post booted | SportsFilter

The post in question editorialised, contained a single link to a Fox Sports page and contained several spelling errors. While none of the above are hanging offence individually, the Guidelines contain a section on each and combined they don't leave our glroious leaders with much choice. If the link and the idea of the FPP was of "high quality" then you would probably find the editorialising and spelling corrected and the link still on the front page. Similarly, without the mistakes and the editorialising, a weaker link has more chance of staying on the front page. I don't think it's a conspiracy against either you, or auto sports, Texasred, it's just the users and leaders of SpoFi love this place like a sock filled with fluffy kittens and work hard to keep the front page quality as high as possible as a lure to other likeminded people. A good FPP is a link with a brief description of what the link is about, and that's it. Don't editorialize on the front page. Biased posts make for biased discussions. Personal opinion belongs inside the thread. Unless there's no other option, don't link to an ESPN, Yahoo! Sports, or Associated Press article. While not forbidden, when linking to these or similar sites the quality of the link must be very high. Keep the spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes to a minimum. Over use of caps, exclamation points, italics, bold, and aol-speak are discouraged. Take pride in what you are writing.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:19 AM - reply - flag:

Thankfully, misspelling glorious is allowed in the locker room. [dancing banana]

posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:26 AM - reply - flag:

Is it because y'all don't like Auto Racing? You've been a member for a week or so, and you are questioning whether there is a bias against auto racing? How about doing a search of the front page posts in the last year for "NASCAR", "Formula 1", "Indy Car", "CART" and "Danica Patrick" and let us know if you think there is some sort of "bias".

posted by grum@work at 11:11 AM - reply - flag:

As the admin, I dumped your post because you didn't put enough effort into it and the spelling was terrible. It has nothing to do with disliking NASCAR.

posted by rcade at 11:19 AM - reply - flag:

Dude, you even misspelled your emoticon. Nothing says "drop my thread" like a misspelled emoticon.

posted by BullpenPro at 11:56 AM - reply - flag:

Texasred, I certainly appreciate you at least asking what you're doing wrong, because after looking at your posting history, there's something amiss on your end for sure. You've been here a bit over a week and 3 out of 4 of your comments were deleted and 50% of your threads were deleted. We have a category for Auto Racing, so clearly the issue with deletions of your comments/posts would be of contribution/content quality as opposed to topic chosen. Definitely read the guidelines as suggested above and then read them again. We're a very diversified group as far as sports followed and discussed, including NASCAR and other auto racing, however, we do ask for you to meet some quality standards for your contribution (your post) to the overall product (Sportsfilter). The guidelines are going to go over all of that in full detail for you, and if you have questions, do ask us again. Please don't let any of this discourage you from trying again to post a thread after reading and understanding our guidelines. I'm so happy you at least care enough to ask what was up. Your accusation that we don't like NASCAR, as a whole, is a bit much though, especially since your single surviving post was about NASCAR and didn't get deleted.

posted by jerseygirl at 12:13 PM - reply - flag:

I appreciate the input and well "think it thru" before I try another post but i was not accusing anyone of liking or not liking Nascar. that was simply a question.( i knew that i was gonna get hammered)

posted by texasred at 12:21 PM - reply - flag:

Cool. Definitely think it through, use the correct grammar, spelling, spacing and all that jazz will be awesome. Thanks!

posted by jerseygirl at 12:40 PM - reply - flag:

You definitely did not get hammered. It's great that you're keen to find out why your posts were deleted though - that desire to find out what the site's looking for is a very good sign.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 01:42 PM - reply - flag:

You definitely did not get hammered. What Mr. B said, although it probably felt like a hammering. You're one of a relative few people to ask why their post got deleted: most times people either figure it out and conclude that they had it coming (because it violates guidelines or because it's a duplicate, typically), or their original post was a hit-and-run (they were just here to stir shit in the first place). So what's up with these standards, and why does anybody care? The answer points to why SpoFi is so cool. It's not because we use better grammar and spelling, it's because people here have a diversity of interests -- and (here's the really neat part) with a good FPP, you can reasonably expect to hook in some people who don't normally follow your favorite sport. In order to pull that off, however, you need to provide them with something that will make them want to follow the link -- a FPP that clearly and concisely summarizes the point of the article, and dangles the main point in front of the reader in a way that will make them want to go there -- and then, of course, you need to have chosen an article that will make them glad they went there. It is hard to pull off a broadly-based sports site like this one. It's much easier to run a homer site, or a site that focuses on just one sport -- or one league in a sport. If you're posting in a newsgroup where everybody else thinks the Jayhawks (or whoever) are teh shit, you can mix your 1's and !'s, misspell anything you want ("fucken", that's my favorite one), foam at the mouth, and be dead wrong about your facts. People will eat it up even if they disagee with you. But what we're really aiming for here on SpoFi is different. It's a higher standard for a good reason.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 03:39 PM - reply - flag:

and (here's the really neat part) with a good FPP, you can reasonably expect to hook in some people who don't normally follow your favorite sport. This is dead-on true. Just ask around: for example, SpoFi's hockey discussions are some of the most intelligent and productive I've ever seen, and they've successfully converted a number of SpoFites into full-fledged tuque-wearing Molson-drinking hockey fans. NASCAR is admittedly a bit of a niche market even on SpoFi, but the best way to expand that market is with top-notch posts about it. The power is YOURS.

posted by DrJohnEvans at 03:49 PM - reply - flag:

I've posted a couple of whimsical things about NASCAR without having them deleted: NASCAR Meats, NASCAR Ballet And I'm not even a NASCAR fan. (Maybe that helps ... ha.) So, just give your posts a second read, check the spelling, ask yourself if you could rewrite the post to be more interesting to others, take a look at posts that get tons of comments, bla bla bla I look forward to more interesting NASCAR posts than my own.

posted by worldcup2002 at 04:51 PM - reply - flag:

Texasred, I'll echo what others have said: good on you for trying to figure out what went wrong. Self-improvement, no matter how minor the arena, is good for you. Personally, I'd like to have more NASCAR threads around here, because I enjoy the sport mightily. Unfortunately, it's still dominated, even on this site, by people who can't spell and want to consistently display their ignorance by screaming "TONY STEWART ROXXXXX! !LOLOLOL!1" Never a good thing. Read the guidelines, follow the guidelines, and have a good time. If you came here for informed discussion, you'll have a blast. If you came here for another Yahoo chatroom, you'll hate it. Best of luck. And, hammering-wise, well, you have no idea. I've seen some hammerings; hell, I've participated in a few of 'em, and what you got here doesn't even amount to a love tap. And Doc, I'm farther into hockey than I've ever been, but I ain't wearin' a toque, and I'm stickin' with the Brownie.

posted by The_Black_Hand at 04:59 PM - reply - flag:

Hey worldcup2002, while we're on the subject of NASCAR whimsy...chili, anyone?

posted by The_Black_Hand at 05:04 PM - reply - flag:

Well, i sincerely appreciate the input folks and my next post will be mucho (that's spanish, y'all) improved. I promise. And I really do like this site

posted by texasred at 05:52 PM - reply - flag:

So while we've got a spelling/punctuation/etc. thread going on, what is current best practice by which to lart someone like devildog37, whose signal/noise ratio is currently 0? Email the pantheon? Lart them publicly with link to the Standards? Some other mechanism?

Monday, September 18, 2006

Comments