Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have been contacted by one of the esteemed members / participants of this forum with a request that we significantly reduce the number of off-topic threads and posts. This individual acknowledged that s/he was a contributor to the problem, but promised to refrain from adding to the problem in the future.

After wading through the threads this morning, I'm inclined to agree. The board is relatively busy this time of year -- it takes a while to get through all the threads. I'd rather spend my time reading / discussing officiating topics rather than forgetful cheerleaders, sleeping with the dogs, etc.

Like the individual who contacted me, I am guilty of, from time-to-time, adding a comment that doesn't advance the issue. I, too, promise to try to stop doing that.

I'd appreciate your cooperation.

Thanks.

Bob, I think that you're over-reaching yourself. However, you're the moderator. Enjoy yourself. I'll be back when we're allowed freedom of speech.

I'm sure that the esteemed member who complained won't be missing me anyway.

Dogs wake you up early again, JR? Bob didn't say he was going delete anything or pull anybody's registration. He just asked for a voluntary reduction in noise.

Now, the fact that I'm not going to be volunteering shouldn't be too much of a problem. . . :)

Ok, ok, I'll try. Let me just get it out of my system now. (Deep breath. . .) Dogs, Theo, Johnny, Yankees suck, go Seahawks, lightbulb joke, stict mods, Padgett's meds, cruise ship over the int'l date line, squirrel, midgets, Dan's grumpy, JR's really grumpy, and tomorrow night is pizza and Diet Cokes.

Whew!! Ok, I'm all done till MLB's Opening Day.

Wow...so no more good-natured ribbing of each other? No more sarcastic comments concerning which professional sports teams we happen to root for? No more jokes about people's stature? Just straight basketball rules talk and nothing but, right?

Sounds pretty dull to me, but yer the boss...

I"m feeling rather out-of-sorts this morning, anyway, so I"ll just stay away for a while. I'm probably one of the worst (or most frequent? or both?) offenders, so my busy weekend should help.

I hate to say it, Bob, but your original post has nothing to do with basketball. I think you should delete it. If you want to write about your personal correspondence with another poster, you should do it in the General Forum.

>>we're allowed freedom of speech<<

Oh, please. This isn't a constitutionally protected venue.

Freedom of speech is based on a restriction against the government, not bob.

So what, you have to be considered an "esteemed" member to get a request like this to work? I've been asking for this for the past year.

Thanks anyway Bob.

Bob,

I agree with your point of view on this. I think for the most part we should stick to the topics at hand. If someone wants to talk about something like baseball, race to dog breeds I thought that is what the "off topic" forum was for. If the topic has an officiating slant to it, I have no problem. If we are going to have threads that talk about baseball all summer, I have to agree the people can find another forum to discuss those things. I have been on forums that were stricter with topics and would remove any thread that was not set up for that forum. Bob, I am here to talk officiating, not to socialize which many use this forum for. That is what email is for.

Peace

Holy Bat$h1t Robin. Me and Rut Agree on something!!!

I don't mind them.

We agree on a lot more if you actually took off your blinders and stop assuming things. ;)

Peace

Me either...but I think that's because of where I am at in the country. I think it's a regional thing and is going to vary from area to area...it might be ok in my area, but not in anyone else's...so who is to say that my area is right or wrong. It really depends.

Is this where someone is supposed to post the squirrel picture?

As requested....

<img src="http://elmesquite.com/pages/pix/squirrel.jpg">

Posters who've been banned under several other usernames shouldn't get any consideration.

I understand the desire to cut out the off-topic stuff, I don't agree with it, but I understand it.

But if those of us who are basically civil and humane to each other are going to be limited, I hope there will be some more attention, and editing added to the posters who just go berserk. At the moment, I'm referring to the second page of the "Please educate a parent" thread.

Ummmmmm, there IS no second page of that thread.

Yes.
I know.
mick

DUH!

I for one think that people who want to turn this forum into something other than what it is ought to either bring it up with the citizenry themselves and make their own case, or find a place that's more to their liking. If their opinion really has legs, then they should be able, with some effort, to convince most of the rest of us to fall in line. If it doesn't, then it will fall on understanding, but unsympathetic, deaf ears.

I didn't take up officiating because I wanted to spend all my free time studying rules and discussing mechanics. I got into it because I enjoy the challenge and the people. Take the people out of the equation, and I, for one, will find a new hobby.

In much the same way I value this forum for both its officiating focus and for its personalities. I refer new people here frequently. And the one piece of advice I give each of them is to hang out and get to know who the people are. That allows them to make informed judgements about how to value other's contributions.

I realize that this board is private property, and that we have moderators and rules for a good reason. And I wouldn't want it any other way (I had a lengthy chat with Barry Mano a couple years back about how to improve Referee's board, and the bottom line for me was that it needed to be a lot more like this one). The real value in this forum is it's community. And the community ought to have a fair amount of say in how it operates; One "esteemed" member having a private conversation with a moderator should not be given undo deference.

Bob, I realize that you're making a polite request, not issuing a mandate. I appreciate that. And I appreciate that you're working to improve the experience for everybody. But I disagree wholeheartedly with the point of view of the unnamed "esteemed" member. I wouldn't want a lot more noise than we currently have. But I genuinely enjoy what we have currently.

Regards,
Ray Cox
Citizen of this community
Willing to be a named, if not entirely esteemed, member.

[Edited by back in the saddle on Jan 27th, 2006 at 01:16 AM]

You forgot fishnets....

Seriously, I can understand Bob's point....but the "colour" of this forum is what makes it unique. Roughly three years ago, I stumbled onto this forum via a link on another site, and I've been a faithful reader/poster ever since. What originally struck me was the sense of community everyone seems to have - complete with neighbourly squabbles and the like. Yes, this is an officiating forum, but it's the people that make it enduring.

I have these mental pictures of what everybody looks like - Chuck, Juulie, Rut, JR, Tony, Dan, Mark, etc, etc - and it's like having another group of casual friends on the computer. It's the off-topic stuff that makes it fun.

In the end, the vast majority of the stuff we talk here is basketball. What more can you ask?

Being judicious is fine, but let's not go overboard.

Did you forget, wait for it...the SEC? And what about Naomi? :)

I dunno Bob...they say it's your site, but do you really want to possibly lose annoying guys like JR because some "esteemed" member was offended by to much off-topic chatter.

I don't know about you Bob...but, the last time a bunch of us officials went out for a refreshment after the game...we didn't just sit around and talk basketball, we talked about other things that were going on in our lives. Sure, we talked basketball...but we interjected things that had to do with our lives/families/job etc. that showed some of our peers a little personality.

Maybe you don't want personalities on this forum...but, as one poster said...officiating is about having fun.

I've always looked at this excellent forum as an extension of officiating...maybe I was wrong...maybe it should be strictly about rules/mechanics/POE's etc...but, IMO, we would lose something that not a lot of non-officials understand...that we officials can just get together and be "normal".

No, it's not my site. Not even close.

Quote:

I don't know about you Bob...but, the last time a bunch of us officials went out for a refreshment after the game...we didn't just sit around and talk basketball, we talked about other things that were going on in our lives.

Agreed. What about at (not before or after) the last association meeting? Was that (mostly) basketball or was it a large part "other"? Is this forum (or should it be)more like a social gathering or more like an association meeting?

The fact is that there's no "right" noise-to-signal ratio. Some might say that even one off-topic post is one too many. Others might say that "anything goes."

I'm merely pointing out that one poster (at least) thinks the ratio is now too high, and that I agree (and think that it's trending higher).

Very well said. I enjoy the uniqueness of this forum. I enjoy the ribbing that gois on between those that have been here for awhile. I may not understand all of it but I can fall in line as well and cut the smart a$$ comments to a minimum.

Ok, so far, I've been silly and snide, so now I'll be a little serious.

First, while the amount of off-topic posts has gone up, I'm completely unconvinced that the ratio is any higher than it was over the summer. The amount of on-topic material has exploded this season. If you look at the number of threads that have been active over just the last week, it's about 5 pages worth. So there is a lot of basketball discussion going on. You don't even have to look that hard to find it.

Secondly, if somebody doesn't like a thread, here's a handy tip: click the "next thread" link at the top of the page. It's not hard to do. I'm sure JCrow is a nice guy and good official, but I don't happen to share his particular sense of humor. So you know what I do when I come to a thread he's started? Gasp! I don't read it! I go to the next thread. I complained once, realized it was a stupid thing to complain about and moved on. I know that Rut doesn't care for the annual baseball thread. He complained once (in the thread, I mean) and then I don't think he ever posted in the thread again. I assume he came to the same realization and just stopped reading it. It can be done.

Third, if you really think that the off-topic stuff on this forum is a problem, head on over to McGriff's for a week. See what the "ratio" is over there. See how much off-topic stuff is posted and the content of the off-topic stuff. It's sewage, ok? Then come back and tell us all how you feel. This forum is a haven b/c of its basketball-related material and its good-natured off-topic material.

I just honestly don't see a problem. If I'm in the minority, so be it. If somebody's looking to solve a problem, I would humbly submit that a better use of effort would be to get the search function back up.

I'm not esteemed -- in fact, I believe that it was just last week that a group of fans informed me that I was "horrible" :; -- but I guess I'll throw in my $.02.

I appreciate that our moderator's approach was to encourage us to think about the appropriateness of our posts rather than to issue an edict. Even moderator's ought to be able to express an opinion ... and he has done so.

I tend to agree with Chuck - just don't read the off topic threads if you don't want to. The off topic threads do not at ALL bother me or even qualify in my book as "noise."

I do think that there can be a distinction, however, between off topic threads and basketball officiating threads that go off topic. It can be a little frustrating to be watching and reading and learning from an officiating thread when it does get kind of "noisy" and then it can be inconvenient to try to find the officiating nuggets of wisdom in between all the silliness. I absolutely enjoy the occasional humor inserted into serious discussions, and so I suppose it is simply a matter of degree.

This is a great site, and I don't mind occasional reminders that we all play a role in keeping it great.

Bob's message was a polite request to think about the signal-to-noise ratio.

He didn't moderate any threads, nor did he threaten to. I know that's not his style, but maybe some others who don't know Bob think that a more heavy-handed approach is going to follow. I don't think that's the case at all. I'd be surprised if that was the case, actually.

I used to be a moderator here until Carl Childress decided that it wasn't a good idea for someone who showed such public disdain for the editor-in-chief of the paid site to be a moderator and had me "removed." Whenever I thought about moderating something, I always asked myself "would Bob do something here?" Being fortunate enough to work HS basketball with Bob (and receiving the requisite police escort from the gym afterwards along with having things thrown at us on the court -- why would a high school give out little yellow balls between quarters anyway?) reinforced how level-headed he can be.

Not that I think Bob's a saint or anything, but I think he's an outstanding person to have as a moderator in this forum. And all the people saying they are going to disappear for a while are just overreacting.

Best regards,
Rich

[Edited by Rich Fronheiser on Jan 27th, 2006 at 12:58 PM]

With apologies to Monty Pyton.
 

HOW ABOUT THEM STEELERS!! (Sorry Bob, as a Moderator I should know better, but I guess I just couldn't help myself.)

MTD, Sr.

[Edited by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr. on Jan 27th, 2006 at 01:25 PM]