Apparently I have to say this: treat recruits with respect
Brandon posted an article about 2016 recruit Teryn Savage, and this is his takeaway from his experience at MGoBlog:
https://twitter.com/TerynSavage/status/382644691738451968
So congratulations, leftrare, MGoBrewMom, JuggernautRides, and chitownblue2, and the other people in that thread who insulted the kid for no reason. Guess what: people are interested to see what people say about them on the internet, and now a potential recruit doesn't want to talk to Brandon.
If you think that 2016 is a magic land from which news cannot come, don't read it. We're going to report on kids that are being recruited.
Going forward, anything that could be interpreted as an insult to a blameless high school kid will result in a no-warning ban. Even if that interpretation is crazy. Any "pedo" references will also result in a ban.
In conclusion, guh.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:16 PM ^
what just happened
September 24th, 2013 at 10:18 PM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 10:55 PM ^
A game in back to back days?! Holy wowzer, I've never heard of that.
September 25th, 2013 at 12:22 AM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 10:21 PM ^
A much wiser man than I once said that the best response to bad speech was more speech.
This was a perfect example. Maybe locking the threads down isn't always the best response
(And no, it isn't obvious which was the "bad speech", which is part of the point.).
September 25th, 2013 at 4:29 AM ^
If a picture is worth a thousand words, this GIF is worth all of them.
perfect and I cant stop laughing.
September 25th, 2013 at 8:24 AM ^
having a coffee, reading this thread, and I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING! It was like when Sofia walked out of the barn!!! I bet he was totally reading it like I was, it has been an extrememly thought provoking thread. I also, as a parent, would like to say that I was proud to see he had to go study! How great is that?
September 24th, 2013 at 10:27 PM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 10:28 PM ^
butt, savage, taco, ojemudia, c'sonte, jehu chesson, norfleet, mo ways, d'shawn,
September 25th, 2013 at 7:18 PM ^
Savage taco butt hand, it's a way of life.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:38 PM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 10:39 PM ^
...moly. What a thread. To the MGoHOF!
September 24th, 2013 at 10:54 PM ^
Banner day for the blog. (1) "Engineers don't understand football" in the Mailbag post, (2) Picture Pages commotion misdiagnosing a play (which I am on Brian and SC's side on that one), and (3) this craziness. It's days like this that probably makes Brian contemplate new employment, but also days like this that rake in the pageviews.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:00 PM ^
...perceptive.
the problem with being an internet entrepreneur is being on the internet
— mgoblog (@mgoblog) September 25, 2013
September 25th, 2013 at 10:47 PM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 11:04 PM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 11:09 PM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 11:13 PM ^
I just logged into to see me mentioned here. I assume Brian wont respond to me, but here goes: Not only did I not intend to insult Teryn Savage, I don't believe I did, and his post further up this thread confirms as much. In fact, it seems young Mr. Savage, to whom I hold absolutely no ill will, has taken this with significantly more grace and humor than you, Brian. I used Mr. Savage as a datapoint in discomfort that I personally have regarding recruiting coverage writ large (not just this site) - you're free to disagree with me, as people did in that thread, but disagreement doesn't make my opinion insulting. I went out of my way to not insult Savage or Branden Brown, despite my disagreement with him Nothing I have ever written about a recruit rises to a 1/10th the level of insult that your knighted [Bryan Mac] composed regarding the kid who decommited from MSU to rap. So if your intention is to lecture me from your bully pulpit regarding the appropriate decorum of addressing high school kids,mid look at your own glass house.
You insinuate that I'm an unproductive, flaming member of this board - not once have you or one of your moderators deleted a comment of mine, and my "karma" on your past moderation system was sky high. Is leads me to believe you just don't like me, which is fine. But just say that, instead of insinuated unsubstantiated, trumped up, illusory accusations.
You want me gone - that's fine. Just don't do this bullshit.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:17 PM ^
You and I have had our disagreements in the past but your are absolutely in the top 1% of posters on this board, in my humble opinion.
Brian is simply wrong on this one.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:27 PM ^
Brian isn't wrong. Chitown does very little but intentionally antagonize people and start endless flame wars. He is a cancer to this board.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:37 PM ^
Pot. Calling. Kettle. Black.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:41 PM ^
Sentence. Fragments. Are. Bad.
September 25th, 2013 at 2:09 AM ^
he might not have to if, you know, there was a way for posters to police the board with negs. There is no way to do this now. Several others have noted an increase in douchey/idiotic posts. I think chitown brings up good points most of the time.
And if we're singling out chitown, I could single out many other posters who seem to do nothing but start a fight everytime they reply in the comments. Shoot, I saw some in the basketball tickets thread. Some very very long time posters too.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:24 PM ^
But if you could not drop my name, that'd be great.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:54 PM ^
You've posted under your full name before dude, how else would anyone know it?
September 24th, 2013 at 11:56 PM ^
Never here. My twitter handle, many moons ago, had my full name. And I know it isn't very hard to find it if anyone wants to search. But to the extent I can keep my work here untethered from my real name, I'd prefer to do so.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:58 PM ^
Okay, not you that posted it, but Seth/Misopogon POSTED IT ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THIS SITE.
[ED-Bryan Mac - Point taken. I never noticed that.]
September 25th, 2013 at 12:55 AM ^
so someone got perma banned for posting a name that had already been on the front page of this site?
September 25th, 2013 at 2:16 AM ^
This is a last straw situation. Chitown has been a negative presence for years.
September 25th, 2013 at 7:21 PM ^
but one of the tenets of this board is anonymity. (Admittedly, there are a few exceptions.)
Nobody likes getting called out unbeknownst. Just sayin'...
September 25th, 2013 at 12:18 AM ^
Let's all get along. There have admittedly been at least two times I've rolled my eyes at Chitown on this board through the years, but irreverance is in short supply on Michigan boards and Chitown's posts are nearly always salient, well reasoned and funny. We need more posters like him.
September 25th, 2013 at 12:20 AM ^
Given the fact that chitown's now banned, good luck with your last sentence.
September 25th, 2013 at 5:22 AM ^
But its free to create accounts, and most people who get nuked simply create new usernames. Often when they do so their posts are better received.
Brian basically took his username/
September 25th, 2013 at 10:42 AM ^
September 26th, 2013 at 4:38 PM ^
But would you want to given the situation?
September 25th, 2013 at 1:21 AM ^
September 25th, 2013 at 7:25 PM ^
Shitty deal, man. I mean, granted, you can be a bit pedantic at times, but I've always thought you were a quality poster who contributed to the discussion around here. The board here loses some value without you.
Ok, I'm done, that was ghey. NTTAWWT.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:12 PM ^
Uhhhhh...color me crazy, but IIRC, Chitown was not in any way, shape, or form, disparaging that kid.
I believe he was making a point about the overall trend of recruiting and how the kids being thrust into the spotlight by this blog and other media outlets have seemingly gotten younger and younger.
So perhaps we all might want to take a step back and think about the journalistic ethics of interviewing 14-15 year olds about their college choices (let alone heaping a great amount of praise or "hype" onto them).
But I guess being thoughtful about the (absolutely absurd) current state of college recruiting is looked down upon on this blog now?
I guess because the status quo is to interview kids at an increasingly younger age that we should all just pretend like that trend isn't at least somewhat disturbing?
Is there no sense of responsibility that just MAYBE if you make a 15 year old kid a public figure by writing a story about them and putting it on a major sports blog read by thousands of people, then just MAYBE you share in part of the blame for people being assholes to them because, hey, it's just status quo for the internet, right?
Or maybe we should all hold ourselves to a higher standard?
September 24th, 2013 at 11:17 PM ^
...if I were able.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:28 PM ^
but all of the discussion on that is probably best done outside the comments section of an interview with X recruit, who is likely to flip through the interview and comments
September 24th, 2013 at 11:36 PM ^
+ 10^10
September 25th, 2013 at 4:30 AM ^
"The upside is zero [...] and the downside is getting my ass reamed out by the department for stuff I didn't even post, and maybe a recruit thinking poorly of Michigan fans."
That is the argument Brian used to justify chewing out posters for essentially saying, "Gee, that kid looks young in that photo." I think you get a stronger argument though if you replace the original ellipsis of "lame snark on a message board" (from people who have zero financial interest in the success/failure of this website) with "publishing the thoughts of sophomores in high school who might someday soon receive a scholarship offer from UM at which point they could possibly elevate the Wolverines into their early top-5 and perhaps visit the campus at which point they may narrow down that list and eventually, God willing, sign on the dotted line 2.5 years from now to come play football at the University of Michigan."
You and others have expressed reservations about plenty of potential negatives, but where exactly is the upside? If the risk is a tongue lashing and a lack of access to the program for this site and maybe the loss of a valuable recruit from the team we all want to do well, maybe a more patient perspective on HS recruiting would be in Brian's (and all UM fans') best interests.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:25 PM ^
A good reminder for everyone that, though we are mostly anonymous, a lot of the recruits, players, and ex-players for Michigan probably swing by here on occaision (like Vincent Smith and Brandin Hawthorne though NOT Chris Perry) and we need to be cognizant of that. Especially recruits who are probably a) likely to read interviews & comments about that and b) are likely going to be more impressionable / easily hurt than their older football-playing counterparts
September 24th, 2013 at 11:38 PM ^
Very much this.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:39 PM ^
I have little to add here as I see little done wrong.
I think it is ok to email an underage recruit to request an interview (as long as they are over 13, which is the age cut off for most internet registrations). I think going through parents is a little safer, as a teacher myself.
Then again, after a baseball game in high school I was interviewed by the newspaper before I got on the bus and that didn't go through my parents, so I struggle seeing how this is much different as long as it is a simple ask for an interview and no further questions if the answer is no.
So, I don't see a problem... except the interviewer is a teacher. I'm a teacher. It's in my contract: You do not engage with students on social media until they're 18. Period. (Kids that aren't my students? Well... I'd avoid it, but I guess that's not covered by my contract). Email is not considered social media, however. IMO, this is a personal gray area for Brandon Brown because he is a teacher. If he feels he is not violating the spirit of his duties and requirements of a teacher (and isn't violating the letter of his contract) then I don't think it's an issue. It shouldn't be a gray area for anyone else though.
For the parents that say "I would want to know!!!!": Maybe you should be talking more to your kids so you do know. Maybe you should be discussing these things with them instead of expecting the world to be perfect and safe. High school kids talk to a lot of people that their parents don't know... And lest we forget, this is a high school sophomore, not a little kid.
September 25th, 2013 at 12:05 AM ^
Bender, I replied to some people about the interview thing earlier. When kids are getting interviewed after sporting events, that is looked at differently than what Brandon is doing on twitter. Those reporters are vetted by the school before they get to the event.
And while I'm not a teacher yet, I am making the career change to it. That is where my biggest issue with what Brandon probably comes from. I assume the vast majority of teachers have that stipulation in their contract like you. So Brandon must know about it, but he is ignoring it for this job. It just seems like a REALLY bad idea for him on a personal level. And that is my bigger concern. The guy does a good job, and I would hate to see him or the blog get into trouble because he is, in my opinion, being lazy by not contacting a parent first.