I'm posting this forum-wide because I want to remind everybody of a few things:
There's a difference between ribbing in a friendly way and antagonizing another poster for laughs.
Not every comment merits a reply if it irks you or you feel like, "hey, this guy is easily riled, let me piss him off because LOL." When the option of being childish for laughs is available to you, resist the urge, lest you want me to not enjoy your presence on this forum.
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Use the report function.
I know that there's some skepticism about how I have been reluctant to "deal with" RichH55, but believe it or not, I will and am going to start suspending people. Rich, Plank, and IE are all going to be serving warning-shot suspensions due to being confrontational, derailing threads, and being needlessly hostile. None of their posts were reported, and it's disappointing that that was the case.
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It is incredibly difficult to read tone via text on the internet.
Not everybody can be friends, and many of us have disagreements over the Bears, which is, obviously, why we have this message board to enjoy those discussions and debates. That said, if somebody is clearly being a shit, REPORT them. If it's just some banter or light ball-breaking, assume it's being made in a friendly way. If every disagreement that has any measure of snark or dismissal of what you have to say, that does not merit name-calling or derailing a thread trying to incite a debate that doesn't relate to football. Some people don't get along. I know that some people are more difficult to tolerate online than others - believe me, I have dealt with this exact type eye-rolling douchebag on other forums - but that doesn't justify begging for me to ban them for being a meanie or posting in a way you don't like.
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If it suddenly goes silent-ish around here, even with the season just around the corner, it's because I'm issuing timeouts to those who keep stirring things up without strong reason and derailing conversations with ugliness. Shape up.
