mute functions, which handles your own personal experiences, this is essentially going to work the same way and give @Ross12 and I a one-click ability to mute those discussions outside of the people involved.

In a perfect world, everyone would just mute these on their own. But I get it, for people who are just casually viewing a thread during a free moment at work, it's a nuisance.

If you're not a fan of not having the control of viewing them, if people really want the ability to view those muted conversations, I can take that into consideration when I put this together.

At the same time, you also can't unmute them and then get mad at me that they exist. Unless you'd really like to try and make my head explode.

People have differing opinions, and I'm OK with that. You can talk about them in a given thread, which obviously goes on here. But constantly bringing them up in different forms in other threads, often in the middle of an unrelated discussion, is exhausting. Even I have a limit in terms of how many times I can handle sifting through them. It's ridiculous.

If I acted the way the "censor" crowd is saying, I would delete the posts and issue a thread-ban on the users. Or, I'd follow the "mob mentality" and just start banning everyone that annoyed people with those opinions. I'm instead trying to be fair, and once it's instituted, it essentially allows them to continue their interaction with whoever wants to battle it out with them without disrupting the rest of the community.

Yes, over time, habitual offenders may endure a potential penalty, and I do need people to become more self-aware and rely less on the "whataboutism" that tends to play out in here. Someone else's undesirable behavior doesn't justify another's and buy anyone immunity.

But I feel like I've explained it pretty thoroughly. I've been pretty transparent about my intent and reasoning on literally everything I've ever done in this place. Some people act or think there's more to it, and it's a little disappointing they feel that way.

Again, I get it. That's the world we live in now.

This isn't politics. It's not one party vs the other. At the end of the day, it's just a forum where we're still supposed to have the same rooting interest on Sundays. The bigger issue is the people who it feels like are rooting for their opinions rather than the team itself, which is just bizarre to me.

It is what it is. As I've stated repeatedly, moderation in here is pretty limited, given how little is actually deleted, despite what some think.

Regardless, I think I've said enough about this. I'm still working on it, so people are certainly free to chime in with any suggestions/requests. Otherwise, it will be implemented as soon as I'm done coding it out and testing it.

 

[IcyPatriot]

 

[crawhammer]

its a banned topic because you bring it up every. single.day. and before you say I do the same thing, i haven’t forayed into the BB vs TB debate in over a year…it’s mainly you and SB1

It's actually not banned. Look, it'll come up again and again and again, it's entirely unavoidable, whether I'm here or not. You may not participate in that specific topic because you're too busy turning everything into an excuse to trash TB. You also think the team's success is fraudulent. But whatever, I believe the change @Ian is going to enforce is removing the topic from wherever it may appear and disposing it in a recycle bin thread (or just muting the exchange). Or generally muting any off-topic exchanges that create a disruption to an otherwise focused thread.

They'll be plenty to talk about the closer we get to the start of the season. The TB/BB legacy type debates will be pushed out to the periphery until at least next off-season when I think it'll make sense to revisit it (for those who may be interested in that topic).

 

[captain stone]

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

- G. Santayana


Those who cannot remember, or refuse to admit, the current administration's many mistakes are condemned to witness them all over again until Dear Leader finally retires.

- G. Santayana & C.Stone


#RefuseToComply

 

[BradytoMosstoGronk]

Just wanted to chime in say I appreciate all the work Ian and the mods do - great website. Trolls will troll, but it's good to see some measures in place to break up the derailment that seemingly happens all the time amongst the usual suspects: the TB12 "always on my mind" guy and the anti-brady turned chief fan go at eachother for pages until people forget what the topic is about.

If I had 2c to offer, probably a little overdue, but I appreciate the effort and work nonetheless. Enjoy this community and contributors.

 

[Ian]

#RefuseToComply

You know I love you @captain stone , but this isn’t political.

It’s not about compliance.

It’s simply about limiting the noise on a football board and making threads more readable without the same arguments being rehashed over and over in the middle of those threads for all to deal with.

If you’d like a “view all” button, I can certainly include that. But that’s the extent of my initial intent with this unless it reaches a point where individuals simply begin making my life increasingly more difficult.

 

[Ian]

I will throw in something a little more upbeat in an otherwise not-so-upbeat thread.

There will be an additional new weekly picks contest mixed in this season that I’ve been working on off and on since last year. No details just yet as I’ve been trying some new things, but I think people will find it fun and it’ll add a little more to the game experiences on Sundays.

So we’ll essentially have three going this season, which should hopefully be a good time.

 

[Joker]

You know I love you @captain stone , but this isn’t political.

It’s not about compliance.

It’s simply about limiting the noise on a football board and making threads more readable without the same arguments being rehashed over and over in the middle of those threads for all to deal with.

If you’d like a “view all” button, I can certainly include that. But that’s the extent of my initial intent with this unless it reaches a point where individuals simply begin making my life increasingly more difficult.

This about sums up the majestic job you've done with our board since 2000....

Jan 27: Two big anniversaries in Pats history: NEP signs BB; Pats beat Pittsburgh in AFCCG

Today in Patriots History Patriots Hire Bill Belichick January 27, 2000: Patriots name Bill Belichick their 14th head coach in franchise history. New England traded three draft picks, including a 2000 first-rounder, for two Jet draft picks and the right to hire Belichick as the team's head...

www.patsfans.com

 

[Ian]

Those who cannot remember, or refuse to admit, the current administration's many mistakes are condemned to witness them all over again until Dear Leader finally retires.

BTW, if this particular “leader” ever wins the Powerball, I’ll walk away after renting Gillette out for all of us and having the get together for the ages.

 

[Joker]

LMAO!!! I swear,O'Connor must be posting HERE under an alias....

 

[n1997y]

BTW, if this particular “leader” ever wins the Powerball, I’ll walk away after renting Gillette out for all of us and having the get together for the ages.

Please, before you walk away prepay server and data center rent for a couple of decades first!

 

[Triumph]

Would not be a bad idea to specify exactly what is forbidden moving forward.

 

[Ross12]

Would not be a bad idea to specify exactly what is forbidden moving forward.

The point is that there’s not a topic that is specifically an issue here. It is a behavior that is an issue. If there is a thread about OTAs and you appear and say “I love chocolate ice cream, if you love vanilla ice cream you’re an idiot” and then someone else replies “no YOU’RE the idiot, vanilla is obviously better because…” and then you return fire again, and it is now 2 pages or more of people arguing about ice cream flavors in a thread about OTAs, congrats you did the bad thing.

 

[Dingleberry]

The point is that there’s not a topic that is specifically an issue here. It is a behavior that is an issue. If there is a thread about OTAs and you appear and say “I love chocolate ice cream, if you love vanilla ice cream you’re an idiot” and then someone else replies “no YOU’RE the idiot, vanilla is obviously better because…” and then you return fire again, and it is now 2 pages or more of people arguing about ice cream flavors in a thread about OTAs, congrats you did the bad thing.

The correct answer is strawberry. Vanilla or chocolate? That's just dumb.

 

[Steve102]

The correct answer is strawberry. Vanilla or chocolate? That's just dumb.

Everyone knows it's chocolate and vanilla that sell Neopolitan. Strawberry is just along for the ride.