The PITT POV Rules of Engagement

1. I love engaging with the Pitt sports fans community via The Pitt POV, and I invite you to leave your comments as much as you want.
2. I ask that you keep your comments respectful, on-topic, and  free of inappropriate language.  Civility is a must on here and that is etched in stone
3. I reserve the right to delete your comments. No comments are moderated and go through an approval queue before they are posted at this time. Please don’t make me do that.
4. I will endeavor to acknowledge and correct any mistakes in my posts as soon as possible.  I will only edit your comments for reading clarity.
5. ALL CAPS means that you’re yelling.
6. Post only one or two links in your comments. The video rule is only one video per comment.
7. Practice respectful disagreement, not personal attacks.
8. Try to post something that adds value to an ongoing conversation. If you are posting “off-topic” make that clear in the first sentence.
9. Ignore trolls – if it gets bad enough I’ll take care of them. Someone from another school who makes valid points is NOT a troll.  All fans are welcome on the POV.
10. To avoid redundancy, read previous comments before posting your own.
11. It’s not all about you, or me, so let’s avoid making every comment a testimony as to how awesome we are.
12. Finally, you are a very welcomed guest on the Pitt POV; please keep this in mind when commenting.

(This is a repeat of a comment I made on the last thread – take it seriously)

Honest to God folks – why in the world should I have to be the one to censor other adults? That is the ultimate act of telling me you have no regard for the time and effort, and costs, that it takes me to run this website and provide content for you.

Then on top of all that you guys act like children and turn me into a friggin’ Hall Monitor and make me come on this site for the rest of the day, like I have nothing else to do after writing for 3-4 hours in the morning, to check and make sure no one is offending anyone else with their crude language and negativity.

Forget the idea that heavy swearing makes your point any more valid – it doesn’t the way we’ve seen it.  Crude does not equal smart.

How about this – ACT YOUR DAMN AGE!!!

I’m serious. I meet you guys in person, talk with you on the phone, exchange emails with you and I’m always damned impressed at the caliber of people I come in contact with that way… then you get on here and comment and are a different type all together.

It isn’t just UPitt either – the level of discourse is getting to be exactly want we all don’t want on here. I want this to be better than even the Blather was as far as civility and intelligent discussions go. If I don’t get that then what do I do?

I could delete the articles themselves – that’s sticking a sharp stick in my own eye after the hard work I do.

I could censor each comment – again, doing that makes me work at the computer way more than I am willing to do in my retirement years.

I could ban people – but I’m a liberal type that believes people have things to say and contribute.

Look, now especially, my “No Politics” rule is more important than ever because we all want somewhere we can go to get away from all the madness, mudslinging and crap that is in the news everyday now. I want that and you want that.

I refuse to drag that mess into my running of this blog.

I won’t censor but will advise. If that doesn’t work then I’ll do something else.

I try to remind all of you commenters that you are but one component of the whole here. We have thousands of readers per day and now I’m getting comments through the WordPress email system from those silent readers telling me that will leave the site if things don’t change.

But I will say this right now.

The minute the website and blog becomes a burden rather than a joy I will shut it down and immediately pay back all contributions.

Please don’t test that because the way I’ve been feeling after reading this tread of comments I’m starting to entertain those thoughts pretty seriously.

Grow up and censor yourself. Unless you have Written Tourette’s syndrome where a mental illness forces you to swear in public – and some people do have that – then you clean up your own acts.

You’ve officially pissed me off but good.