META: End Of OT Season - IT HAS ARRIVED
EDIT - bumped to keep pushing this point - LSA
NOTE: I got a few questions about this overnight - Friday is indeed the last day, so at 12 AM on 8-26, your fabulous OT thread....well, you may need to keep it to yourself or try to cleverly dress it as a sports thread.
I know a few people will be thrilled, and for others, apologies for the short notice...
The OT Season officially comes to an end at midnight on the 26th of August (the very first tick of Saturday, because there will be football on and you now have better things to do), or one week before the first game as per tradition. There will be some cleanup of a preliminary nature starting before then, 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.
To start the ramp-down, however, at midnight on Friday, you may no longer post threads about your favorite shows, movies, books, music and so forth. Friday can be a transitional day for OT, giving people an opportunity to get their final OT threads in.
One further point, when we say “end of OT season”, it is more a “significant narrowing of scope” – in other words, not every single OT thread will be removed outright. What you must do, if you plan on posting such a thread, is provide a pretty damn good explanation of why it should stay (or the reason may be self-evident) – and yes, frivolous ones will be removed as always.
As usual, there are usually narrow exceptions made for major breaking news of regional or national importance and a few other things and that’s what we mean here. Those are just a few examples of “allowable OT”. I realize some people would prefer a hard stop, but this is a community and we’ll consider things that might be of note to the community, even during the “non-OT” months. Such threads should be an EXCEPTION, and the onus is on the blogger to justify it.
A few things of note (non-comprehensive, of course – we reserve the right to throw other stuff out there too):
1) The Snowflake Rule will apply after games, but we will weigh threads individually and those which provide, for example, detailed analysis of a single series or play or video analysis will probably stay. Those threads which are mere hot takes that could easily fit into a snowflake thread will likely go. I understand why the Snowflake threads are not popular in many segments of the MGoPopulation, but there has to be a way to mitigate hot takes and make sure they don’t bury more worthwhile content. The whole point is to make sure the better user-generated content remains – we have some excellent football minds on the board and I really don’t want their contributions to be buried by your two paragraphs which amount to “that was awesome” or “that sucked” or what-have-you.
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 three pages of threads or so for similar threads – that’s typically what I use as a measuring stick for “redundant”. Most weekends in the season, three pages covers about 2 days of threads, or after a loss, about 30 minutes of threads. As for breaking news, make sure that you check the publish dates on articles – you can almost be assured that anything over an hour old has made it to the board barring a huge oversight (and sometimes, something does get overlooked). Normal rules on sourcing apply as well, so for example, be judicious with Bleacher Report, no Chatsports, and don’t post a whole Freep article out of spite – post a quote, link it, and give people the opportunity to avoid reading it.
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. Criticizing play and strategy is fine, but basically bringing someone’s mom into it, if you will, is your way of telling the mods you no longer wish to be here. As you may have seen in the Mod Sticky as well, there will be a doubling down on efforts to promote a more welcoming environment around here too, so PLEASE check your choice of words and photos against those rules set forth in the sticky before posting.
4) Report potential infractions or questionable posts in the Mod Sticky with a link to the comment or thread. We will review them as soon as possible and dole out point deductions and so forth accordingly. If it is raining in La Paz, we will provide appropriate gear assuming we did not spend the money on beer first. If there is a delay in getting to an issue, remember that the mods have lives too, but if it is something that really should go, say, right now, tweet me at @LorneEC3 and I’ll address it right then or make a note to do it ASAP. Yes, I can’t stand the threads with “IBD” or “Moms please delete” in 40 different forms and posts either, so let’s try to mitigate that, eh?
5) Sunday (also Thursday and Monday) NFL threads will be allowed as usual. Pro sports events which are significant are fine as well (World Series, NBA or NHL coverage, etc…) – just not every bit of news like we get during the draft and free agency periods sometimes. I know people gripe about the amount of Lions coverage during the NFL season, but try to remember that a sizeable number of the active users on this site also live in Michigan. Do feel free to throw in some coverage of your own teams, if you so choose, but be selective due to OT restrictions.
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 Thursdays and Fridays when sometimes there is a significant slate too). The tradition of MACtion is absolutely OK even though ESPN has apparently all but killed it. If something noteworthy is happening in a particular game, a separate thread should be fine but detail the reason for breaking out of the open thread coverage.
If there is anything that is unclear or anything I have missed, let's talk.
August 25th, 2017 at 3:52 PM ^
The front page links are broken (on the right here->). The link in the header is not.
August 23rd, 2017 at 10:28 PM ^
August 23rd, 2017 at 11:19 PM ^
August 23rd, 2017 at 10:28 PM ^
Home.
August 23rd, 2017 at 11:04 PM ^
August 23rd, 2017 at 11:07 PM ^
I have a scorching hot take on politics and religion that I'm also tweeting at our recruits - is that alright?
August 23rd, 2017 at 11:09 PM ^
I don't care if I'm sent to Bolivia, or even the Night's Watch, there will be a GOT thread !
EDIT: I should have read the comments before posting. I just got a little carried away with the proposition of no GOT thread. Thank you to LSA for understanind !
August 23rd, 2017 at 11:12 PM ^
For 20 solid seconds I was really excited because I thought the MGoStore was having a clearance sale... damn my lack of focus!
August 24th, 2017 at 2:36 PM ^
Me too.
August 23rd, 2017 at 11:16 PM ^
Although you couldn't tell from this photo.
It's not the Mehta information he wants.
August 25th, 2017 at 4:49 PM ^
It took me a second, but the obscure reference is worth a +1.
August 23rd, 2017 at 11:31 PM ^
August 23rd, 2017 at 11:45 PM ^
Plush.? Thank goodness.
August 24th, 2017 at 1:49 AM ^
But how will we know when Big Toy releases Tickle-Me-Mattison?!
August 24th, 2017 at 1:36 AM ^
that Zoroastrian long-snapper affiliated with The Rent is Too Damn High Party?
One step ahead of you, chief.
August 24th, 2017 at 2:04 AM ^
August 24th, 2017 at 3:12 AM ^
Is midnight on the 25th Thursday night/Friday morning or Friday night/Saturday morning? Can we switch to either 11:59 pm or 12:01 am to avoid confusion?
August 24th, 2017 at 6:35 AM ^
While I was asleep, I got a couple DMs about this as well, so I added a note to the beginning to clarify it. Apologies for any confusion.
That being said, for the years I have done this, it always seems to amount to OT season effectively ending several hours before because those last few threads rarely ever develop into anything.
August 24th, 2017 at 8:30 AM ^
Left disgruntled people didn't want ALL LIONS ALL THE TIME
August 24th, 2017 at 9:06 AM ^
I know nothing about maintenance of a board like this, but why not just have an OT section where board members can post anything they choose?
August 24th, 2017 at 12:13 PM ^
If only there was some event, like an upcoming site re-design, where these suggestions could acutally be considered and implementated. Oh well... just another pipe dream.
August 24th, 2017 at 2:33 PM ^
there's about a million different ways that could get ugly.
August 24th, 2017 at 12:42 PM ^
Thanks to all the guys who maintain and manage the site. I receive countless bits of information, humor and other media for free, related to my favorite sports program and school in the world. For those efforts, I am eternally grateful. Thank you
August 24th, 2017 at 2:49 PM ^
without a dog anal glands discussion. The clock is ticking!
August 25th, 2017 at 7:09 AM ^
August 24th, 2017 at 4:01 PM ^
They're good for free MGoPoints. Please be gentle.
August 24th, 2017 at 6:16 PM ^
August 24th, 2017 at 7:11 PM ^
August 24th, 2017 at 7:45 PM ^
GOT is never OT! ha
August 25th, 2017 at 7:08 AM ^
August 25th, 2017 at 8:53 AM ^
August 25th, 2017 at 10:58 AM ^
If you moved the deadline up a couple months it would be fine with me.
August 25th, 2017 at 2:32 PM ^
The ot's stayed pretty rampant through the season last year. Can we enforce this please?
August 25th, 2017 at 7:06 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
August 25th, 2017 at 2:40 PM ^
August 25th, 2017 at 5:34 PM ^
Selfie with my sweetheart
August 25th, 2017 at 7:17 PM ^
August 25th, 2017 at 8:51 PM ^
August 26th, 2017 at 12:14 AM ^
I think we missed out on this one.
August 26th, 2017 at 12:12 AM ^
August 26th, 2017 at 9:34 AM ^
you!