Welcome to your Gameday Thread for the evening. This is your place to comment on and discuss the night's events. This pre-game version is all about the lead-up, predictions, and what have you.
Also I'd like to update you on a couple changes to the way we're looking at Gameday Threads as Site Editors and Mods. Actually this philosophy has been around for a while but we haven't spelled it out specifically. Now we are.
Change #1: The moderators for the site work on a volunteer basis and the editors are busy scribbling notes and talking to people in the know during the game. That means we can't guarantee that these threads will be policed in real time. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. In essence we're leaving you the keys to the crib and inviting you to make yourselves at home. Our hope is that you enjoy watching the game with each other just as if you were in our living room. It's no fun at all to come home and find the place trashed though. We're investing a certain level of trust in you, that you're going to take care of the site while participating. Most people get that. Some don't.
I have instructed the mods to go ahead and dis-invite the people who have trouble with that concept. We try to give as much benefit of the doubt as possible at this site. We'll probably give less in these threads for a while. Nobody's going to over-react to things said in the heat of the moment during a crucial part of a game. But if people are consistently aggressive, rude, or just seem to be here to spout off or troll instead of engaging in real conversation then Gameday Threads are probably not for them. They're ruining the living room for everyone else. This includes, as always, people who engage in attacking others (including, by the way, the attack of, "I'm sick of people being so negative!" which in itself is negative and hurts the conversation). If you don't like something somebody else said either skip over it or flag it if you think it violates site policy. The mods are going to need some help with gray-area decisions and your flags are the best indicator of how a comment or commenter is affecting the community. You help both us and the site by making it easy and obvious to distinguish trolling behavior from the rest. Flagging it and staying out of it otherwise is the best way to do that.
You're going to have to be a little patient. As I said, we aren't always modding in real-time. But if we come back and an obviously over-the-top comment went red with a dozen flags both it and the person who made it are going to be taken care of.
Change #2: The streaming video link thing has run its course. Actually we never officially sanctioned that, as it is ethically shady, but we weren't always quick to weigh in as we'd usually not see it until after the thread was finished and taken down anyway. But a couple things are happening now. First the Blazers are taking steps to make online streams a reality and even though that's in it's infancy we need to respect it legally, morally, and otherwise. Second, conversation surrounding such links is becoming overwhelming and distracting from our real purpose here. Our policy is that either asking for or giving a link to such a site, whether done overtly or not-so-cleverly-disguised, is not allowed on Blazersedge. I've instructed the mods not to impose penalities on the first night this has been officially proclaimed unless someone really goes overboard. But from this point forward anyone posting or asking for a link will be warned and, if the offense is repeate
d, banned.
I know this second issue affects some of you deeply. As always I am happy to discuss these policies via e-mail, which is listed at the bottom of every post I write. If you have a question or concern, feel free to write and I will answer as best I can from the point of view of the site.
With that out of the way, on to the game! Blazers vs. Pistons tonight. Trap or triumph? Weigh in below.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)