Here's my idea.. Let's come up with some suggestions and guides that new people to the board could read before they start posting.. I'm not sure if this has already been suggested or what Clutch would think but it would be nice to cut down on some of the problems that repeatedly occur with the amount of new people coming onto the site.. I don't mean to diss or ridicule newbies, but I do realize that there is a learning curve that every poster must go through.. My first suggestion: 1) Take one week to read the board and study the topics and thread titles so that you don't start a new thread on something that has been discussed every other day for the last 2 years (i.e. new uniforms). Also during this one week study session, take a good look at what threads are locked and ridiculed so you know what not to do. Is this a dumb idea? Would it be a waste of time to make sure all newbies read something like this before they are allowed to start actively posting?
Sorry for the double post.. I'm an idiot.. I meant to say Netiquette.. 2) Proofread your posts before you submit them.
4) Think reeeeeeeallll hard before you include the word "Trade" in your title ...its funny, I lurked & learned before jumping in for fear of foot-in-mouth, apparently that's out dated
I like that.. Lurk and Learn! I'll add a #5 Don't start more than 1-2 threads a day. This makes you seem like an idiot who just wants to see their moniker on the computer and read their own writing. Just because you are drunk and just wet your pants doesn't mean everyone else wants or needs to know.
A pet peeve of mine is when you try to help a newbie in acclimating themselves and they say 'I don't care what you say, I'll post what I want to.' The thread is usually locked soon after.
7) Post your pic with EXTREME CAUTION...it may end up hanging around a lot longer than you'd ever expect!
Lol! 8) Please supply a link if you are going to extract information from an online article or radio show. Also, 9) When starting a new thread, distinguish opinion from fact. Posting that Steve Francis wants out of Houston according to such and such publication can be dangerous when all the article mentions is that Francis was unavailable for comment.
Without new people on the BBS this site will be full of cranky senior posters with too much time on their hands posting old crap over and over. Let the admins do the job and if you are not an admin then shut up and let the people post what they want.
I sense a little hostility here. I'm not proposing that we don't allow new people or that new people are bad.. I don't consider myself the cc.net police either, man.. Just offering a suggestion on a way for new posters to learn about the board, which won't cause the senior posters to be as cranky. grrr!
I have been on this board for a while now and I like to read. But I hated when people think they can tell others what to do because I am the almighty senior member. Let the bbs be what it is suppose to be a place people can post opinons. Every one has an opinion so why is one person better than another. Just let the admins do there job if you are not happy. I used to like reading all of the old posters but now all the good ones are gone and we are left with a bunch of seniors posters who have nothing good to say but to pick on the newbie.
What's wrong with a self-policing board? Are you going to sit there with a straight face and tell me that you enjoy reading all of the MustangPride77 (or whatever the rest of his handle is) poll threads (one of which was closed and another was vaporized)? Because if you do, then I don't believe you.
I've been wondering why people get so cranky on message boards anyway... if you don't like what people post, just ignore it. The admins do a fine job of taking care of any problem children that come to the board. On the other hand, it's something I've noticed about most forums on the Internet... people are not quite as nice or polite as they would be in a face-to-face conversation. (as a sensitive chick, this can make me upset if I don't feel particularly thick-skinned that day...) I don't know what this says about human nature (and it's not just cc.net). The Internet culture is definitely a strange one. Anyway, never hurts to be nice to people, or at least to ignore them if you can't do that...
Make sure you don't go into the Rocket's forum and post with your first post that the Rocket's shouldn't draft Collier because the last thing they need is a tall, crappy, white guy. All the tall white guys on the board get real mad. Plus they like to say that Larry Bird is a tall white guy AND a good player. When you try to say that you don't think Collier, or Langhi for that matter is the next Larry Bird, make sure you don't suggest that they take an athletic mid sized player that has a chance. They then call you racist by the fact that they think you are saying that you should draft a black guy over a white guys, when in fact you are saying that you shouldn't just draft the tall guy because he's tall, you need a better PLAYER, 7' 6 fouls on this team. Anyways...don't do that. Also, don't post gibberish that passes for "internet lingo" on other boards. People ignore you, and its dumb. LOLOL HA HA 0o0: what's up hahaha *********laugh ha ha ^_^"thx bye!!! )" Also, don't type Ebonics, it just looks dumb. I don't care if you are the coolest mo fo in the hood yo, if you type it out on the screen like that, you look dumb. Especially don't do it if you are a 16 year old white guy trying to find yourself and are experimenting with being black and acting like you can play basketball...its just sad.
Seriously, are you so blind that you cannot see that something like this is necessary? The intent of this thread is not to bash newbies, just provide some guidelines. Got an opinion? Fine. Share it with the board. Most likely, no one will bash you. The problem arises when newbies continue to post the same crap over and over, and have no regard for (beyond-ad naseum) subject matter, language, spelling, grammar, and/or simply making sense. We were all newbies at one time or another, and the vast majority of us learned the netiquette of this bbs because we liked the site and wanted to stick around. Its a lot like every-day life, if you think about it. That's a simple rule that everyone should follow when interacting with others. Clutch and the rest of the admins do a heck of a job maintaining this bbs, but its hardly their job. They do it 1) for their love of the Rockets, and 2) because they want to run a clean, bullsh*t-free website. Part of the reason they can continue to do this comes from bbs members being willing to police themselves. In case you didn't know already, the reason that some of the features here (like searching) have been disabled is due to band-width problems. People continuously asking the same damn questions about uniforms or proposing ludicrous trades that'll never happen don't do much to help alleviate the band-width issues we've been having. I've been here for a LONG time, and I've never seen as many locked threads as I've seen since last years draft. The amount of people posting the same crap over and over is rather astounding, in my opinion.
No one should be starting 2 threads a day...in the 'GARM' forum...in the offseason...about a team with no 1st round pick. Scroll down and look at the the active threads. There are way too many threads on the same subject, article, or person. This is killing the 'GARM' forum. All of the threads that are worthwhile are pushed to the second page, and not many people look that deep in the forum. Therefore, there is not much good conversation going on over there.
Why the heck do you think they left in the first place?!?! Who really wants to read yet another ill-informed "Let's Trade Moochie For Brand!" thread? A lot of people here (n00b and old) just post without doing any research whatsoever. It's quite frustrating. Take 5 seconds to look up Van Gundy's record and bio before brashly declaring that he "sucked monkey balls as a coach when he faced the Rockets in '94." Also, use your freaking head, too. Common sense goes a loooooooong way, y'know. 9) Re-read your message before posting. Speling and gramatical erors caan make U luk like an idiot in the i's of othurs, therby making U luk les credable. Also, make sure your post is adding something (... ANYTHING) to the conversation. Posts like "LOL" or "YOU SO KRAZY!" waste bandwidth. Which leads us to... 10) Strive for quality posts. It just looks better and makes you seem somewhat intelligent. ("MacBeth" posting is strictly, strictly optional. ) Which post is more likely to get a response (i.e. looks better): Hmmmm... You make the call... Something else that bums me out: If we had less posts and threads (... and more quality), we might actually get the search feature back due to the lessened strain on the server. However, I see no chance of that happening now. Makes me
