Our Community Guidelines (2023 Edition)

[gyso]

Part A, Community Guidelines:

To no one in particular and everyone in general.

Conviviality is the rule here.  That being said, a sense of humor and a little humility is important, and you will need to look past the wording of a post and take into consideration its intent.  In a twist of the definition, conviviality here does not mean that only happy, smiling and positive comments about the Celtics are acceptable.  That would be too boring.  It does mean no ad hominem attacks, i.e.: nothing personal.  Vigorous debate and opposing views are always welcome, especially if they are supported by evidence and/or fact-based argument.  Be reasonable in evaluating and re-evaluating your own posts, as well as those of other members.  Oftentimes, the best policy is to write it, read it and then delete it instead of posting it; thus avoiding the addition of fuel to an ongoing flame.   If that proves too difficult, then perhaps this place is not for you.

Expressing an opinion or making a prediction and then posting it as fact over and over is offensive to other members.  Adding this kind of post across multiple unrelated threads is likewise offensive to other members.  If you cannot state your case a handful of times and then agree to disagree (in other words, move on), then perhaps this place is not for you.

Politics, religion and social issues have no place here.  If you feel that including them in a post to make a point is in any way necessary, then perhaps this place is not for you.

Questioning or hinting at anyone's lack of basketball knowledge in order to bolster your own argument is not allowed.  There's more than one way to learn, understand and appreciate the game of basketball. Having been a player at any level in the past or claiming more years or decades of being a fan is not the end all to being a fan.  There is no place for fan snobbery here.  If you feel that you need to go down that old tired road, then perhaps this place is not for you.

An on-going relentless attack of another member because they are a fan of another team is not allowed.  Likewise, the habitual support of another team or the denigration of the Celtics in a taunting or excessive dimension is not allowed.  If you feel uncomfortable with fans of other teams and your automatic go-to is to insult and attack them, or you like to constantly demean the Celtics at every opportunity, then perhaps this place is not for you.

Continuation of any argumentative relationships started on other boards and bringing them here is frowned upon.  If anyone feels the need to carry old grudges to this board, then perhaps this place is not for you.

If your go-to move is to get angry and attack a member because you don't like a comment they made to a post of yours, then perhaps this place is not for you.

Complaining when we step in to moderate a troublesome thread and calling it censorship is insulting to the moderators. That includes calling other members or moderators hypocrites, etc.  If you do not like how this board is moderated, then perhaps this place is not for you.

The breaking of any of the above Community Guidelines may lead to locking of threads, the deletion of posts, and over time, outright banning.

I hope that these Community Guidelines are taken seriously.  Sometimes threads start to go down a path that gets tiresome to many of our members and people need a gentle nudge to get back on track.

[gyso]

Part B, Post Content Guidelines:

There are no rules, nor are there any requirements regarding:

How you post
What you post
How much you post
How often you post
How consistently you post
Who you reply to
Who you don't reply to
How long your post is
How short your post is . . .

as long as you follow the community guidelines (shown above, in this thread) and the posting rules of the forum, as spelled out in the Welcome! & Help forum.

If you can find the time in your busy life to come here and share a link to an interesting article, or post a tweet that is basketball related, or add a quick comment regarding a topic on a thread you found here, please do.

If you are reading the internet about all things Celtics and come across an interesting article, past or present, and you want to share that article with us, please do.  Post a link, if you can.  Post a link and copy-and-paste some of the article, if you can.  You can even tell us off the top of your head what you read and where you read it and, with luck, someone here may be able to follow your backtrail and post a link and/or expand on your thought.  Some members here may not have all the websites on tabs or have a great comfort level while surfing the internet.  Creating a sort of one stop shop kind of place is a boon to all and it is a great way to help make this place the initial go to when talking Celtics and basketball in general.

If you have a twitter account, or have access to twitter and actually understand it, and you find an amusing or informative tweet about the Celtics or one of our many arch-rivals, please share this with us.  Share a screen-shot, a link, or insert an active tweet using the Embed Content button.  It's all good.

Youtube is another place to find videos about the Celtics and this forum has a specific place to paste and insert the URL.  Copy the URL off a youtube video, come here and click on the YouTube icon, paste the URL in the box and click on insert.  Easy-peasy.  Just be sure to watch a little of the video before sharing, in order to avoid any unintentional results.

The point we are trying to make is that:

Bringing content from outside sources to create discussion topics
    is just as welcomed here as is
Sharing your own opinion by writing down your own thoughts to create discussion topics

The object is to create discussion.

We four founders had many discussions about this and that early on when we created this space.  One of the many things we discussed was providing links and content from other sites.

Here's some of what Sam said in an Admin thread from 2009:

I'm not against it.  If the concern is that we could risk attrition by allowing people to be referred to other boards, I don't happen to share the concern.  This board is designed to carve out a very distinctive niche, and I believe that's what it's doing.  It's also designed (very largely because of your inputs) to be extremely appealing in multiple ways (much like a certain team is designed to be versatile).  I think that has happened too.

In short, my plan has always been to depend on the quality of the product for users.  Nothing else...not money, not trying to keep members from trying other boards...nothing!  I believe the product is unparalleled, and the proof of the pudding is in the extensive and enthusiastic use of the product (except for last night's game-on thread, and missing that one was probably mercy for many people).

And I also think we're building a solid core of loyalty.  Even some of the individuals who were a bit embarrassed by the recent [name edited out] incident seem to remain ultra-loyal.

So, if a link is posted and it ultimately results in the loss of a member, so be it.  I could probably make a good case that we somehow deserved to lose him or her.  In fact, I'm just confident enough of this forum to be HAPPY about exposing links to other sites if it will be a useful service.  Let them compare.  Let them "borrow" insights and bring them back here.  The absolute worst that can happen is that we gain some perspectives on how to make this forum even better.

Sam

It was all about providing a product that is "extremely appealing in multiple ways".  Our real issue with providing content from other sites was twofold.

First, always provide a link to the site so we can consider the source.  

Second, always set up some kind of distinction between the source author's words and your own comments.  That is why we quickly started to put "My comments: . . . " in bold after bringing outside content to this board.

[gyso]

Part C, A little of This and a Little of That:

(from another internal Admin discussion about a previous tough decision made long ago)

Sam shared with us that moderating the board was becoming a full time (non-paying) job.  The incident (being discussed) was when two members wouldn't drop a non-basketball topic after Sam spent the better part of his vacation trying to get them to listen to reason.  That issue eventually cost this board two members, one of whom was considered to be a good friend to many that came here from BDC.

We do miss Sam's innate nature to spend the time addressing all member's concerns and issues in a timely manner.  He spent that time, much to the chagrin of his life partner.  We remaining founders get the same "eye roll" from our mates when we get caught trying to moderate here.  Seriously, we cannot even discuss it with them because they cannot believe what constitutes an issue here.

We are sharing that Admin discussion in order to show members that we Admin folks discuss a lot of things in the background, out of public view.  Here, we were talking about how hard it is sometimes to moderate a board when many of the members are friends, and sometimes there are no winners.  We talk about just about everything, personal and board related.

We always talk and get consensus, before making any big decisions, always.  Often, we would try to "lock and leave" threads so they would act as a real-life example of things or topics to avoid.  It doesn't always work.  Sometimes, a member (or two) will point out to us that the locked thread needs to be deleted, for reasons that should have been obvious to us, and we appreciate that input.  We then move the thread from public view. 

About banning:

Sam banned members once, and that was that.  We later instituted the "second life" option for obvious reasons, but we are not cats.  

Truth be told, we are extremely patient; we let many issues play out without stepping in.  When we see a questionable thread or post, or when things go a little sideways, we often start our internal discussion and hope that the issue at hand is resolved amicably.  If it does not, we will try our best to moderate the situation, often with a warning that the discussion has run its course, and a suggestion: "Let's move on".

A few situations come to mind:

1. Posting an inappropriate topic.  

This is a topic that really should not be posted here.  It usually involves one of the three no-no's: Politics, Religion, or Social Issues (PRSIs).  Even if it is about a basketball player, coach, owner, fan, (whatever, fill in the blank), if it includes any mention of PRSIs and is not just about the game of basketball (or sports, in general), the topic is inappropriate.  Usually, (always?) threads like these devolve further and take the discussion down paths that this board was not designed to tolerate.  Even if the members are polite in their back and forth, it is the topic that is the problem, not the conviviality.

We have a hard pass on these types of threads, and in the future, we will just remove them from public view, without comment.

2. Posting in an inappropriate manner.

Our very first rule of posting includes the following:

"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"

Constantly getting angry at other members due to differing opinions (or worse, misinterpreting something they wrote) often results in gratuitous taunting, baiting, name-calling, out-of-context nitpicking, or personal attacks (ie: ad hominem), which then results in a never-ending spiral of more of the same.  That's never a good look and that is why it is mentioned in our second rule.

Actual or pretend anger all looks the same, from outside eyes.  If a visitor comes here and sees members abusing other members, that may be enough for them to turn and look elsewhere.  Outrage and anger may sell on other sites (due to clicks or whatever), but it doesn't provide any positive results here and it drags the rest of us down.

Any response that includes unreasonable outrage or anger stands the high possibility that it will be removed from public view, without comment.

Another rule is:

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

We have mentioned this in the past.  This has been a rule from day one.  We understand "fans will be fans" and all, but please try to show restraint.  We have suggested that the use of such language could be allowed in the Game On forum (members need to show their feels, after all), however, it should be avoided in the main (non-Game On) forums.  

Any thread that includes such language in the title or initial post stands the high possibility that it will be removed from public view, without comment.  Individual posts that include such language may have the same fate.

3. Complaining when we step in to moderate a troublesome thread and calling it censorship, publicly or privately.

It is not a rule, but it is a guideline (listed above).  If after you go #1 or #2 and we clean it up, and then you go #3 each time (over and over), we get a little tired of that.  Complaining to Admin, in and of itself, will not result in a ban.  Too much of #1 and/or #2 will get our attention, however.

If we mis-read something and remove a thread in error, we can always revisit the thread in question because we don't actually delete threads, we remove them from public view.  Admin can still view it, for nefarious reasons (of course).  Actually, we learned to not delete stuff, because details often become translucent over time.

[gyso]

Coda,

Well, that is the A, B and Cs (and the 1, 2 and 3s) of the rules and guidelines that define how to go about posting and interacting with other members on this board.  We would like to think that this place is a sort of basketball oasis, far away from the noise and conflict that is often found on other discussion boards or blogs.

We hope this thread provides a little help with the "dos" and "don'ts" for this board.

gyso, Pete and NYCelt

[worcester]

I appreciate the privilege to be a member of this community. Thank you for your work to maintain it.

[RosalieTCeltics]

I have been around since the beginning and have admired the way this entire forum has been handled over the years. Some posters come and go, but many have been here as long as me. I have told you before, I consider you all friends. Thanks for handling things in a way that will make it a place we all want to continue to come and chat. YOU GUYS are the reason for that. It is part of my life

[worcester]

Rosalie, we both joined almost the same time, but gyso has us beat by a few days. I'd say the early bird catches the worm, but no one has caught Dennis Rodman yet.

There are so many thoughtful, insightful, and funny writers on this site. Sure beats visiting a psychiatrist.

[bobc33]

I too certainly appreciate this Forum. Having met many of the posters in person, I always feel when interacting here it is as if we are hanging in my living room or at a bar watching a game together. We may disagree about players and strategies but it is simply a difference of opinion among good friends and never personal. In other words, convivial.

[Sponsored content]