The Start of a Season, Why Are You Here?

[G&T]

I like this site because posters aren't afraid to challenge each other. Some times that can be negative, but many times it is a positive way of learning about the game.

 

On top of that, everything you could want to know about baseball and a lot of news generally, is posted here. One stop shopping.

[sf_soxfan]

I am obsessed with WSox baseball and this is the only place to go while celebrating a victory or commiserating a loss; an ersatz community which represents the best of the internet as far as I am concerned, much to wife's chagrin. I love the insight, the wit, and the rowdiness, both good and bad, that can be found here. Thanks to all who maintain the beloved Soxtalk.

[Chisoxfn]

I have made an adjustment to the ad structure on the site with the ads solely appearing on the index page (as opposed to every page on the site). This may change in the future, but I wanted to just give a heads up in case people wonder what looks different.

[Whitewashed in '05]

The attitude and quality of posts starts with the team. If the sox are doing well everyone's discussing the great aspects in xxx's game. The great plays, wins, moves by management, etc.

If the sox aren't doing well everyone panics and complains about certain players/managers. Last season I would read some and then when the sox frustrated ME I would try not to visit soxtalk. Every once in a while I might vent in 1 or 2 posts.

 

I would also say before posting think about it. This has to come from the posters though. The forum is for discussion and if topics are being banned because of it, while you are removing the "junk" you are removing people's thoughts.

 

 

 

[YASNY]

I'll put my two cents in. When I first came to Soxtalk, it really seemed to have more thought out and intelligent discussion than it does today. When there were differing opinions, they were discussed without people going nuclear as often. I don't mind the snarky post from time to time, because I think they be well placed and add a lot to a discussion. Hell, Steff was a master at that and about 99% of the time she was right on the money. But sometimes it just gets a little overbearing around here. I have taken sabbaticals from Soxtalk because it just didn't seem fun anymore. In fact, I'm on a self imposed sabbatical from the 'Buster right now. I haven't even looked in there for about 10 days. I don't know what the answers are, but I do feel the overall quality of the site has gone downhill and it's simply due to the post quality.

[Texsox]

I did not want to clutter up the Crede thread, so moved my response here, where it fits in better.

 

This isn't WSI, the mods here don't get off on suspensions and bans and I get the feeling it's not something they like to do.

Honestly, there are a few people whose posts have been to the point that more than a few mods would love to push the button and say bye bye. And yes, at this point, after being down some long roads with those posters, it will be something we'd like to do. But it takes an awful lot to have enough mods to agree someone should be suspended.

 

But we'd be much, much, happier if the manners and dialog would improve to the point it would be unnecessary.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Honestly, there are a few people whose posts have been to the point that more than a few mods would love to push the button and say bye bye. And yes, at this point, after being down some long roads with those posters, it will be something we'd like to do. But it takes an awful lot to have enough mods to agree someone should be suspended.

 

But we'd be much, much, happier if the manners and dialog would improve to the point it would be unnecessary.

 

Are you guys trying to tell me something?

 

 

[Texsox]

Are you guys trying to tell me something?

 

 

Yes we are, that good posters will not be treated like meat by ill mannered, inconsiderate, illogical, rude posters. When good posters, like yourself and others, are driven away by others, we'll look at what those bring to the party, and perhaps show them to the door.

So we'll be protecting our senior citizens before they go all AARP on our ass.

[FlaSoxxJim]

So we'll be protecting our senior citizens before they go all AARP on our ass.

 

Good to hear. Now I'm off to get a good seat for the early bird dinner at Sizzler.

[Texsox]

Good to hear. Now I'm off to get a good seat for the early bird dinner at Sizzler.

Since you have been sitting at Denny's since 5:30 am with your trailer park name tag, and talking about how things are so much better "up north".

[YASNY]

As a former moderator, let me say this. These guys and gals running Soxtalk are the best. No one gets booted without a long, protracted, and sometimes contentious discussion. The standard approach is to try and figure out what can be done to keep the person in question around. If somebody gets banned from Soxtalk, I assure you that they have earned it.

[Texsox]

As a former moderator, let me say this. These guys and gals running Soxtalk are the best. No one gets booted without a long, protracted, and sometimes contentious discussion. The standard approach is to try and figure out what can be done to keep the person in question around. If somebody gets banned from Soxtalk, I assure you that they have earned it.

 

Yep, with Tex "Patron Saint of Wayward Posters" as the court appointed special advocate, often with Hussein as a client

 

LOL, maybe I shouldn't share but what usually happens is after dozens of comments back and forth, the mod who thinks the person should *not* be banned PMs them and asks them to tone it down, common' be reasonable, put those guys on ignore, etc. Then the person bites the head off of their last advocate, leaving no one left who thinks they should be around, and then their IP gets lost for a long time.

 

By then three mods are pissed at each other for leaving some idiot around months longer than we probably should have.

 

Of course the trolls that SS wacks in under 5 minutes are the exception, that's just fun to watch. I think SS had one Cub troll on his ass in under 90 seconds

[witesoxfan]

I'll put my two cents in. When I first came to Soxtalk, it really seemed to have more thought out and intelligent discussion than it does today. When there were differing opinions, they were discussed without people going nuclear as often. I don't mind the snarky post from time to time, because I think they be well placed and add a lot to a discussion. Hell, Steff was a master at that and about 99% of the time she was right on the money. But sometimes it just gets a little overbearing around here. I have taken sabbaticals from Soxtalk because it just didn't seem fun anymore. In fact, I'm on a self imposed sabbatical from the 'Buster right now. I haven't even looked in there for about 10 days. I don't know what the answers are, but I do feel the overall quality of the site has gone downhill and it's simply due to the post quality.

 

I'd like to add a few things to this, just to be a bit of a devil's advocate.

 

First, since the World Series run, several hundred or maybe even thousand of posters have joined. Since the ASB of 2006 (and not including right now because I'll get to that later), the Sox had been a bad team. With a favorite team struggling, people tend to take their frustration elsewhere...soooo why not a message board that talks about said bad team? After last year, going through the struggle with Erstad (ughhhhhh) and another final year of Podsednik, along with Uribe playing pretty poorly and the Sox flat out being out of the race in June, people either lost interest or were just absolutely pissed at the team. Dragging into the offseason, these said fans saw a broken down team on the field, and KW said he'd fix it; most fans felt that was a near impossibility, and got even more frustrated when he traded 4 of the team's best prospects for 2 players and then traded a fan favorite in Garland for a new SS with Uribe still on the roster. Zoom ahead to spring training, and some fans were disappointed in the moves the organization made, because they felt they were the wrong moves at the time, and those disagreements may not be done with, especially if Owens comes back and takes over the leadoff spot. The place may blow up on that day. When fans have disagreements with management, they aren't going to be happy, so the negativity, atleast in my mind, is understood, though not necessarily justified.

 

Now, I'd like you to compare those feelings to the feeling of the beginning of the season with the Sox on a 5 game win streak. I don't sense as much negativity; I sense a quiet excitement over this team, yet people having the patience to see where this team is in a week, 2 weeks, a month, at Memorial Day, at the ASB.

 

If the Sox keep playing well, I bet the negativity stays away. It's so much easier to be happy when the Sox are playing well, and so much easier to be pissed when they are playing poorly.

[FlaSoxxJim]

If the Sox keep playing well, I bet the negativity stays away. It's so much easier to be happy when the Sox are playing well, and so much easier to be pissed when they are playing poorly.

 

There is no better barometer of my personal mood, and I'm not proud of that fact. If the Sox are sucking balls my wife pretty much stays out of my way. It's not a good way to be and I try not to be that way but it would be a lot better all around if the team just didn't ever suck balls.

 

 

[Harry Chappas]

I beleive this forum went downhill when everyone was expected to go elsewhere for general information and then everything was thrown into a catch-all thread. Threads with 260 or even 26 pages do no good. What is wrong with starting a new thread for each new thought? It either gains legs and grows or falls to the next page.

 

When I originally signed on to this site there were links to every Sox related story for the day and then a thread. I came here for one stop shopping. Game threads used to have a Play-by-Play feel to them now if you ask for this, someone will link you to MLB.com or some other site that may update you in 3 minutes with the correct information. Instead of a new thread a good topic is discussed in the game thread and never heard from again.

 

The fact that the Sox have struggled has this site turning into a dump on the Sox and an advesarial mood and the content is really decreasing.

Edited April 10, 2008 by Jenks Heat

[rangercal]

I beleive this forum went downhill when everyone was expected to go elsewhere for general information and then everything was thrown into a catch-all thread. Threads with 260 or even 26 pages do no good. What is wrong with starting a new thread for each new thought? It either gains legs and grows or falls to the next page.

 

When I originally signed on to this site there were links to every Sox related story for the day and then a thread. I came here for one stop shopping. Game threads used to have a Play-by-Play feel to them now if you ask for this, someone will link you to MLB.com or some other site that may update you in 3 minutes with the correct information. Instead of a new thread a good topic is discussed in the game thread and never heard from again.

 

The fact that the Sox have struggled has this site turning into a dump on the Sox and an advesarial mood and the content is really decreasing.

 

I agree 100%

[Texsox]

I beleive this forum went downhill when everyone was expected to go elsewhere for general information and then everything was thrown into a catch-all thread. Threads with 260 or even 26 pages do no good. What is wrong with starting a new thread for each new thought? It either gains legs and grows or falls to the next page.

 

When I originally signed on to this site there were links to every Sox related story for the day and then a thread. I came here for one stop shopping. Game threads used to have a Play-by-Play feel to them now if you ask for this, someone will link you to MLB.com or some other site that may update you in 3 minutes with the correct information. Instead of a new thread a good topic is discussed in the game thread and never heard from again.

 

The fact that the Sox have struggled has this site turning into a dump on the Sox and an advesarial mood and the content is really decreasing.

 

I think you've made some good points there. If you would please clarify something, do you mean if someone has yet another idea on Crede and Fields to start another thread, or if someone has a new idea about the height of the infield grass? It is my understanding, and someone correct me, we were trying to avoid a page of 20 threads and 6 were on Crede/Fields 5 were KW is an idiot 3 KW is genious, and the rest a smattering of anything.

[Harry Chappas]

I think you've made some good points there. If you would please clarify something, do you mean if someone has yet another idea on Crede and Fields to start another thread, or if someone has a new idea about the height of the infield grass? It is my understanding, and someone correct me, we were trying to avoid a page of 20 threads and 6 were on Crede/Fields 5 were KW is an idiot 3 KW is genious, and the rest a smattering of anything.

 

5 threads on Crede v. Fields could be grouped as could the KW sucks threads. Funny thing, these threads are started anyway and are forced to be grouped together. If the size of the forum due to new threads is the issue, than that is understandable. If you search through a Catch-all thread I am sure there could be one or two new threads generated from these a day.

 

The fact that there is a thread with 284 pages is ridiculous. The fact that there are maybe two new threads a day causes the board to become stale. I believe many posters maybe look at the most recent page of the catch-all and that is it. If you are not on the board daily you could miss ten pages of a possible catch-all thread and a good topic may be buried.

 

I also think the fact that the daily periodicals are not linked is also a detriment to new ideas on the board.

 

As for the size of the infield grass I will ignore this thought and believe I misunderstood the intent of your comment. But for argument sake there is probably a legitmate post about this at a cub site because their infield grass courtesy of the Sox groundskeeper is making them look bad thus far. I guess this could go in catch-all horiculture thread under SLaM.

Edited April 10, 2008 by Jenks Heat

[Hawkfan]

I think i'm more pissed over this postponed game than danks pukefest last night. no, definitely not, but i am pissed.

post script.. at least ididn't have to watch jose pitch, hes done

[PoopsThompson]

I'm here because as a fan of the sox from central California, this is the best place to come for information about the sox, and to gauge how other sox fans feel about differing issues regarding the team. Also, this place is just leaps and bounds above the official whitesox mlb.com forums.

[Milkman delivers]

Yes, I also hate the ridiculously long threads that are a bunch of different threads combined. If I wait a full day between reading them, there's already around 15 new pages and I end up passing over it.

[Milkman delivers]

I know it doesn't change the amount of posts, but one way to make threads like that "less intimidating" is changing your board settings. If you have a decent internet connection, go into "My Controls", then on the left hand side scroll down to "Board settings", and change the "Number of posts to show for each topic page" to 50 or 75. It takes a day or two to get used to, but it really nice. 50 works great for me.

 

I understand what you're going for there, but that doesn't change the number of posts.

 

EDIT: And now I see you said that in the very first sentence, ha. It's just still too much for me to want to read.

Edited April 11, 2008 by Milkman delivers

[Texsox]

As for the size of the infield grass I will ignore this thought and believe I misunderstood the intent of your comment.

 

I was straining for a topic that was totally new, that had not already been discussed. I was not trying to trivilize anything, and actually it would be an interesting topic. A small ball, bunt style team would want slower grass and slope the lines in, a hard hitting, power team wants them slanted away, short, and fast.

 

The "fresh" remark rings very true with me. When I was strictly a mod in SL&P, if the front page started to get stale, I worked to toss some new topics out there. We should be creating some urgency for people to log in each day, in fact several times per day. I think if you miss for a day, you should have to scroll back to the previous page to start "catching up".

[Harry Chappas]

I was straining for a topic that was totally new, that had not already been discussed. I was not trying to trivilize anything, and actually it would be an interesting topic. A small ball, bunt style team would want slower grass and slope the lines in, a hard hitting, power team wants them slanted away, short, and fast.

 

The "fresh" remark rings very true with me. When I was strictly a mod in SL&P, if the front page started to get stale, I worked to toss some new topics out there. We should be creating some urgency for people to log in each day, in fact several times per day. I think if you miss for a day, you should have to scroll back to the previous page to start "catching up".

 

I sit at a computer all day 5 days a week so I am pretty tuned in to most of the topics here. The problem is that in a catch-all thread there could be a topic that could gain legs but does not for whatever reason. This happened a-lot in the offseason with FA signings that were overlooked or not posted. For instance, I did not know Cory Patterson was on the Reds and the royal screwing of Kyle Lohse did not have topics and while they may have been in a catch-all or something I think these would have been valid threads. I think any daily Sox story should be given it's own thread simply for the sake of posting something that may spark a conversation. New posts or infrequent visitors will get scared off by the catch-all threads. The Ozzie Guillen/Phil Couzzi story is still draging on with ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike while there is no talk of it here. The size of the Catch-all threads is not the probelm but if you are off the site for a few days you can really miss somehting as oppossed to having to scroll through a page or two to see topics which if they were nonsense have already passed by.

 

BTW, I sent a PM to Jason I beleive back when these started out and have never liked them so this is not a recent thing. The thing I am trying most to emphasize is that this site is where I come on the internet and it used to do a great job of keeping me informed about everything rather easily now it is much tougher.

[Chisoxfn]

But the argument being made is "why can't we have a bunch of individual threads instead of large ones". Even if we did do it that way, that wouldn't change the amount of posts, but they would now be spread out instead of all being in one place, which seems like more work for the reader.

 

 

There just isn't a good way around it when you have a board with thousands of members.

Personally speaking though, I actually prefer things that way because I can quickly see whether its a topic I'm interested or not interested and skim by it or not. In the case of the massive threads I tend to really scan or ignore pages cause I'm so behind on the new posts and since I really have nothing to filter what the news is I could end up missing stuff that i would usually read.

 

I really understand both sides to it. On one hand, it definitely can keep things more organized, especially cause there are some posts that maybe don't need there own thread but on the other hand I personally can't stand massive threads.