With the start of preseason, it's time for a refresher.
As an FYI for prospective new users, there's a two-day waiting period between registration and the time your account becomes active. Keep that in mind if you plan on taking part in game threads.
The following is the final set of rules and regulations decided upon by the community of Field Gulls.
Zero Tolerance
Abuse of the following rules will lead to comments being hidden or deleted as well as immediate banning, possibly without chance of reinstatement.
Sexism, Racism or other Bigotry: MTV raised you right. You know better than to use "gay" in the pejorative. Cull the sexist, hate-filled slang from your vocabulary or expect an immediate ban.
No Politics or Religion: Just don't do it.
Name Calling: Except to call Scruffy "Lance". He likes that. This has never been a problem here, but for the sake of comprehensiveness, let it be known that name calling of any kind will not be tolerated.
Spam: One and you're done.
Hoaxes: False headlines used to capture attention will be rewarded with a deletion of the post and a banning. Misreported news of any kind is not allowed.
Trolling other blogs: Absolutely not. Do this and you will be banned here at FG.
Standards
Mods will enforce standards through a three strike system: correction, warning and finally banning. Mods will not punish innocent errors, but habitual abuse.
Links: A link must be provided for all news and quoted material.
Spelling and Grammar: The readers of Field Gulls are Field Gulls. Therefore you are held to basic editorial standards. Commenters must attempt proper spelling and grammar within the best of their ability. Many internet browsers have a spell check included.
Subject Line: The subject line is the small box above the body of a comment. SBN software requires this box be used. Use it.
Reply: The reply button is below and to the right of a posted comment. It's a wonderful organization and communication tool. Use it.
Site Etiquette
Site etiquette is to be enforced at the moderators discretion. It is a catch all for behavior not explicitly covered by the above rules that can be abusive to the site, those who contribute to the site and its readers.
Belligerence, Fault finding and Trollish behavior: Rudeness can be couched in the nicest words and divisive and destructive commenting can be framed as civil discussion. Persistent negative comments, thread-jacking, fault finding, petty correction, stubborn ignorance or illogic, meanness, calls to perfection, refusal to drop an argument, unfounded claims of prejudice and other acts of self-importance will be dealt with on a case by case basis. tl;dnr, don't be a jerk because you're behind the internet cloak of anonymity.
Judging the fandom of others: You don't get to decide how much of a fan someone is. If you do this, expect the community to be very angry with you.
Respect the moderators.
Keep front page posts on-topic: Unless specifically designated, comment sections are not free-for-alls. Your comments should be about the post itself.
Use the Rec button!: It is there to be the virtual equivalent of a head nod/fist bump/Amen Brother. This keeps the comments sections clean, concise and content heavy while allowing people to express their agreement in a visible way.
Fantasy discussion is for the weekly fantasy post: Fantasy comments outside of the post may be met with sarcasm.
Rosterbation: Fanposts containing logical, supported and novel roster moves are accepted, even endorsed. Fanposts that propose farfetched trades, signings, schemes or that endorse exhausted topics (ie Michael Vick, Mike Holmgren, the officiating of Super Bowl XL, etc) are not allowed.
Chat Speak: No longer accepted. "+1", "LOL" and "roflcopter" are examples of this.