If there are any updates on the status of our injured and dead players, baseballgirl will add the latest info. Meanwhile, as we await the A's-Giants game tonight at 7:15pm...
Regular season game threads are coming and you know what that means. "FIRE GEREN NOW!!!" "We're all gonna die!!!" and "game over" will meet the ire of the more sanguine, analytical, or "big picture" folk among us. And a few ordinary people with extraordinary responsibilities--AN's administrators and sub-committee members--have to figure out where the line is regarding acceptable standards for game thread commentary. (The game threads will be monitored a little more closely this year.)
What to do? From my point of view, it's easier to start with the two things not to do:
* You don't stop people from having spontaneous reactions just because their in-the-moment emotions are negative or extreme. Once you allow "Hey, teams have been known to come back from down 6-0," but bar "With defense like that I'll be surprised if we win 75 games!" you have effectively reneged on your commitment to free speech.
* You don't allow the commentary to become such that your most veteran users, your most loyal users, your own administrators and sub-committee members themselves, shy away from the game threads to avoid the "vocal minority".
And the latter has happened, a lot. I know, from public comments, from private feedback, from peer conversations, and from my own behavior. Sometimes the game threads just get too petulant and it does seem to be driving a fair number of users away.
To which I ask you, before it's too late to consider your input in time for Opening Day: What are the standards and policies you would like to see applied to the game threads?
