social media policy

[Dutch Alex]

The Neth.'s are a small country in Europe. You all know that fact. We have a very small softball-community in Holland and in Europe as a whole. Most coaches and players know the umpires by name. Some of them have friendship- (or worse: family-) relations with the umpires. The dutch umpires are advised by the national federation not to accept players and/or coaches as "friend" on the social media. For the different forums we are advised to stay away. This international umpireforum is the only one I'm active on and not even under full name. Although frequent readers, familiar with the dutch softball-community can figure out who I am.
The worst thing we umpires can lose is our good-name. People might indeed think we are bias. So, yes, the best thing is to be more than very careful what to write.

During a game I always call the coaches "Coach", even if (s)he is a friend outside the ballpark... I know you all do that as I do it. So why shouldn't we do it as well on the social media?