The negativity has got to stop!!! (MAJOR RANT)

[TouchemAll]

I love the game threads it's the best thing about this board. If the neg posts bother you IGNORE them if they bother you that bad ignore the GT. Me I READ them all or most I just don't get all that worked up over some guy crying in his beer or lashing out at the O's when it goes bad. To each his own as long as he's not directly attacking another poster have at it I say.

Heck some of them are down right funny, over top, stupid, what ever, sure most don't add anything, OK IGNORE THEM. Frankly I am a LONG TIME NITTANY LION belong to all the PSU boards, and I find this place pretty tame compared to them when the Lions lose a game LOL. :laughlol: Guess I've grown a THICK skin from the lion boards its does not take long to figure out who's worth reading and who's not IMHO

[isestrex]

I've run out of rep in this thread.

Silent James, Three Run Homer, Orioleslist, and larrytt have pretty much spoken my opinions for me.

[SteveA]

First off i have never called a player on this team a loser. Buck is a great manger but it's OK to ? some of his moves without your head getting crewed off here. What's wrong with saying this team wont make the playoffs this year? The data shows since may .500 team that wont cut it. This is Buck's best year as a manger IMO to get 85 or so wins with this Pitching staff is just crazy good.

I think you can question Buck's moves without getting your head chewed off. Maybe you can't say "he's lost it", or "he shoudl be fired", without getting your head chewed off.

But here is a 4 page thread where I questioned a move of Buck's. Some people agreed with me, some people disagreed, it was a good discussion, and no one "chewed my head off".

http://forum.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php/135887-8th-inning-bunt

Perhaps it's the tone of some of hte negative posts, that call players quitters or losers or say that Buck should be fired, or state that we have "no chance" for the playoffs, rather than the fact that they are "negative".

[Rex Thunder]

I agree 100%, and I say that knowing that I full well contribute to the negativity sometimes. I cant help it. Sometimes I just get on the game thread to vent. Overall though, I try to stay positive, and I know the season is long, and we are far from out of it, even when it has seemed that way.

It's am addictive drug watching this team, and when they are riding high, so am I- the only problem is, the opposite is true. Once the game is over, I'll move on and get back to what I should be doing- but I'd be lying if I didn't say a tinge of that depre4ssing feeling didn't stick with me after losses, and roll over into my attitude the rest of the day- in the same way the opposite is true after a win.

Misery certainly loves company though and that's why a vent here and there during another missed opportunity (during a game or a game in general) is hard to pass up.

Here's to September being a new beginning to this season though! It's crazy how division crazed I, and most others, have been, that when you stop and realize we are only 3 games out of the wildcard- this season is FAR FROM OVER! And if 2011 is any reminder, the season is NEVER over until it's over.

[orioleslist]

I had a good night of sleep, went to the park with the kids this morning, stayed away from the boards for over 12 hours, took a deep breath... and here I am back on, head cleared, with a slightly different perspective than last night.

Don't get me wrong, I am still extremely bothered by the over-negativity of some, especially in the GT, and I do not regret for a second starting this thread.

However, there are two things I shouldn't have done, and that I did out of pure, uncontrolled frustration: name names (quotes without attribution I think would have worked just as well; most everyone would have figured out who I was talking about), and tell people that we'd all be better off if they refrained from posting (absolutely not my prerogative as a fairly new member who contributes very minimally to the board). I am sorry that I did not adopt a more moderate tone and that I resorted to over-negativity myself.

Looking forward to today's game, might stay away from the GT though...

[weams]

I have been with the OH for about 12 years and can say I find the comments in the Game Threads this year to be among the consistently most negative, most attacking that I've seen. There is nothing wrong with having expectations and wanting a winning team, but that does not excuse the comments in those threads.

There is nothing wrong with being negative in attempts to "keep it real", but that is seldom the case. There is genuine vitriol in the comments and I sometimes wonder if what posters do with real problems in their real lives if they are so immature in dealing with a loss for a team that has been comfortably above .500 most of the season and a consistent loser for most of the 12 or so seasons before that.

I must say that I am in awe of the ability of Tony to let folks who have been banned back to the OH community in a one-sided or perhaps mutual "forgive and forget". At least one of these rebound posters is consistently loud and, worse, consistently wrong - heavens knows where we would be with the two main themes from this poster over the past five years - signing Tex and dealing Tillman. I would think someone as wrong as often as this poster would listen and entertain the ideas of other posters, but instead this poster continues to shout folly into the wind and make this a very difficult community for me to engage with.

Finally, I am fairly down on the current team. I enjoy watching them play and I love the fact that they have again laid the opinions of the national press to waste. They are close to a playoff spot and yet, I am find this season to be among the most disappointing in at least a few years. I think the moves of our GM reflect someone far out of touch with statistical likelihood of his team making the playoffs, someone giving away top 50 draft picks and multiple top 10 prospects for "non-difference" makers filling roles as fourth and fifth starters, etc. I know DD pulled all the right strings last year, but he is fully reversing the goodwill of that campaign quickly with multiple suspect gambles on thoroughly mediocre talent.

It all collides in a continued enjoyment of checking in frequently with OH, but participating with far less frequency.

A balance is necessary. But I know from observation that some of those who left talked smack about this board as long as they had no intention of returning.

[Dr. Unk]

I am very disappointed that we are not ten games better than we are. This is a message board that allows for many opinions, not all of them equal. I only really am troubled by the instigators. The folks who just come here to poke a stick at the bear. I am sure you know, as I do, not everyone here has pure motives or is here for the friendships and the analysis.

Thank you. Considering leaving the board because some folks don't think you're allowed to be down on the team. Reality is reality. They aren't playing that well as of late. Your post pretty much sums up how I feel.

[weams]

Thank you. Considering leaving the board because some folks don't think you're allowed to be down on the team. Reality is reality. They aren't playing that well as of late. Your post pretty much sums up how I feel.

You can talk about reality. You can talk about negative thoughts. But it is not a right to come here just to make others uncomfortable or unhappy.

[Dr. Unk]

You can talk about reality. You can talk about negative thoughts. But it is not a right to come here just to make others uncomfortable or unhappy.

Agreed.

[OFFNY]

First off i have never called a player on this team a loser. Buck is a great manger but it's OK to ? some of his moves without your head getting crewed off here. What's wrong with saying this team wont make the playoffs this year? The data shows since may .500 team that wont cut it. This is Buck's best year as a manger IMO to get 85 or so wins with this Pitching staff is just crazy good.

Nothing is wrong with saying that the team (probably) won't make the playoffs this year.

It's the exaggerate/ hyperbole that can be annoying though, such as:

I really don't see them getting to 82 wins.

http://forum.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php/136068-vs-YANKEES-8-31/page16

Now, it's possible that the Orioles won't get to 82 wins ....... but as unlikely as the playoffs are (they would have to make up 3 games in the these final 4 weeks of the season to do so), it's even more unlikely that the Orioles won't get to at least 82 wins (they would have to go 9-18 the rest of the way to finish at 81-81.)

[crawjo]

Overly-negative posts are not the problem. Bad posts are the problem, by which I mean posts that have little to no grasp of reality.

[weams]

Overly-negative posts are not the problem. Bad posts are the problem, by which I mean posts that have little to no grasp of reality.

Overly negative, bad, unfounded, and posts only made to incite are the problem.

[tntoriole]

I am actually ok with the game thread being freewheeling, back and forth, positive, negative (as long as it doesn't get personal in calling each other names, etc.). It has been my observation that there are two large types of fans (both of whom care very passionately about the team). One group stays positive and views it as a matter of pride to stay realistic, positive, supportive, insightful as a measure of loyalty and support. Another group is more naturally pessimistic, ventilating frustrations, seeing every loss as a potential disaster, waiting for the inevitable shoe (or anvil) to drop, yelling at team performance if it is not good (yelling in a text messagey kind of way) but also hoping under all this bluster for a win. My other observation is that no amount of cajoling, arguing, pointing out, etc. is going to make one kind of fan become the other type of fan and vice versa. So either ban one type of group or ignore the ones that you don't like or just enjoy the chaos of democracy. Maybe there could be a pessimist game thread and an optimist game thread....or a reactionary game thread versus positive no matter what game thread. But either way, this is a wonderful Orioles fan resource that I am sooo glad to be part of!!

[Dark Helmet]

Negative posts are annoying. The chest pumping some posters consistently do is just as annoying. People don't have to agree. But if certain posters don't share the same opinion, others will follow suit and shoot it down in an attempt to either make you stop or go away. That's pretty much why you have people take advantage of Tonys generous offer to post free, rather than be a plus member. Just my pov. Its still a great forum.

[Tx Oriole]

You can't possibly be this simplistic, can you? How many times does someone have to explain that it isn't criticism that is out of bounds before folks like you will get it?

Of course we're not happy about the pitching. I'd love nothing more than a 15 page thread analyzing why our pitching has struggled and what we can do to fix it going forward.

What is out of bounds is "these guys are losers", "these guys have given up", "Buck is an awful manager and should lose his job", etc.... You guys love to hide behind two things - it is going bad so we shouldn't pretend it isn't (when nobody is advocating differently) and I'm simply releasing frustration. Releasing frustration is fine, but saying JJ or Adam or X is a loser isn't. If you wouldn't say it to their face, you shouldn't say it in the game thread. It is that simple so stop equivocating.

Perfect post.