I haven’t done much research in to the makeup of the audience that reads Pirates Prospects, but I can safely assume one thing: the vast majority of readers are adults. Over the last week I’ve been working on a commenting policy to establish some guidelines for what is unacceptable in the comments section of the site. The commenting policy has been launched today, and while there are several guidelines to follow, there’s really only one important guideline: act like an adult. Since I’m assuming most of my readers are adults, that shouldn’t be a problem. But that’s never the case.
There’s never any reason to be disrespectful to someone because their opinion about a sport is different than your opinion. I know that on pretty much every Pittsburgh Pirates forum you see a line drawn in the sand between fans, with various nicknames given to each group, based on how they feel about the team. That’s not something I want to see on the site. I think it’s possible to disagree without being disagreeable, and giving labels to groups reminds me of teenagers.
I think everyone reading the site is capable of a mature discussion. I’ve enforced the comments loosely in the past, but will be doing much more moderating with the new comment policy. This isn’t an open message board where anyone can post anything they want. This is a media outlet which happens to be my job. Therefore, I’m going to moderate the comments with the interests of the business in mind. The comments are there to provide people with the opportunity to further discuss each article’s topic. In my opinion, it’s better for business to have a mature and rational discussion in the comments, rather than immature, childlike behavior. Thus the need for a comment policy, to establish what won’t be tolerated.
If you have a problem with an individual comment, feel free to click the report button, which will bring it to my attention for further moderation. But keep in mind that I’m only going to remove a comment if it violates the rules, and not if someone disagrees with you, or even disagrees with me.
Pirates Prospects Commenting Policy
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
will do
Thanks, Tim! Didn’t mean for you to have to do all that work, though….
Not a problem. Only took me a few minutes.
I support the matter. Thanks for all you do and lets keep that out of here. Thanks Tim.
Tim, I have been coming to this site for awhile now and I have been impressed with Maturity of your audience. I dont matter if people agree or dissagree on topics people on here make it seem like a discussion more then just bashing each other and calling ppl names. And the reason we can have a mature discussion about topics is a credit on how the site is run, so keep up with the great work and I need to get my preorder in soon
I noticed that recently the number of comments were rising. I had some concerns that this site may change into something else, a public forum. There are plenty of those (including some really good ones) and I was really hoping that this site would stay separate. I view P2 as a news site, and less of a blog. Thanks for your diligence on this issue, and good luck to you in the future.
I just started reading your website about 6 months ago and it is now a daily ritual. Keep up the great work!!!
Tim,
I agree with your policies and I hope you continue to enforce them. You have a fine web site, enforcing your rules should keep it that way.
I agree with your disagreeing about people agreeing to not disagree, agree?
I disagree.