Ole Miss @ GT

Ibeeballin

Im a 3*
Messages
6,047
Not really directed at you but I wonder about this site sometimes. There is no other Tech site, or fan site in general that I know of that is constantly filled with back and forth between negative people and people who are mad at them for being negative. What is it about this particular site that sparks that kind environment?

This site was built on objective analysis and true insight, so much it threatened the purpose of the pay sites. At some point years ago, fonts from multiple GT board migrated over here whether it was overly positive Scout.com page or the overly negative BBuzzoff folks. Now you have folks with agendas on both sides with people who just want to discuss football stuck in the middle
 

WreckinGT

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,982
I'll take a stab at that. IMO, it's because this site tries to moderate and take a middle of the road approach. Probably the oldest Tech board is moderated heavily with little or no back and forth or perceived negativity allowed. The other Tech boards (asides from this one) have and promote a "no holds barred approach" so there is almost no moderation. Virtually anything is allowed to be posted and the viewers have come to understand that. This board attempts to seek the balance somehow. It's tricky and some people don't like it nor is it even meant to be for everyone. I feel like there is something for every type of poster though with the 3-4 options that I know of (there may be more, I just don't know).
Im not even blaming moderation. Plenty of people who aren't moderators go back and forth pretty frequently with no moderation really involved. It just seems like a culture has been created for us vs them, the positive (or slightly less negative) vs the obviously negative. If we lose to Ole Miss this weekend, there are going to be many negative posts and many responses criticizing them for being negative, and the latest round of dance will commence. How do we break out of that? Or is that just the reality going forward?
 

slugboy

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
10,806
Im not even blaming moderation. Plenty of people who aren't moderators go back and forth pretty frequently with no moderation really involved. It just seems like a culture has been created for us vs them, the positive (or slightly less negative) vs the obviously negative. If we lose to Ole Miss this weekend, there are going to be many negative posts and many responses criticizing them for being negative, and the latest round of dance will commence. How do we break out of that? Or is that just the reality going forward?
I'll take a few stabs here.
  • I think that the fan base has been split for years and has gotten more split over time. There were splits pre-CPJ (under Gailey and before that under O'Leary). Commentary seems to be getting even harsher.
  • Losing makes things worse.
  • Message boards aren't the easiest place to understand the other guy's perspective.
  • As mods, we had the chance to say whether we wanted ban negativity. We wanted to be a place where fans discuss sports insightfully. Some fans are disgruntled, and lots don't like where we are right now, so banning negativity means we'd be banning loyal fans that watch and often understand the games--we didn't want to do that, and we still don't.
  • However, we've seen thoughtful posters disengage when every thread has repeated and spammy "Collins is a <insert negative description here>" posts. You only have to say that once, and if someone else has already said it then you don't have to say it at all. We've seen it and we've read it. It's not news. There is no one on any Tech board that hasn't seen that. There is no one sitting around thinking "I had no idea that there were Tech fans with a negative opinion of our head coach, I guess I'll change my mind".
  • So, when someone gets spammy, we crack down for the good of the board.
  • Spammy equals "basically the same post popping up in every thread". It's like kids in the back seat saying "are we there yet?", but without the charm.
So, can we just talk football (and other sports)?
 

bobongo

Helluva Engineer
Messages
7,051
Im not even blaming moderation. Plenty of people who aren't moderators go back and forth pretty frequently with no moderation really involved. It just seems like a culture has been created for us vs them, the positive (or slightly less negative) vs the obviously negative. If we lose to Ole Miss this weekend, there are going to be many negative posts and many responses criticizing them for being negative, and the latest round of dance will commence. How do we break out of that? Or is that just the reality going forward?
We break out of it by expressing our viewpoints without feeling it incumbent upon ourselves to tell others what to say and how to say it.
Here's my viewpoint: The fact that we are 10-26 over the last three years is far and away more damaging to recruiting than the talk surrounding it.
And the talk surrounding it is inevitable. Used to be a local news broadcast with the slogan, "If you don't want to see it, don't let it happen". That applies here.
 

awbuzz

Helluva Manager
Staff member
Messages
11,486
Location
Marietta, GA
This site was built on objective analysis and true insight, so much it threatened the purpose of the pay sites. At some point years ago, fonts from multiple GT board migrated over here whether it was overly positive Scout.com page or the overly negative BBuzzoff folks. Now you have folks with agendas on both sides with people who just want to discuss football stuck in the middle
A good synopsis!
 

stinger 1957

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,312
People get their whole lives wrapped up in their CFB team and when that pours out on a chat board it is hard for me to be around. Then sometimes other things happen in their lives and they let it out on their FB program and chat boards and therefore other fans. How do I know? Because I've done it myself in the past and when i realized what I was doing I started to back away and in my case that was a good decision for everybody I think. Hopefully if it happens in the future I will back away again.
 

GTNavyNuke

Helluva Engineer
Featured Member
Messages
9,888
Location
Williamsburg Virginia
I'll take a few stabs here.
  • I think that the fan base has been split for years and has gotten more split over time. There were splits pre-CPJ (under Gailey and before that under O'Leary). Commentary seems to be getting even harsher.
  • Losing makes things worse.
  • Message boards aren't the easiest place to understand the other guy's perspective.
  • As mods, we had the chance to say whether we wanted ban negativity. We wanted to be a place where fans discuss sports insightfully. Some fans are disgruntled, and lots don't like where we are right now, so banning negativity means we'd be banning loyal fans that watch and often understand the games--we didn't want to do that, and we still don't.
  • However, we've seen thoughtful posters disengage when every thread has repeated and spammy "Collins is a <insert negative description here>" posts. You only have to say that once, and if someone else has already said it then you don't have to say it at all. We've seen it and we've read it. It's not news. There is no one on any Tech board that hasn't seen that. There is no one sitting around thinking "I had no idea that there were Tech fans with a negative opinion of our head coach, I guess I'll change my mind".
  • So, when someone gets spammy, we crack down for the good of the board.
  • Spammy equals "basically the same post popping up in every thread". It's like kids in the back seat saying "are we there yet?", but without the charm.
So, can we just talk football (and other sports)?

Thank you again to you and all moderators. I was heavy into BBuzz years ago and it was truly one sided toxic.

I used to read all the football posts; now not so much and skip pages sometimes when it gets repetitive. I read all the baseball posts since there are far fewer posts and much kinder. We are probably kinder in baseball since we are winning enough to make tournaments. And it's fun to do stats and think about a winning team. It used to be fun to do stats when CPJ was the coach ........ (tic - joking guys)
 

Sheboygan

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,058
Location
Oostburg Wis. ( It's DUTCH !)
People get their whole lives wrapped up in their CFB team and when that pours out on a chat board it is hard for me to be around. Then sometimes other things happen in their lives and they let it out on their FB program and chat boards and therefore other fans. How do I know? Because I've done it myself in the past and when i realized what I was doing I started to back away and in my case that was a good decision for everybody I think. Hopefully if it happens in the future I will back away again.
Exactly !!!
 

roadkill

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,100
I agree 100%. Case in point, not only is there “analysis” heavily biased but it is also inaccurate

Case in point:

I’ll take Binion “advanced analytics” with a grain of salt as well
Ok, this is a good example of disagreements that (I think) can be discussed respectfully on this board. I thought that FTRS' website has some content that is valuable. Others like Ibeeballin, whose opinion I respect and am thankful for his contributions to this site, have called them out. I can see from their tweet that some of the FRTS guys are broadcasting negativity, so having an overall negative opinion of FRTS is a valid position.
 

RamblinRed

Helluva Engineer
Featured Member
Messages
5,730
Q&A with Ole Miss site for their perspective on their team.


What have you learned from the first 2 games of this season to give you an indication of how Saturday’s game will go on The Flats? The spread is currently right around the Rebels being a 17 point favorite - does that seem right to you?

The defense has surprisingly gelled pretty quickly even though there are a lot of new faces. The offense seems to be a little behind where fans would like them to be right now and ball security has been an issue so far. This is the first true road trip for this team that was largely assembled in the wake of a lot of departures and massively dependent on the transfer portal. If there is staunch adversity and a close game into the third quarter, it will be the first real test this squad has had together. It will tell Ole Miss fans a lot about this team if it falls apart or is galvanized by the challenge. I think most fans are betting the Rebels until it gets to -20 or -21 right now.
 

gville_jacket

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
745
He was. I think some are confusing him with Blackburn, who is still out.
In the past, I've noticed Collins keeps guys off the ATL until after they actually return. So Blackburn could be back but just on the ATL. From a coaching perspective, I completely get it. From a fan perspective, I wanna know.
 
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