Hey folks,
In an hour, I'm going to post the first regular season game thread of 2011. It's kind of a big deal. This is an exciting day and I'm looking forward to spending it hanging out here, watching the Brewers with all of you.
With that said, I feel like I need to do a quick recap of the rules before we get started. These have been posted before and many of you have probably seen them, but I still ask that you take a quick look in the hope that I can get through the first game without having to explain to someone why something isn't allowed or dropping the banhammer.
To start, if you haven't yet, please take a look at the Omnibus BCB Posting Guide. I don't intend to bog this site down with all kinds of rules and regulations, but that guide highlights the exceptions: the somewhat short list of things that will not be tolerated.
Beyond that, here's what you need to know:
All the commenting rules laid out in the guide still apply to game threads. In short, cursing, name calling and/or excessive aggressiveness directed towards other commenters, spamming, trolling and illegal activity (most notably piracy) are not allowed in game threads. For more details on those rules, visit the original guide.
Any and all pictures with excessive nudity and/or offensive material will be deleted on sight, and repeat offenders can face disciplinary action. I've got another note on pictures that I'll post below, but here are the basic rules for what we won't tolerate: If you're posting a picture that would not be allowed to air on TV, odds are it shouldn't be here, either. I'd also rather not see photographs depicting excessive violence or pain, like someone getting hit in the face with a baseball. If you see something you deem offensive, don't hesitate to flag it: knowing someone was offended by a picture is frequently enough reason to delete it.
If you post a photo comment, please type something in the subject field so people who don't want to see it can collapse it. You can collapse any titled comment by clicking on the subject bar. Comments without subjects cannot be collapsed.
The remaining notes aren't rules, per se, just consider them guidelines:
For everyone in the game thread who's not you, the real-life Brewers are significantly more important than your fantasy team. If you need an opposing player to hit a home run so you can win your fantasy matchup, most of us likely don't care. We're here to cheer for the reality Brewers. We won't kick you out for excessive fantasy rooting but we might mock you, and that's not much fun (for you) either.
Posting pictures slows down the Game Threads for everyone, so please don't post them excessively. This goes double for animated gifs. If you're in a game thread with 200-250 comments and it's starting to lag, odds are pictures are slowing it down. For that reason, please think twice before posting pictures of any kind in game threads, and please refrain from multiple postings of the same image or gratuitous overuse. If you're posting pictures more than once or twice a game, odds are that's too much. Having pictures in the game thread is frequently entertaining and I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but please be considerate of your fellow readers/commenters, many of whom are just trying to discuss the game in a thread that isn't lagged and bogged down in off-topic pics.
These rules and guidelines are in place to help make sure everyone has the best possible experience in threads which are designed to be a fun, non-threatening, non-offensive place to watch the games together. Thanks for doing your part to make sure they stay that way.