Unwritten Rules of the MGoBoard

Submitted by EGD on

Some of the comments on Ben Mason's Hello post kind of bothered me, because I always thought it was customary not to criticize recruits in their Hello posts.  Of course, one problem with doing things by custom and other informal mechanisms is that new or infrequent posters may not always be aware of those things.  So, I decided to collect some of the various "unwritten rules" I've observed for the Board over time, and post them here.  I have probably missed some, so please point out others in the comments.

Unwritten (not counting now) Rules of the MGoBoard

1)   Do not criticize recruits in their Hello posts.  The comments in Hello posts should be celebratory, congratulatory, and welcoming, so that if the recruit himself or his family and friends read the post, they get nothing but good feels.  There are plenty of other opportunities to debate the merits of particular prospects, so if you have a problem with a guy, save it for later.

2)   Don’t refer to opposing teams using juvenile terms such as “O$U,” “Suckeyes,” “Spartina,” etc.  We are not RCMB or MLive and intend to stay that way.

3)   Speculation regarding players being denied a fifth year, encouraged to transfer, urged not to enroll despite having committed to M, or anything else of this nature—though not strictly taboo—is frowned upon.  If you are going to engage in this kind of speculation, please do your best to avoid naming names, be cognizant of timing and context, and absolutely support your assertion with strong evidence and cogent arguments. 

4) Do not make up a fake profile and pretend to be an Alabama fan with deep knowledge of the Michigan program and troll the board for weeks using that fake profile.

5)   No links to Chat Sports or Bleacher Report.  Do not link to the Freep unless (i) you have a good reason and (ii) the same content is not available elsewhere.  That guy in Pittsburgh is okay, I think--but we're still suspicious.

6)   Be reasonable with paywalled content.  Giving a few bullet points or the gist of an article is generally okay; block-quoting multiple paragraphs is usually not.  

7)   If there happens to be a front-page photo of a high school prospect who looks uncommonly young for his age, don’t say a damn thing about it.  (Actually, I think this is more of an official “written” rule).

8)   Do not talk about your mgopoints, unless you don’t mind not having any.

Truthbtold

May 4th, 2016 at 11:14 AM ^

Is do not ever tell the actual truth about how average the Michigan Football Program has been for the last 40 years. Nor accept the fact that Michigan is not even a top 5 program in the Big10. Tell these truths makes everyone mad and generates tremendous amounts of denial. So even know we all know these things to be true, pls don't say them out loud.

Wolverine Devotee

May 4th, 2016 at 12:21 PM ^

I struggled with math in HS and I didn't have access to a tutor. I'm the first in my immediate family to attend college. My mom couldn't help with stuff beyond a certain point because she was too busy taking care of me to go to college as I was born just a few years after she graduated HS.




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MGoBender

May 4th, 2016 at 2:01 PM ^

There are, in fact, people that go to Michigan that are the first in their family to go to college. I'm one of them. I had no tutors, no money, no whatever.

I worked my ass off and went (I had to start a year somewhere else and transfer in). No excuses. If you want to go to Michigan you can - you just might have to work hard/harder than others. 

UMAmaizinBlue

May 4th, 2016 at 3:37 PM ^

That fucking guy... I'm the same as him so far as im a first gen college student and I went to Michigan. His kind of thinking pisses me off. Stop trying to put other people down with your own inflated ego. WD and anyone else in this world is allowed to have a different journey than you and me. Act more like a proud alum and less like an ass.

MGoBender

May 4th, 2016 at 5:20 PM ^

Wow, I didn't mean it to come off that way.  I meant to say that simply, you don't need to have come from super privilege or anything to go to Michgan.

You also don't have to go to Michgan to be insanely successful. That's certainly not the notion I meant to get across.

However, I'd rather WD, or anyone, say "Michigan wasn't for me."  That's ok.  Instead, he says that he didn't have enough money, whih seems to imply, to me, that Michigan is full of rich kids and that's just not true. 

Don

May 4th, 2016 at 8:13 PM ^

For fuck's sake, all he said was that he struggled at math and didn't have the familial financial resources to purchase tutoring help. Your inferral that he was sneering at UM students as being rich kids is strictly in your own goddamn head.

MGoBender

May 4th, 2016 at 5:23 PM ^

Replying to me?  I said there are people at Michigan that do not come from money; that there are people (like me) who transferred in.  How is any of that a sweeping generalization?  Maybe you meant to reply to another post? Should I post a vid of me eating a lemon in front of my degree?

Rasmus

May 4th, 2016 at 2:47 PM ^

With excellent focus and a decent work ethic. Your activity here shows that. You have a lot to learn, but the same can be said for us all.

You maybe have some trouble putting yourself into other people's shoes (like John Beilein's, for example), but that's something most people learn to do in their twenties. If not, they become life-long, know-nothing assholes. No way you end up there. So just relax and enjoy the ride.

ST3

May 4th, 2016 at 10:52 AM ^

It's unnecessary to point out other posters' spelling errors like unessesary. Unesserary? Really? That's not even close, man, but it fits your avatar perfectly. There's three spelling errors in that one word. Damn, that's impressive.