Frustrations

[NCASAUmp]

Something has been on my mind for some time now, and I have to bring it up. It's been brought up before by others, and in so doing, I've seen some positive changes. But after a few months or so, we're right back where we started. No one's saying it, but it needs to be said. So I'm just going to ****ing say it.

I look at this forum as a kind of "water cooler for umpires." Ideas, both good and bad, can and SHOULD be brought up here for discussion. Sure, it may get tedious to discuss some of the same topics over and over again (OBS vs. INT, LBR, IFF, etc.), but for the vets out there, that's just part of our jobs: to help bring up the new vanguard of our profession. Without new faces, we're left to age in our own sandbox with no one willing to pick up the flag, bringing us to conversations that we're currently having on another thread. We all know this in our own areas in which umpires are getting fewer and fewer in numbers.

Yet quite frequently, I've been noticing a pattern whereby members new to this forum get shot down or even worse: treated with hostility. Most people do not come here expecting a fight, but are sucked into one from the get-go. In the end, after just a few posts, they leave.

Why is this?

Fellow blues, on this forum, our masks and chest protectors should be off, not on. Yeah, we do get some strays here who are simply here to start an online ruckus, but that hasn't been the norm in quite a while.

Over the last 2 years, I'm seeing fewer and fewer new threads per month, and I'm seeing a lot of the same people posting over and over. That tells me that our active membership is going downhill. Ideas and dialog are key to the success of this place, and if we lose sight of that, our numbers will continue to dwindle.

Now, this isn't directed at anyone in particular, as I've fired a few salvos myself. This is simply a reminder of why we're here in the first place: to have excellent discussions over how we officiate the very sport that all of us love: softball.

Let's not lose sight of that.

/RANT