April 04, 2004

One of the more active founders of SportsFilter can be a argumentative pain in the ass whose apologies seem less than sincere. Does this create problems for the community?

posted by rcade to editorial policy at 01:02 PM - 36 comments

I know we don't have etiquette take-downs here in the Locker Room, but I'm making an exception for myself. On MetaFilter, I can be a combative, snarky person and get a few condemnations, a few biting retorts, or be ignored like the poorly socialized twerp I often am. Here, when I demonstrate these aspects of my personality, it occasionally makes people go apeshit. I'm getting the impression that my position as a founder of the site lends excessive authority to my comments, making it seem like Dad has come storming out of the garage with his belt in his hand. I want SportsFilter to be a friendly place. But I'd also like to encourage the kind of passionate arguments you hear on sports radio when topics like Pete Rose, Casey Martin, and women playing men's sports come up for discussion. So I fire off hot sports opinions when a subject pisses me off. Do you think the founder of this or any other online community needs to be an island of calm reflection?

posted by rcade at 01:09 PM on April 04, 2004

I think you're just upset because worldcup2002 didn't interview you. :-P

posted by squealy at 01:35 PM on April 04, 2004

Hrm. I don't particularly care what the founders do or think, per se, but I think if your goal is for sportsfilter to be more like sports radio I need to find somewhere else to talk about sports. The thing I like about this site is that it is typically free of the racist, sexist, idiotic assholes who are the bread and butter of sports radio. If you want to find and attract more of those kinds of people and start those kinds of discussions... well, that sucks :/

posted by tieguy at 01:41 PM on April 04, 2004

I want to emulate good sports radio, where people make their case thoughtfully and the hosts aren't nimrods. I guess you don't think such a beast exists.

posted by rcade at 01:47 PM on April 04, 2004

Do you think the founder of this or any other online community needs to be an island of calm reflection? Yeah thats mathowie all right. absent. just like god. :) seriously though, I never got the feeling that " oh crap, rcade is gonna take it to this guy", or "christ is he gonna ban him or find out where he lives and kick his ass!". Considering that the subject (womens sports) is a bit of a hot button here on spofi, I was rather surprised at how tamely it was handled by all involved. although I thought the term "pc police" shouldn't have been used. as is obvious from my comments in the thread.

posted by lilnemo at 01:54 PM on April 04, 2004

...where people make their case thoughtfully and the hosts aren't nimrods. mission accomplished!)

posted by lilnemo at 01:56 PM on April 04, 2004

that should be ! :)

posted by lilnemo at 01:56 PM on April 04, 2004

OK, I'll take the question seriously for a change. I don't think that your position as a founder makes any difference. I think it's more down to the fact that people tend to behave in a more conciliatory manner here than they do on MeFi. Hence, your occasional snarky comment causes more of a furore as snarkiness is more rare here. The answer of course would be to stop making snarky comments. You can have passionate arguments without being snarky. Memo to self: Stop saying snarky.

posted by squealy at 01:58 PM on April 04, 2004

but I need my snarkahol! < /homer simpson>>

posted by lilnemo at 02:02 PM on April 04, 2004

I just want to know how this site is too politically correct, and the proof of that is that no one cares when rcade says something offensive. But thats probably a question for another day... I do think this site is quite pleasant though, and pleasingly articulate for a sports site. Look at this wonderful thread, which was previously linked here on sportsfilter, for proof of the usual rage and hatred and idiocy which typifies sports websites. Or maybe thats just football fans. Also, I have no problem with your comments, rcade. (But then I rarely frequent the threads you post in, I suppose, so my opinion is pretty worthless, probably.) And it is good to have at least a couple of the pantheon still around.

posted by dng at 02:16 PM on April 04, 2004

I know we don't have etiquette take-downs here in the Locker Room, but I'm making an exception for myself. See, you lost me right there.

posted by dusted at 02:27 PM on April 04, 2004

It's like a reacharound, dusted, except that you do it when you're alone. And you don't actually reach around anything.

posted by rcade at 02:58 PM on April 04, 2004

I'm thinking of how in hockey a lot of holding is perfectly fine, or at least won't get a ref's whistle blowing, but some holding is bad and gets the offender two minutes in the box. Isn't the interview with lilnemo instead of rcade the SpoFi equivalent of the two minutes?

posted by billsaysthis at 04:00 PM on April 04, 2004

whats that supposed to mean?

posted by lilnemo at 04:47 PM on April 04, 2004

posted by yerfatma at 04:59 PM on April 04, 2004

alan moore rocks. it needed to be said.

posted by lilnemo at 05:01 PM on April 04, 2004

Hrm. I don't particularly care what the founders do or think, per se, but I think if your goal is for sportsfilter to be more like sports radio I need to find somewhere else to talk about sports. The thing I like about this site is that it is typically free of the racist, sexist, idiotic assholes who are the bread and butter of sports radio. If you want to find and attract more of those kinds of people and start those kinds of discussions... well, that sucks :/ I completely agree with this.. so many message boards are filled with complete idiots that it's hard to get anything out of them. I've found this site to be quite different, and I'm pretty impressed. (Side note: I had no idea that rcade is one of this site's founders. Perhaps there are others? :) I guess I should pay more attention..)

posted by blarp at 08:29 PM on April 04, 2004

Rcade, as a guy who regularly and vociferously disagrees with you, it has nothing to do with you being a member of the Pantheon and everything to do with the fact that I'm usually right. That, and if you want a whuppin', you just come on with that belt. /:)

posted by wfrazerjr at 08:37 PM on April 04, 2004

rcade, your opinions are thoughtful and welcome in my book. You defend your positions strongly and I admire that. Don't feel any need to modify your behavior.

posted by vito90 at 08:51 PM on April 04, 2004

And I might add that I immediately knew you were referencing yourself.

posted by vito90 at 08:53 PM on April 04, 2004

I think you've been fine rcade. i would never have even given it a thought if you hadn't brought it up.

posted by jerseygirl at 08:55 PM on April 04, 2004

You bastards, now look what you've made me do. Forced me into the attic to find my collection of The Watchmen On a brighter note, I rediscovered my set of Flaming Carrot. Ut! Ut! What was that Blarp was saying about idiot posters?

posted by kWaCkY at 12:32 AM on April 05, 2004

Welp, there goes that. :P

posted by blarp at 07:43 AM on April 05, 2004

and don't worry rcade, all in all, i am completely ignored on MeFi/MeTa/AskMe.

posted by jerseygirl at 09:49 AM on April 05, 2004

Do you think the founder of this or any other online community needs to be an island of calm reflection? no. as a member, the only thing a founder needs to be is (him|her)self. like rcade, i've been accused on this site as being too PC, and there have been instances where that may have been justified. but only because i stuck my nose into threads to which i otherwise had no contribution ... not because of the content of my criticism. in the thread rcade links, he has plenty to say besides the snarks, so i don't see that applying here. regardless of whether any specific PC-genre criticism was justified or not, there have been some severe over-reactions to them here on SportsFilter, and that may sometimes make us feel we should never say anything confrontational. while thinking twice about a comment has it's good side, it would make SpoFi seriously boring if it kept us from posting as we see fit. oh, and patheon, delete this freaking thread...it's lame.

posted by danostuporstar at 10:47 AM on April 05, 2004

patheon! please hope me!

posted by gspm at 11:35 AM on April 05, 2004

WHAT.
THE.
FUCK.
DAN? Posting a long message in a thread, and then asking for it to be deleted, has to be a SportsFilter first. :-).

posted by rcade at 02:29 PM on April 05, 2004

heh

posted by danostuporstar at 02:33 PM on April 05, 2004

rcade, apart from the 'founders' part, I thought you were talking about me.

posted by garfield at 02:38 PM on April 05, 2004

And it is good to have at least a couple of the pantheon still around. Are any missing? Should we send out a search party?

posted by justgary at 02:54 PM on April 05, 2004

mathowie and owillis haven't posted in over 13 months. other than that, the rest of the pantheon has been pretty consistent in posting.

posted by lilnemo at 03:08 PM on April 05, 2004

Damn. I always forget this room exists! Allow me to clarify. I normally use the term "pc" hand in hand with Liberal. That's why my comment made zero sense in trying to connect the two. So I'm glad you took me to task on that because I reread it now, and I sound exactly like the posts that turn me off. Also on that thread, it was my impression we were arguing the dunking skills of Candace Parker and whether or not she was worthy of being the winner. Instead, it seemed subsequent posts trashed the contest as having no validity, so I felt it was a convenient way to skirt talking about gender. The point I was trying to illustrate was how you couldn't bring yourself to criticize her skills, but could easily slam US Marines. But after taking a step back, I think articles like this make sense. For some reason, hearing Katie Couric gush about it on national TV set me off that morning because I feel they exploit it. It's as if they only read the headline the next day and aren't informed on the whole situation. But then again, since when is that the responsibility of morning television? And the larger issue is why am I watching so much of it?

posted by usfbull at 05:00 PM on April 05, 2004

mathowie and owillis haven't posted in over 13 months. Well, I can't speak for oliver, but mathowie's number 2 was more out of respect for helping us and also because, without metafilter, there would be no sportsfilter. Think of him as a figure head, similar to his role at metafilter ;) (joking!) But, again not speaking for the man, I don't think sports, at least not most covered here, is really his thing.

posted by justgary at 06:34 PM on April 05, 2004

Doesn't anyone remember Chris Felty?

posted by jasonspaceman at 06:52 PM on April 06, 2004

I want to thank the founders for archiving. The Felty chain of events is hilarious. Pantheon, can't you track down an IP Address that Chris Felty posted from? That's the extent of my IT knowledge. I would have to think it matches a current member.

posted by usfbull at 03:55 PM on April 07, 2004

Privacy might be an issue.

posted by justgary at 02:10 AM on April 08, 2004

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