Happily, this community is growing every day. However, with that growth comes the need for some rules and guidelines for playing nice with each other. Please read and please abide by the rules outlined below. If you do so, you will greatly improve the Celticsblog experience for both yourself and your peers. Unless otherwise noted, all of the following apply to every aspect of this site, including but not limited to the forums, commentary on the front page, private messages, member profiles, and the Celticsblog / Celtics Stuff Live chat rooms. These rules specifically incorporate by reference any other rules "stickied" to the top of a forum, such as the Current Events forum, the Game Threads forum, and the NFL forum, as well as any rules posted under this topic below.
The Basics:- Respect each other at all times.
- Keep this site family friendly. No profanity, no sexual content, no illegal activity.
- Don't be a jerk, and don't ruin CelticsBlog for others.
- Have fun!
- For all of the specifics, see our detailed rules below.
At all times:- Respect each other at all times. Personal attacks are not permitted under any circumstances. There is no need for name-calling or harassment of any poster. This includes behavior in all areas of Celticsblog, including forum posts, blog comments and personal messages. While we encourage lively debate there is no reason for anyone to disrespect a fellow poster's ideas. Note: There is no distinction between personally attacking a poster (i.e., "You are stupid") and attacking a posters ideas (i.e., "Your idea is stupid").
- Keep all commentary civil, and be courteous to all. Please watch your tone. Constructive criticism is welcome, but insults directed towards other users or the site staff will not be tolerated. Coarse / insulting / gloating / condescending / snarky language is not allowed under any circumstances. This prohibition also extends to any off color or inappropriate remarks. Sarcasm can be misinterpreted, so be very careful when using it in a post. Please see below for further examples related to tone. Also be cautious when pointing out spelling or grammatical errors; there is usually no need for this, and such corrections often serve to heighten tensions between posters. This especially is true when referring to non-English speakers.
- Do not mock others, including by posting mocking images or smileys / emoticons. Comments such as "worst thread ever" are not permitted.
- Do not “lure” or “bait” others towards rule-breaking behavior. This prohibition applies site-wide. Responding to such “bait” in a manner that violates Celticsblog rules is equally inappropriate, and is subject to the same level of punishment.
- No “trolling”. Commenting in a thread or elsewhere on the site in a manner that is likely to provoke an angry response from others is not permitted. Posters should appreciate that in many instances, commentary that would otherwise be appropriate may not be appropriate in a specific thread (i.e., bringing up rumors of alleged cocaine use by a beloved player in a tribute thread dedicated to the memory of that player, etc.)
- Celticsblog welcomes fans of all teams to engage is respectful commentary and debate. However, attacking or insulting the Celtics, Celtics fans, or Celticsblog moderators will result in an immediate and permanent ban. There will be no tolerance for baiting, trolling, or other disrespectful conduct. Please review the rules posted in the thread below in that regard.
- Do not "hijack" threads, either by taking them off topic or making them your own personal sounding post. Generally, it is not appropriate to post in the same thread several times in a row to get your point across.
- Do not label or challenge fellow posters -- either individually or collectively -- in a way that is likely to provoke a negative response. Dependent upon context, examples include, but are not limited to, labels such as "fake fan", "bandwagon fan", "not a real fan", "hater", "homer", "koolaid drinker", "troll", "green teamer", etc., or phrases such as "when did you stop beating your wife", "why don't you join [Team X's] blog", etc.
- No swearing! There is absolutely no need for swearing in any post. If you can't find another way to express your opinion, buy a thesaurus. Any forum post, blog comment or personal message with profanity, blasphemy, masked profanity, abbreviations referring to profanity, or allusions to profanity (i.e., **** or @#$#, etc.), whether or not caught by the blog filter and no matter how mild, will be deleted, and may result in discipline.
- Disparaging comments, stereotypes, or generalizations made in relation to another’s race, gender, ethnicity, religion, handicap, or sexual preference are not permitted. The use of slurs and similar language related to such categories will result in an immediate suspension and/or ban. It is neither necessary nor appropriate to reference a player's race when commenting on that player's play or role.
- Suggestive content or innuendo, no matter how mild, is not allowed. Do not start posts related to the sexual desirability and/or attractiveness of actors, celebrities, sportscasters, or other public figures. Do not post comments, images or videos that tend to objectify persons, especially on the basis of their gender or physical characteristics. Any post dealing with such content will be deleted.
- Overall try to keep the maturity level of posts up, and keep in mind that this should be a place you want to come back to daily and want to tell your friends about. Crude, sexist, lewd, racist or offensive humor or content is not allowed. Crude nicknames -- i.e., Kobe "The Rapist" Bryant -- are not appropriate.
- Do not engage in gossip or discuss rumors regarding the love lives of players. Rumors about the escapades of Delonte West, Pau Gasol's wife, etc., belong on TMZ.com, not CelticsBlog.
- It is unacceptable to behave in a dishonest or deceitful manner with the staff or fellow Celticsblog members. Acts of dishonesty -- such as misleading the staff, lying for one's own advantage, cheating in fantasy games organized on Celticsblog, etc. -- may result in a permanent ban from the site.
- The Celticsblog staff reserves the right to revoke the posting privileges of any member who is systematically negating the ability of others to enjoy this site. Similarly, off-site behavior that violates the standards expected of CelticsBlog members may be reason for revocation of posting privileges
- If you feel a post violates any of these rules, do not resort to "self help"; please use the "report to moderator" link to notify the staff to any violation.
Further Posting Rules:- Keep all posts and comments on-topic.
- Do not publish images or video that contain adult content, sexually oriented material, or might otherwise be considered offensive. If linking or posting a video that contains profanity, please clearly note so in your post. Any post containing inappropriate material as noted above will be deleted, with the poster being subject to a warning and/or action against their account.
- Do not discuss illegal activities. Our server is hosted in the USA and so is subject to US law. Please do not expose us to any unnecessary legal liability.
- When quoting from material that is not made freely available (i.e., ESPN.com "Insider" content, etc.), do not quote the entirety of the material. Posting brief snippets and summaries of the material is appropriate; posting lengthy quotations is not. Please post a link whenever citing to online material, whether insider content or otherwise.
- Try not to get excessive with caps/punctuation in your posts such as "Greg Kite IS the best CELTIC of All-Time!!!!!!!" This is not necessary, no matter how much you may like Greg Kite. Posts that are in all-caps will be deleted.
- No useless posts or comments, i.e., one liners/thread bumping, drive-bys, quotations of others without commentary, "+1" or especially "-1" without commentary, etc., etc.
- Do not use more than four layers of "nested" quotations in a post.
- Make sure that the information you're posting is accurate, to the best of your ability. Do not intentionally post lies or misinformation.
- Do not start threads, bump threads or make posts for the purpose of "calling out" other posters. Retrospective threads are fine, "I told you so" threads aimed at making others look bad are not.
- Do not post the contents of a private message in the forums or elsewhere without the permission of the poster sending you such message. If a private message is inappropriate, please report its contents to the staff, via private message or the "report to a moderator" option.
- Make sure you have read the parent article/post completely before posting a reply.
- Use your own words. If you wish to use the words of somebody else, quote them, citing the source. Plagiarism is unethical and is illegal in many countries.
- All forum posts must be in English, unless posted in a specific international forum. If posting in a international forum, please use the language of that forum, and not English. Occasional use of slang / "tweet speak" / "ebonics" / "street talk" is allowed, but this should not be your primary posting style.
- No commercial advertising is permitted. Any posts or personal message deemed to be self promotion, advertising, or spam can and will be removed. NO SPAM - NO ADVERTISING. If you have a website or blog you would like to promote on Celticsblog, please send Jeff or a member of the Administration a link to the site, and a brief description of the content thereof. Do not post any links to such site until permission has been received.
- Celticsblog.com is not a ticket broker or exchange. If members have extra tickets, they may start a thread related to their availability in the Tickets and Meet Ups forum (a subforum of the Game Threads forum). Posters can then private message that member to inquire about the tickets. All such threads will be locked. Any transaction facilitated through Celticsblog.com servers is made at the member's risk; Celticsblog.com assumes no responsibility or liability for any transaction completed through private message or otherwise. Members should alert the staff if they believe that another member is using the private messaging system for illegal or unscrupulous activities. Due to the illegal nature of scalping in many States, threads advertising tickets for above face value will be deleted.
- This is not the place to settle a commercial disagreement or to be a 'wall of shame'. Any posts deemed to be of this nature will be removed. Settle your disputes in private please.
- Please respect other posters' privacy, and do not speculate about their whereabouts in public. If you are curious about where a member has been, it is best to contact that member via PM.
- Post your comment/question to the most appropriate place. Any posts deemed to be in the wrong forum will be moved. Do not cross-post the same question in multiple places.
- Check that your question has not been answered anywhere else on the site. Use the main site search feature or that of the forums.
- Include as much information as you can when seeking help. This may include logs and command line output. Nobody will be able to help you if you don't give sufficient detail.
- Ask questions the smart way. Read this: http://www.catb.org/~Eesr/faqs/smart-questions.html by Eric Raymond.
- Thank those who help you. Acknowledgment of a helpful suggestion not only placates those who helped you, it may also help others with a similar problem. All those who have been helped on this forum are invited to help other users by responding to their questions when they know the answer and/or to consider donating to the project.
Links:- You may insert web, mail and/or ftp links into any post, blog comment or personal message. However, inserting links with the intention of leading somebody to spam, warez, crackz, phishing schemes or any other illegal activity. is absolutely prohibited. Doing so will get you banned from this website and possibly reported to authorities.
- Please do not persistently “link dump”. The best practice for any linked content is to describe or quote material from the linked content, along with the link itself.
- Do not link to any site that contains adult content, sexually oriented material, or might otherwise be considered offensive. Any post containing an inappropriate link will be deleted and the poster will receive a warning and/or adverse action to their account.
- Do not link or cite to sites that allow illegal file-sharing, streaming or broadcasting of copyrighted material.
Starting New Threads:- Before creating a new topic, please check to make sure it is not posted elsewhere. If a pre-existing thread already exists, feel free to reopen that discussion by posting your opinion. This also includes new topics that are relevant to threads that already exist. (i.e., All game comments belong in the game thread.)
- All new forum threads should be worthy of their own topic. Meaningless/irrelevant threads will be locked or deleted by a moderator.
- Please use descriptive thread titles. Members of the blog should be able to have a general idea about the content of a thread before clicking on it. Try to summarize the topic briefly in the title, and elaborate in the message itself. Do not add false or misleading information just to get attention. An example of a bad subject would be "HELP ME". A good subject might be, "Foo rashes when I do bar". Misleading and/or non-descriptive thread titles will be edited and/or deleted.
- Posting misleading thread titles for the purpose of eliciting a negative reaction from Celtics fans (i.e., KG tore his ACL!!!) is inappropriate, and will result in an automatic suspension and/or ban. This rule will be relaxed from 12:00am until 12:00pm EST on April 1 of each year. On such date, each poster may make a maximum of one "April Fools" post.
- Thread titles that use excessive capitalization or punctuation are not allowed. Thread titles that are in all-caps will be locked and/or deleted. There will be no exceptions to this rule.
- If a previous thread has been locked, use discretion in starting a new thread on the same topic. If the thread was locked for reasons other than its content, starting a new discussion is generally appropriate. If the reason for the lock was directly related to discussion of inappropriate or inflammatory material, do not start a new thread on the subject. If you have any questions about the propriety of reopening a thread, please contact a member of the staff.
- If you have a trade/draft idea you wish to share, please note it as such in the thread title.
- If you wish to post a rumor, please note it as such in the thread heading. Also please provide a source in the heading and a link (if available) in the message. Do not make up rumors or post from fake sources; users who do so are subject to discipline.
- All reports of "insiders" and "sources" posted ion the blog should be taken with a grain of salt. Such posts should be confined to the Trade Ideas and Rumors section of the forums. While such posts are worthy of discussion strictly as trade ideas, it is not appropriate for "insiders" to use this forum to feed their own ego-driven agendas. If the staff determines, in its sole discretion, that a thread has been posted for an improper purpose, that thread will be locked and/or deleted.
- The staff may lock any thread, for any reason. Reasons for locked threads shall include, but not be limited to, conduct in the opening post that violates our rules, the repeated failure of members to adhere to staff warnings, discussions that have gone far afield of the original subject matter, repeated negative and inflamed responses to the subject matter of a thread, etc.
The Front Page:- There are three options for fans to contribute on the front page of the blog: live comments, fanposts, and fanshots. From time to time, the staff will "elevate" worthy Fanposts and Fanshots by showcasing them in the main blog space.
- Keep the front page clean. Profanity, inappropriate or lewd photos or links, discussion of politics, or other content that violates our rules will result in immediate discipline.
- Content on the front page should be confined to discussion of the Celtics and/or the NBA; off topic content should be posted only in the forums. This includes criticism of the site and/or site staff.
- Live comments should be left in response to main blog posts or game threads. Please stay on topic as much as possible when leaving a live comment.
- Fanposts are members' own personal blog posts. Fanposts should be at least 75 words long, and should be as substantive and insightful as possible. "Shout outs" and "quick thoughts" should be confined to the Celticsblog forums, accessible through the top menu bar.
- Fanshots are pictures, videos, quotes, and links that you think others might be interested in.
- User-posted front page content can be deleted at any time for any reason. Discipline on the front page will extend to other areas of the site, such as the forums and the chat room.
The Off Topic Forum:- Celticsblog has an “Off Topic” forum, where discussion of topics unrelated to the Celtics and the sport of basketball are permitted. Please keep all such discussions confined to this forum to the extent possible. It is not necessary and/or appropriate for posters to enter the Off Topic forum and tell others to confine their discussion to basketball.
- While the Celticsblog staff encourages discussion of a wide variety of topics, threads related to certain topics may be locked or deleted at any time because the staff deems them to be of a contentious, inflammatory, illegal, or otherwise inappropriate nature. Decisions related to such threads will solely be in the staff’s discretion.
- Due to the sensitive nature of many of the topics in this forum, please pay extra attention to keeping all commentary civil. Do not use disparaging nicknames for public figures or entities, and do not caricature the arguments of others. Such conduct only serves to inflame discussion, rather than add to it, and is accordingly inappropriate.
The Current Events Forum- Discussion of politics, religion and current events should be confined to the Current Events Forum, a child board of the Off Topic Forum. Discussion of politics and related subjects on the front page or in the chat room are prohibited at all times.
- Do not engage in partisan attacks, unsupported generalizations, or mockery of opposing viewpoints. All posts must add content to the conversation, and all claims must be supported by facts and/or an argument. Posts such as "Bush sucks!" or "Democrats are leftist Communists!" are not permitted.
- The staff may lock or delete any thread, for any reason. Threads that involve illegal or particularly inflammatory topics, such as debating the merits of abortion, personal use of drugs, or 9/11 conspiracy theories will be locked on a preemptive basis. Members should use caution in starting threads about conspiracy theories in other areas. While discussion of other potentially inflammatory topics such as race and religion are allowed, such discussions will be closely monitored. As such, members should tread lightly when discussing such matters. Do not criticize others' religion or religion in general; if you can't discuss religion without criticizing the religion or those who practice it, then don't discuss it at all.
- Participation in the Current Events Forum is on a discretionary basis. Posting privileges in the forum can be revoked at any time, for any reason. There will be very little tolerance for rule-breaking in this forum.
- Violation of site rules within the Current Events Forum will result in automatic and mandatory suspension from that forum. Further discipline, including suspension or banning from Celticsblog on a site-wide basis, will be at the discretion of the staff.
- Any poster who wishes to "opt out" of the Current Events Forum may do so. To disable Current Events posts from showing up in your Latest Forums Topic menu and to disable your access to the forum, contact Roy H., who will remove your access privileges.
Celticsblog Chat:- Access to the chat room is a privilege, not a right.
- Users may be suspended or banned from the chat room at any time, for any reason, at the sole discretion of the chat room moderators.
- Due to the "real time" nature of the chat room, users should use extra care in keeping all commentary civil and mature.
- Inappropriate conduct in the chat room may result in discipline on a site-wide basis.
Signatures:- May contain one image such as a banner, but ONLY if the image used is no larger than 505x167 pixels and 60KB in file size.
- Must be setup in your Profile (link up the top, next to logout), and not manually added to your messages.
- May not contain any pricing, sales, product, etc. details.
- May contain a maximum of two smilies, or one animated smiley.
- May include two clickable links, URL's or mailto:
- May not include .gifs or other animation
- Only exact URLs are allowed, i.e., not < a href="www.domain.com">LOOK HERE
- May include up to two colors. Hyperlink color is set by the forum and is not counted as a color.
- Maximum font size cannot be larger than normal.
- Must be kept to a maximum of four lines (at 1024 resolution).
- May not contain links to other threads or posts. Linking to an outside website is only appropriate with the permission of the staff.
- Your signature is your signature. It is not for sale or rent.
- Signatures should not include lewd, sexual, violent, or offensive images.
- Signatures shouldn't be used for purposes of "calling out" other members, or embarassing them
- Any signature that is offensive or insulting to the Celticsblog staff or members of the blog is prohibited.
- These rules may be relaxed at the discretion of the staff, especially during CelticsBlog events (such as the CB Draft, etc.) To apply for a permanent waiver of these requirements, please contact a member of the administration.
- We reserve the right to ask you to change and/or remove your signature at any time, for any reason.
Avatars:- The maximum allowed size of an avatar is 80x80 pixels. The maximum file size is 20KB. Anything larger will be removed.
- Avatars may not include .gifs or other animation
- Avatars should not include lewd, sexual, violent, political or offensive images.
- Any avatar that is offensive or insulting to the Celticsblog staff or members of the blog is prohibited.
- We reserve the right to ask you to change and/or remove your avatar at any time, for any reason.
Images, media and other file attachments:- You may include one image in a post as long as that image is no larger than 460x460 pixels and 20KB in file size.
- You may provide links to off-site media files, but you may ONLY embed one into a post if it is NOT autoplay.
- Allowed file types: doc, gif, jpg, mpg, pdf, png, txt, zip. Maximum attachment size allowed: 128 KB, per post: 4.
- The inclusion of any malicious media files, scripts or links in a post will bring the gravest of consequences upon you. You have our Webmaster's word on this.
Member Profiles- All material posted in member profiles -- including but not limited to autobiographical information, comments, pictures, videos, etc. -- is subject to the Celticsblog rules, regardless of whether such profile is "hidden".
- Members may post up to 34 images in their profiles. Such pictures should be compliant with Celticsblog rules, and should not include lewd, sexual, violent, illegal or offensive images.
- For best results, member profiles should be viewed in "wide" viewing mode. Youtube and videos should be no larger than 320 x 260 px.
- As a reminder, always be careful about sharing personal information online. Pictures and personal information are posted at a member's own risk, and without liability to Celticsblog or its staff.
- We reserve the right to ask you to change and/or remove any portion of your profile at any time, for any reason.
Celticsblog Accounts:- Participation on Celticsblog is on an invitation basis only. All users on Celticsblog agree to abide by the site rules, the Terms of Use, and the Celticsblog registration agreement (see below). The Celticsblog staff may revoke a user’s posting privileges at any time, on a temporary or permanent basis.
- Only one active account per person is permitted. The only people authorized to have multiple accounts here are administrators and moderators who will use those for testing purposes. Anyone else found to be using multiple accounts will be banned from this website if they persist in using such multiple accounts.
- Generally, Celticsblog does not allow members to change screen names. If you would like to post under a different name, please contact the staff in order to close your old account, at which point you will be permitted to open a new account under a different screen name. In certain limited instances, the staff may approve a modification of a member's screen name without that member starting a new account, if the previous member's identity is readily recognizable by his/her new name (i.e., changing from "redzdeadbabyredzdead" to "redz"). Accounts may be locked or closed by the staff, but they will not be deleted under any circumstances.
- Attempting to circumvent a suspension or other staff action through the creation of a new user account shall result in an immediate and permanent ban from Celticsbog, without exception.
- Accessing the site via a proxy server is not permitted without permission of the staff.
- If you have lost your password, please email a member of the administration, and you can be given a new password.
- Trollish, lewd, or otherwise inappropriate screen names will result in banning of your account.
- Do not Astroturf or pretend to be/represent somebody else. Your account will be deleted if found to be in breach of this rule.
- You are responsible for what is posted from your account. Excuses like "it was my brother / sister / roommate that was breaking the rules" are not valid. If others have access to your computer, make sure that they do not have access to your password.
Conspiracy Toward Damage:- No site members or visitors are allowed, either individually or collectively, to use CelticsBlog to conspire to launch unauthorized (as in, without formal approval from CelticsBlog and its staff) and/or illegal collaborations, gatherings, demonstrations, boycotts, protests and other equivalent activities. This includes activities that potentially might result in physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, domestic, organizational, civic, cultural or other injuries and/or losses to other individuals or groups.
- CelticsBlog and its staff retain all rights available to them to notify potential targets of such behavior and authorities relevant to the offenses perceived by CelticsBlog and its staff. CelticsBlog and its staff also retain all rights available to them to seek both civil and criminal prosecution toward individuals, groups or organizations in such matters as may be pertinent on behalf of parties perceived to have been damaged (including CelticsBlog itself and its staff) as result of the behaviors defined in this statement.
- Attempts to hack or manipulate Celticsblog code, or attempts to use information gained on Celticsblog in a manner other than intended by Celticsblog management, will result in an immediate ban. "Cyberstalking" is not permitted under any circumstances.
- Please do not attempt to recruit or "poach" members from Celticsblog for another blog without permission from Jeff or another member of the staff. Additionally, while criticism of Celticsblog is always permitted, attempts to "bash" or damage Celticsblog or its reputation off-site will be frowned upon. Members engaged in such behavior (or other inappropriate behavior aimed at the staff or members of CelticsBlog) may, at the discretion of the staff, face discipline on this site.
Interactions with Celticsblog Staff:- Respect and obey moderators and administrators at all times. Do not challenge a staff member's authority or dare them to ban you; such challenges will result in discipline.
- If a member of the staff asks you to do something that you find objectionable, the proper course of action is to comply, and then write either that staff member or another member of the staff a private message indicating your disagreement, and the basis thereof.
- Celticsblog rules, and the application thereof, can be discussed in the dedicated thread stickied at the top of the Comments / Suggestions forum. All such commentary should be confined to that thread; it is inappropriate to start a new thread for purposes of “calling out” the staff, either by name or collectively.
- Do not delete or edit out warnings / staff edits that have been made to your post without staff permission. Doing so is a suspendable offense.
- Please do not comment on discipline received by yourself or other members. Similarly, the staff will not comment on such matters publicly.
- No matter what you may believe to the contrary, it is highly unlikely that anything done on this blog is violating your First Amendment rights. The full text of the First Amendment can be found here. Nothing in such Amendment applies to the restriction of speech by non-government entities or actors, including the staff of this blog.
- Please use the “alert a moderator” button to alert the staff to any inappropriate content or discussion. If you have a question related to the blog or the blog rules, or have a general comment about a thread, it is more appropriate to reach out to a member of the staff via private message rather than via the "alert a moderator" function.
Failure to abide by these rules may result in the editing, negative moderation or deletion of your post, comment or PM. We reserve the right to suspend and/or ban abusers from the site without prior warning. We reserve the right to change these rules at any time, without notice. Except in extreme circumstances, rules will be given prospective, rather than retroactive, effect.