OT Season Clearance Sale: Everything Must Go By 11:59 PM On 8/23

Submitted by LSAClassOf2000 on

OT SEASON CLEARANCE SALE: EVERYTHING MUST GO BY 11:59 PM ON 8/23

As most of you might be aware by now, the OT Season officially comes to an end at midnight on the 24th of August. There will be some cleanup of a preliminary nature starting on Friday or Saturday, but it will be mainly background items and removing recent threads with, for example, numerous downvotes – basically subtle strategies to attempt to maximize the amount of football content before the actual deadline comes.

What does that mean for you? Veterans will know the answer, but for newer folks or infrequent visitors, here is your yearly reminder.

At midnight on Sunday, you may no longer post threads about your favorite shows, movies, books, music and so forth.  There are usually narrow exceptions made for major breaking news of regional or national importance and a few other things. Ultimately, it is case by case, but the thread will be reviewed and, if found to be too OT, will disappear as soon as one of us cares to leave the bar and find a computer.

A few things of note:

1) The Snowflake Rule will apply after games. That is to say, a thread for offense, defense, special teams, coaching…basically any major category. For several hours after the game, inasmuch as possible, no other threads of this nature will survive unless it is a specific point which warrants detailed discussion. The idea being, of course, to not have 50 threads of hot takes and have the board become the blog version of a call-in show.

2) Having seen #1, please take care in general to consider carefully what you want to say if you’re going to create a thread. Search the first two pages of threads or so for similar threads – that’s typically what I use as a measuring stick for “redundant”. Read the Snowflakes and make sure that the issue has not been covered at length already, and if it has, contribute your take in an existing thread. If you put it in an existing thread and it is still somewhat redundant, try to include a clever GIF or an intentionally misplaced "/s" or something that is thought-provoking.

3) DO NOT attack players or fellow MGoBloggers personally. Ad hominems are essentially your ticket to Bolivia or worse depending on the severity of the statement. I know people get emotional after games, but do try to run your initial reaction by your frontal cortex first for proper review. A few seconds of considered thought can save an MGoLife.

4) Report potential infractions in the Mod Sticky with a link to the comment or thread. We will review them and dole out point deductions and so forth according. If it is raining in La Paz, we will provide appropriate gear. If it is cold in La Paz, we did recently get Bed, Bath And Beyond down there, so while overpriced, blankets are available now. 

5) Sunday NFL threads will be allowed as usual. Pro sports events which are significant are fine as well – just not every bit of news like we get during the draft and free agency periods sometimes. Drinking threads and game prediction threads are fine within reason - no "Wednesday Night Drinking Thread" or game prediction threads for OSU appearing in October though. 

6) Threads covering other college games should typically be OK, but do try to keep the tradition of “Saturday Noon Games Thread”, for example, on the weekends (and on Fridays when sometimes there is a significant slate too). The tradition of MACtion is absolutely OK because who really needs defense anyway, right? Indeed, who needs offense sometimes, eh? 

I will let JGB add whatever he feels is appropriate in the comments, but I thought I would get this out there in a prominent location to everyone now. 

Comments

BiSB

August 21st, 2014 at 10:37 AM ^

They're usually okay. Same with Lions and Red Wings (though the calendar makes the latter a litle less important).

If the Tigers make the playoffs, there's extra leeway there too. But that, of course, depends on whether the BULLPEN GETS ITS SHIT TOGETHER.

justingoblue

August 20th, 2014 at 4:58 PM ^

 

 

 

THINGS THAT ARE NOT OFF TOPIC:

  • Anything to do with Michigan athletics, the University of Michigan itself or anything of note in Ann Arbor. The womens rowing team is not off topic. Academic or housing or admissions news is not off topic. Blimpy Burger news is not off topic. Recruiting falls under this headline as well.
  • Anything about a Michigan alum in regional/national news or any news about a former athlete. Every time a thread title starts with "OT: Denard..." a puppy's heart breaks. True story.
  • Any topic about a Big Ten member. If OSU gets baseball uniformz or Northwestern announces a new undergrad major, it's on topic.
  • Anything relating to a future opponent. NTM football is on topic. Alabama softball is on topic. BC hockey is on topic. If they're on a Michigan schedule and there's something you think the board would like to read, post it, it's not off topic.

THINGS THAT FELL UNDER GREY AREA IN THE ORIGINAL FAQ THAT SHOULD JUST GET POSTED WITHOUT AN OT TAG IN 2014:

  • Stories from around college sports. If Florida is starting a fourth string LB at QB or some Pac 12 RB goes off for 350yds, just post it, people around here care.

ALLOWABLE OT:

  • Significant professional/international sporting events can get open threads. Sunday open threads for NFL are just fine, World Series, Red Wings/Pistons games or a big national game in any of the leagues. Bias is towards state of Michigan teams in deciding what to leave up but general interest factors in as well (i.e. a Red Wings open thread will be presumed to be more interesting to the board than a Stars open thread without a compelling story line).
  • Major news in pro/international sports. Big trades or roster changes, significant milestones, injuries, stuff like that. Not boilerplate training camp/press conference type news.

THINGS THAT ARE OFF TOPIC AND WILL BE TAKEN DOWN:

  • If it's not mentioned here, it's probably off topic. Dogs anal glands are off topic.

THINGS THAT ARE META:

  • Questions or thoughts on the site/board. Ideas for a new regular article or questions about what's good for posting as a diary are meta.

THINGS THAT GET PEOPLE BANNED:

  • Going personal on an athlete. "Devin made a terrible throw, he had Darboh wide open and completely blew it": fine. "Devin looks like a bitch out there": the board is better off without you.
  • Politics and religion. Don't tell the board what you think about Obama's foreign policy or your opinion on the validity of Christianity or Judaism or Islam or Buddhism or whatever other religion.

StephenRKass

August 20th, 2014 at 8:09 PM ^

Thanks for PSA. Most of this is common sense. I'm so thankful that negbangs and posbangs came back, because they make things work better all around.

There is one kind of on-topic off-limits post that comes up every now and then. It happens when an off-limits topic (politics, religion, personal life, as mentioned above) intersects with a Michigan athlete or coach. Obvious examples that have occurred in the past would be discussions about Gibbons and his situation, or Lewan and the charges against him, or most recently, the situation with York. How do the mods define what is "personal" and when the personal becomes public? As an example from our opponent, when do the actions of former OSU QB Pryor (in tattoo parlors, with Corvettes, etc.) become legitimate for public discussion? If photos are taken of athletes in questionable activities, are these in the public domain?

Most of the time, the private, personal lives of athletes stay that way, as they should. But especially with social media, the lines between personal and public have become more blurred.

Only one suggestion:  I think that wherever the mods choose to draw the lines, they should be consistent for both our opponents and for Michigan athletes. In other words, if we're digging for dirt on the guys at Ohio, we should be open to the same for our own players. (and my thoughts on the lines are that we should be generous in not disclosing information that we wouldn't want disclosed about ourselves.) Just my two cents.

Everyone Murders

August 21st, 2014 at 8:32 AM ^

The prohibition on dog anal gland discussion is a good reminder.  But we're still allowed to post on opposing coaches' and opposing players' anal glands, right?  Right?

Also, what's the current in-season rule on PosBangs?

LSAClassOf2000

August 21st, 2014 at 10:11 AM ^

We'd probably let the semi-tradition Friday posbang go, but the ones which are cute but ultimately frivolous would probably end up going. Post-victory posbangs are welcome as always, and perhaps special events, but it would have to be a very special event indeed, like your dog's anal glands finally being cleansed in full. 

bronxblue

August 21st, 2014 at 9:57 AM ^

To save me the hassle now, I'm just going to accept that the only professional wrestling references getting on this site until May will be ones I embed in diaries. 

BiSB

August 21st, 2014 at 10:40 AM ^

The mods (and I, when I jump into the fray) are pretty pragmatic about this stuff. Some major world events will be left up; if we re-animatethe corpse of Osama Bin Laden and kill him again, that would be worth a discussion. If it involves the word "Kardashian," though, not so much.

Unless a Kardashian kills Zombie Bin Laden. I guess we would talk about that.

MGoChippewa

August 21st, 2014 at 11:06 AM ^

Khloe Kardashian eating Zombie Bin Laden might actually make me want to watch E!  Can we get Lamar Odom to sit in the background and wear a wife beater while eating Skittles out of a bucket of lard?

MBloGlue

August 21st, 2014 at 1:53 PM ^

For those that find themselves banned to Bolivia, I strongly recommend you buy a hand made wool sweater from the indigenous women selling them along the shores of Lake Titicaca. MUCH better looking, more practical and more affordably priced than down items from Bed Bath & Beyond. Plus, when someone compliments your sweater and asks where you got it, you get to say "Titicaca".