A Few Brief Reminders and Advice about Fantasy Baseball Posts

by mrkupe on Jul 25, 2011 4:36 AM EDT

Hi all,

A couple of days ago, a post concerning an individual's fantasy baseball team ignited a little bit of ill-tempered debate about such posts here. I apologize for not seeing the post sooner and jumping in to cool things down; I try to keep up on all the threads, but sometimes I do miss things (flags and e-mail to bring things to my attention are, as always, appreciated and encouraged). In the course of that thread, a few things were said about Minor League Ball's attitude towards fantasy baseball-oriented posts that need some clarification and correcting. I will do that now, but I will also offer some advice that I would strongly encourage all of you to take to heart.

First, let me be explicitly clear on this. Posts regarding your fantasy baseball teams, which may include questions such as "should I make this trade?", "should I drop player X to pick up one of these 5 players?", "please rank these players for me" or "I have a pick in my draft, I can take one of these guys, who should I take?" (not an exhaustive list, just examples) are permitted and encouraged here. Such questions do generate discussion about the players in question, and discussion is the lifeblood of this site. For those of you who would respond to my point with the notion that John is the "heart" of this site and what he says goes, I wholeheartedly agree, and this is why I will also remind you that John appreciates and encourages such posts. John has lots of people who are interested in his work for fantasy baseball purposes. He gets lots of site traffic from people primarily interested in fantasy baseball, and more attention and interest in John's site means better business for him, which in turn means he's able to produce higher quality products for us all to enjoy. Everybody wins, so regardless of your personal preference, fantasy baseball DOES have a place here.

Second on the list of things I am addressing here is something of an addendum to the first part of my post. While Minor League Ball welcomes fantasy baseball-oriented posts that ask questions about or otherwise discuss your team and its related transactions, it does not welcome fantasy baseball-oriented posts that are concerned with your league, specifically "want ads". There are many forums on the web to solicit for potential new additions to your fantasy league, but Minor League Ball is not one of them. The reason for this policy has nothing to do with fantasy baseball itself, but instead it has been seen in the past that such posts tend to overwhelm player-oriented discussion and that permitting them inevitably ends up in a slippery slope towards an endless stream of spam requests to join a fantasy baseball league. Such posts will be immediately deleted and the offending poster immediately warned. So, don't do this. If you have any questions about what kinds of fantasy baseball-oriented posts are allowed, or more specifically if you are concerned about whether or not your post will be considered permissible, please err on the side of caution and refrain from making such posts until you get clearance from John or myself. I'd advise to first e-mail me as I tend to have a lot less on my "to-do list" than John does, but John does have the final word. For e-mail addresses, check our profiles (you'll get to mine simply by clicking her e or on my name in the byline of this post).

Thirdly, for the sake of our communal peace of mind, I will remind you all that since fantasy baseball-oriented posts are welcome here, attacking those who make such posts for doing so is not acceptable. When you tell people that they or their posts are not welcome here, you are discouraging both traffic and participation. Often, new posters come here for fantasy baseball and stay because we're just that cool - so stay cool.

The final matter I would like to address here is actually directly relevant to those who are interested in posting about fantasy baseball, particularly those individuals who have never made a post here before. To those people, let me say that you are very much encouraged to join and take part in this community, and I would urge you not to be intimidated, as can sometimes be the case in such arenas of discussion. That being said, if you are in need of advice, I would ask you to be mindful of the service this community provides you. None of us were not born with knowledge of minor league baseball players; many members here spend a good amount of time analyzing and researching these players, and it is a passion unto itself to be respected. Many of us are happy to share our thoughts and opinions with those who aren't quite as dedicated, but like most people we don't like the feeling of being treated like your personal free on-demand Jedi Council, either. When you have a question, please practice good manners; say "please" and be sure to personally thank those who respond to you ("thanks in advance" being so passe). If you're asking a LOT of questions and asking frequently, you might find a lot of benefit in becoming a more active participant here. Spamming the community with repeated demands for information isn't just making life more difficult for you, it can disrupt the community and is just plain rude, and it will be treated the same as any other case of spamming.

That's all for now. If you have any questions about any of this, post them in this thread and we'll take care of them. Thanks for reading.

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Thanks to a fantasy want-add here, I got into my 1st Dynasty league

and its gotten me many new friends and just made baseball much more fun for me, because it not onlygot me into that league, but a 2nd one later on and I couldnt be happier. Just saying, if it werent for that want-add, I wouldnt be in any leagues. Im not arguing with the rule, im just glad I got that opportunity

Minor League Ball's 2010 Rookie of the Year Poster
If you didn't know by now, my screen name is sarcastic

by mathisrocks5 on Jul 25, 2011 7:55 AM EDT reply actions

I’ve had a similar experience getting into a dynasty league through a post here.

Other discussion boards create a separate board for these posts to keep the spam in one place, but sbnation’s system isn’t conducive to that approach.

by rlwhite on Jul 25, 2011 8:36 AM EDT up reply actions

I think

That an exception can be made during the start of fantasy season. I believe last year we had 1 thread just for people looking for people/leagues, and Im not sure if that will continue.

by ADLC on Jul 26, 2011 12:44 PM EDT up reply actions

responding to mathisrocks5 and rlwhite

I’m happy for both of you, but the reality is that if we suddenly turned around and said, “Post all your want ads here!”, the entire “Recent Posts” section would be filled with them very quickly . . .and the problem would just get worse and worse. It would make maintaining the threads nearly impossible and it would discourage posters interested in other subjects (specifically those subjects more directly relevant to the site’s topical focus).

I can’t make you two (or anybody else for that matter) do anything, but I’d ask everyone not to respond to any want ads that do make it through, as it only encourages other people to make such posts.

Now, I’m not going to speak for John here, but I would be willing to consider a compromise here – after all, as John himself notes, fantasy baseball is great for his business, and getting more people into fantasy leagues means more people interested in his product. And telling people NOT to come to his site for any reason seems a little counterproductive.

So, let me throw this out there. I could make a thread called something like, “Fantasy League Want Ad Central” or whatever and rec it so it’s on the front page. If you have an opening, you can feel free to post it ONCE within that thread, and only ONCE within that thread. If you don’t follow the rules, you get banned and consequently you’re unable to use this site to market your league. If you fill your opening and want the post taken down, that can be arranged. The only ones allowed to make such a thread are John and myself; if one goes off the front page, that does not give you license to create such a thread yourself to post your ad, you wait until the new thread goes up. This way, people would be allowed to market their leagues here, but the clutter would be reduced to one post. I think this is a reasonable concession to make if it has the benefit of bringing more traffic and participation to the site.

I make no promises on this – John may have additional reasons beyond those I’m aware of for not wanting those types of posts here in any form, so again, I’m emphasizing that I am not speaking for him. But if there is substantial demand, I’d rather have the one post to cater to that interest and more traffic here than fighting a battle against people who actually help to support John’s livelihood and spending time trying to stay on top of it all.

Thoughts/opinions?

by mrkupe on Jul 25, 2011 9:11 AM EDT reply actions

What if someone makes a legitimate fanpost that happens to include an opening ad?

Let’s say I have a fanpost I already plan on making, but I just tack on “w/ fantasy opening” to the end of the title and a sentence or two about it at the end of the post. Would that be okay or is a loophole you and John don’t want to open?

by nixa37 on Jul 25, 2011 9:22 AM EDT up reply actions

good question, and one I've been thinking about, albeit indirectly

I was wondering how to handle the case of a person who posts on, say, the daily thread, responds to everybody, and “just happens” to have an ad for their fantasy league as their signature?

That specific situation could probably be easily resolved (it’s spamming and not allowed), but what if somebody just happened to make a couple of posts and was genuinely engaged in the discussion? Then I’m forced to start making arbitrary decisions, which nobody wants or likes, me included.

My inclination at the moment would be to “strongly discourage” such activity and to instead encourage all requests in the single post. Otherwise it starts getting out of control and it defeats the purpose of the community-wide post. Standard rule would likely be first offense results in a warning, second offense more severe penalties, although discretion may be used. If somebody joins the community, pays lip service here for a day, and then tries to skirt the rules, I don’t see leniency being the first choice.

by mrkupe on Jul 25, 2011 10:06 AM EDT up reply actions

Good to know

by nixa37 on Jul 25, 2011 11:57 AM EDT up reply actions

Whenever I want to post something about my sim league, I try to make Fanshots which the majority of this community aren’t that concerned about. I don’t know if that is acceptable or not but nobody has ever told me otherwise so once/twice a year I will make a fanpost and delete the original.

by jfish26101 on Jul 25, 2011 9:25 AM EDT up reply actions

fanshots

Nobody really seems to use them that much, for a variety of reasons.

That doesn’t mean that people CAN’T use, them, though, and we should probably set a policy on that. I don’t think we want a bunch of people making Fanshots to circumvent the guidelines, although kudos to you on your savvy move. :)

by mrkupe on Jul 25, 2011 10:11 AM EDT up reply actions

I didn’t really think of it as circumventing the rules to be honest.

Besides, John is trying to walk a pretty thin line on the fantasy baseball discussion. You can ask about some things, but others you can’t. You can talk about your league but you can’t recruit for it. You can’t enforce that type of policy consistently and fairly in my opinion.

by jfish26101 on Jul 25, 2011 8:57 PM EDT up reply actions

your opinion is noted, but we're going to try to do it anyways

We seem to have done pretty well thus far, all things considered.

I think there’s really only one major thing about fantasy baseball that isn’t allowed at present, and that is soliciting for new league members.

Think of it like this. If it’s player-oriented discussion (this would include “what do I need to do with my roster” or whatnot), it’s in John’s “realm” so to speak. If it’s league-oriented discussion, it’s really not.

by mrkupe on Jul 25, 2011 9:15 PM EDT up reply actions

Well, like I said below, it is John’s site and he can do whatever he wants or set whatever policies he wants. However, I see want ads frequently get by the mod team (you essentially, it is a lot for 1 person to keep up with). For a while, I would flag them and inform the OF it wasn’t allowed. A few times, someone not related to the topic at all would tell me to essentially mind my own business…which is fine so I got I stopped doing that. After a while longer of seeing some want ads go up, I figured what the hell, if they can make a post I may as well too. I tried to put them out of the way but that seemingly isn’t allowed either.

Just seems a lot easier to be black or white on the issue or find a better format that can separate the discussion. Besides, it isn’t like John typically gives fantasy advice when people ask for it anyway (from what I have seen). Just doesn’t seem very community friendly to allow fantasy talk yet you can’t discuss the leagues. I imagine you are going to have to make a post like this every couple of months if the currently policy remains.

That is all I will say on it.

by jfish26101 on Jul 25, 2011 9:51 PM EDT up reply actions

I certainly understand and agree with the reasoning for not welcoming the ads. At the time I wasn’t aware of the policy.

I think managing it in a single thread would get unwieldy. Eventually many of the ads that should be closed won’t get closed because someone forgets to notify a mod, or we create a lot of extra work for the mods.

John already has a list of links to useful sites. Maybe we could use that to steer people to an ad board on faketeams or fangraphs?

by rlwhite on Jul 25, 2011 10:09 AM EDT up reply actions

I think this is a fine idea

I believe some time in the offseason last year, daveh33 made a catch-all post for fantasy league openings. I think it got enough rec’s to make the recommended section, keeping it easy for all to see and keeping the space for want ads to a minimum. If there is a way to keep a permanent post in the recommended area or even something on the left had side of the homepage, maybe something between “Career Profiles” and “Links of Interest”.

As someone who runs two leagues with fairly deep minor league systems, being able to make a post somewhere here is pretty imperative to getting good long term owners involved. I’ve tried recruiting from other places including other leagues I play in, but if someone doesn’t have the knowledge of prospects they lose interest pretty quickly. The community here, both active posters and lurkers, are the demographic people with deeper leagues are looking for, so finding some sort of solution seems like it is in the best interests of everyone.

http://bullpenbanter.com

RIP Randy "Macho Man" Savage

by gatling on Jul 25, 2011 12:47 PM EDT up reply actions

Eh, I don’t know. This setup is really bad. You only have one section (Fanposts) and you want that to mainly be generic prospect discussion. As John said, to create a section just for fantasy doesn’t appear possible in this format. I thought putting a want ad in the fanshot section made a lot of sense because the section barely gets used otherwise, tt is separate from the fanposts so there is no issue with it knocking prospect discussion down…the fanshot section is somewhat hidden below all of the normal content so you kind of have to go look for it. I didn’t really see the issue but I guess I shouldn’t have been doing that based on kupe’s post above (which is fine, you are just trying to do your job as mod but I think it is a really odd policy John is trying to enforce).

The idea of making one thread and having to make sense of the few hundred or thousand posts in it (it wouldn’t take very long for a fantasy fanpost to reach overwhelming post counts) seems bizarre. We can’t edit, close, or delete posts to keep the thread neat. This format can be difficult to have a discussion once several replies are made, can’t imagine what it would be like having one thread for a popular subject like fantasy (or even just limiting it to talking about leagues, recruiting, etc.).

I think John just needs to decide whether he wants fantasy discussion or not. If he doesn’t, ban it. If he does, let the want ads be posted. If some wahoo made an account just to post a want ad every 2 weeks pushing content down, delete/ban/lock his account and his posts. It is his site, he can do whatever he wants. You have 1 mod trying to decide where the line is and when it has been crossed, would be much easier for everyone to either throw it all out or allow people to discuss their fantasy leagues freely.

by jfish26101 on Jul 25, 2011 9:15 PM EDT up reply actions

I thought it was clear in my original comment

that I was referring specifically to the league opening posts and making them into one catch all thread, not lumping any and all fantasy content into one post. I’m not sure how much work it is for the tech support guys to setup something up like the “Career Profiles” link, but that’s all I’m talking about really. A clickable link that goes directly to one fanpost for league recruitment only. If it’s possible to make a fanpost something akin to a “sticky” type post on other message boards and keep it in the Recommend section would work just fine too.

As for it being overwhelming, as long as people would make a follow up post on their openings once they are filled, mrkupe or John can then come along and delete that particular listing. It shouldn’t take much time at all to clean up a single fanpost, it could be done once a week on a set date, or there could be something like a 2 week period your ad could be placed before it’s deleted. There wouldn’t be any need for actual discussion in the “want ad” post, you list the pertinent info on your league along with contact info and people then e-mail/IM you to continue further.

http://bullpenbanter.com

RIP Randy "Macho Man" Savage

by gatling on Jul 25, 2011 10:52 PM EDT up reply actions

policy

This policy went into place because a couple of years ago we had a period where the fanpost section was overwhelmed with want ads and nobody could get ‘real’ posts to stick on the front page.

by John Sickels on Jul 26, 2011 11:06 AM EDT up reply actions

Are you talking about the post i made about my Prado-Dunn deal?

by cmikk8 on Jul 25, 2011 10:09 AM EDT reply actions

your post is fine

You had a question about a trade you were considering, you asked for information about prospects that could be in the trade. Those types of posts are totally acceptable. I don’t think you should be making a new fanpost about your latest trade negotiations every couple of days, but when you have a situation that you’re really struggling over and that you think could inspire some good discussion, go ahead. There is definitely room for some leeway . . .as always, the best thing you can do in your favor is show your own effort and commitment to making a positive contribution to the community. Thoughtful, well-written posts of any sort are always welcome, whenever you’re willing to provide them.

by mrkupe on Jul 25, 2011 10:20 AM EDT up reply actions

wait... is the post i made ok? or not ok?

by cmikk8 on Jul 25, 2011 10:09 AM EDT reply actions

Ok

Mike Trout- The Man, The NOW, The Legend

by miketrout on Jul 26, 2011 4:02 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions

fantasy

I would like to clarify that I no longer work for Rotowire, but otherwise MrKupe has this right.
It is fine to talk about your fantasy team and ask for advice, but please refrain from posting want ads.

I will think about the idea of a separate “want ad” area but that might require programming that I can’t do without tech support.

by John Sickels on Jul 25, 2011 10:21 AM EDT reply actions

sorry about the brainfart

I’ll edit the post to correct that.

by mrkupe on Jul 25, 2011 10:22 AM EDT up reply actions

i like kupe's

idea of ONE separate want ad. If its the only thread up, and it is always up, people wont have to make new fan posts and shove other information out.

by miraclemets on Jul 25, 2011 4:20 PM EDT up reply actions

Want Adds for leagues with Prospects.

I understand the decision. It’s just that I can’t think of a better place to find people that know more about prospects than the people who visit this site. I mean….it’s not even close compared to various fantasy sites everyone has heard of. If I were looking for a league with prospects this would be the first place I would want to look. I respect the decision though and appreciate all the time and effort put into all aspects of this site.

by ROBERTS04 on Jul 25, 2011 10:42 AM EDT via mobile reply actions

Little help!

Last time i ask, promise! But is there a way to change my screen name besides opening a new account? I know I don’t post here often, but check the site multiple times a day. My current screen name was attached to an email account i no longer use, and i’d rather just use a name. I’ve been a member here since…gee, mid aughts at least.

Anyway, if that is possible, i’d love an assist. When i click on “Edit settings/profile/account” I don’t see anywhere to change screen name. If you could help guide me on how to change, i would appreciate. Periodically i’ll see someone with a “formerly known as” signature, so i think it can be done. Dave Tokarz was deamondeaconbaseball, for instance if memory serves…
Thanks!

by drwmsu1 on Jul 25, 2011 5:59 PM EDT reply actions

sure, here you go

1. Create a new account
2. Using your new account, go to “Edit Account” on your profile page
3. There’s 4 links above the “First Name” text box, all in blue. Choose “Claim an older SB Nation blog account”
4. Follow the process from there to claim your current name and merge the accounts together.

Let us know if there are any further issues.

by mrkupe on Jul 25, 2011 6:55 PM EDT up reply actions

Thanks

Thanks for the update on what types of posts are appropriate for the site. I am sure there are many new visitors to site every day. I just started using the site this year, but have bought John’s books for years. I was just too stupid to invest the time to find the site. The content and knowledge contained in the site is spectacular. Us new guys do not want to accidently create problems. Reading through the various posts over the past several months, the community can come down pretty hard on person who are out of line. Knowing the rules helps a great deal.

by MRDillow on Jul 26, 2011 6:26 PM EDT reply actions