Official Forum, Moderators, and the general attitude of some posters on the site.

[Adam]

If you have specific complaints, we are more open to feedback than you might think.

[Skahtboi]

Adam, I don't believe it is so much the moderators, as the general climate of the forum these days that allows insults and name-calling to happen with almost any topic being discussed. Read almost any softball/baseball thread and you will see it start to degrade to insults and name calling.

Could the moderators do something about it? I am sure. But it just seems to have become accepted.

Just one very small example: From another board

[Adam]

Honestly, I saw a bit of give and take there, but I wasn't following it that closely. If you have a specific post in mind, please feel free to report it to the moderators. We may not necessarily agree, but if you think we're missing stuff (always a possibility), then a more effective option would be to report the post and see what happens.

[Manny A]

I recall the old McGriff days in the late 80s or early 90s. It was when I first started umpiring in my son's local Little League Baseball league. To date, I haven't seen any internet sports officials' forum that was as bad as that. There were more personal insults and obscentities posted than there were actual rule discussions.

What happens here (at least on the baseball and softball forums; I can't speak for the other sports since I don't visit them) are orders of magnitude less severe. Yeah, there's the occasional retort from some of the old-timers that deserve to be ignored. But for the most part, this place is tame.

In the thread you mentioned, there was some sniping back and forth by a couple of folks. But they did stay on the subject of the issues with the play and subsequent ruling. If this place was like McGriffs, they would have talked about each other's abilities, mothers, manhood, etc. I honestly didn't think it was worthy enough of being stricken by the moderators, in my opinion.

[His High Holiness]

"I recall the old McGriff days in the late 80s or early 90s."

Ah, McGriffs, I remember those days fondly. McGriffs started in about 1997 and was overrun with spam and insults by 2001. It was disbanded 2-3 years later after many fruitless attempts by Gary McGriff to bring it under control.

So there, you lousy dirtbag, and so is your mother

[LRZ]

The lack of civility seems to be both an increasingly large part of our culture in general and a reflection of internet anonymity. Regardless, I agree that incivility can lead to website decline, but also to having a lot of lurkers who don't wish to expose themselves to ridicule or insult.

Not sure what moderators can do, though, especially if incivility becomes pervasive.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by LRZ

The lack of civility seems to be both an increasingly large part of our culture in general and a reflection of internet anonymity. Regardless, I agree that incivility can lead to website decline, but also to having a lot of lurkers who don't wish to expose themselves to ridicule or insult.

Not sure what moderators can do, though, especially if incivility becomes pervasive.

We can address it, but sometimes we have to have someone point it out to us.