META: off topic etiquette?

Sometimes, it's best just to walk away. My comments weren't going to help on either of the threads referenced. The paucity of real commentary was appalling.

Bringing back the old point system might help. I really don't care that much either way about the points. There are pros and cons both ways. But when a negbang directly contributes to your point total, and you are ratcheting up 50 and 100 negative points on each post you put up, that is a severe sanction (so to speak) keeping people from being whiny and responding endlessly to perceived slights, and seeking to put up provocative, irritating posts.

My preference is for actual content, whether Meta, on topic, or off topic. For example, I'd like to hear from people about Tournette, and why he's taking an official visit, and who has seen him, and what led him to put Michigan on a visit list.

I'd also be happy to hear about the City of Detroit Emergency Manager, or the PED scandal in baseball, or the Miami Heat, or the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins, or the pros and cons of various barbecuing equipment. (I never heard about the Big Green Egg, for instance, until I came to this blog. $1,000 is rich for my blood for a grill, but still, now I'm informed.)

I'd be glad to read more about the UofM, and Ann Arbor.

Have an OT section, similar to diaries?

A few points:
1) I really appreciate this blog. I bleed maize and blue and remember trying to follow during the dark ages ( pre-web).

2) some people bitch and argue over the dumbest things. I might as well spend the afternoon in the salon.

3) most posters just want to get the info out there and find out what other fans think. You're not forced to read or comment on anything.

4) guaranteed that if somethings good on our planet people will try their best to F it up.

5) Bball and Fball recruiting is amazing right now and I, for one, am extremely excited about the future.

6) this is America fergodsakes. If you don't like it go elsewhere or create your own blog so we don't have to read posts by men on their periods.

7) I love you all, Go Blue!

I'm guilty of making comments that don't really contribute to the topic, but it's not always horribly negative. With it being offseason, there are going to be people that come here looking for entertainment, but since they won't necessarily get that with content, they'll look to busting people's balls (short of trolling hopefully). As other people have mentioned, the old point system would definitely limit that by bringing back consequences of posting said comments. Additionally, I do think the mods are becoming too aggressive with their moderating, which I had never thought before. BiSB's style was to make his presence known (with those we can't have nice things warnings) and help keep the convo on topic and pc. In my eyes, the newer crop of mods jump in way to quick with little to no warning to get rid of a lot of things before it can turn into anything worthwhile. That could just be a product of how everyone is starting to behave on the boards, but something needs to change.

...were downright embarrassing. Time to step up your game, MGoBlogerati. 

 

This is a diverse community with a lot of different personalities and opinions.  Some people like to complain to the point where they can bitch about  bitching that hasn't even been bitched yet.  For the most part, though, there are a lot of insightful opinions here. 

I usually just skim over the nitpicking and ad hominem attacks that go on here.  Also, I usually just read a thread, post if I feel like it, and don't bother coming back to see if I have been "snarked" by anyone.  I hear I've missed a couple of long ad hominem attacks on me that way, but what did I really "miss?"

So, my advice to those who don't like the complaining: don't bother reading it.  You can usually tell in the first sentence of a comment whether or not it is going to be a whine or a rant.  You then have the option to continue or stop reading the comment.  

I come here for two reasons: the main blog and the de facto "curation blog" called the MGoBoard.  We get the Michigan Wolverines News of the Day, every day, within ten minutes of it showing up anywhere, curated by somewhere around 4,000 users.  It isn't perfect, but it's the best sports blog I've seen.

I usually don't complain, however, when pictures of the moon begin popping up as OT threads, then I feel obligated to question the threadworthiness.

 

I got bombed in that thread as well.

(and deduct two points from that person’s total)

 Granted, there is a place for thoughtful criticisms that can improve the thread.  But the biggest nitpickers usually do not provide these.  Rather, they litter the thread with:

---mindless,  knee-jerk imitations of prior posts

or- repetitions, for the hundredth time, of moth-eaten slogans, like: : “loo long”, “spelling mistake or” bad  title”

--or words with only one of two possible meanings:  “hooray” or “boo“  

So, often the posters that most deserve to be negged are the ones doing the most negging themselves.  Also, they.would be highly responsive to a few negs for their own overuse of them.  They often are point-a-holics, whose greatest aspiration in life is to either imbibe or  take away points on anonymous message boards