A message for the BTB community as we head into the 2018 season

Greetings BTB,

As the excitement builds for the 2018 season, it’s time for a friendly reminder about codes of conduct in the BTB community. We love that we have such a large and diverse membership here at BTB, and we also love the level of participation by so many die-hard Cowboys fans. It’s truly a wonderful thing to see. But to preserve it, we must be vigilant in keeping it a welcoming place for all members.

Lately, I have received some reports from our fantastic moderator crew (much love to that group, they are amazing) and from some long-time members that the tone in the comments may have taken a slight turn for the worse this past offseason. We certainly don’t want that to continue to grow, that would ruin this wonderful creation we have here in our virtual Cowboys sports bar.

We all must remember that no two members of this community are exactly alike. Some are serious, others prefer to be comical, some comment all the time, others just every once in a while, some believe totally in statistics, others prefer the eye-test. We got optimistic people who always have hope, and we got pessimists who are full-on prove-it-to-me people. Some love Jason Garrett, others are ready to can him, and let’s not even get into the Rico Gathers divide!

The point is, we don’t think exactly alike all the time, sometimes our differences are small, other times they are large, but we can still all live together peacefully in our virtual world. How, you say? By just showing respect. Even when you disagree, show respect. Even when you’re 100% sure the other person is wrong, show respect. Civil discourse can happen, and it should happen.

The reports I mentioned above mostly have to do with disrespecting fellow members by attacking them personally. Some members have resorted to a lot more name-calling and other personal attacks recently, and we think it should stop. We are asking that it stop before we have to start removing members permanently from our Cowboys home. The moderators will be removing more comments and more warnings will be going out in the next few weeks as we try to get a hold on this recent phenomenon of disrespectful behavior. So don’t be too surprised if it happens to you.

One special note, we don’t allow hard profanity on the board cause it can lead to harsh flame-wars, and we would also like to keep the site open to younger members. We want a nine-year old kid to be able to participate at BTB without his parents being horrified about what they’re reading. Some members have decided to use initials in place of profanity, please don’t do that. Your comment will be removed so all the work you put into it will vanish into the ether. And if you continue to do it, warnings/bans are in your future.

Again, it’s easy to avoid all of this if you just respect the other person and follow some simple rules. No matter how you might feel about someone personally, show respect when you type a comment. If you’re mad when you read something, wait a minute before responding. If you find your comment going after someone on a personal level, stop and take a moment to edit it. You can disagree with someone’s point all you want, but personal attacks are not the way to go.

The 2018 season is almost here. It’s just about time for football again. As the Cowboys rededicate themselves to making the playoffs, let’s all rededicate ourselves to making BTB the best place to hang out and talk Cowboys. Thanks!

If you are at all confused about what is allowed or not on the board, a good place to start is the community guidelines.