Read this, Dammit.

“You would like to see a higher standard of commentary? How about you stop reading! This is America! We can say dumb shit all we want! Now lemme grab some ad hominems and ‘speak for the majority.’”

I think the fact of the matter is that zeeehjee is mostly correct — the levels of participation, thoughtfulness, and substance in the comments tends to be pretty low quality. There are a number of members of SSF who tend to greet any attempt at intelligent debate with the sort of knee-jerk unreasoning rudeness that you demonstrate in the above post.

That said, I think zeeehjee’s post, while motivated by laudable reasons (namely, “let’s make this a better and smarter community” — which is something that everyone should be able to get behind on some level), comes across in a way that will really rankle people. So I think he’s doomed to failure.

Lastly, to Zeehjee: I also love LL, and the level of smarts and humor and community they’ve cultivated over there. However, they’re drawing from a MUCH larger pool, for one. Also, the way they developed that was by a very hands-on administration that would admonish / beat-down / ridicule commentators who didn’t play by the rules. That created a certain clearly-defined culture there. I think its safe to say that Zach and Max are much more hands-off, and are rarely (if ever) going to intervene in any substantial way. That’s just not their style. As such, I don’t think the changes you hope for are really going to take place. It sure would be nice, though.

I have a responsibility to help make it better, as I explained in my fan post. Yeah, my tone was pretty rude, but there are a lot of features here that aren’t being taken advantage of.

People can express their opinions on GU Boards. This site could be better and this site could do much better. Zach and Max have us off to a great start, and they don’t deserve people hijacking their hard work with lameness.

Yes, you and everyone else here has first amendment rights, but nobody has the right to have what they say slip past criticism. By posting this, I opened myself up to criticism. Isn’t america grand?

then maybe refrain from attempting to embody the majority sentiment.

But there are also stats in basketball, and if somebody is going to say something like “Stephen Gray and Demetri Goodson are bad because they aren’t leaders,” then they should back it up with something other than crap they see from their couch.

I could go someplace else, or I could take it upon myself to make what I already have better. I chose option B.

I’m saying, “try to see past the abrasive tone, and consider that yes, perhaps SSF could be a better blog. Perhaps using the reply function, holding ourselves to a higher standard of fan posts, and striving to create a tighter community could indeed be good things.” that’s all.

But if we used the tools at our disposal (like the reply button, the rec button, pictures) we could be much better.

All I’m saying.

That is exactly what I was trying to do with this. The only thing I regret saying is, “Your FanPosts all suck a lot.”

The rest of it was really just pointing out some important SBN features that aren’t being used.

And a suggestion of OT threads that nobody has commented on, yet.

Can I come out of the woodwork?

(I banished myself for jumping on some random poster that complained about Max and ZB)

until your last sentence. Why is it typical GU fan’s reaction to find external reasons that we lose game? I think that we are probably all smart enough to put our heads together and get closer to the actual reasons why we lose games.

that lack a sense of humor.

Thank you sound for saying exactly what I was thinking. In general not EVERYONE will like there blog the same; and maybe this makes means I am unintelligent, but I enjoy this blog exactly how it is. If I wanted stats I would look up stats. If i wanted pictures of revenge of the nerds then i would watch the fucking movie. If I want to read fans talking about their feelings on mark fews rotations then i come to this blog. At the end of the day i think a lot of SSF users like it the way it is, so don’t change it because someone from a blog (that believe it or not, SOME people don’t like) tells you to.

On a side note, to claim that no Washingtonians are funny what so ever is ridiculous. As recent GU alumni will probably tell you, there have been fantastic comedic entities on our campus alone. Barats and Baretta who got a comedy pilot with NBC. Not to mention some of the other hilarious GUTS members that came through the Gonzaga theatre sports circuit, which I personally know three who are now making livings performing comedy in LA. As well as some very funny skits that arise from GUTV shows. Anybody who hasn’t seen the Colin Murphy showdown with P-MAC video from about 4 years ago is missing out. Additionally if we expand outside the GU community we Anna Farris as a Bellingham native, not to mention Ryan Stiles from whose line is it anyways and the drew carey show. So speaking of research; making a gross generalization without any substantial background check about a subjective topic probably is a no no.

But my points all seem to be taken well, which is saying something good about this community to look past other people’s flaws and get at what they are really trying to say.

Sorry about the earlier sarcasm, I just don’t take blogging that seriously and am always out to defend anything Gonzaga! Hope we become more organized b/c of your effort! All the best,

Go Zags!

hey man, sorry about the earlier outburst. an unprecedented off year for our boys and the occasional hater that has now become constant on other blogs and espn game convo’s puts us all on edge and the best place to vent is here. when you put it this way it makes a lot of sense and doesnt offend some people that might have taken the earlier one the wrong way when its real purpose was actually needed. thanks for stirring the pot bc you can see it getting better with this thread.

Sorry to intimidate you. This is one thing I regret about posting the rant above. Let me try and calm some of your fears. Try to forget what I wrote above for a moment and pretend like this is your first impression of me and this topic, if thats possible.

First of all, Fanposts are different than comments. Comments are a free for all, and people should be able to say what they want and how they want. The part of my post that dealt with comments and game threads was not negative, if you look closely. It was rather an attempt to educate people on certain features that this blog has that facilitate smooth discussion. Hitting reply, which many people don’t seem able to do around here, helps organize thoughts. Using the rec button will allow the conversation to go a bit deeper because people scrolling through the thread say, “Oh, somebody must have said something interesting” and they might take a look when otherwise they may have kept scrolling past. This can also stop the conversation from repeating itself down the road. Pictures and .gifs can add to the fun as well, but you have to know how to use them and I probably should have shut up about it since I don’t know how to post either one.

FanPosts, however, are not comments. They are very visible on the side of the page, as you know and they can be as long as you want. With this in mind, it is my opinion (although ultimately I defer to Zach to make the determination) that FanPosts should have higher standards applied to them. They should at least have a serious attempt at good grammar and proper capitalization and things of that nature. They should also be relatively original and shouldn’t be about things everyone is already discussing in comment threads.

Incidently, I LOVE the things that people post about our recruits. I really hope that I didn’t scare these people off, because I read every word of what they have to say. These FanPosts are good because they tell me things that I don’t already know. Every once in a while people will ask provocative questions that get people talking. These should be encouraged as well.

I plan on writing an apology in a few days, to hopefully bring some these people back.

I’m happy you appreciate it, though.

Oh, and assuming you were replying to my sweet online hugging comment… please use the reply button. ;)