The YFSF Code of Conduct & Terms of Service

I'm happy to report that April was the best month in the history of YFSF. Traffic eclipsed our previous high mark by nearly 30 percent; that's a credit to the strength of the rivalry, and also to everyone—authors and commenters and silent readers—who make the site such a fun place to visit. It's our aim to provide thought-provoking and original commentary here every day, and it's a real pleasure that the response continues to be so positive. That's the good news. Here's the less great news. As we've grown, we've noted some behavior in our comments that we're not so thrilled about. Please remember that we established this site so friends could have reasoned, intelligent discussion about the greatest rivalry in sports; that doesn't mean relinquishing our dignitude. We are thus reprinting here the YFSF Code of Conduct and Terms of Service, which we have updated with a few new rules and a bit of legalese to satisfy our attorneys. Please take the time to read through; it is presented for the benefit of our entire community.—The Editors

The YFSF Code of Conduct & Terms of Service

-Have respect for the YFSF community. If you disagree with an argument, by all means respond. But no matter how much you disagree, there's no reason to insult your interlocutor as a person. Ad hominem attacks will be removed.

-Understand that the players, team personnel, and media figures we write about are human beings, and some of them even read this site. Criticism of their play and public behavior is acceptable, but needlessly disparaging remarks are not. We aim for a higher level of discourse here.

-We strongly encourage commenters to respect the theme of the post on which they are commenting. Please do not needlessly drive discussion off topic. Conversation should develop organically.

-Fans of all stripes are welcome on all game threads. Have fun. Root for your side. But please, No Taunting. That's not what we're about.

-Use profanity judiciously. We want to be read in libraries.

-Sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, and racist language is off limits. Obviously.

-All content that is contributed to this site is licensed exclusively to Yanksfan-vs-Soxfan.

-The proprietors reserve the right to remove or alter any content on the site at their discretion.

-Anonymous comments will no longer be accepted. Authors must identify themselves. (Aliases are fine)

-Comments that violate copyrights are forbidden and will be removed. Extended content taken from other sites or sources will be removed. Extended quotations are acceptable if and only if they are reproduced in the context of criticism.

-The use of HTML code in comments is strongly discouraged. Stick to the use of caps or quotations whenever possible. No one likes seeing the blog turn all italic for 3 hours, and the process of resolving the problem can be a serious pain.

-Remember, this site was created by two friends who root for historic rivals. We believe that the discussions herein should reflect the essential character of that relationship, and our shared love of the game.

If you have questions or comments about our code or terms, please feel free to contact us directly at yanksfansoxfan at homail dot com.

Comments

[Andrew]

Does this mean the end of the captcha?

[YF]

Not yet, Andrew.

[Josh SF (D1)]

Just so you guys know, if someone does accidently turn the blog all italics, any commenter can fix it by typing the appropriate close themselves. Might be a little easier for the authors or anyone else to just type < /i> into the normal comment place then manually edit the origin of the problem.

Just a tip.

[dc]

this is a joke right yf?...after all the name-calling, personal attacks and insults, including profanity that i've personally endured over the time i've participated here without so much as a peep of protest from you or the other keepers of this site, i can't believe you have the audacity to post this mostly pompous drivel...police it better, then you have some credibility with me...

[SF]

dc:

We've posted this in the past (August, last year), so this isn't the first time (and probably not the last time). Policing the site is far more difficult than you can imagine and far more difficult than either he or I ever thought it would be when we started the site and opened comments; over the years we've basically relied on the site policing itself, and for the most part our readership has done a good job. Lately, though, it's started to devolve again, beyond a level that we feel comfortable with.

You should be aware that this post comes from both YF and myself, along with Paul, Gerb, and Nick, and is not from just YF -- don't blame him if you don't like it.

[dc]

don't get me wrong guys...and i will adhere by the rules as i believe i always have tried to [certainly not claiming to being perfect], but i believe you all have "looked the other way" a number of times when i was being verbally abused by someone breaking more than one of the rules despite my protests for you to intervene...i don't carry a grudge and i figure that you had good reasons for not enforcing your own rules...i respect that even if i don't understand it...

[SF]

dc:

It's nearly impossible to "intervene", other than to try to guide debate. There are certainly times when each of us feels impugned (God knows I think people twist what I write at moments -- just look at the first comment, the first line dripping with sarcasm, on the "Roger and Me" thread for a fine example of nastiness rearing its head instantaneously, despite what I felt was a nonconfrontational and thoughtful post) and wished someone, anyone, would leap to my defense, but the logistics of doing this every time there's an offense are mammoth. Personally, I have called out SFs attacking YFs improperly, and vice versa. But I certainly can't do it every time it happens.

[Kluv]

I, for one, am appreciative of the reminder. Hope it keeps things a bit more flame-retardant in the threads. Keep up the good work, Team YFSF.

[dc]

i understand sf...i'm talking about threads where we were all participating but some comments [from simply rude to downright malicious] were overlooked...but i don't want to seem thin-skinned...i understand the lack of action, don't like it, but i've made my statement and i'll drop it now...

[out of lurkdom]

Thanks for the reminder. I really enjoy reading at your site. I am a die hard sox fan, my sister had a life size photo of Roger in her bedroom growing up (in a sox uniform) she later became a nun, is it a sign from God?. I live in CT where prior to 2004 being a Sox fan was time off in purgatory as my father used to say. I am a mother of five and am raising at this point a Yankee fan, although I think he will mature :-) I will go back into lurkdom, but continue to read as I need my daily fix during THE season.

[dc]

god bless you lurkdom

[Paul SF]

Hey, DC, for what it's worth (because I like you in some strange way), ever since you've been saying that (and you've been complaining about that for a while), I've made sure to watch out for people saying things about/to you that I think are inappropriate. Haven't run across any yet, but I got your back -- unless I'm really pissed at you, which I'm sure will happen in about 15 minutes or so...

[dc]

thanks paul, the feeling's mutual, seriously...the nonsense i described hasn't happened in awhile, perhaps because i've tried to tone down my own rhetoric, but this seemed like the right opportunity to whine about it a bit...

[jim - YF]

Me, I think people have extraordinarily thin skins ("fine example of nastiness"). WHaaaat!?

Nah, if I don't agree with something I'm going to express it. And I don't have to use ad hominen to do so. In that post, SF took a shot at Roger's "probable" business motivations, and I disagreed. Now, if I disagree, I'm not going to be all polite (Sir, I wish to respectfully...Blah blah blah) to do so. I'm going to throw it out there and the writer can take it or leave it or debate it. That's their choice. But the hissy fits are unbecoming of so-called professional writers.

So when a Paul or Brad return criticism with ad hominen, I don't care. But I agree with dc. It's a lot easier to respect such "codes" when the writers themselves respect them.

And for what it's worth - I've disagreed with YF and Nick and never received the same vitriol. So chalk it up to the rivalry that is at the core of the site. But if the authors can dish it out, then they should be able to take it. And Paul should learn to control his anger.

[YF]

Jim: I think you're a pretty smart guy, but please don't read my non-response to some of the things you're writing as any kind of endorsement. This is a rivalty site, so it's natural that we all get a bit edgy sometimes. I would also remind you that we now pull around 1000 comments a week; that's too many comments for us to police, even if we wanted to police them, which we don't. And so we rely on our community to self-police, and to maintain a level of decorum and behavior. You are not the YFSF ombudsman. It is not your duty to find every last argument, and counter it, ad nauseum. You do not need to have the last word on every last argument. We all have views that we believe to be true, and we're all welcome to express them. No one likes a know-it-all, even if that person has interesting things to say. YFSF is a community. Don't wear out your welcome.

[jim - YF]

I don't want an endorsement YF, expressed or implied. But I can deal without the ad hominen that you guys say you want to avoid but then some of you shovel.

Folks can read what I write, ignore it, or respond to it. I respond to the responses.

As to whenther my voice is too overwhelming? Here is a fine place to write about Yanks v Sox. People have the choice to ignore it without the childish ad hominen. That I seldom give that back is a virtue of my Zen powers drawn from the inner sanctum of the universe.

Praise be to Xenu.