A Few Housekeeping Notes

by Al Yellon on Dec 27, 2005 2:43 PM CST in Meta BCB

Tomorrow at 5 pm CT is the deadline for the Draw Chuck contest entries. Email them to me using the link on the right sidebar.

Also -- I'd like to say a word about diaries. I love the fact that all of you participate frequently, and want to start your own diaries, sort of a "blog within the blog". But I would also like to remind you, with these words from BCB's Community Guidelines, exactly what a diary is supposed to be:

The only Community Guidelines for posting a diary are:

A diary must be a minimum of 300 characters or it is considered to be unsubstantial and will not be accepted by the site.
A diary must in some way belong on BCB -- in other words, it must relate to the Cubs, or to baseball, or to BCB, or to an existing thread or diary, etc.
A user may not post more than 2 diaries in a given day.

Tips on writing good diaries:

Some of the qualities that the most popular diaries often have in common are:

They expand upon the main idea with supporting examples, or statistical data, or a link to a relevant article, or a "thinking question" for others to consider, etc. -- something beyond just the main idea itself.
They explore a topic, idea, or question that has not been explored recently, or at all, on BCB.
Keep in mind that if your diary contains only one point or idea that is not developed, expanded on, or supported with arguments or data, it is really not a diary--it is a comment that should be posted in an existing thread or diary.

Essentially, what I'm asking you to do here is to NOT let this degenerate into a "message board" like the one on cubs.com, where you have several dozen new threads a day. To talk about the proposed Tejada trade is great -- you all have great ideas.

But we don't need several different diaries on the same topic. If things are really breaking that are different from what's already been posted -- sure, start a new diary, as noted above: "They explore a topic, idea, or question that has not been explored recently, or at all, on BCB."

Otherwise, please just add your comments to an existing thread -- you can always start a new thread within an existing post or diary.

Don't think that I'm trying to discourage participation in any way -- I'm not. I just want to avoid having multiple diaries on the same topic.

Finally, when you post a comment, if you are replying to someone else's comment, please click the "Reply to This" link underneath the comment you are replying to: that will help thread the replies better.

Thanks. All of you make BCB what it is -- a great community for talking about the Cubs and baseball, and sometimes other somewhat related topics.

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Comments

Al,

I think they have a one diary per 24 hours limit imposed over at Daily Kos.

I know that would make me think a little longer and harder on some of my diaries and not submit to my rage in responding to overly negative comments from Chuck/gaius.

"You know what God told the cubs. Don't do anything until I get back!" Pete Rose

by Will71081 @ Bleed Cubbie Blue on Dec 27, 2005 2:47 PM CST reply actions