Trail Mix 7/27/08 -- more crunchy than yesterday

BENNY ON JERRY

but I’m going with Przybilla.

As for censorship… there is a link near the bottom of the right bar on the main page (“Blazersedge Conversational Rules”). It seems clear enough to me. Some folks may not like it, but people are free to run their websites as they see fit. I personally like a properly “censored” community as it tends to keep those that need “censoring” away.

See http://www.blazersedge.com/story/2007/5/27/35733/4476

There aren’t any rules any more exact than that and I don’t think there could be as it can be both subjective and situational… if not straight up flexible and dynamic. I’m pretty sure only Ben and Dave have mod powers and Dave has referenced sending people “this is why you got suspended/banned” emails in the past, but I doubt they do it for every post they delete.

SB Nation Terms of Use

1. Your Responsibilities.
You are responsible for obtaining and maintaining all equipment and services needed for access to and use of the SBNation Network and for paying all charges related thereto. When you register to become a member of the SBNation Network, SBNation collects certain personal information about you. You agree that SBNation may use any information SBNation obtains about you in accordance with the provisions of the SBNation Network Privacy Policy. You agree to: (a) provide true, accurate, current, and complete information as prompted by the registration form; and (b) maintain and update such information to keep it true, accurate, current, and complete at all times. In addition, you agree not to use the SBNation Network to: (a) violate any local, state, national, or international law or regulation; (b) transmit any material that is abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, pornographic, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable; (c) transmit any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of solicitation; (d) transmit any material that contains adware, malware, spyware, software viruses, or any other computer code, files, or programs designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment; (e) stalk, harass, or harm another individual, including revealing the real name of any fellow user that has chosen to use an alias on the SBNation Network; (f) impersonate any person or entity, or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity; or (g) interfere with or disrupt the SBNation Network or servers or networks connected to the SBNation Network, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies, or regulations of networks connected to the SBNation Network.

2. User Submissions.
SBNation does not claim ownership of any information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages, tags or other materials you submit for display or distribution to others through the SBNation Network (collectively, "User Submissions"). As between SBNation and you, you own all rights to your User Submissions. However, you grant to SBNation and SBNation’s affiliates, representatives, and assigns an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully-paid, world-wide, license (sublicensable through multiple tiers) to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform, and publicly display your User Submissions (in whole or in part) in any format or medium now known or later developed; provided, however, that the exercise by SBNation of its rights under the foregoing license shall at all times be subject to the limitations upon disclosure of your User Submissions imposed upon SBNation under the SBNation Network Privacy Policy. SBNation reserves the right to display advertisements in connection with User Submissions and to use User Submissions for advertising and promotional purposes. SBNation does not pre-screen User Submissions and you agree that you are solely responsible for all of your User Submissions. SBNation is not required to host, display, or distribute any User Submissions, and may remove at any time or refuse any User Submissions. SBNation is not responsible for any loss, theft or damage of any kind to any User Submissions. You represent and warrant that your User Submissions and SBNation’s authorized use thereof do not and will not infringe the rights of any third party (including, without limitation, intellectual property rights, rights of privacy or publicity, or any other legal or moral rights).

4. Termination.
SBNation may terminate your SBNation Network membership or suspend your access to all or part of the SBNation Network, without notice, if you violate these Terms or you engage in any conduct that SBNation, in its sole and absolute discretion, believes is in violation of any applicable law or regulation or is otherwise harmful to the interests of SBNation, any other SBNation Network user, or any third party. YOU AGREE THAT SBNATION SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR REMOVING YOUR USER SUBMISSIONS OR SUSPENDING OR TERMINATING YOUR ACCESS TO THE SBNATION NETWORK (OR ANY PORTION THEREOF). You may discontinue your participation in and access to the SBNation Network at any time. SBNation reserves the right to investigate your use of the SBNation Network in the event SBNation, in its sole and absolute discretion, believes you have violated these Terms.

5. Modifications To Terms.
SBNation may, in its sole and absolute discretion, change these Terms from time to time. SBNation will post notice of such changes on the Sites. If you object to any such changes, your sole recourse shall be to cease using the SBNation Network. Continued use of the SBNation Network following notice of any such changes shall indicate your acknowledgement of such changes and agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions of such changes.

All the overtly religious overtones of late. It alienates non-Christians and segregates the community, considering Dave’s “of-the-cloth-ness”, so to speak.

I’m comfortable in my relationship with the Blazers, but I have seriously questioned my relationship with BEdge recently with all the talk of Christian rock, interpretations of the Bible and so on. I’m not against it – I even capitalized ‘Christian’ and ‘Bible’ – but this is Blazer’s Edge, not Bible’s Edge. That @&$# needs to go.

The bible jokes amusing and harmless

......................................... I’m not a Canzano hater, but his rip-off of Time magazines (fairly recent) naming of YOU as “Person of the Year” without mentioning the source is pretty pathetic…

It was a cop-out when Time did it. Plagiarizing a weak concept like that (“hold up a mirror” instead of printing reflective foil on the magazine cover) is an exhibition of kleptomaniac tendencies, if you ask me…

t

Detlef says “You don’t need to use deodorant if you shave your pits”. That might not be a direct quote.

It’s okay everyone. Look! Detlef and I have cleaned out the pool and sanitized it. It is safe to get back in now.

Personally (and this will not surprise you timbo), I think Dave is pretty lenient.
PippenAintEasy was here for weeks, violating the terms of use over and over, before he was banned. I’m pretty sure Dave sends email warnings before that happens, too. A number of ‘difficult” people have managed to stay around, and some people have returned, presumably after asking (or begging) nicely.

So I think they’ve found the balance that makes most of us happy. You’re an outlier in your belief that we’re over-censored, timbo, and you already know that.

to start my own tread so may I ask who are the guys who will be free agents when our cap window is open?

Perhaps we could have one post for the whole weekend?

All the dang trade fanpost. This is supposed to be a forum about the Blazers and then folks come along and try to trade them all away. If they get traded away, they are no longer Blazers, so I think we should put an end to trade fanposts. I am deeply offended by trade fanposts.

to say a few words about my own experience here on BE.

Recently, I crossed a line of sorts in the mind of at at least one BEdger. I didn’t mean to do so, but it happened. That got me thinking about this forum and what it’s all about.

I am a Blazers fan, I appreciate intelligent discussion about the team, and that is what drew me here in the first place. However, I realize that I don’t really have much to contribute in terms of basketball knowledge. Instead, I mostly post my dubious opinions or take a stab at humor.

Lately, I’ve felt that the conversations I’ve been having were not those I really wanted to have. And I haven’t really felt like myself in any of these exchanges. At the same time, there have been increasing demands on my time from “real world” commitments, and I’ve been dissatisfied with my handling of some of them.

Obviously, I don’t post very much compared to some of you, but I read almost everything, and that accounts for a fairly large chunk of my “free” time. Lately, I’ve been thinking that my time might be better spent doing something else. So, I’m going to take some time off from this. I don’t know when I’ll be back, but I’ll probably lurk around now and then.

I wish everyone the best, and, of course, Go Blazers!

We’ve gone off about too much gayness on Bedge, too much arrogance, too much Christianity, too many trades, too much censorship, to much baddest gramar and speling. I love this place. Everyone needs to lighten up and learn to play within the confines of the game. You’re all a bunch of Rasheed Wallace’s complaining to the ref instead of just playing the game.

I got away with calling OKC “Cock Blockers.” Mortimer went somewhere with bathroom humor that even I’d be scared to touch, and people sometimes talk about Christianity. So what?

Blazer’s Edge is a site by Blazers fans, for Blazers fans. If Blazers fans want to talk about Eve’s Diary, let them. Just skip over it, if you are not interested.

We all need to be reminded about staying on topic every now and then. That is just a courtesy. Everything else is fair game.

I hate that if you go into a Fanshot, that you cannot go onto another Fanshot. Why do they make the Fanshot links go away? I blame Dheepan. He probably hacked it or something.

http://www.bballspotlight.com/2008/05/baby-baller-feature-jashaun-agosto.html

http://tv.jubii.it/video/iLyROoafY3tt.html

a “crunchy” junk drawer gets us “peanut free snacks” ads.

Although, that doesn’t really make any sense. If we talk about crunchy peanut butter, we probably wouldn’t be allergic. I guess we could be complaining about it.

http://www.blazersedge.com/2008/7/25/579133/bayless-v-rose-choose-your

In junior high I was going to watch a girl fight after school. I decided to go poop before the fight and missed the whole fight. I could have seen two boobs, had I just held it. I don’t want you folks to miss the fight.

Pay Per View cage fight?

About 4% of player’s wages go to their agents. And about 15% of any endorsement money.
http://www.sportsagentblog.com/?p=853

From HoopsHype, it looks like 10 different agents represent the Blazers. Brandon, LaMarcus, and Martell are with Arn Tellem who has the most players under contract, 33, with over $185million in combined salaries. The agent for Darius Miles, (salary $9million) is getting about $360K.
http://hoopshype.com/agents/arn_tellem.htm

Religion and politics are topics which are supposed to be discussed lightly here, if at all. This is a Blazers/NBA blog. We have at times had very good basketball-related religion and politics discussions smack dab on the main page. Off-topic religion and politics conversations should happen off-site no matter what the religion or political bent involved may be. I have been generous in my interpretation of that request when it seems like the parties involved are having a conversation much like one would have in person, “Oh, you’re at seminary too? Cool! Have you had Greek yet?” But in general those topics are so passionate for many folks as to overrule the topics we cover here, which distracts from, and could threaten to overshadow, the blog. Jorga’s point about having to scroll through non-sequiturs is appropos, especially when those non-sequitur comments are passion-laden. Please respect the conversation rules on these matters.

As far as censorship, the term is misplaced. Censorship implies:

1. Selective editing based on opinion or point of view.

2. A tangible, protectable right to express yourself.

Neither applies here.

Editing for opinion or point of view NEVER happens. Not once have I ever said to myself, “I disagree with this person. Let’s delete their post!”

That said, you do not have a right here to say whatever you want, however you want any more than you would at any other place of business. The tried-and-true sports bar analogy works well here. If you come in the place using profanity, belittling people, and interrupting conversations in a voice everyone can hear the proprietors have every right to evict you. They’d do the same thing, by the way, in the Supreme Court, which tends to frown on censorship. If you walked in there and told the whole room that they didn’t know anything and they were smarmy (insert semi-archaic synonym for illegitimately conceived children here) they’d have you out on your rear end no matter how valid the legal point you were making was.

It’s in the nature of online conversation that every single person present in the room can hear your voice. It’s as if you were shouting to the entire room. Choose your words and tone accordingly. The criteria by which we judge posts are clearly listed in the site conversation guidelines in the right sidebar. Note especially Point #5, which has received an update to add clarity. Most posts deleted for reasons other than profanity fall under this category.

As someone noted earlier, the leash is somewhat long here. Everybody gets a chance. But with the blog as busy as it is and so many comments and threads to try and read through you do not get much grace if you start going over the line. The boundaries are fairly wide but they are firm. And yes, those boundaries have been created and are interpreted by myself and Ben, which I suppose could rub people the wrong way, but honestly if you’re thinking THIS blog among all those in the blogosphere is unfair, unreasoned, unkind, or not thoughtful…well, I’m not sure how much traction you’re going to get there.

—Dave

When Clyde, Kersey, and Porter could not hit a basket for 20 consecutive minutes in the third quarter and then come back in the last of the forth quarter hitting all their shots to win by 2, I would always call the turning point “getting the holy spirit”. Just saying.

it was really very entertaining.