social media policy

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

Kind of funny, really, that we're sitting here on the Official Forum ... a social media site ... discussing whether it's right or wrong to post about the game, players, teams on a social media site like Facebook. Ironically, I've been told (especially when I did football in Dallas) that posting on the Official Forum is frowned upon by the higher ups. Guess they didn't want us newbies learning anything or comparing situations.

I think some of that is the paranoia that officials will use these forums to speak poorly of the associations for which they call, disparaging the higher-ups "behind their back" with the water-cooler talk.

Frankly, I can't think of a better way for good information and ideas to get shared, disseminated and discussed en masse. Local umpiring associations typically require officials to attend less than a half dozen clinics at the beginning of the year in order to qualify for assignments. While that's a good start, it's even better to have a venue in which we can keep ourselves sharp by asking each other questions and have them available to everyone.

Sure, there will be the occasional incident in which someone speaks out of turn, but those incidents are the exception and not the norm. There is too much to be gained by having these forums than there is to be lost by an occasional bad apple.