Needless Negativity, Bitterness and In-fighting

by John Morgan on Sep 9, 2008 9:43 AM PDT in Field Gulls Info

This is a blog wide warning. If you,

1. Say the season is over.

2. Complain about Seattle not getting respect, or getting screwed by the officials.

3. Sic yourself on a fellow user.

You will be banned.

I work to support my family. This blog represents no income to me. I do this out of the love of writing and because I think Seahawks fans deserve an intelligent place to discuss their team. For now, it is essentially a hobby.

Perhaps it is my fault, but I can't believe the community on this site. Field Gulls has become a Trollopolis where stupidity, rancor and bloviation rule. The level of meanness and especially defeatism after one loss is embarrassing. I never wanted to quiet disagreement, but if you're not taking the time to be smart, support your points or act decently, I'm not taking twice the time to clean up your garbage.

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Comments

Amen

John, I’m a relative newbie on your blog site, and I have to say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your analysis. Truthfully, I’ve avoided getting involved in the ongoing discussion on this community because of the points you have just made. I’ve worked as a contributor on other sports blogs in the past and I understand where you are coming from. Don’t let others ruin the effort that you’ve put into this “hobby” of yours. Your product is strong.

To the others; I understand that everyone wants to have a voice, and this gives you that opportunity. But please, do not taint quality of this product by not respecting the integrity of it.

by Jo-Jo on Sep 9, 2008 9:58 AM PDT reply actions

Not your fault John

FG has grown. And football fans are a slightly different breed. With only 16 regular season games emotions run high (which is fine)

But this is a place for football discussion. Don’t just bitch and moan. If you don’t like something or have a opinion back it up.

Oh and someday I’m going to be able to pay you to do this site John (well I hope so, give me 5 years)

You may gain some yards on the ground, but eventually Lofa will end up biting you in the ass.

by Scruffy Lefty on Sep 9, 2008 10:05 AM PDT reply actions

Good call

Of course I throw myself into every single game, and felt pretty crappy immediately after we got walloped by the Bills. But I bounced back by the end of Sunday. It’s important to be able to shrug off the bad feelings of an ugly loss, else you need to stop following football. Especially as a Seattle fan.

I’m still feeling fine about this year, I think we ran into a pretty good Bills team there, and weren’t really ready, but I’m going to give them at least 5 or 6 games before I make final decisions about this team.

So consider this my vote of optimism. I think with a week or two of practice under his belt, Hasselbeck turns back into the super genius QB we all know he can be. The receivers are a problem, but they’ll adjust and get healthier, and the D is still looking stellar to me.

I don’t know how I feel about the Plack news….

by jimmimoose on Sep 9, 2008 11:13 AM PDT reply actions

I understand part 3 is semi-directed at me and I understand that you're right.

Regardless, I think this post is needed. Thanks for making it, hopefully it cleans things up a little bit, and I’ll keep my overreaction to stupid posts to a minimum/not at all.

Yesterday's Pants
A blog-thingy about the Mariners and stuff.

by BrettJMiller on Sep 9, 2008 11:36 AM PDT reply actions

I don't mind you policing

But some people thrive on negative reaction. If someone keeps acting foolish, leave them alone and contact Christian, Scruffy or I. That way we can take away their chance at attention.

by John Morgan on Sep 9, 2008 11:47 AM PDT up reply actions

Yeah, I've talkd to Christian over AIM a bit and added Scruffy as an AIM friend.

However I know that some of my “policing” is rather harsh and mean. I think the reason I do it that way is usually the fear of being insulted will make people think their posts over more and not just be so quick to post any random thing. But sometimes I go over the line, and I know that’s no more acceptable than being stupid—which is why I started IMing Christian a bit about complaints in the community. But thanks for allowing me to say what I see fit—within reason and excepting Game Thread Emotion of course. Haha.

Yesterday's Pants
A blog-thingy about the Mariners and stuff.

by BrettJMiller on Sep 9, 2008 12:31 PM PDT up reply actions

If you're going to go over the line

can you at least refute the point along the way? I think there would be some more tolerance for outright meanness if it was more than just “you’re dumb, stop talking”. It’d also go a long way to creating some good discussion, which can be hard to come by with John being so right all the time.

by Nate Dogg on Sep 9, 2008 2:02 PM PDT up reply actions

Fair enough.

I haven’t read the game threads or other comments so I didn’t know how bad it had gotten.

by lemonverbena on Sep 9, 2008 11:49 AM PDT reply actions

Ya your post was defiantly bad timing

You may gain some yards on the ground, but eventually Lofa will end up biting you in the ass.

by Scruffy Lefty on Sep 9, 2008 11:51 AM PDT up reply actions

I try to avoid Defiantly Bad Timing, generally.

by lemonverbena on Sep 9, 2008 12:42 PM PDT up reply actions

You forgot

no politics :)

Only one kicker is making this team and his name is Chris Hansen

by Chris Hansen on Sep 9, 2008 2:17 PM PDT reply actions

Devil's Advocate for the naysayers

While I certainly don’t think the season is lost – after all, in 2005 we started 2-2 and finished 13-3 and started 3-0, 3-0, 3-0, and 3-1 in 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007 finishing 10-6, 9-7, 9-7, 10-6 respectively – I do think that Buffalo is a medicore team at best (7-9 last year; 1-8 against teams .500 or better) and I saw this week 1 contest as a game in which Buffalo looked mediocre and the ’Hawks just looked horrible.

Teams that get homefield advantage in the playoffs and make Super Bowl appearances seldom get pasted by someone as underwhelming as the Bills though, ironically, I am reminded of their dismantling of the Pats 31-0 one of the years New England won the Super Bowl. Still, if the ‘Hawks have any intentions of going to the Super Bowl this year, they’re going to HAVE to win on the east coast sooner (regular season) or later (post season).

by Azimeir on Sep 9, 2008 3:14 PM PDT reply actions

Lets give the Bills a little more credit than that

by Nate Dogg on Sep 9, 2008 3:33 PM PDT up reply actions

Bills...

I disagree about the Bills. Their offense was not that good, except they pass blocked a hell of a lot better than us and have a much better HB(who didn’t get much blocking on most plays) than we do.

But their defense has the big disruptive DT that we don’t…and took advantage of where our offense was. We probably have the better offense and defense at the end of the year, but right now their defense is close to as good as ours, while our offense was way worse…and on top of that their special teams took a game where they would have scored 3-13 points and helped them score 34.

They might be a mediocre team today, but I think that with that defense and special teams, and with Peters coming back, that they are a team on the rise. Don’t forget that Edwards is a 2nd year QB, and he didn’t make the big mistake that whole game.

by cashless on Sep 10, 2008 9:01 AM PDT up reply actions

In Both Cases...

I respectfully disagree. I believe the Bills are headed to another 7-9 season (or somewhere in that vicinity), I don’t think that Trent Edwards will ever be anything but a journeyman QB, Jauron a journeyman head coach (good coordinator, mediocre head coach). Time will tell.

by Azimeir on Sep 10, 2008 9:36 AM PDT up reply actions