A Little Help, Blue (Re: Administrator Consistency)

[JohnCropp]

About a week and a half ago, photos of a makeshift memorial to Gary Carter were posted in the Citi Field thread. This memorial was set up in the Citi Field parking lot and was in tribute to a baseball player who played for the baseball team that that plays there so it seemed rather appropriate that these pictures be posted there. You could even see Citi Field in the background of some of the photos!

The Citi Field administrator removed all posts regarding the Gary Carter tribute and wrote a lengthy post about why (which has also been removed).

Considering that that memorial was based at the site of Shea Stadium's home plate, I began a thread dedicated to the former site of Shea Stadium just as there is a thread dedicated to the former site of Yankee Stadium. This thread was also removed and I was banned for a week.

Now, what troubles me is that there is a scope of information about certain ballparks that is being lost because an individual administrator deems them off-topic and inappropriate even when several regular posters in those threads argue to the contrary. The Carter memorial, anything to do with 9/11, and the Last Play at Shea concerts have all been deemed inappropriate and have been struck from the record.

Are the Ebbets Field apartments not relevant to the Ebbets Field discussion?
Is Disco Demolition Night not relevant to the Comiskey Field discussion?
Is Heritage Field not relevant to the Yankee Stadium discussion?

They seem to be because they are permitted to exist within Baseball Fever. So how is a makeshift memorial to a former player set up in a parking lot of a ballpark not relevant to that ballpark? And what difference does six posts about this event make in the big scheme of things? In a sea of posts about how ugly the ads on the wall are or how cheap the Wilpons are, it should seem like a welcome symbol of what is good about baseball.

If a Family Guy clip is relevant to the Citi Field discussion, how this memorial to Gary Carter not?

I am requesting that there be an umpire conference to discuss what is relevant and what is not relevant to discussions of ballparks so that the threads can be governed in a consistent and fan-friendly manner. I love Baseball Fever and I love discussing ballparks with the community of people who have gathered here, but it kills me when conversations are shut down and posts are deleted from threads by one person when many most of the community agree that they very much belong.

So what's the strike zone, blue?

[Gary Dunaier]

I agree with the above. How can discussion of a makeshift memorial service to honor a recently deceased Met - not just a Met, mind you, but a Met who is inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame - how can said service, held in the parking lot of the Mets' ballpark, can be deemed irrelevant to a thread about the Mets' ballpark?

When you're a ballpark fan - as I am - anything that happens at the ballpark is relevant.

I'm not a soccer fan. But I went to the 6/7/11 Ecuador-Greece game at Citi Field because it was the first soccer game to be played there.

I've been a Beatles fan longer than I've been a baseball fan, but I never went to see Paul McCartney until he played at Citi Field.

And I certainly don't consider myself a religious person - but I went to the Joel Osteen "Night of Hope" prayer service at Yankee Stadium 4/25/09 because it was the first non-baseball event to take place there.

Granted, this is not a soccer forum; this is not a Beatles forum; and this is not a religious forum. So, for example, a discussion of Joel Osteen's preaching style has no place here; but a photo of him preaching from a stage atop second base, especially one that shows him in the ballpark setting, does.

It would be such a shame if the ballpark threads were strictly limited to discussion of baseball. Yes, I know this is Baseball Fever, but ballparks are an entity unto themselves and I think it would be a great loss if discussion of non-baseball events in the ballpark threads were forbidden.

[milladrive]

I agree with the above. How can discussion of a makeshift memorial service to honor a recently deceased Met - not just a Met, mind you, but a Met who is inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame - how can said service, held in the parking lot of the Mets' ballpark, can be deemed irrelevant to a thread about the Mets' ballpark?

When you're a ballpark fan - as I am - anything that happens at the ballpark is relevant.

I'm not a soccer fan. But I went to the 6/7/11 Ecuador-Greece game at Citi Field because it was the first soccer game to be played there.

I've been a Beatles fan longer than I've been a baseball fan, but I never went to see Paul McCartney until he played at Citi Field.

And I certainly don't consider myself a religious person - but I went to the Joel Osteen "Night of Hope" prayer service at Yankee Stadium 4/25/09 because it was the first non-baseball event to take place there.

Granted, this is not a soccer forum; this is not a Beatles forum; and this is not a religious forum. So, for example, a discussion of Joel Osteen's preaching style has no place here; but a photo of him preaching from a stage atop second base, especially one that shows him in the ballpark setting, does.

It would be such a shame if the ballpark threads were strictly limited to discussion of baseball. Yes, I know this is Baseball Fever, but ballparks are an entity unto themselves and I think it would be a great loss if discussion of non-baseball events in the ballpark threads were forbidden.

See, Gary, the bold is where the bottom line always falls. This is a baseball site. Just because this site has a forum dedicated to ballparks doesn't automagically mean that anything that goes on in them is baseball-related. It's the very reason the threads exist on concerts, football, etc. Without those threads, those non-baseball (not non-baseball park) posts would have to be deleted altogether. Instead, as I said in the Shea Stadium thread, we have those threads for those topics, and those threads are where many posts end up after being initially posted in the park thread dedicated to baseball.

You both seem to think that anything that goes on in a place where baseball is played makes it baseball-related. It doesn't.

The Citi Field administrator removed all posts regarding the Gary Carter tribute and wrote a lengthy post about why (which has also been removed).

Umm, John, the posts are still there.

http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?61224-Shea-Stadium&p=1981152#post1981152

http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?61224-Shea-Stadium&p=1980594#post1980594

...as are the relocated posts. Very little has been "struck from the record."

[JohnCropp]

Umm, John, the posts are still there.

http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?61224-Shea-Stadium&p=1981152#post1981152

http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?61224-Shea-Stadium&p=1980594#post1980594

...as are the relocated posts. Very little has been "struck from the record."

I stand corrected.

[Gary Dunaier]

Just because this site has a forum dedicated to ballparks doesn't automagically mean that anything that goes on in them is baseball-related . . . . . You both seem to think that anything that goes on in a place where baseball is played makes it baseball-related.

I never said that. Anything that goes on in a place where baseball is played makes it related to that specific place where baseball is played. For example: anything that goes on in Citi Field makes it relevant to a thread about Citi Field. And in my line of thinking, someone interested in Citi Field but not necessarily interested in, say, soccer, might not want to read a thread about soccer games in ballparks, but they would be interested in reading about it in a Citi Field thread. That's why, in my line of thinking, when it came to ballpark threads, they didn't have to be strictly baseball.

Obviously, my line of thinking is not subscribed to by the powers that be. So be it. But if that's the case, I would like to make a suggestion regarding the "Quick Search & Index For Threads By City/Stadium/Topic" thread. The three threads that specifically do deal with non-baseball events at ballparks (Baseball Stadiums Used For Concerts, Etc., Greatest Non-Baseball Event In Stadium's History, Most Bizarre Non-Baseball Events In Classic Ballparks) are grouped in with other threads under the "History and Events" category. If those three threads were given their own "Non-Baseball Events At Ballparks" category, it would make them easier to find, and therefore easier for the 'baseball only' preference to be complied with. (And if there are more than three threads, that proves my point, because I missed them!)

[milladrive]

^^^ Addressed privately. ^^^