Article: Etiquette, the Internet, and You

[Brock Beauchamp]

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?889-Etiquette-the-Internet-and-You

[Brock Beauchamp]

For you forum peeps who can't be bothered to RTFA:

 

For the second consecutive season, the Twins have been a pretty awful baseball team to watch. As long-time Minnesota fans, we at Twins Daily understand that. I'm not a Vikings fans so maybe I don't understand it quite as much as some of you saps, but I still understand the sentiment behind being very, very angry at your favorite team. Some of this frustration boils over into the comments section of articles and into the TD forums.

 

Lately, it's been a bit of an issue and that's going to stop. We've had a rash of posters who have stooped to calling each other names and that isn't the type of environment we're trying to foster here at Twins Daily. So, as of this point, if you see someone calling another person names or insulting their obviously rich family lineage, let us know about it. It's really easy. There's a "Report Post" function under every post made on TD (it's the little triangle with the exclamation point in it).

 

Now that I have that out of the way...

 

To the offenders of this policy. Listen, you're frustrated. We get that. But do you really need to call another person you've never met a ^&%$ing *$%#face &^#wipe because they think Joe Mauer should be traded for a pitching machine and an old Phillie Phanatic costume? There's a much more polite way to make your disagreement with that kindly gentleman on the other side of the keyboard known to all. Challenge him to a duel. Pistols at dawn is always a classy touch. Go create a website and yell at him there. GoDaddy offers cheap and affordable hosting for such a thing, if you can stomach the non-stop Danica Patrick ads long enough to find out how to buy something over there. The point is that if you're going to insult someone on the internet, you better find a different place to do it.

 

Or, better yet, stick around Twins Daily and learn to disagree with the idea, not the person. Everybody has the occasional insane idea of what constitutes "smart baseball". VodkaDave thinks the Twins should explore signing Morneau to a multi-year deal in the offseason. Do I agree with that? God, no. I think it's completely insane to even be thinking about it at this point in time. But Dave's a pretty smart guy who I agree with quite often on several subjects (particularly all things adult entertainment-based). So I go after the idea, not the person (also, Dave is a very sensitive person and I'd hate to upset his delicate sensibilities).

 

Not everybody out there is as smart as you, SABR guy with a post doctorate in mathematics... or it's also possible they haven't yet been exposed to new baseball ideas. Or maybe they're just a little kid and you just sent them back upstairs, crying about how the bad Internet people don't like Nick Punto and asking his mom what she really did for a living before she met daddy. Nobody wants that. We were all baseball morons once and Twins Daily is doing its best to invite baseball fans of all knowledge levels and varieties to this great sport. It wouldn't kill you to show a little restraint once in a while and teach something instead of blasting the person out of the water like a drunken Hunter S Thompson fishing in a dynamite pond.

 

In short, stop with the insults. We're not going to put up with it but we do encourage civil (or, mostly civil) discourse on the state of the Twins. Again, it's a really simple rule:

 

Go after the idea, not the person.

 

PS. Forum dwellers, we're also keeping an eye on consistently negative posters. Again, we understand frustration but if you can't post anything but negativity for 150 consecutive posts, consider yourself warned. If you see someone who is consistently dragging down every thread they enter and derailing the topic with endless rants about how bad everything is about the Twins, do not report it. That will only clog our queue for forum violations and could cause us to miss legitimately insulting posts. Instead, feel free to PM myself, John, Seth, Nick, or Parker with your concern. We will certainly take your opinion under advisement and we thank you.

[mgraves]

I pretty much cannot read the comment sections anymore because they read like the comment sections at the Strib--which I find painful on several levels.

 

Context and perspective. Well done.

 

(I should, of course, have checked your bio to see if you are a "sir" or a "ma'am", but I'm too lazy to open another tab to find out. I apologize).

[James]

For the most part, the comments are fairly civil and worth reading. There are times though, that I stop reading the comments because of the personal attacks.

 

RP - Thanks for bringing this up. Also, I'm sorry it had to come to posting an article about how to behave.

[Brock Beauchamp]

This forum is pretty tame, all considering. Still, after a couple of bad weeks of forum trolling, all of us decided enough is enough and we're going to proactively work to clean things up a bit.

[Mahukey]

Ever since I started to work at home, and it has been a few seasons:) I have always to tried to stay up-dated with baseball and my Twins. TD has always been a positive site to read and talk baseball. The comments have been 99% about baseball and you guys do good work in keeping it that way! Keep it up!

[John Bonnes]

Thank you for posting this Brock. Just so there isn't any questions, the entire team is behind this. And it's especially important to keep in mind in the last two months of what has been a frustrating season.

[Seth Stohs]

Agreed... 100% behind this!! Thanks for writing it Brock... I've talked to too many people who either don't come here at all or won't comment themselves because of a select few... Thank you!

 

I'm all for great discussion and disagreement, but there's a right way to do it and a not quite so right way!

[MWLFan]

I can still read the comments on this site. On most sites I just give up after two or three comments, the vast majority of the people who visit daily I believe are a very civil group. Hopefully this will continue, but I guess that is up to all of us. It can turn quick and I think you have the support of a vast majority of us who enjoy the site do what is needed to keep and nice place to visit.

[boney]

I know that I've written my share of negative comments lately but I haven't seen a lot of name calling. I'm not optimistic right now but I always have hope.

[DaveW]

Well Pig, you had me until you dissed my flawless plan of offering Justin Morneau a contract extension.

 

With that said

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_t-Dy2G2jvCI/TNvtKKK5ZzI/AAAAAAAABHc/HYuHEfugO3g/s1600/comic-book-guy-worst-post-ever.jpg

 

jk your the best.

 

Not really.

[Squirrel]

Heh ... loved the paragraph about Dave ... but in your earlier paragraph, that kindly gentleman could be a kindly lady. Just sayin' ... (although I really don't post much)

[glunn]

My philosophy on this is that we all share a common mania, some more than others.

 

I think about the Twins at random times during each day, even the offseason, and I check at least 3 Twins websites every day, even on Christmas day. I always want to watch the games and I always need to know the score. Some fans are less hard core than this, and some are more hard core.

 

While I may completely disagree with what some people say here, the diversity is enlightening and from what I have seen, the debate is generally civil. But it does not hurt to remind ourselves that the most abrasive Twins fan will always be more of your ally than the nicest White Sox fan.

[Harrison Greeley III]

This post needed to happen a long time ago. Thanks for taking the time. I might also throw in the excessive thread starting could probably use some discretion on everyone's part. We should have something like the 'Official Thread of __Player X__' so whenever there's a brag or a gripe about a given player/front office member/position, we can keep it all to one thread and organize the forum more efficiently.

[Brock Beauchamp]

This post needed to happen a long time ago. Thanks for taking the time. I might also throw in the excessive thread starting could probably use some discretion on everyone's part. We should have something like the 'Official Thread of __Player X__' so whenever there's a brag or a gripe about a given player/front office member/position, we can keep it all to one thread and organize the forum more efficiently.

The busier a forum gets, the more this happens. As news breaks, everybody rushes to the forum to post about it. That's a good thing and we encourage it. Lately, I've been combining a lot of threads. It only takes a minute of my time and while I encourage people to take a quick look to make sure their thread isn't a duplicate, it's not something I'm going to get too riled up over.

 

The more people we have active in the community, the better it is for everyone.

[gil4]

"...because they think Joe Mauer should be traded for a pitching machine and an old Phillie Phanatic costume?"

 

 

The Phillie Phanatic costume too? That changes everything!

 

Siorry. Are sarcasm and bad attempts at humor still allowed? Those are my main contributions.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Snark is and always will be encouraged.

[Craig Arko]

Snark is and always will be encouraged.

"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,

 As he landed his crew with care;

Supporting each man on the top of the tide

 By a finger entwined in his hair.

[jimbo92107]

All in all, Twins Daily is one of my favorite sites. Sure, sometimes people pop off about some player they've lost patience with, and sometimes the arguments get a little snippy. But mostly we all just sit back and have a pretty good time gassing about the local nine.

 

I don't know about y'all, but the last time I played competitive baseball was when I was in fifth grade, about forty years ago. I did help coach a couple little league teams this summer, but mostly I just yelled "run faster, swing harder, throw harder" or some semi-useless nonsense. Kids had a lot of fun, tho. Some of them learned to throw a ball with okay form for the first time. One of them learned to swing the bat, and hit a grand slam in his last game. A few guys learned to pitch, and they all pitched from the set. We pretty much had them stealing bases all the time, which is how the 12U guys won the championship. Shocked the heck out of me. Great kids.

 

Thing is, baseball's supposed to be fun, so talking about it should be, too.

[Fire Dan Gladden]

Thanks guys. Yet another reason why this site will continue to grow.

[Clyde]

But it is acceptable to post sarcasm directed at each other? Derision about other posts is allowed just allowed? A lot of nasty shots were taken at Thrylos and this did not reappear, so why now?

[NoCal]

I too have been reticent to comment, a bit reluctant to stir up abuse. I tend to skim the comments, and focus on those contributors who (whom?) I seem to trust. One bit of perspective - goodness, two years of poor baseball is nothing, in the grand scheme of things! I have gone whole decades when the Twins have been non-competitive; it is fun to see how this organization can come back from the setback of the last two years. This is a grand puzzle, a fun diversion. Enjoy!

[jorgenswest]

I would add that we might not only be civil to each other, but also to the players/management debated.

 

Drew Butera is an example. Writing about his historically poor batting performance supported by facts/data is on one side of a gray line. Blasting him personally or mixing his name with any assortment of asterisks and symbols is on the other.

 

It is a small step from calling a player names to doing the same to each other.

 

I hope to be more careful in writing about players and keeping it objective and fact/data based.