Negativity? Or Immaturity?
I hope you all will indulge me while I temporarily convert this topic into a "How's This Site Doing" thread.
First of all, Skkorp is doing a crackerjack job - using diplomacy, maturity and an occasional iron fist to keep this board viable, while bringing in features which we could only have dreamed about as recently as a year ago.
Second - It's not so much the negativity that bums me out. (There's nothing wrong with a hard core fan occasionally emitting a bellow of genuine pain). I think has more to do with immaturity.
Note - My intention isn't to point critical fingers at anyone - but rather to give you a glimpse about how I feel when I read certain stuff. (No doubt each of you have different buttons that people can push to set you off). Some of my pet peeves -
- Personal attacks. (To disagree for valid reasons is cool. To call someone an idiot because he disagrees with you is a waste of site space).
- Endless back and forth personal attacks - usually followed by contrition and apologies somewhere around Post #45. (B-o-ring!)
- "April Fools" hoax breaking news dressed up to look like KFFL.
- Irrelevent stuff - While even some of the non-football visual gimmickry is pretty hilarious, roughly 80% of it isn't that good and has nothing to do with the Cardinals.
- Teaser Headlines (I've started to skip those threads unless I'm really bored and have a lot of time on my hands).
- Stating rumor or opinion as fact. There's nothing wrong with folks stating an opinion or saying they "heard something somewhere", but when it comes across as gospel when it really isn't, it drives some of us nuts. (i.e. when I ask: "What's your source?" it's not because I don't believe you - or that you have to remember every single source of everything you ever heard - but if you recall, tell us - so we can judge its accuracy for ourselves)
- Polls - Hey! Continue to publish them if that's what gets through the night. But, personally, I tend to skip most those threads.
Third - The greatest thing since sliced bread are your, Joe's and other first-hand accounts of Camp.
But instead of recapping interviews given by Mac and Sully to the media in general (since they are usually covered fairly well by the print media and official Cardinal website), I'd love to read more of Jo's first-hand accounts of "what it's like to be there" - Jo is particularly good at painting a portrait so clear that you can practically feel the heat and smell the smoked bratwurst.
Fourth - Darren Urban stole a bit of my thunder today, but I was thinking about this last night - How about running a weekly series called "Anatomy of a Play" where (with permission of the Cards) you take one play out of the Cardinal playbook and analyze its terminology, roles/assignments of key players, keys that players must on the lookout, what the QB should look for etc.
Or, if analyzing a play is considered tantamount to giving away atomic secrets, how about at least a "Glossary" of Terms, which explain the meaning of Tango, Bingo, (How about Bango or Bongo?), Twist, Cover 2, Under, Sky, Cloud, X, Y, Z, Red Formation, Brown Formation, Sam, Mike, Will, Jets, Lead etc.?
I've been thinking of posting something like that on the BRS, but I do not have "eyes and ears" to directly obtain this info. You do.
Anyway - "To Kerouac or not to Kerouac" is your call, Jim. We trust you. Continue to kick butt.