New season, new faces, same old rules

Why Do We Force Everyone to Use Subject Lines?

Subject lines make it easier for mods to moderate. If someone flags a comment, the moderator can simply click on the subject line in the moderation cue and find the post. If there is no subject line, the moderator has to find the post themselves. Even if you know for certain your comment is acceptable, the purpose of making everyone use subject lines is that we want any new poster that may come to LL to notice that people use subject lines and act accordingly. We do not want them to point to posts where users did not use subject lines as evidence for why it is okay they do what they do.

That is not the only reason. Subject lines make comments easier to read and follow. Bold text is darker and draws the eye, so when a new comment is posted, we can see that it is a new comment rather than one that blends with other comments. In addition, if we want to hide your comment, we cannot do so if there is no subject line. Subject lines are simply easier and better.

Why No Chatspeak?

“The writer who neglects spelling and punctuation is quite arrogantly dumping a lot of avoidable work onto the reader, who deserves to be treated with more respect.” – Lynne Truss

The fact that chatspeak, poor grammar, poor spelling and poor punctuation are generally acceptable on the Internet is a problem with the Internet, and one that LL chooses not to encourage. You should be proud that we do our best to make our comments readable to you, not upset that we expect you to do the same.

Piling On

Piling on is NEVER acceptable. However, if it seems like we are ganging up on your comments, ask yourself why. Chances are the pile on was for a reason, even though it still should not have occurred under any circumstances. If you feel you were piled on for no good reason, flag a comment or write the mods directly.

Reccing

If you like a comment, you don’t need to agree in a comment. Just rec it. Reccing allows others to notice the comment and appreciate it as well.

You Don’t Need to Try So Hard

Note to new posters: You don’t need to try hard to fit in. We appreciate regular commenters equally as much as those that make jokes.

Being Offensive

People on LL are not easily offended. Maybe it is a Seattle thing, maybe it is simply this community. Who knows. That said, you should not try to be offensive. Instead, if you have some hilarious joke that may be seen as offensive but is otherwise hilarious, go for it. But also be sure that your joke will be seen as a joke. Usually that means you should be a member of the community in good standing. If you are brand new, it’s probably a good idea to keep the joke on the shelf until we know you’re not actually a racist.

WHOOSH

You know who you are. I don’t think I need to call you out. But dude, if someone says something that’s clearly not true, it’s probably a joke or sarcasm. No need to comment and correct them.

Name Puns

These are always hilarious and the people who make them are brilliant.

Grammar Police (Parts 1 and 2)

First of all:

- It’s = It is
- Its = Belonging to it
- Your = Belonging to you
- You’re = You Are
- Would Of, Could Of, Should Of = these are not correct
- Would’ve, Should’ve, Could’ve = These are correct

Secondly, grammar policing is not okay either. However, if you MUST grammar police (perhaps the offender continues to make the same unreadable errors), you should always be a member in good standing. If you are new, don’t do it. If you are not new, still don’t do it unless you have damn good reason.

Fuck

This is awesome.

Other SBNation Sites

LL and other SBNation sites do not get along. That said, some websites (Lone Star Ball, Royals Review… others?) are great sites that you should feel free and visit. When you visit, never be a jerk, ever. Also, make sure you understand the community before you comment. Bleed Cubbie Blue, for example, is run by someone that believes ERA is a good way to evaluate pitchers. If you go there and try to discuss Silva’s tRA, you are instantly trolling, because they don’t believe in tRA. So be careful. Also, never go to Halos Heaven. It’s awful. Just stay away from it. I’m serious.

Proof

Often times the members of the community will request (nicely or less nicely) that you prove beliefs that disagree with the general feeling of the community. This often draws some ire, as many people believe that the LL community acts like lemmings, following our fearless leader to our death.

First of all, that’s not true. I love Griffey no matter how much he sucks. I thought Beltre was overrated by the community. I disagreed with the Silva projections back in 2008. It’s not as though people can’t disagree. But there are rules with disagreements:

1) Don’t be a dick.
2) Explain your thoughts and be willing to accept the thoughts of others, especially when your thoughts go against popular opinion..
3) Know that lots of these theories are based on actual mathematics.

That latter point is important. If I ask the community “What is 5+5” and everyone says “10,” and you say “12,” and then you get all uppity because everyone disagrees with you, there is a mathematical reason we disagree. To use a baseball example, if you say Great Player X sucks this year because of his .585 OPS, and the community goes “NAY!” and points to his .100 BABIP and 25% LD%, every single person on this site is going to say “Aha! He’s been unlucky!” If you don’t agree, that’s fine, but know we’re not just copying Jeff and Matthew because they told us that Player X would be good. We’re copying Jeff and Matthew because they used numbers to back their logic, and we agree with numbers.

Keep that in mind when you disagree with popular opinion. You may even be right, but if the numbers point otherwise, chances are the entire community is going to disagree with you, and quite frankly we have more proof on our side.

Numbers in Your Screenname

We are going to be skeptical of you for a while. Sorry.

Flag Things Often

It’s not hard. It’s right next to the rec button. It makes Matthew’s job easier. Jeff to a lesser extend since nothing bothers him. Except for stuffed crust pizza. That shit is nasty.

Anything else?