Field Gulls Mod Enforced Rules and Standards

I hate it when we proclaim a player to have “character concerns”.

We do not personally know these players. We are way too quick to call a player who smiles all the time and doesn’t make any noise a “good character”, while a player who slips up occasionally or makes his opinions vocal has “character concerns”. I hate to talk like a rebellious teen, but that’s very Orwellian.

I find character to be quite relevant.

I’m firmly against speculation, unfounded assertions, and even against most passing of judgment and condemnation even where the allegations have strong substantiation. I’m not into that at all. Probably because I’m worthy of a lot of judgment and condemnation myself, if you ever got to know me.

But I feel establishing a paradigm where character is not relevant to our discourse cheapens the more tangible parts of this sport that I love. “Not relevant” feels too conducive to “not important”, tacitly endorses it. I don’t feel that way at all, so establishing that character is not relevant at all would feel like an ideology I don’t believe in being imposed on me.

There is no moral authority, and I am not endorsing that we try to conceptualize one at all. No moral authority, but I am not going to be character agnostic.

then they should become fair game for a blog discussion, since a how the NFL deals with these things directly affects the Hawks, and how the Hawks deal with these things directly relates to the fan experience.

So, for instance, a rookie getting a DUI might merit a “meh”, a possible Vick trade would warrant a more colorful discussion. So says I!

…and I have been a fan since I was a kid when the franchise began. But THEY play the games and WE watch them.

The Seahawks. Oh who am I kidding. This season it wasn’t the Seahawks who were scoring.

But I get your point. I do make for that exception, when referring to that question during a game.

As in, “”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E09LU6XVyxs" target="new">we dropped off the damn money."

Just keep in mind, you run the risk of looking like the Patton Oswalt character in “Big Fan”.

I mean the Steelers DID suck for like the first 40 years…

CALL THE MODERATORS!

with the hulk that say “use the fucking subject line” to a visitor from another site who pops in to talk about our team or a player and is being cool but isn’t aware of site etiquette.

Satire’s kind of my bread and butter.

If you’d thrown in B.J. Raji screaming “ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-con!!!!” while chasing down someone in the endzone eating a BLT, it would’ve been damn near identical.

Keep it in good spirit (The haiku threads were a blast, especially when opposing fans joined in) but don’t go to other blogs and be rude just for the sake of being rude.

(As a side note, I hope we play the Texans again soon so we get to mingle with Battle Red Blog some more).

Already done all of the above. I do not post to game day threads, as I’m usually too busy trying to remember which blood pressure medicine I just took too much of, and whether another shot of Jameson will push me over the edge.

But going back two or three days after the fact and reading through the game day threads is some of the best entertainment I have in my life. Way better than network TV sitcoms.

I would be happy if game day threads were considered free fire zones. And y’all do want me to be happy, don’tcha?

Spoken like a Texan. A Houston Texan.

That game HAD to hurt. An all time memorable collapse game.

That’s NEVER going to happen again, so don’t fucking worry about, okay?

But, in the context of it happening, remember the “rules” posted in the original fantasy football thread

The first rule of Fantasy Football, you do NOT root for players against your favorite team.
The second rule of Fantasy Football, you do NOT root for players against your favorite team.

Never NEVER EVER cheer against the Seahawks due to your fantasy roster. My personal rule is to avoid as much as possible acquiring division rivals, or to avoid playing them against the Seahawks if reasonably possible. Statements like, “Well, at least I have Larry Fitzgerald on my fantasy team” (if) he was scorching the Hawks will unleash the hounds of hell upon you. Avoid playing those guys. I have Boldin in one league, Beanie in another. Both will be sitting this week on principle. I suggest, STRONGLY, that you do the same. But if you don’t, please don’t be that one bastard playing the “Don’t Come” line at the craps table. Not only will you bring bad mojo to everybody, but you’ll likely get verbally harassed, if not banned. You’re a Seahawk fan, you aren’t “that guy” you are one of OUR guys—act like it!

To me, if they cut to Houston and Andre Johnson getting a 2nd TD and 155 yards, I think his owners should be able to rejoice within the community. But if Andre gets a TD against the Hawks, no, you absolutely shouldn’t say shit about it. It’s a tact thing. But I seriously can’t see the problem with trying to find some joy in what is overall a terrible Sunday. Particularly when you factor in the fact that, when I’m on a game thread, I AM alone other than the community I’m communicating with here. People say whatever they want stream of consciousness in game threads. To eliminate benign fantasy talk is trivial and mean-spirited.

I get it. If it is anti-Hawks it doesn’t deserve a place. But why should fantasy talk should be disallowed when other random talk is?!? You had a beer you like. Great. I don’t fucking care for some of the extended “beer snobbery” threads that exist here. I drink a lot of beer. Some I like, some I don’t. Moving on. I had a touchdown by my 2nd WR playing against Pittsburgh’s D. I’m happy and you don’t fucking care. But in both cases, people want to share, and at times other people want to listen. Demoting fantasy talk to an obscure thread NOT in the game, when the game thread is hard enough to keep up with alone is just not practical nor reasonable.

The beer comment gets no derision and the fantasy comment is followed by “Turnips are not very tasty, but I like purple cool aid if I’m drinking any.” And you can say, “But people are drinking beer and want to share.” I’ll respond that I fucking promise you at LEAST 50% of the people in the thread have fantasy teams.

If you don’t want to read the fantasy commentary, don’t. If I don’t feel like reading the beer commentary, I wont. Hey, that’s simple and fair for all.

(And for the record, I’m not anti-beer, nor do I spend the bulk of a game thread wanting to share fantasy talk. I just think it’s mean spirited to deride someone when something good happens to them that is away from the Hawks game… especially when the hawks game is going poorly.)

since Maclin’s last name is spelled wrong.

I’m gonna say retarded.

One of our regular commenters created a dupicate account and would occasionally write something like that with his alter-ego.

they should wield that authority appropriately, not as a free pass to be disrespectful or condescending to posters when it’s not called for. Not that it’s a recurrent problem, but it happens.

I wish we could get rid of this QPM nonsense.

Chatspeak is for 16 year old girls.