DRaysBay Community Guidelines

DRaysBay Community Guidelines

 

Keep an open mind.  Everyone is going to be wrong sometimes.  Instead of defending your point of view incessantly, just move on, and maybe even admit you're wrong.  That's a great way to earn the respect of other users, by the way.

You can disagree with everything and everyone, as long as you don't make it personal and you back up your arguments with logic.  Logic does not include excessive capitals, ad hominem attacks, cliches, or quotes from ESPN "experts".

We like numbers.  Love 'em, in fact.  If you are not familiar with sabermetrics, we encourage you to stick around and learn something.  If you disagree with an argument made using statistics, make sure you understand the methodology before disagreeing with the results.  Asking questions is a great way to advance both the discussion and your understanding of sabermetrics.  We also realize that numbers aren't perfect and are always looking to improve them.

Keep the language PG13.  Sure, we've heard and seen it all, but most comments that rely on colorful language aren't worth posting anyway.  We are especially intolerant of ignorance -- racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. Note: gameday threads are the exception.

No babe/hunk/anime photos. No exceptions. No .gifs. No links.

We love user-generated content.  We welcome links to any and all articles you think are worth discussing, including your own, via FanShots.  Use FanPosts for any in-depth content that doesn't make sense as a comment in someone else's article. If your FanPost consists of mostly filler, it is subject to being deleted. 75 words is not difficult. Seriously.

Use proper spelling, grammar, and capitalization.  Using them will give your comments more credibility and make your comments easier to read.  Paragraphs are your friend. Note: gameday threads are the exception.

Keep the pictures small.  Simply add the code <img src="imagesource" height="Ypx" width="Xpx"> to make sure they don't get too big (change X and Y).  Preview your comments and always use a post title so that people can hide them if they choose.

No political or religious discussions.  We actually think politics and religion should be discussed more often in the U.S., but those topics always tends to degenerate into mindless drivel, and people actually get more worked up about them than baseball.  We've got enough on our hands with America's past time.

Use the reply button.  Nested comments are awesome and keep the discussion organized.

We love sarcasm.  But if you use it, don't blame others when they don't pick up on it.

Stay on topic. This site is about the Tampa Bay Rays. Keep the comments on front page articles as close to the topic as possible. In certain instances the topics will sway, but keep it baseball related. Off-topic comments will be deleted at a moderator's descretion. We provide off-topic threads from time to time so the community can gather and speak about other topics such as major league baseball or major sporting events. If you have a problem/concern about another member or the site in general please email a member of the staff. Otherwise keep the discussions to the Rays and baseball.

These ground rules are meant as guidelines only.  Although we tend to be fairly hands-off as moderators, decisions about conduct and banning are entirely at our discretion, and the ground rules above may or may not apply to those decisions. We may suspend a user's account any time we find that, in our judgment, it will make the site more enjoyable, more successful, and more fan-friendly overall.  Usually, although not always, we will explain to a user why their contributions aren't meshing with the site's philosophy before taking any official measures.

If you have ANY questions about the items on this list, please e-mail one of the authors.

I also suggest reading Kericr's guide to how not get banned since we've assigned him as keeper of the ban hammer for the most part.

Thx much.