Jeff Pearlman: SJ.com is for loosers!!11!!11!!

Did you feel anything tap your knee under the table?

 

I suspect there's selective memory at work here. I recall the nastiness and edginess when I first joined this place to be far greater than today. Board wars back then put today's stuff to shame.

But that was offset by there also being far more of the good stuff. If I had to use one word to characterize the difference between then and now it'd be more. As in more of everything, both good and bad. A decade ago this place was more intelligent, and often more stupid. More creative, and more combative. More humorous, and more aggravating. Etcetera... What struck me about this place when I first came here was the sheer energy of it---you'd be hard pressed back then to find another message board that gave you more of a show, in both good and bad ways, every single friggin day.

That is gone now. I think that era officially died when doc led the defection to the other site, and then the rise of twitter/alternative social media ensured it'd never be that way again.

It's not the same, but it's become a habit and is still often a fun place to drop in on each day.

 

I hope I don't make the site worse. I avoid getting into fights / trolling, but I have other bad habits that I'm actually trying to dial back a bit.

 

Agreed. This is exactly how I see the place. The nastiness was definitely part of it when I joined and some of the fights were uglier than we see now. You raise good point in saying the defection and the growth of other social media have taken a good bit away from SJ.com.

 

All good points. I guess it's just that I tend to go into an eye-rolling tizzy when we provide social commentary about SJ.com itself. It is what it is -- a diversion, nothing more and nothing less.

 

This place has been great since I learned about the ignore button. I don't mind spirited debate and the like, and I think I'm fairly willing to admit when I'm wrong. But some people are just trolls who don't add a goddamn thing. If I met them in real life, I would cut them out of my life. It's nice to be able to do the same thing here. And hell, we're only talking about two or maybe three posters here who I've put on ignore. I think this place shines a light on a lot of things I'd have otherwise remain ignorant about. I've always been an intermittent poster and reader of this board, which more or less reflects my yo-yo relationship with sports and sports writing. I joined more than a decade ago, but I've definitely gone weeks and even months with never stopping by. Still, if there's a big sports-related news story or media development, this is just about the first place I go.

 

Ten pages and no mention of SOSH? That might have been the most epic epoch of SJ history. For shame ...

 

If you could make that happen, convince him to reappear for one glorious moment, I would worship at your altar.

 

I think like a lot of online communities, sj.com is intimate enough that it doesn't take that many people to feel like it's swinging one way or another. It's a small pond, so a few of the right or wrong fish can really change its complexion. Twitter is the same. It's massive, obviously, but you tend to settle into a community of people. It took me a while there to realize that, like, a dozen people were really making it miserable. It could seem like the world was going at you, but it was the same gang of trolls at work each time. Block them, and it's a totally different experience. Same here.

I do miss the creative discussions, but I get that not as many people here care about that sort of thing for all sorts of reasons.

I've gone long stretches, even years, without posting here, but I've enjoyed coming by lately. I've met some of my best real-life friends here, a lot of great people, and I'll always feel affection for sj.com because of that. Whatever aggravations the board has given me, it's given me many more good things in exchange. I can remember the first day I signed on here, however many years ago, and I'm glad I did.

 

Thick skin or not, no one's going to volunteer to make themselves feel bad.

 

This place would be a lot better if everyone thought and acted more like me.