Every morning we rush into the MN thread to do our updates. I usually see HHN and CH logged in doing their posts, results and reports, while I do my best to fight my hangover and try to figure out what I can moan and grown about in the day’s post. Later on in the morning we get the wave of scouting reports, stats and predictions. Than during the afternoon the late night birds wake up, and complete the scouting reports, post their predictions, HTL has a side-splitting back and forth with HHN that lacks any form of cohesion or meaning unless you are well versed in their special language and/or are partaking in a “special” form of medication that makes your stapler look edible, and couch feel softer than a baby’s hair conditioned with mango extract.
Further to the daily rush, there is continuous improvements to the thread, one of which is the new NL standings board and the new MN scoreboard who have their great unveiling today thanks to HHH’s wonderful work. If you haven’t thanked him publicly already, make sure you let your appreciation be known, because he had to put up with my impracticable demands and continuous irritating request that would put any dictator to shame, and he did this all through exam periods while creating various formats to try and cater to our selfish need. The thread is a better place thanks to his efforts, and his title of MN-Artist is well deserved.
During slumps the MN thread is a heaven from the pessimistic Epsilons and the arm chair GMs who have the solution to all our problems in the form of sacrificial lambs, voodoo spells, magical gems or just trading the whole team including the coach, GM, owner and mascot. During long stretches between games, it gives us a place to discuss real issues and significant impact to the team, without being sucked into a pissing-match about a detail, or a definition or the type of drawers a player prefers.
There are two reasons I’m bringing all this up. First off it’s been so long since the last game, Kovalev is not being picked on by the media, and so there is nothing else to talk about. Secondly, yesterday I was amused and disturbed in an exchange between two forum users in another thread. It went on for about two pages about a statistical definition. Despite their best attempts, the argument was clearly about semantics and egos. It proved to be good for a laugh until the argument came to a point where one side argued they’re correct because their job title superseded the other side, and someone got flamed for debating with researched knowledge. Now I’m not one to judge a persons argumentative style, however I will say that male ego is unmistakably present in many posters’ responses. The inability to disagree, distinguish opinions from fact, and take constructive criticism with a grain of salt, leads to many of these unpleasant exchanges which, IMO, clogs up the threads, and gets many valuable forum users in trouble.
Whether it has to do with the culture in the MN thread, or the nature of its current users leading by example, or whether it was sheer luck, we’ve had three years of troll/flamer/egoistic free users in this thread. I know I’m not the only one who appreciated this safe haven we call the MN thread during the dire months we had following the holidays last season. For a while it seemed like not a single poster outside the thread had something good to say about the team, administration and organisation.
This thread is what it is thanks to its users, and I would like to thank all of you, whether you’re involved in keeping it running, whether you drop in just for predictions, or whether you’re just a reader. It is thanks to the camaraderie and the mutual respect we all assert to one another that this place is as peaceful and courteous as it is. So do HLD a favour this morning and give your selves a pat on the back.
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