Will you miss the "insider info" this offseason?

[xKHx]

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These are your rules, I don't think I have violated any of them. Having a different opinion isnt against any rule I see here. Whether I think the board is useful or not without the insider information is my opinion, and I should be able to express this opinion. People can disagree, thats fine. But people always give negative feedback, and threats like Tony made about me conforming to the rest of the opinions on the board or I will be kicked out.

If noone can have a differing opinion, dont call it a "discussion board", just call it a "redundant, and type what everyone else does board".

Its not a discussion board about how they run the board. Its a discussion board about Orioles related things. Agree and disagree in these regards, people like you come and go real quick and it makes the board a better place.

[Belkast]

The number one rule to the board..... Drum Roll Please......RESPECT

[Dipper9]

You directly called a mod pathetic. Doesn't matter that he said it first, because you ignored the rest of the valid things he had to say to focus on that one word and respond with twisting his words.

Then when the owner of the site told you to to quit it, you attacked him specifically as well as the entire membership in general.

It doesn't matter whether or not you broke official rules. You violated the spirit behind them, and insulted the membership that abides by them and the mods that enforce them. If you are still here by the time I finish posting this, I will be stunned.

Sounds kind of like a local radio station in town, eh? :laughlol:

Once Tony wakes up, this thread will be closed, and I suspect a certain mammal-named poster will be "future endevored."

[Tony-OH]

Sounds kind of like a local radio station in town, eh? :laughlol:

Once Tony wakes up, this thread will be closed, and I suspect a certain mammal-named poster will be "future endevored."

Nice call. .. Won't lock the thread though since I think it's good to hear opinions from our members on the "insiders" situation.

[crowmst3k!]

I like hearing genuine insider stuff. Like Tony's article from I think 2004 about the minor league system's flaws...that was cool.

I also like the rumors, they make for good discussion...but they must be considered to be just that: Rumors.

The whole Tex saga got kind of ridiculous, from wow offers to Teixeira at a ravens game hanging out with Peter Angelos...no way the front office would be that transparent with their negotiating tactics.

But even then, I like to speculate! Just don't call it insider info, call it a rumor, or a theory. I remember a thread about how (and it's been a while, so bear with me) Andy MacPhail was blackballed from firing one of...I think it was one of the Stockstills, and how the board got into an uproar over the percieved lack of Autonomy for MacPhail. If info like that is a fabrication, then it has no place being called insider info, it can be called a rumor and should be able to be discussed on a theoretical basis.

[Fan4Life]

Nice call. .. Won't lock the thread though since I think it's good to hear opinions from our members on the "insiders" situation.

As it currently stands, about 2/3 of your membership will be at least disappointed that this kind of information won't be back for 2010. Most of that is out of your control. I know there is another poster on another site who claims to be an insider and posts from time to time. He/she usually gets tortured for spouting such information, not too dissimilar from what we've witnessed here. But you know what, I will read it, participate in it, and if not one shred of it comes to pass, I won't complain about it. I presume I represent roughly 65% of the posters who weighed in on this poll.

[RevOlution]

WOW, no insider info....and we still have several pages of discussion/drama.

Maybe the offseason won't be as boring as some of us think it will be without the insider info. :scratchchinhmm:

[ScottieBaseball]

No pathetic would be taking offense to someone's opinion and especially anything said on this message board...see above for example

For what it's worth, I wasn't offended about anything. I didn't call YOU pathetic. Identifying insider information as the the only thing you find value in as it pertains to this site is, in my opinion, pathetic reasoning.

You're entitled to your opinion. You're free to disagree with anyone on anything on this message board. It happens every single day several times over. The debates over prospect rankings got pretty heated with at least one if not both Tony and I smack-dab in the middle, so I'm not going to let the "disagree with Dictator Tony and his minions and you get banned" fly by without calling shenanigans.

I realize there are other aspects to this site. However, the insider info is what keeps me going through the offseason, its fun. People take it too seriously, but its fun to get an inside look at whats going on in the front office.

That sounds more reasonable. I get that. That's not what you said initially.

Why? Because someone called my idea pathetic, and I retorted? Should I have said people need to be offended by what people say on this board?

All you guys just want everyone to think the same thing. Noone is allowed to "argue"? Its a "discussion" board, as long as people are tasteful, I don't see the downside. Someone called me pathetic, right? That isn't sticking to the facts, and giving a valid argument, its just bashing someone because of a different opinion.

Threatening people because they have a differing viewpoint from the rest of the herd is pretty wrong, I didnt think the OH was modeled after some third world dictatorship.

But if it was please accept my appologies Czar Tony

LOL..."you guys just want everyone to think the same thing." That's rich! Like I said...people disagree all the time on a variety of subject and with a variety of posters, Tony and the rest of the staff included. I hate playing semantics, but your reasoning for frequenting the Orioles Hangout (and not you/your character) was pathetic. And I DID stick to the facts by pointing out all the other great features of this site that you're missing if insider information is the only thing that keeps you around.

Saying things that most disagree with is not classless, people may not like it though. How much fun would it be if everyone thought the same thing?

Classless? You're "Czar Tony" comment.

Orioles Hangout Community Rules

Although the administrators and moderators of Orioles Hangout Community will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of Orioles Hangout Community, nor Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. (developers of vBulletin) will be held responsible for the content of any message.

By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws.

The owners of Orioles Hangout Community reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

These are your rules, I don't think I have violated any of them. Having a different opinion isnt against any rule I see here. Whether I think the board is useful or not without the insider information is my opinion, and I should be able to express this opinion. People can disagree, thats fine. But people always give negative feedback, and threats like Tony made about me conforming to the rest of the opinions on the board or I will be kicked out.

If noone can have a differing opinion, dont call it a "discussion board", just call it a "redundant, and type what everyone else does board".

While you're on the subject of board rules and policies, here's one you forgot to copy-and-paste:

13. Don’t openly complain about the moderation or how this board is run. You can always contact us personally to voice concerns, but quite simply, if you don’t like the way the board is run, you are free to go elsewhere.

The reason for this rule is simple: Regardless of the forum, open complaints about moderation serve no good purpose other than to drag down the quality of the discussions taking place. There are 100 times more people that will read this statement and attest to the fact that this principle works and works well. Sorry if you don't like it, but these rules were clearly posted when you registered. By registering, you agreed to abide by them.

All that being said, I'm sure your story will still be, "Man, all I did was disagree with Tony and the rest of the sheep at the Orioles Hangout and I got banned." Please do and say whatever you feel necessary to feel better about what took place here. We understand. Really.

[Satyr3206]

After reading this thread and thinking about another poster from last week I wonder if I'll ever go postal and get released?:laughlol:

As for the insiders I won't miss it. There was a fair amount of conflicting info so it's no biggie to me. Now if you can get MacPhail to join that would be nice.

[ScottieBaseball]

After reading this thread and thinking about another poster from last week I wonder if I'll ever go postal and get released?:laughlol:

As for the insiders I won't miss it. There was a fair amount of conflicting info so it's no biggie to me. Now if you can get MacPhail to join that would be nice.

The point has been made several times over and over again about insider information: People get way too worked up over it. During what I loathingly refer to now as "The Teixeira Incident", things got downright personal. Fortunately I was home on the couch recovering from knee surgery, so I had the time to stay on top of things, but the amount of work got overwhelming at times. What doubled the "ouch-factor" for me was the fact that all of this IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN!

When the accusational finger was re-directed at Tony and I and the rest of this staff by certain posters because at some point in the past we had good reason to believe that those alleged insiders had legitimate, in-the-know sources. Andy MacPhail's arrival seemed to mark the end of leaks from the Warehouse for the most part, so it became obvious that we really couldn't vouch for insiders any more. So beyond that...everything else was no better than wild speculation and rumor mongering, neither of which lend themselves to good, quality discussions on a message board.

Like Tony said...if someone comes forward and has a good source that he or I can validate, then that'd be great. Anything short of that just doesn't make for good baseball talk.

[ejf1025]

Again...it's not the information so much as the reverence/officialness given.

It's one thing for a poster to come on and say, "Believe me or not, I saw Tex and Angelos sitting at a bar together and a buddy of mine knows McPhail personally and thinks something might be going down."

This is normal, run-of-the-mill internet rumor gathering and sharing. It's fun, allows people to speculate etc. I don't even think it needs to be vetted. Tony & Co. can just say "we don't know this guy, at your own risk."

What is a problem (particularly for a site like the OH whose goals are to provide accurate/informative content, at times even news...not just a vehicle to allow fans to talk), is when posters are deemed "insiders." Even if what they say is qualified with "take this with a grain of salt," the fact is they were treated as quasi-journalists. People who doubted them were routinely shouted down, the staff vouched for them.

For a site like the OH which strives for credibility (and deserves it far more than any other fan sites I've seen), this is very problematic.

[Tx Oriole]

Nice call. .. Won't lock the thread though since I think it's good to hear opinions from our members on the "insiders" situation.

Tony, I liked the insiders info. But i never got ticked off if the info I had read turned out to be wrong.

Thnaks for a good board Tony. It is the only way I can get any info on the O's.

[zff4]

hahah a thread about insider info, with no insider info, and it still goes controversial with bickering. Just say "insider info" and there's some Russian guy ringing a bell somewhere for his dogs.

And God help me, I like it.

[Greg Pappas]

Ehhh, and here I was planning on stirring up the OH with my new alter ego "Inn Cider"... guess I'll have to reconcider.

[ScottieBaseball]

Again...it's not the information so much as the reverence/officialness given.

It's one thing for a poster to come on and say, "Believe me or not, I saw Tex and Angelos sitting at a bar together and a buddy of mine knows McPhail personally and thinks something might be going down."

This is normal, run-of-the-mill internet rumor gathering and sharing. It's fun, allows people to speculate etc. I don't even think it needs to be vetted. Tony & Co. can just say "we don't know this guy, at your own risk."

What is a problem (particularly for a site like the OH whose goals are to provide accurate/informative content, at times even news...not just a vehicle to allow fans to talk), is when posters are deemed "insiders." Even if what they say is qualified with "take this with a grain of salt," the fact is they were treated as quasi-journalists. People who doubted them were routinely shouted down, the staff vouched for them.

For a site like the OH which strives for credibility (and deserves it far more than any other fan sites I've seen), this is very problematic.

From my perspective, you've hit the nail on the head. Wild, unfounded rumors have never really been accepted here. Two or three guys came to the surface and appeared to have legitimate sources. In many cases their posts (and the posters themselves) were attacked mercilessly, hence the "Hey, back off, we've vetted their source," position we took with them. For some people that still wasn't good enough, and the attacks continued and included Tony, me, or whatever moderator was involved. It all became this convoluted mess, an enormous pain in the butt to manage, and in the end it made the most sense to pull out of all of it.

Tony, I liked the insiders info. But i never got ticked off if the info I had read turned out to be wrong.

Thnaks for a good board Tony. It is the only way I can get any info on the O's.

If everyone who involved themselves in the discussion shared your mindset, this thread might not even be necessary. However, it was never good enough for certain posters. Threads containing alleged inside information quite often devolved into personal attacks, mockery, people taking sides, and then ultimately "Why are the moderators allowing this to go on?"

So we don't any more.