11/05/24
March 27, 2006
Article VI: Online Meta-Correspondence.: The undersigned agree that a minimum quality threshold shall be established for all links posted to SportsFilter.com, beginning with a strict punishment applied to users who post links to the same old Page 2 stuff again and again.
posted by DrJohnEvans to culture at 10:00 AM - 49 comments
I would also like the media to stop using the phrase "All-American" to mean good-looking, white kid, and to stop discussing "bulletin board material" that somehow gets professionals up for a game. On this site, I would like for all posters to cease any and all posts relating to how greedy athletes are and how much money they make vis-a-vis the common man.
posted by bperk at 10:28 AM on March 27, 2006
These guys read us, don't they?
posted by qbert72 at 10:39 AM on March 27, 2006
If I were them, I'd read us.
posted by JJ at 10:56 AM on March 27, 2006
Heck, I'm not even them and I read us.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 11:07 AM on March 27, 2006
I read them, reading us. Wait - what?
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 11:08 AM on March 27, 2006
i'd also like to add an amendment to the "Tired Phrases" section: starting every analyst's response with "no question about it."
posted by ninjavshippo at 11:09 AM on March 27, 2006
It needs an amendment that says: We will not mention how long it has been since we talked about any of the above topics. It got on my nerves last football season when one of the annoncers would say "We've gone 3 1/2 quarters without talking about..."
posted by njsk8r20 at 11:15 AM on March 27, 2006
Athleticism is another term that needs to go.
posted by bobrolloff at 11:27 AM on March 27, 2006
I know that you know that they know what we know....ya know?
posted by wingnut4life at 11:29 AM on March 27, 2006
Good one, njsk8r. You know, I can point to at least four Spofi member blogs that are in compliance with the Ban already (or who make only minor infractions from time to time). And I haven't even looked that hard ... but I don't think that ESPN.com is in danger of losing any advertising revenues. (on preview: I'm with bobrolloff, too)
posted by Amateur at 11:31 AM on March 27, 2006
I can't believe I just read that whole thing. (There were 57 episodes of ESPN Hollywood? And is it still running, now that Mario Lopez has moved on to Bolder and more Beautiful things? It isn't, right?) If I thought for one minute that Hruby or anyone else would stick to such a thing, I'd stand and applaud. But come tomorrow, Stephen A. Smith will still have a job, of that there can be no doubt, you can be sure of that, everybody accepts this as the truth, you know it to be true, there can be no doubt about that, it's the accepted truth, you know that that's a fact. And Skip Bayless will still be gnawing on Woody Paige's ankles like the antidote's in there somewhere. And, and, and and and. Could we make every everyone who wants to talk sports either in Spofi or anywhere read this and sign it as a condition of being able to talk about sports in public? That would be so great.
posted by chicobangs at 11:49 AM on March 27, 2006
Arguments over whose fanbase/players/coaches/alumni are more or less "classy," "classless," or containing various amounts of "classlessness" are punishable by wind sprints.
posted by mbd1 at 11:50 AM on March 27, 2006
Also, I always spelled it "letch." That's what I get for not using the dictionary.
posted by chicobangs at 11:56 AM on March 27, 2006
Does Hruby realize maintaining this agreement means he is out of a job? Chico- I couldn't agree more. Tomorrow the same old stuff will get written, talked and pandered about. I will sign and someone please let me know how to enforce it.
posted by chuck'n'duck at 12:01 PM on March 27, 2006
I will sign and someone please let me know how to enforce it. two to the dome for those who violate it. you're the first on the chopping block sean salisbury steak with joe morgan on deck and skip bayless in the hole.
posted by ninjavshippo at 12:19 PM on March 27, 2006
Don't even get me started on Skip Bayless, the self-important sob. According to him, there is no one who knows anything but Skip Bayless.
posted by bobrolloff at 12:58 PM on March 27, 2006
I would also like the media to stop using the phrase "All-American" to mean good-looking, white kid, and to stop discussing "bulletin board material" that somehow gets professionals up for a game. "All-American" is in the same category as "scrappy". And don't get me started about that again...
posted by grum@work at 01:20 PM on March 27, 2006
"All-American" is in the same category as "scrappy". Did someone say Stubby Clapp?!? As for the list, agreed, but this will of course mean having Stuart Scott put down. I'll post a PayPal link for donations.
posted by wfrazerjr at 01:28 PM on March 27, 2006
This is all sports media, journalists, ESPN, etc. have to cover. They've all fallen into the "Entertainment Tonight" and "Inside Edition" mode of looking for these big, gaudy, over-hyped stories that have proven to generate business and attention. There are just too many people covering sports and not enough juicy topics to keep them all happy and employed. If the individuals in charge of specific professional sports would do something constructive to deal with the Barry Bonds, T.O., Ricky Williams, etc. maybe they could get back to actually covering the games themselves. People all thrive on controversy and scandal, and without it, we become bored. Is it tired and played? Yes. But most times, on SportsFilter, when someone tries to post a story regarding a lesser-known topic, hardly anyone responds. The next T.O. story will generate 130 responses, all the same as previous ones, with a few "Dead horse" references thrown in. I don't see it changing.
posted by dyams at 01:33 PM on March 27, 2006
dyams, I've always taken it on faith that the quality of a front page post has nothing whatsoever to do with the number of comments. In fact, if something has 100 or more comments, generally it's a discussion that's gone to hell. Some of my favorite posts have had only a handful of comments, and Quite Frankly(TM), they're what make this place livable. If I wanted all-scandal-all-the-time, I'd only get my sports info from the accepted Espen outlets. I'm as guilty as anyone else of not commenting in every thread I find interesting, and I resolve to work more on that in the future. But if I see a thread about Barry Bonds with 85 comments in it, I'm not going to even bother. My life is too short to wade into that cesspool of ignorance one more time.
posted by chicobangs at 01:48 PM on March 27, 2006
Can we not have this agreement signed before you can post on spofi like the questions we have now. Violation would bring bannation. Can we also ban posting a new FPP when there is a currently running one about the same subject/person on the front page?
posted by skydivemom at 01:51 PM on March 27, 2006
I'd also be happy if we were able to enforce an "innocent-until-proven-guilty" rule. No matter what I think about anybody who may have/may currently be/may in the future be juicing, injecting, creaming, clearing, or snorting the crushed pineal glands of virgin holstein calves, I don't know for fact what the fuck they're doing, and neither do you, and neither does SpoFite #15,000, so just shut the hell up about it.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 02:09 PM on March 27, 2006
How about "He's a gamer?"
posted by wingnut4life at 02:53 PM on March 27, 2006
The pointless arguments were why I stayed married
posted by THX-1138 at 03:08 PM on March 27, 2006
You do realize this precludes about 92.1.6.7% of the posts on Sports Filter? Whatever will we talk about?
posted by irunfromclones at 03:18 PM on March 27, 2006
Is that an IP address or did I miss a crucial update for my decimal system?
posted by Hugh Janus at 03:25 PM on March 27, 2006
Scrappy Priceless. The guy can't even get Taveras' name correct, yet he apparently holds him as an example of Eckstein-like scrappiness.
posted by qbert72 at 03:31 PM on March 27, 2006
yerfatma: That may be the dumbest opinion column I have ever read. It was so painfully stupid that it was like a direct punch to my cerebral cortex. I survived it, so whatever doesn't kill me, only makes me stronger.
posted by grum@work at 03:42 PM on March 27, 2006
I've always taken it on faith that the quality of a front page post has nothing whatsoever to do with the number of comments. In fact, if something has 100 or more comments, generally it's a discussion that's gone to hell. That's it exactly. When someone sees 100 posts on a Barry Bonds/Steroid rerun, I really believe they think it's a good reason to make another post the next time another inane story hits the net. I enjoy some of the ridiculous, laugh-inducing, senseless comments these posts attract, but if we stopped responding to the same-old, same-old, maybe they would go away (that's my SpoFi dream).
posted by dyams at 03:52 PM on March 27, 2006
I would add to the phrase ban the word "drained" when describing a basket or putt. Some sportscasters must say it 15 times in 5 min broadcast!
posted by commander cody at 03:57 PM on March 27, 2006
I would add to the phrase ban the word "drained" when describing a basket or putt. Some sportscasters must say it 15 times in 5 min broadcast! I'd like to make an exception to this rule: if the ball (golf or basket) actually circles the rim once (or a couple of times) before falling in, that visually suggests water going down a drain, and therefore the phrase actually makes sense.
posted by grum@work at 04:09 PM on March 27, 2006
I'd like to make an exception to this rule: if the ball (golf or basket) actually circles the rim once (or a couple of times) before falling in, that visually suggests water going down a drain, and therefore the phrase actually makes sense. True, when it makes sense it works. Other then that....
posted by commander cody at 04:20 PM on March 27, 2006
If you take the cliche out of the sports writer/announcer, will you still have a sports writer/announcer?
posted by roberts at 04:32 PM on March 27, 2006
I, for one, would love to find out.
posted by chicobangs at 04:43 PM on March 27, 2006
Me too
posted by commander cody at 04:51 PM on March 27, 2006
The undersigned agree .... Uhh, can someone tell me how to get ink off of my computer screen? I used a TO sharpie, but now I've changed my mind!
posted by graymatters at 04:56 PM on March 27, 2006
You do realize this precludes about 92.1.6.7% of the posts on Sports Filter? Whatever will we talk about? I'm sure I'm not alone in believing that SportsFilter was much much better when it had exactly 92.1.6.7% fewer front page posts.
posted by tieguy at 05:27 PM on March 27, 2006
I'm as guilty as anyone else of not commenting in every thread I find interesting Same here, except I don't fell guilty about not commenting on something I don't really know anything about. I do read just about everything posted though. I appreciate the insight other members give on those sports, even if there are only 10 comments. When someone sees 100 posts on a Barry Bonds/Steroid rerun, I really believe they think it's a good reason to make another post the next time another inane story hits the net. I think, dyams does have a point there. The guidelines do suggest "Find links that attracted 10 or more comments..." Unfortunately, they don't comprehend the last part of that sentence "...and take note of their characteristics." Perhaps we do need to list the topics that have been played out.
posted by njsk8r20 at 06:19 PM on March 27, 2006
You know the kind of person who doesn't really know anything about the topic, may or may not have skimmed the link and just wants to make a smart arse comment? Well, that's my technique.
posted by owlhouse at 06:40 PM on March 27, 2006
Me too.
posted by THX-1138 at 07:06 PM on March 27, 2006
Let's not forget: "He's a real competitor."
posted by rockamora at 07:08 PM on March 27, 2006
More focus on athletics and less on personal issues surounding life. Sports-stardom has been a huge reason that blood thirsty talent has for a large part been replaced with a good show of charisma and nice looks.
posted by solrac at 07:50 PM on March 27, 2006
This thread runs well...
posted by ajaffe at 08:09 PM on March 27, 2006
Is that an IP address or did I miss a crucial update for my decimal system? Ha!
posted by dusted at 08:23 PM on March 27, 2006
Let it be known that BullpenPro did the following: * Read posted link. Noted that the article denounces stories about "going to a game with dad, Field of Dreams making you cry, sports as a silent bond between emotionally distant fathers and hungry-for-affirmation sons." Recognized that BullpenPro's profile is an excessively long violation of this rule in every regard. * Read thread. Could we make every everyone who wants to talk sports either in Spofi or anywhere read this and sign it as a condition of being able to talk about sports in public? Realized that 99% of BullpenPro's public AND private sports comments failed to meet the rather rigid standards of the proposed document. Acknowledged that a relatively high percentage of BullpenPro's love of sports involves the human drama, and that BullpenPro was easily induced into discussions about the human element of sports, the good and the bad, often slipping into the "tired" players and story topics because the high volume of overdone media coverage doesn't make the story itself less compelling, only the coverage. In fact, if something has 100 or more comments, generally it's a discussion that's gone to hell. Recognized that BullpenPro's last five FPPs averaged over 100 comments and had previously thought maybe that was a more positive indicator. I'm sure I'm not alone in believing that SportsFilter was much much better when it had exactly 92.1.6.7% fewer front page posts. Calculated the likelihood that BullpenPro has made contributions among the other 7.8.3.3% (not high -- around 0.0.1.3%). * Acknowledged that BullpenPro referred to himself in the third person and assumed that, though not stated, it was a very obvious infraction that had been somehow overlooked. * Felt all eyes suddenly falling on BullpenPro. * Slowly backed towards door.
posted by BullpenPro at 12:41 PM on March 29, 2006
Terrific, BullpenPro. You are truly the class of the 3kers.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 01:27 PM on March 29, 2006
Burn bullpenpro! Though I don't really agree with the article because if we followed that there wouldn't be much of a SportsFilter. Hell, everyone would probably end up going here.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 05:39 PM on March 29, 2006
If you don't take the "ESPN Hollywood" re-education camps threat seriously, then may God have mercy on your soul. They have more humane ways of "re-education" but they won't use them...