WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION TO SAM'S CELTICS FORUM

[sam]

Welcome

Thank you for accessing Sam's Celtics Forum—a message board forum for Boston Celtics fans and friends of Boston Celtics fans.

For those who may not know me, I posted for a long time on the Boston.com forum as "SlipperySam" (not an unsavory character, but nicknamed in honor of Celtics great Sam Jones). Now, I'm just plain "Sam," and I started this forum for Celtics fans and their friends who desire a troll-free environment in which to engage in knowledgeable, congenial discussion and debate about the Celtics and basketball. We may even stray off-topic from time to time as appropriate. The only rigidity on this forum will be a no-nonsense enforcement of civil discussion.

Our commitment is to offer unusually high-quality and informative basketball discussion, news, stats, game-on threads, post-game reflections, contests, occasional trivia, and other features we'll develop over time—and all within the bounds of conversational civility.

Here are some of the useful and enjoyable features you can enjoy on this forum:

• Vigilant and reasonable moderation
• Permanent banning of trolls who are in obvious and deliberate violation of the rules of civility
• Private, timely warnings for less serious posting violations (so as to avoid being too quick with the ban button)
• Easy editing of your own posts
• Ability to send and receive private off-board messages to and from other board members
• (Optional) email notification of receipt of private messages and/or responses to your posts
• List of threads with new posts since you were last logged on to the site
• Continually updated listing of all members currently logged on to the site
• Easy process for conducting polls
• Avatars and personal profile options
• Emoticons (a raft of smiley faces, etc.)
• Ability to post images and videos
• Game-on threads, each one involving a contest
• Ongoing statistics about the board, including number of posts by each member

Checking out the Forum

To examine the forum in greater detail, simply go through the easy, no-obligation process of registering for a one-month free trial:

• Go up to the top of the screen and click on "Register."

• You'll be asked to agree to terms.

• You'll then go to another screen where you'll select a "user name" (board name) and will provide your email address and a password you select (at least 6 characters). This does NOT have to be the password you use on your email account; you can select any password the system will accept.

• You'll then see another screen, where you'll be asked to reconfirm your password.

• You should receive instructions to go to your email account and open a welcome message. When you open that message, you'll activate your account on the forum. By the way, the message contains your user name and password, so you'd be well-advised to save it for future reference in case you forget either.

• At this point in the process, REBOOT THE FORUM using the same URL: http://samcelt.forumotion.net/your-first-forum-f1/
(VERY IMPORTANT)

Using the Forum (or Board)

• You're now ready to use the board. The home page identifies four sub-forums that you may be using at one time or another:

> Hot Celtics and Basketball Topics (the sub-forum on which you'll access, read and respond to discussion topics). Click on any thread you wish to read. Click on "NEW TOPIC" if you want to start a thread. Click on "POST REPLY" at the bottom of any thread to which you wish to respond.

> Game on (the sub-forum we use for the threads that discuss Celtics games while they're in progress).

> Welcome and Help (the sub-forum you're on now—and also the sub-forum that has many helpful hints about using the board).

> Links, Books, Media and Sam's Writings (the sub-forum containing many helpful links (such as where to find live video feeds of Celtics games if you can't see them on local or national tv; a list of books about the Celtics; and some of the writings I've done about the Celtics).

Other sub-forums are for the use of the administrators and moderators of the board.

• You'll probably want to play around with the site, which is fine. One possible place to start is by clicking on the word "Profile" at the top of your screen and then clicking on "Preferences." This will give you a bunch of choices on what you want displayed about yourself and what options you wish to use and avoid. In the thread entitled "HELPFUL TIPS ON USING THIS SITE," we've posted a list of tips to help you in navigating and using the forum. There is also a FAQ option at the top of the screen.

The sub-forum with the great majority of posts is "Hot Topics." The "Game on" sub-forum should be of interest during each game.

Have fun, and please let us hear from you. And, at any time, feel free to email me directly at SlipSamCelt@aol.com if you have any suggestions, concerns or gripes. I think you'll find me pretty responsive.

You will note some advertising with is run by the organization that makes forums like this one available. The operators of this forum have nothing to do with the advertising and will not be making a penny off it. It should not be overly intrusive, and we've been told that every effort is made to tailor the focus of the ads to the content of this forum.

After the One-month Free Trial Period Period

After the one-month free trial, there is a very nominal annual administrative subscription fee of $15 a year. We charge this fee for two reasons:

1. To generate enough revenue to fund the prizes for our contests. Every "game-on" thread includes a contest with a prize being awarded to the winner. And 100% of the revenue from subscriptions goes toward prizes and selected other member benefits. Neither the board nor any individual associated with the board keeps a penny of that revenue.

2. We feel that paying a very nominal fee for a high-quality board that's guaranteed free of trolls tends to attract more serious basketball aficionados (even some very friendly Lakers fans). For those who have legitimate financial constraints, we have made provisions to extend free subscritions. In a terrible economy, roughly 30% of last year's members were not asked to pay.

We do not want anyone to lose out on membership privileges because of being hard hit by the economy. If you feel unable to pay, just contact me with an explanation, and your payment will be waived for the year. I may be contacted in either of two ways: (1) by Private Message (click on the words "Private Message" at the top of the home page and send a Private Message to "Sam" or (2) by email: (SlipSamCelt@aol.com).

Members will not be billed individually. Reminders will be posted periodically for members not to forget to submit their fees on roughly their anniversary dates. Each member will be on an honor system to submit his or her fee after the trial period and, after that, on or about each anniversary of the date (s)he joined the board. If in doubt at any time about when you joined, click on the words "Member List" at the top of the home screen. Scroll down to your listing, and your anniversary date will be the first date to the right of your name. (See below for the payment process.)

Payment Options

There are two ways to pay for a subscription:

• Send a personal check for $15 payable to “Sam's Celtics Forum” to:

Sam's Celtics Forum
P.O. Box 758
Wellfleet, MA 02667

Be certain to note your board name on the check so I can credit the payment to the right person.

OR

• Send $15 to Sam's Celtics Forum via PayPal. If you're not already a member of PayPal, you can make payment from a credit card or your bank account using PayPal. Just go to www.PayPal.com to set up a free PayPal account or access an existing account, and then click on “Send Money” to go through the payment process. When you're asked by PayPal for my email address use this: SlipSamCelt@aol.com. Be certain to include your board name with the payment.

I will contact you by email to let you know your payment has been received. If you do not receive a confirmation within a reasonable time of making payment, please contact me (SlipSamCelt@aol) so the matter may be straightened out.

I look forward to seeing your posts and conversing with you on the board.

GO CELTICS!

Best regards,

Sam

[sam]

The provider of the format for this board is Forumotion, which makes the format available to virtually anyone. We are adapting the format to use by Celtics fans.

The governing body of this forum is comprised of five ADMINISTRATORS (Sam, NYCelt, gyso, Pete, dboss and 112288). Together, we set the policies and do our best to address technical issues. (For the latter, we sometimes go to Forumotion for support.)

The MODERATORS on the forum are the same six people (Sam, NYCelt, gyso, Pete, dboss and 112288).

The RULES OF POSTING are as follows:

• Conversation will remain within the bounds of courtesy, civility, and respect. On any sports board, there will be the normal give-and-take of debate, which can sometimes become agitated. It is expected that posters will monitor their own degree of agitation so as to moderate their comments when the conversation threatens to become unduly contentious or insulting.

• There will be no gratuitous taunting, baiting, personal attacks, or name-calling.

• Unless cleared with an administrator, there will be no explicit or implicit promotion of any commercial or non-commercial enterprise.

• Language will be regulated by reasonable bounds of public decorum.

• Unless an exception is cleared by an administrator, topics will be confined primarily to basketball.

• Fans of basketball teams other than the Celtics are welcome as long as their intent is to post within the spirit of friendly competition and conversation. If support of another team or denigration of the Celtics takes on a habitual, taunting or excessive dimension, it will not be tolerated.

• There will be no knowing posting of material that violates copyright or trademark rights.

• Material that libels, defames, is abusive or obscene, or violates privacy rights will not be tolerated.

• It is expected that posters will be truthful in their remarks and will not knowingly misrepresent any facts.

The PHILOSOPHY OF THE MODERATORS of this forum will be as follows:

• Posts on the board will be reviewed with a sense of fairness, objectivity, and reasonable flexibility in keeping with the normal give-and-take of a message board.

• When rules infractions are observed, moderators will determine whether they are sufficiently serious to warrant deletion of a post and/or warning of the poster or immediate banning of the poster.

• Banning will be accomplished by IP number.

• Every effort (including warnings) will be made by moderators to mitigate serious rules infractions before they get to the banning stage.

At the time of this posting, the SIX ADMINISTRATOR/MODERATORS are: Sam, NYCelt, gyso, Pete and dboss.