Feedback re: Tailgate cleanup efforts

[jenmdixon]

Just wanted to say thanks for your efforts, gang, in trying to make Tailgate less toxic. I was a member for 6+ months before I posted anything due to feeling like I would be attacked for posting what I thought. Anything that you're doing to try to make members feel more at ease and more likely to contribute and make it a positive experience for the majority of the members is a-ok by me :)

[Tarhog]

Originally posted by jenmdixon
Just wanted to say thanks for your efforts, gang, in trying to make Tailgate less toxic. I was a member for 6+ months before I posted anything due to feeling like I would be attacked for posting what I thought. Anything that you're doing to try to make members feel more at ease and more likely to contribute and make it a positive experience for the majority of the members is a-ok by me :)

One of things that makes this site SO different from others is the personal connections made and passion posters bring with them. I came along when the site membership still numbered around 1,000. It now numbers 13,400+. I think all of us have been amazed and happy about the growth. But with it come a certain number of posters who either don't 'get' that its a community, not just a personal chatroom, or they don't take the time to watch, observe, read for a period to get the feel of the board before diving in.

Both Henry and I (and I'm sure other staff members) have heard from some of these folks when we've stepped in is a public 'you're censoring me' or 'I should be allowed to say whatever I want', etc... I can't stress enough that thats NOT what its about. In our perfect world, we'd never have to step in, because either a) people would be civil and respectful to each other from the get-go, or b) when folks did cross the lines, other members would police it before it got to the point we had to do something. We have some great members (new and veteran) that DO step in, and we really appreciate it. But with the growth of the site, they are often shouted down, or even more often, ignored.

Its still a great site, better every day thanks to Blade, Die Hard, Om, Bubba, Art, Buddha, Henry, PCS, Bang, and all of the incredible posters. The thing we can ALL do (and I say this to myself daily) to try and keep it a great welcoming site is to keep our sense of humor, think before you post, choose what you 'react to' and what you ignore, and say you're sorry when you cross the line (as most of us occasionally do). I went to Hogfest, a big community Tailgate held each year at a select Redskins home game. One of the first thoughts I had finally meeting a bunch of the folks I met here was, damn these are some incredibly nice people. My second thought was 'I hope I never offended or was ugly to any that I meet today'. Its the downside of the www. You say things every day you'd never even fathom saying face to face. I know I'm working on it. I hope more think about it and try to do the same. Just like you Jen, I thank all of those who try to keep this a welcome, warm, friendly place for rabid fans to mingle. :cheers:

[Die Hard]

Assuming that even 5% of any population are unworthy of living - and that's probably being generous :) - with any growing number of people in any group the number overall that fits within that number increases.

As we grow in popularity and membership, we're bound to have new people whose intentions aren't the most innocent.

We try to provide "some" latitude at first in hopes that people will take heed of warnings and such and turn into respectable and valuable members.

However, all it takes is 10 people to make a few mistakes - on their 1st and 2nd warnings - and it appears like there's complete mayhem.

It's a process.. and eventually the antagonists are eventually weeded out.
But it's an inconvenience for the rest of us while the process unfolds.

That's why we ask for patience from our members... as well as help whenever necessary.

We've grown in popularity because we've built a tight-knip group of people who enjoy and respect each others' company.

And we're not going to compromise that principle for any number of registrations or quantity of posts.

At the end of the day... even the staff are "Redskins" fans. And after we've performed our site responsibilities... we like to be Skins fans and enjoy the community too.

[jflagg215]

All I know is that this is the best Redskins site I've come across. Yeah some people here can be a bit overbearing, but sometimes I think that is due to passion. Of course other times, its just because of who they are.

I have to say thank you to the mods and all the programmers of the site because you all have done a great job. Even if most people don't tell you, we all really appreciate it.