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BuckeyePlanet Discussion - All views welcome

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3yardsandacloud

3yardsandacloud

Administrator Emeritus
There (I think) will be an oddly coincidental timing to this thread and a forthcoming announcement. Look for that soon. There are some issues that need addressed and those issues involve the 'community' at BuckeyePlanet. As such, we need to have a community discussion and attempt to make real progress towards defining what BuckeyePlanet is and what BuckeyePlanet should be. I offer up some topics below that need immediate attention, but feel free to offer up others if you see fit. This place IS what we make of it and quite frankly (IMO) we haven't made much of BuckeyePlanet in the past several months. Please comment freely.


1) Why are we perceived as a 'closed' site? Do we (as a community) really want to be closed to new members and their ideas? I don't mean ideas that seem to fit our norm, but ideas that we seem to bash and flame if they don't fit our expectations. Even though those ideas don't break any of the board rules or precedents? Have we reached our membership limit? Is there a reason every new poster is treated with skepticism until they "prove their worth"?

2) Why do we bash those that don't seem up to the general board standards. Even though they don't really break any board rules. The prime example here is TG05. Sure he doesn't always bring profound wisdom to the board, but does that warrant an unending barrage of negative comments? This happens with many posters. I'm not talking rival fans that are just here to flame, but Buckeye fans that many not have the 'hang' of BP just yet. Why don't we take the time to make suggestions and offer these folks alternatives and ideas that will help them adjust to BuckeyePlanet?

3) Why is the underlying current of 'race' and 'homophobia' allowed to exist at BuckeyePlanet. Of course in small doses this could be tolerated and even joked about in a "locker room" type of manner. Everyone makes an off-color joke on occasion, but these topics seem to have become pervasive at BP.

4) Does self policing work? BP is intended to be a free-form type of experience. No real rules on language and to a lesser degree content. Why does it seem like we can't (as a community) control ourselves? Are we afraid to speak up when something seems wrong because we are afraid the same will happen to us at some time? Is it not common sense to tone down your use of language when you know the filter isn't operational? Would you rather have hard and fast rules in place concerning language?

5) Can we make BuckeyePlanet better? How?

Don't get me wrong folks, I love BuckeyePlanet, but these are issues we face and obstacles we need to overcome if this place is to continue to thrive. I'm not talking about adding new members, but making all our members feel welcome. Free to discuss our common passion for the Buckeyes. Sure there will be differences, but that isn't something that can't be bridged. Here lies the best set of tools for fans to discuss, agree, disagree, debate and share our passion as Buckeyes. How will we use those tools?

EDIT: I should add that I don't intent for this discussion to become personal. No "he said/she said" is needed. We all have made mistakes, the issue facing us (as a community) is correcting what we feel needs fixing. If you think everything is fine then say so, but I would VERY much appreciate everyone's feedback.
 
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3) Why is the underlying current of 'race' and 'homophobia' allowed to exist at BuckeyePlanet. Of course in small doses this could be tolerated and even joked about in a "locker room" type of manner. Everyone makes an off-color joke on occasion, but these topics seem to have become pervasive at BP.
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This one has bothered me the most recently. A LOT of people read these boards, and when you are a frequent poster on BP, what you say doesn't just represent you, it represents BP, because as you say, BP is what we make of it.


I also agree that lately BP has been kind of harsh on new members. When I first found this site, I said a few things that weren't appropriate here on BP, even though they weren't "bad"...they just didn't fit the community. And instead of being bashed for it, I remember getting PMs from some well respected memebers letting me know what was up, and how to "fit in" better. I found the site to be really inviting at that time, and I do wonder if it still is like that.
 
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Dude, I didn't know that the filter wasn't working right now. I am probably one of the biggest offenders in the arena. My appologies.

As for making fun of TG05, I used to be covertly supportive, now, sometimes it is just fun to pick on him. I do agree thought that we as a group tend to be a little hard on some folks sometimes. I will try and do my part to be a bit more supportive.

I feel like I just dissappointed my Dad or something... :sad2:
 
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The 'pile on' mob mentality is alive and well at BP. It bums me out when new posters get hammered when they try to bring up discussions (especially topics that have already been brought up) and get cold 'go back to highschool' comments.

In general, this is an amazing site. Some incredible in-depth Buckeye info, as well as lots of comedians in the Open forum. My only suggestion for making it better is for members to be more tolerent of different viewpoints, no matter how niave.
 
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No disappointment ... please.

I have to shoulder some of the blame for some of these issues. Through indifference or a sence of futility I've let some issues slide that I should have spoken up about. At least that's my belief. By that, I mean that some of these issues are important to me and I feel need addressed. Others may not find them a concern, but we should discuss them as a community and move forward. Regret or disappointment isn't what I'm hoping to instill. What's past is past and hopefully we learn from things. Change and growth is what I'd like to see, but again that is a community decision.
 
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It seems to me that we try to get new members to fit in with everyone else. I am one to give someone negative rep if they don't follow what I perceive as the rules of BP. Duplicate threads, Idiot posts, Flame post, etc. I remember when I first started posting on BN's I had a hard time getting anyone to respond to any of my posts since I was a newbie so that isn't only a problem here at BP. I don't feel its wrong to treat new members more sceptically than long time members. If a new poster comes in and provides valuable discussion they will be treated well regardless of post count. If someone comes in and doesn't contribute anything of value they will be treated harshly i.e. TG05 and donny. Either they will realize what they are doing wrong and change or leave. We have several stories of new members coming in and having a hard time before they find their place and become valuable members i.e. BkB. Personally I don't feel that we should lower the standards of BP to make new members feel more welcome.
As far as the homo jokes, I think it's all in good fun. Sometimes we go over the top a little, but I haven't noticed anyone complaining. If it is a problem I'm sure we could tone it down some.
I haven't noticed many racial remarks save the people who give Tibor a lot of shit or "Fucking Arabs". Some posters like antosu tried to bring racism onto the board and were sent packing.
That's all I can think of right now. IMHO BP has a better community than BN mainly because we self govern and try to get new members to think before they post. I would hate to see use give that up just to increase the member count.
 
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3) Why is the underlying current of 'race' and 'homophobia' allowed to exist at BuckeyePlanet. Of course in small doses this could be tolerated and even joked about in a "locker room" type of manner. Everyone makes an off-color joke on occasion, but these topics seem to have become pervasive at BP.
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The racist bashing that tibor75 took was a disgrace, imo. I don't care how much he got under people's skin, throwing racial slurs at him was completely out of line. However, the funny thing was that most of the slurs were 'off the mark', so to speak, as he is not arabic or even middle eastern. Nevertheless, that reflected badly on our community as a whole.
 
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I would also like to add, I would suppose the "tollerance" issues at least in part could be due to not wanting this place to even slightly resemble a certain other Buckeye fan site (no, not the one that is "usually $77).

In that I mean the tolerance of newbs, not the racial or sexual stuff.
 
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3yardsandacloud said:
No disappointment ... please.

I have to shoulder some of the blame for some of these issues. Through indifference or a sence of futility I've let some issues slide that I should have spoken up about. At least that's my belief. By that, I mean that some of these issues are important to me and I feel need addressed. Others may not find them a concern, but we should discuss them as a community and move forward. Regret or disappointment isn't what I'm hoping to instill. What's past is past and hopefully we learn from things. Change and growth is what I'd like to see, but again that is a community decision.
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I'd like to thank 3yards for opening this discussion up a little bit. One thing that I'd like to remind everyone is that while we don't represent the University officially, we are- whether we like it or not- are perceived to be.

Now, to me, its one thing if the Ohio State Fan Base/Students/Alumni are known as the lunatics that e-mail all the sports talk show hosts everytime they say somehting bad about us, I can live with that. Its quite another thing, however, if people start saying the same things about Ohio State as some people do about, oh, let's say Colorado. And worse, form a sound byte perspective, I would hate for some of the "jesting" that we have going on here to be explicit or implicit approval for any sor of hate crime or any intolerance by any member of the Ohio State family. Certainly, everyone is entitled to their own views, and of course so are the people you might disagree with.

I feel it is necessary, at this time, to apologize to the other Alumni in advance for poorly representing their degree by mispelling any words in the preceding post.
 
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The warning and banning system seems to work pretty well in getting rid of the worst offenders and toning down others who might have been a little over-the-top. Maybe you could try some additional PM's in the situations that you are describing in order to get your point across without the need for a warning. But other than that, I am not sure what more you can do.
 
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Bashing new people for making mistakes has always been puzzling to me. When I first joined BN (my first ever experience on an internet BB) I made a few posts that were kinda stupid, and got hammered for them. While I'm certainly not perfect, I try not to do this. It's definately something that we could change.

As far as language and offensive jokes/topics, there have been a few posts that may have crossed a line, but I think for the most part people are ok about it. Most of this stuff is intended, and interpreted as, jokes. This gets into the "self-policing" question, which I think we can handle if done responsibly. A tactful, constructive PM or post in response to something that you feel is offensive is really the best way to handle it.

The "no strict rules" feature here is great- it allows us to do what we want and make this community our own. The bottom line is that we all need to do our best to play nice together.
 
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There does seem to be an elitist attitude in some posters. I may very well be guilty of this as well in come people's eyes. I don't really know.

I know when I joined BP, it was because BN had become unbearable.

While I see a need to weed out potential trouble makers and keep the board clean of riff raff, I don't think that everyone that starts a thread on a subject that was last discussed 3 months ago should be mercilessly bludgeoned with 20 of our heaviest ding hammers.
 
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In my opinion, the only serious problem area that I see is the acceptance of new members. On occasion new members are not given much slack when they are obviously new to how the site works and what is allowed and not allowed. I think all of us, not just admins or mods need to be aware that our member base is diverse and we need to be sensitive to that when responding to posts or issues.

I think PMs need to be utilized more than they have been in the past, I have found on several occasions that if a member simply PMs the poster on the post in question and explains what is allowed and not encouraged, I have gotten positive feedback from the poster. I think responding to a negative or questionable post in a thread by posting in the thread is not the way to go.

The area of concern is the use of vulgar language in posts. I believe BP should have a "no tolerance" for this type of thing, except for the romper room area. We need to be respectful to everyone on the board and remember that we are representing the Buckeye Nation.

Thanks.
 
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1-its been this way as long as ive been here, 2.5 years

2-i dont know what to say, sometimes its light hearted sometimes its not. tg05 is not alone. we have some good part time posters who give interesting perspective but are ripped for every comment. ndcheif, bretgoblue etc come to mind. they do a lot for us, look at chief hes planning on going to a wrestling tournament to take pictures of dex for us.

3-this started with the thumps a homo jesting and has gone way out there. not that im offended but it has a potential for problems.

4-i think it does, but when BP was small a lot of inappropriate language was used deven iin recruting threads. although the RR has simmered down-and it is a place to sound of with very few limits and a good idea, some of the open discussion has become very borderline work material if you know what im saying.

i offered up no solutions i realize it. but im at will of those who run this place. you guys do a great job and i expect youll make a good upper level group decscion on any rule or procedural change.
 
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The issue here is much deeper than newbie bashing. Its also about how comfortable other are goign to feel in "our" environment, even after they are newbies...

Having said that, bad posters are bad posters... I'll be the first to say that I think we've got some real ididot running around here, and they've been here for a while.:wink2: Take BKB for instance, but, we put up with him... because he's a classy guy, even if his opinions are ridiculous. So, that's probably step one. We want our University to be Classy, we want our Football team to be Classy, we should be classy, and expect new posters to be classy too.

Note: Everyone's opinion of waht "classy " is is different. So when I say, Be "classy." I mean by your own definition. Not mine, not Scooters, not Fort Collins.. you knwo what I mean. (And its only a suggetion anyway... I don't mean to be soapboxy)
 
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