CelticsBlog has lost its way.

[Redz]

I sure hope so, but still it seems like there's definitely people here and they just kind of post whatever, then I may respond, then nothing, or they go on to a different thought.  It seems like instead of conversations, there's a whole lot of people spewing out their thoughts and not listening to others.  (that and the best thread in a while that actually sparked conversation got locked, but that's another story)

I responded with "yup" to the cat thing you posted in the SOTOTT thread. 

Lest it be said I'm not doing my part for insightful responses.

I know for me, at least as Celtics related stuff goes, I just don't have that much to add at this point.

[CelticPride18]

I blame the economy.

[dark_lord]

I'm going to throw this out there:

I feel like I've been talking to myself a lot lately on here, not sure if it's b/c of people who are lurking and/or left and waiting for the regular season or what, but I've had a ton of posts either unanswered or ignored. Maybe it's the quality of my writing, but it seems like there is less activity and less actual reading of what others are writing going on here...

anyone else feeling this?

i think theres a lot of truth behind this.  i also think a lot of threads get hijacked.  its not always a bad thing, as the thread sometimes gets better once jacked.

[Eja117]

Out of curiosity, and trying to gauge public opinion here: are any of the others reading this thread terribly upset that we advertised the "fake draft" finals on the front page?  At the time, I thought that was a fun idea to reward people for their (obsessive) hard work, rather than a reason to heap scorn upon the mod staff.

Again, something that generated 10,000+ replies and 100,000 or so page views seemed like something worthy of mentioning to me.

Nope. If it doesn't interest me I will look at another topic/thread that does.

co-signed.  I was and still am completely oblivious to this entire "draft" discussion.

I have a hard time believing that there was some draft event where two people were acting the same and were treated terribly different.

Further I think in terms of staff disciplining each other or Jeff you have to respect that they may give each other some leniency. I mean if you go to somebody's house and they say "Take off your shoes" and you're thinking "that's stupid" and then the next day they walk into their own house with shoes on you don't tell them "Hey. Don't you know the rules of your own house?"   Now if you were told not to do something really trivial and the next day you saw them doing it to the max that might be different, but that doesn't happen here.

Not only that but many times in the last threeish months I said something, then much later checked out rules, and realized I'd concievably broken a rule and nobody ever said a thing. Possibly they have bigger fish to fry or they just didn't think I was breaking the spirit of the rule.

For example one of the only banned topics is legalization of drugs and discussion of personal drug use.

I have said I think steroids should maybe be legal because people have a right to control their bodies. Then I said I used some that I was able to get at GNC at the time but can't now and think they worked great.  

I never got a warning, most likely cause I think they meant stuff like marijuana ect. Also possibly because I wasn't trying to start some legalize it crusade aimed at challenging rules.  

When you consider all the recent topics from racism, to Pitino's abortion situation, to PEDS, to you name it, the opportunity to aggressively moderate was there, and it didn't happen.  

[Eja117]

BTW this thread is mucho entertaining.

And Roy - you may want to lower your claim that "99.9%" of the membership does not find a good amount of moderator posts arrogant and condescending.  I'm not instigating or calling anyone out in particular, but I would modestly lower that estimate a good deal for accuracy...

You know, if all these people felt so strongly about this stuff, and really felt it was ruining the blog, I wonder why they couldn't just shoot me a PM, or wd, or Redz or anyone..and just say "I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but you're acting like a tool". I'm a big boy. I wear big boy pants, I can take this stuff. We can all take this stuff.

But instead we have grand gestures, hand wringing..instead of actual progress, and adult interactions..we get a show, we got public potshots, and we get ultimately blind-sided. Dark_Lord, a poster who i respect very much, a guy who I would never hesitate to 'reach across the aisle' to talk to if I had a concern, said there was a divide. Well, its not a one way street, although i wasn't even really aware there WAS a street until a couple of days ago.

i appreciate ur feeling comfortable reaching out to me.  and for the record, i did try and do that very thing via pm with a mod.  i think it is best to do it thru pm's, but if the thread is already out there, i think it could beneficial to air things out once in a while like this....as long as it is done respectfully from both sides. that way both sides are heard. i think threads like these often lead to pm discussions where it can be even more beneficial for the parties involved.

again, im somewhat out of the loop with some of the issues going on, but i can say i have noticed a difference as a late.  but i dont feel the need to break it down more than i already have in this thread, especially since i was able to discuss my thoughts, feelings, and observations via pm with mods.

While I understand your position, dark_lord, I don't think this thread has generated one direct and specific criticism, shared either publicly or by PM.

Instead, we get stuff like: "The vibe has changed"; "You've forgotten your roots"; "The staff is condescending".  If people could point us to examples -- preferably when they're happening -- I think that would work better than a vague, after the fact "I'm leaving the blog because it's become so terrible" thread.

Also, some of the insinuations made about the staff have not only been not true, but have been a bit mean-spirited.  I can say that for me, on a personal level, that's disappointing.

Modding is a lose lose situation.

There's always "drama". The drama is either created by allowing everyone to say anything they want (probably not a good idea) or by "censoring" things.

That automatically leads to people feeling powerless and they immediately will see inconsistency. 

Then what is the response? No response? You're right, we're inconsistent?

The "specific example" you point out is ....every single time someone disagrees with your moderation of them....which would imply that you would never moderate.

It's a catch 22. 

One of the best examples I ever saw of modding was when Jeff sorta rolled his eyes at a long time poster and said "Call my hypocritical then".  Hey. hypocricy can be a good thing. The sign doesn't have to go there to point the way.

Yes I fear to disagree with things and to not follow some rules, but that's a good thing. People should fear to break rules and everybody else does too.

Yes there will be a Kennedy tribute where you can't say anything bad, but there would be the exact same thing for McCain if he died tomorrow.

[Eja117]

The only thing that confuses me is when I suddenly see a poster isn't here any more and I can't find them and I assume they've been kicked out and I don't know why. I'd like to learn from it, but that would bring up a whole nother set of problems. It's the way it is for a reason. If I got kicked out I wouldn't want the mods to tell people why and I can't defend myself. It's not court. There's no trials.

It's pretty clear that the mods at least believe what they say or they wouldn't go to such lenghths to explain it.

[CelticPride18]

The internet is a scary place, no doubt about it. Some people are just more comfortable with it than others.

[Roy Hobbs]

I sure hope so, but still it seems like there's definitely people here and they just kind of post whatever, then I may respond, then nothing, or they go on to a different thought.  It seems like instead of conversations, there's a whole lot of people spewing out their thoughts and not listening to others.  (that and the best thread in a while that actually sparked conversation got locked, but that's another story)

Was the thread that sparked conversation the one where multiple members were mocking another one?  I can't say that that's the type of conversation we want around here.

I can't say much about the quality of the posts, or how much people are interacting.  I can say, though, that activity in the forums is much higher than last year at this time; we had close to 4 million page views in the forums alone last month, which is an unprecedented amount on the blog.

[ACF]

I have decided to come back. There are way too many cool people here for me to stay away. I have really missed CelticsBlog but I guess I just needed a little break. I have put the issues that bothered me to rest. I am glad to be back.

Now, to all those of you who think that I (and cm, for that matter) was mad that Fafnir was "upgraded" to mod status recently: I laugh at the notion. In the We Have a New Star, 100 Tommy Points, etc. threads, who is usually the first one to post? Who spends a lot of time searching for fitting pics for those deserving? Need I answer? Those congratulations are heartfelt. I couldn't be happier for Faf and I hope you believe that. I never wanted to be a mod and even if I did, I would not have the time. It's as simple as that.


PS. And yes, for my second coming, I have decided to use all of the space available from now on

(Instead of my old
style, like this.)

[Jeff]

welcome back

[indeedproceed]

I have decided to come back. There are way too many cool people here for me to stay away. I have really missed CelticsBlog but I guess I just needed a little break. I have put the issues that bothered me to rest. I am glad to be back.

Now, to all those of you who think that I (and cm, for that matter) was mad that Fafnir was "upgraded" to mod status recently: I laugh at the notion. In the We Have a New Star, 100 Tommy Points, etc. threads, who is usually the first one to post? Who spends a lot of time searching for fitting pics for those deserving? Need I answer? Those congratulations are heartfelt. I couldn't be happier for Faf and I hope you believe that. I never wanted to be a mod and even if I did, I would not have the time. It's a simple as that.


PS. And yes, for my second coming, I have decided to use all of the space available from now on

(Instead of my old
style, like this.)

I say we put it all behind us, and never speak of it again. Love the formatting upgrade, good to have you back

[Rondo2287]

This is like when people walk out on shows like Tila Tequilla and other dating shows and then come back 2 episodes later.   

This time ACF you better be here to find true love, it broke my heart when you left

[Redz]

Changed the thread title in honor of your return ACF

Glad to have you back

[Hoyo de Monterrey]

I have decided to come back. There are way too many cool people here for me to stay away. I have really missed CelticsBlog but I guess I just needed a little break. I have put the issues that bothered me to rest. I am glad to be back.

Now, to all those of you who think that I (and cm, for that matter) was mad that Fafnir was "upgraded" to mod status recently: I laugh at the notion. In the We Have a New Star, 100 Tommy Points, etc. threads, who is usually the first one to post? Who spends a lot of time searching for fitting pics for those deserving? Need I answer? Those congratulations are heartfelt. I couldn't be happier for Faf and I hope you believe that. I never wanted to be a mod and even if I did, I would not have the time. It's a simple as that.


PS. And yes, for my second coming, I have decided to use all of the space available from now on

(Instead of my old
style, like this.)

Who are you?

[Nut from Nh]

man I wish I saw this thread when it first opened.  I just couldn't agree more, ESPECIALLY with regard to moderators.  Two in particular...

I tell you this, I took a 3 year break from this place.  I had my balls broken routinely by moderators and it was clearly due to bias.  I was an enormous Danny basher at the peak of his apparent indecision on the path to rebuilding or going for veterans.  

I always gave him credit for being a fantastic judge of talent, but terrible on FA's, and terrible on trades.  Which he WAS, prior to Ray and KG.

They were drunk on koolaid and hated me for my opinions.  I would talk about BASKETBALL and posters would talk about ME and make it personal, and the moderators would often rule unfaily.  It was obvious.  That's why even though I CAN post here now, I do not do it often bc I found much of the drama in here, especially from a moderator or two, to be quite juvenile and it ruined the experience.