re: Why can't we have civil, non soccer related discussion on the SB?

Guys, this is word for word my response on the thread BT225 is referencing. I hope I spoke eloquently enough to please the SB masses.

It started with this quote by LSUSOBEAST1:

quote:

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The Soccer Board isn't the OT or Tiger Rant where the majority of new posters flock to. Its a very tight community of posters and the majority of people know each other in real life. A thread that is slightly off topic every once in a while isn't damaging the site nearly as much as a similar thread on one of the bigger boards. We don't start a nightly LNST, but we would like a discussion like that to exist in some form on a weekly basis.

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I'm sorry, but it's hard for me to state it better than this. LSUSOBEAST1 is right. The SB has a much different feel than other boards. We aren't saying that makes us better, but it's a very personal board that has a lot of IRL interactions. It's a real community, and I think that's awesome, and honestly one of the most impressive feats of TD. From this forum spawned a community of people who now know each other IRL and who often look forward to seeing each other for soccer games at bars and the like. While I myself have not taken part in such meetups, I look forward to doing so in the near future (I'm moving to NOLA and the main bar that the board visits happens to be there).

I don't see any harm in slightly off topic threads every once in a while. My thread that got whacked was me asking my "community," as I put it, if they had had a similar experience to what I had just experienced. I think it's cool to share with a community of like minded people, and one might argue that this is why the OT itself has become its own "community." There is a certain OT bravado that doesn't extend to all of the other boards, and the SB seems to be of a much different mind set in general. They are two VERY different places: There is a mutual respect amongst members of the SB that seems to be rare in forums nowadays, and I know the responses I get will be helpful/insightful. We are not going to get the responses we are hoping for in the OT (let's be honest, we get called foot fairies by the OT so often that the board has just embraced its "gayness" with open arms. Posting there is scary if you have anything soccer related in your sig/avy). It's not surprising that we tend to stick to ourselves.

In conclusion, TD is a wonderful collection of communities. These communities expand, evolve, and form their identity with every new thread and every new poster. Why do we discourage threads that help strengthen such communities, even if the topic of discussion is not specifically related to the topic of the board? These communities strengthen TD and bring people back, which in turn makes TD bigger and better. The only reason many of us SB-ers visit TD is because we feel so at ease with the SB community. I don't think these threads are a threat to the integrity of the SB, the OT, or TD in general. With all due respect, I think that whacking such threads without consideration of the above only does more harm than good to TD as a whole. This is my say on it as a member of the SB, and TD. I love what this community has brought me and I hope to stay a part of it for as long as it will have me.

I don't post here much, but I read the Soccer Board daily and I agree with you. I'm even thinking of joining the Baton Rouge chapter of the American Outlaws, even though I live 2 hours away.

Any way to bump that help thread a bit (re: Gmorgan and thread whacking)? I don't think it's getting the attention it deserves. It's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. Or the banhammer. You know how it is.