Mgoblog (Brian) Twitter rant

Why are people holding up last year as some sort of great success?

Michigan had a TD pass for 75 yards and a TD run of 67 yards.  Other than those two plays Michigan managed about 120 yards on the other 9 drives.  The other scoring drive included a punt on 4th and 18 that OSU fumbled at their own 25, and that drive still required a roughing the passer on a failed 3rd down to get the touchdown.  On the sixth second half drives, Michigan got 68 total yards and 4 TO (one on downs).

It was much like this year's Iowa game, a domination everywhere but the scoreboard.

so I was lucky enough to go to the game, and having traveled 800 miles or so to do so, I kind of resented the insinuation that I was a sucker to have done it. similarly, it was a privilege to be at the game, and watch our guys compete at a level many seemed to think they were incapable of. while I woke up this morning still with a pit on my stomach about the final result (and with some component of my brain running the conversion attempt in an endless loop, trying to make it successful), I also feel like the players and coaches showed something that exists as a truth in this world every bit as incontrovertible as the tally that must be added to the loss column given the final score. and in that, maybe there's something about sports, and life. for some, its only about the w-l column. details, stories, journeys, transformations (etc.) are irrelevant. that's fine, but a cold existence in my view. but for me, the core of sports is about character, which teaches and inspires in so many ways, maybe especially when its correlated with 12-0 or whatever, but necessarily so. yesterday was not a day to leave the stadium singing "it's great to be a Michigan wolverine", but it was one in which I left feeling, inside, proud to be one.

Can we agree to not make anymore condesending posts regarding mlive(others) until the bell rings and this playground is once again suitable for adults. Adults, you know, not uber sensitive, power happy geeks waiting to "nuke" people. This site has digressed dramatically the past two years and the speed of the demise is increasing exponentially. As someone who finds themselves  visiting the site less and less in direct correlation to the "informative content" posted and opting to post even less frequently I can say reading the mods approach is like watching someone in quicksand-- the more they kick and scream, the faster they sink.

I have been on the site for a few years now. This rant is kind of weird to me. I am glad I found the site and even though I agree with Brian most of the time especially when it comes to not being happy about almost winning, I spend most of the time on the message board and just skim the UFR's and front page stuff . None of the morons or trolls bother me and I am able to tune them out. It is a public forum regarding a college sports team where people can anonymously post. I guess I expect morons and am sometimes even entertained by them. Do I want them posting on the front page? No, but do I care that someone posts a stupid comment on a message board? Not even a bit, I just ignore it or maybe laugh at it. I agree with some moderation and I loved the point system, but I don't see it as a big deal.

Cheer up Brian

Can somebody shed some light a to the genesis of Brian's tweets? It sounds like they were caused by tweets he received but the general tone of this thread would indicate its blog related. I'm a bit confused.

This isn't Nam. It's bowling. There are rules.

I do think that Brian does a great job and has the right vision. I am farily ignorant of the personalities, politics involoved here as well as blog ettiquett and appropriate deference to mods. I guess my view is that mods should be like government or referees-- as least intrusive as possible. if done well they both should have as litle impact as possible. I would encourage Brian to continue his efforts and don't water the weeds so much. Go Blue!

Trust me, as someone that has grown somewhat known in the blogosphere and on twitter, I think I can speak for Brian that sometimes you feel like going Marcus Hall on the haters. I'm sure I don't get nearly the amount that Brian does, but I've certainly my fair share of ad hominem attacks via twitter, I've certainly had a lot of unsolicited or unprovoked call outs here. My name is dropped on both sides of the argument and often times with words I've never said. And sometimes it's fine and other times you want to go Marcus Hall on people.

But I've been called everything from an "apologist" to an "arrogant contrarian" to a "troll" and pretty much every other word with a derogatory connotation. Maybe that's just part of putting yourself out there with an opinion, maybe that's part of going against the wave. But I have my feelings and opinions and I allow myself to take in others opinions and feelings - even try to understand them - but people will misconstrue, or twist what you've said deliberatly or not, and some people just won't like you.

There have been shots across the bow. At times I felt singled out. At times I feel like people have deliberatly tried to troll me despite my attempts to not go to the same places again, only for people to resort to name calling. I've been called "simple", "retarded", "arrogant", "dumbass", "contrarian", "apologist", I've been called gay slurs for some reason or another, and a lot of other things. The praise is always nice and appreciated, but it never stands out as much as the other stuff, and certainly doesn't make up for how much the other stuff wears you down. And it's part of the reason I've felt like leaving blogging completely, or just doing my blog and completely stay away from opinion stuff. I just hope my new job gives me the opportunity to get back into actually coaching, because I never realized how much blogging can wear you down, but it really does. And to a degree it makes you very negative as a fan (if not to the team, then to other fans).

I wish you would rethink that one.

Or at least eliminate stalking, where someone follows a user from post to post - including old posts - and negs them below the threshold. But then you can't eliminate group stalking, where a little band of merry asshats accomplishes the same thing.

There's civility and then there's conformity. A change that increases civility is good. A change that decreases trolling is good. A change that makes this even more a place of conformity to the group think is terrible - the neg vote as a petty way of avoiding having to actually argue and defend a position is one of the smallest, ugliest things that exists on the internet.

I just looked back in my post history, and some pre-teen actually neg voted me on a post where I donated $40 to save a dog (!) and called my post overrated!

I looked at my post history, and the run of drive by hits on my posts (normal comments denigrated as "trolling," "off-topic," "overrated") that all occurred over two weeks where a particularly nasty group tried to bully me off the boards - that's modding by mobocracy, and I don't think you want that.

I had never been neg voted before that incident. It's flat out bullying and it discourages civility and often pushes good posts below threshold limits.

So unless you have a way to combat that, reinstating neg voting is disastrous, imo. There should have been some sort of appeals process where if it can be shown that multiple neg votes have been used solely to satisfy personal animosity and have nothing to do with the contents of the neg voted post - well, the person abusing the system needs to suffer a heavy penalty.

It remains one of the most disgusting things I've been subjected to in any internet community, and it was simply astounding that such a practice could be tolerated on a moderated board. It was messed up.