BTSC Community

by acrollet on Sep 1, 2008 10:25 AM EDT Comment 12 comments

Hey everyone,

I'm not really the type to join hands and sing Kumbayah a whole lot, but I think we really have a great online community here. People like blitzburgh, cgolden, maryrose, rickva, datruth, and many other (not slighting anyone by not including!) spend a lot of their time and energy contributing great commentary, history and perspective on the game and the team that we all love. (except for maybe kwoog ;) The articles and fanposts are half of why I came to this site and continue to follow it closely, and the great discussion in the comments section is the other half. It's always been polite, knowledgeable, informative, and lots of fun. However, lately I've been noticing some personal attacks in the comments - here's a sampling. I've left out usernames, because the point is not to call individuals out.

---

Who the hell are you! Leave Leftwich alone. I bet you can’t throw the football at all. It’s easy for you to sit on your fat ass and critique his performance does your wife or girlfriend critique yours? What a serious hater!

--- You are a moron

It’s Labor Day wtf! IDIOT

---

If there were any white coaches that had taken that position, i problably would never hear from you ignorant paistey a--.

---

Don't get me wrong, I think the signal to noise ratio is still very high. I would just hate to see the general level of discussion devolve until this board just wasn't fun anymore. It's entirely possible that I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but I just think that it would be great if we could stick to discussing football, and avoid making personal attacks. (*even* on Browns fans ;) ) I don't know how to make this happen, but I feel like one good approach might be the silent treatment - if someone makes a personal attack, let's just not feed into that by responding - attacking the attacker will probably only make things worse...

Anyway, what do you guys all think? Feel free to post your thoughts, suggestions, aspersions on my character/heritage/sexual ability, etc. here ;)

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I'm with you

We’re only as good as our lowest common denominator, hence the need for a moderator which Blitz handles I believe. Not much of a need here as you point out.

Great site.

by herewegosteelers on Sep 1, 2008 10:53 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

yep

that’s the growing pains of becoming a more popular site is you also attract some high schooler idiots (as opposed to some of our best commenters who just happen to be in high school)

by schnifin on Sep 1, 2008 12:23 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

thank you

To the tune of the classic children's song "This Old Man" (the part with nick nack patty whack)

Big Snack, Silverback, take the Dawg Pound's Bone, the Black and Gold sent the Brownies crying home.

by HighSchoolSteeler on Sep 1, 2008 5:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

hahaha

To the tune of the classic children's song "This Old Man" (the part with nick nack patty whack)

Big Snack, Silverback, take the Dawg Pound's Bone, the Black and Gold sent the Brownies crying home.

by HighSchoolSteeler on Sep 1, 2008 5:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

early on it was easier to control the morons, but now it is much harder. Maybe some seasoned members could get some kind of moderator status to help control this? I believe all voices should be heard, but idiotic and belittling ones could be silenced imo. This ain’t a democracy exactly. We want to talk Steelers and have insightful conversations, not deal with morons all the time.

"It's time to plant some seeds. What that means is, hit them in the mouth. Ya know, plant some seeds. Show 'em what time it is." --Levon Kirkland

by steelerinchicago on Sep 1, 2008 1:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

disagree

sorry guys, i hate to be the dissenter here but football is passionate and none so much as Steeler football and no fans so much as the SN. some troll comes in here and starts flappin’ their pie hole, hey……they need to be jumped on. i’m all for civilized talk, good natured disagreements, and all that jazz, but when you got a mosquito buzzin’ in your ear….squash that little parasite and make it hurt more than a little if you can. you ever hear those parents that tell their kids to just ignore those bullies callin’ them names and they’ll just give up and go away? have you ever seen that work? honestly? same thing.

by SE7ENS on Sep 1, 2008 6:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

absolutely

i agree with this a ton. it’s a blog…there will be idiots.

"If you hit .440 with 20 bombs, you don't have to do s---. You don't have to bring a glove to practice, just hit and leave whenever you want. You can bring a 40 and smoke a cigarette and call me from the parking lot asking me what time the game is, and I'll tell you. You can even say 'F--- you, Steve!' Actually, don't say that, that wouldn't be very nice." -Steve Friend, Head Coach, Chabot College Gladiators Baseball

by flipgatey3 on Sep 2, 2008 1:00 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hmmm..

I think it’s good to point out that the poster is wrong in these cases, but when they just keep on throwing poop at you, at some point you have to realize it’s a monkey that doesn’t understand social settings. When it gets to that ignore, or let Blitz or another moderator take care of it.

On the whole we’ve gotten really solid new contributors this preseason. Glad to see it. If we can continue to get those with the occasional poop-throwers, I’ll take that trade.

by Chicago Steeler on Sep 1, 2008 10:52 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

agreed

New folks have been great. You know who you are.

Fun’s just beginning. Can’t wait for Sunday.

by Blitzburgh on Sep 2, 2008 4:05 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Response

To the entire Steeler community, I would like to apologize for my lack of judgement and inconsideration for the entire family. Please forgive me. You are right.

by C-Mac on Sep 1, 2008 11:22 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

by the way

i have no problem with attacking brownies fans

by flipgatey3 on Sep 2, 2008 1:01 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Important post

Thanks. It’s been discussed before, but this is one of those eternal vigilance issues that needs to be reinforced periodically. My experience is that the posters that we have had the most trouble with don’t do subtle, they don’t take hints. Not for long anyway. This is a great site, and all of us will have to work to keep it that way. With the season about to begin we should see within the next week whether we have some more problem children.

by RickVa on Sep 2, 2008 2:36 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs