I have had this conversation with a couple of people recently and want to address it in a message intended for everyone. First of all I am completely indebted to the moderators here because they do an incredible amount of work that goes unnoticed and without them this place would not work. I have had a very lenient policy since becoming publisher here because I believe in free speech, because the mods have a ton of their plate and because I believe strongly in "live and let live," which is made easier by the ignore button.
Unfortunately what this lenient-in-some-respects policy has done, sometimes, is lead to certain violations of the rules (e.g. name calling) leading to relatively severe punishments, while people who break the spirit of the rules or break rules in a gray area go unpunished completely.
I am telling you here that while I love this community, the A) Repetitive and non-productive negative posting and the B) Baiting needs to stop....I will personally enforce it with warnings, temp bans and permanent bans if I need to. If you believe this applies to you then it might. I'm not reaching out to everyone personally although some of you, through private correspondence, know that I have been very lenient.
What constitutes repetitive, unproductive negative posting? Simply enough saying the same negative thing in thread after thread, either when it doesn't apply and steers a thread off topic or if the point is just to hammer home a solitary point you've made countless other times.
What constitutes baiting? It can be directed toward a person or ideological group of persons, or it can be in general towards the entire board. In my mind (and as I will enforce it), it is a disingenuous post (i.e. not sincere, not constructive and obviously so) which attempts to derail, start an argument, bring attention or, generally speaking, piss other people off.
You will know you've violated it if I reach out to you. It's like the court has said about pornography. I can't always define it, but I know it when I've seen it. I am not going to run around banning people without warning, but I will make sure that as I protect your free speech especially as a paying customer, I make sure this place is a pleasant spot for the best UK discussion online.
This does not ban negative posts, critical posts or posts questioning coaches, how a player played, etc. So don't interpret it that way. If you fashion yourself a realist or a pessimist you are absolutely welcome here. I myself often fall into this camp on many topics so I'm quite sympathetic.
Along those lines, another thing that will not be allowed is a post with a supposedly positive message that is intended to bludgeon a "pessimist/realist and/or their take." So if Kentucky does something good on the field or court, do not run to a thread or start a thread calling out people who were skeptical. There is a way to get your point across in a friendly, constructive, non-baiting way. Allowed: "UK sure has come a long way since so many people thought...." Not allowed: "Where are the debbie downers (insert poster names) now!?!"
