So I make one comment on their blog about how we have been mediocre since Josh went out, which got the ire of some fans, and they freaking banned me. I am so pissed and will never visit that crap site or chat room again. I am a frequent poster here and frequently post the same stuff in our chat rooms. They are allowed to post the stupidest and most vulgar crap over there and I'm banned for this! Thank you BBTiA for actually being reasonable. This site rules. Lonestarball sucks.

Haha, care to share exactly what you wrote so we can see how lucky we are?

maybe theyre not anti ranger bashing or pro Josh.... maybe theyre just Pro He-Man.....

i cant even begin to comprehend that site though. its seriously like a bukkake of html garbage.

I love your use of bukkake in a sentence.

Yeah both sites are doing their own thing but I love what BBTiA is doing. Lone Star Ball really isn't a site I enjoy, especially the comments. It's hard to decipher what's a comment and what's a sig and what's...hell, nothing productive ever happens in the comment section.

@ WSGJ

i've kept that one holstered for a while. When you have a chance to use that word EVER... you do it. I think even the prez would agree with that!

Sorry Joey, just venting my frustration at the site that shall no longer be named for not letting me vent my frustration at much the Rangers suck right now, especially since we lost Josh. I know look at our record, it's still good blah blah blah, but the eyeball test tells me that this team is just not very intimidating and not very good in the present. Am I seeing this season is over or lost, no, but right now we stink.

I'm still rather disappointed by the odious and repugnant nature of much of the discourse in the game chats here on BBTIA. My way of dealing with it is to just stay away, but I think someone should say publicly that much of the stuff that gets floated there by people is pretty sick and toxic. I live outside DFW and can't always get Texas games on the TV, so I had kinda hoped I could follow along with games on the chat - but it's not really about that. Instead there are about 10 Ticket wannabes try to get yuks by either repeating Ticket schtick or being deliberately offensive on just about every level, for the sake of nothing more than shock value. For one, it's not usually very funny. Like I said, it's mostly just disappointing, since it (the chat itself) isn't anywhere near what it could be. My 2 cents.

Hudat nailed it, I think /sarcasm. You see, it's called a "chat" because people can...well, chat...about whatever they want. Usually people comment on the game and whatnot, but just as often, I'll admit it gets off topic. Realistically if you want to "follow along with the games", use gameday on mlb.com for crying out loud, then you will know exactly what's going on during the game...plus, I don't think gameday will be too "sick and toxic" or "odious and repugnant in nature".

It's getting very cliqueish and rude over there. It's not a place for serious baseball talk.

I quit going to LSB long ago. If BBTiA was any different, I'd probably do the same. Don't change a thing, please. I get bored at work and the game chats are a hilarious way to follow along, IMO. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

joey runs this site like a dictator. write something he doesnt agree with or hurt his feelings he will ban you from here. he is very thin-skinned. i'll probably be banned for this. he has his favorites and they can say anything. too much sabermath on here. that is for nerds who have never played the game. meaningless bs. if i dont post tomorrow its because joey got his feelings hurt.

So Skeletor's very first comment in a game day thread on LSB was:

"Why must we always suck

The Rangers are really starting to piss me off. Even when we win we have to make it hard on ourselves. So much for being an elite team. Hard to be elite when you don’t have elite pitching and pretty stagnant offense"

When you go to a Rangers fansite and the very first comment you make is extremely downcast on the team... what reaction are you expecting.

No one knows you... knows if you're a fan of some other team (Angels) trolling or just a general Debbie Downer.

If you go to a new site get your feet wet first.

I don't come here often for comments... but I love the BBTiA articles. Its a great collection of writers... several of them are VERY active posters on LSB.

Ryan - yeah, well, like I said - my way of dealing with it is just not to go into the chat. But I thought I would make my opinion heard. My opinion is that I know there's a gang of guys who love what happens in there, but not everyone appreciates it. At least one other person - me - would like to participate in a chat, just not that kind of chat. But I'm not angry about it - it's cool.

The only power maniac is Dave H who banned from a chat for saying that Mitch Moreland would have a better career than Chris Davis.

Why would I use the word "we" if I was being a troll, and the way you guys jumped all over me coupled with the quick ban pissed me off for good. I already hate all the vulgar crap on the site but go to it for twitter updates in the comment sections and stories. I just thought I'd give it a try, but all of you guys were a bunch of pricks. "Not having elite pitching and pretty stagnant offense" accurately describes the state of the Rangers in the last two weeks. Was anything I stated false? No! So you can have fun matchst1ck talking to a bunch of 12 year olds. I for one am avoiding that site altogether from now on. Particularly because the stupid moderator decided to ban me for a day for nothing, and his only explanation was "people are name-calling and I didn't want that to snowball." Okay, well then ban on the people who were calling me gay and insulting me, ban all the people who post picture of bouncing boobs, ban all the pricks. Don't ban someone who makes one fatalist statement and then gets everyone jumping down his throats before he has a chance to defend his statement. "Your gay!" "I hate you," and "Shut the F*** Up!" are not adequate rebuttals. LSB needs to grow up.

skeletor.... sounds like thats the way lone star baseball go....

i'm not a fan of the site either. its uncomprehensible. it looks like somebody threw up a phone book half the time. its just an html nightmare.

to everyone else.... regardless anysite you go to you're gonna find ppl that are asses. Everyone's a badass on the internet. but half the time youre arguing with a 10 yr old or an dude from japan that only knows baseball cuz of Dice K or Matsui. Ok well maybe not that situation lately.....

too soon?....

You still misunderstand the point.

You came into a site with zero reputation and decided your first impression was going to be to referring to the team the site is dedicated as "always suck".

A team coming off of a World Series appearance and that is currently in first place.

This will not win you friends or high fives.

Had you said something more to the effect of, "This is really frustrating seeing this team struggle right now." I have no doubt you would not have been met with jeers of the Angrydome.

If you actually went to the comment section of LSB prior to posting as you say... are you truly surprised that you received the response you did?

Especially in a game day thread where the tensions run higher and right after a poor inning where the Angrydome is in full effect.

I say none of these things to convince you to continue to visit the site. It is not for everyone one. But it has at least 20 times the members of any other Rangers dedicated site in my estimation. So much like many people poo poo 1310 the Ticket as being "not sports talk" and "juvenile" its still the highest rated station.

I also say none of these things to take away from BBTiA... which is also a fine site. But if you do hang around LSB, you'll see that some of the most active members are the authors of the fine articles here.

Yes there is a sea of hate and fury that lives there too... yes there are a handful of downright annoying folk. But most of the people there get along fairly well and enjoy the Rangers and other Dallas sports and non sports topics.

You are the one that made an incredibly poor first impression on a site known for its inflammatory nature. If you don't realize that... then I don't think you have the right... awareness... to be a part of that community.

Also.. the "stupid" moderator there is one of the nicest guys on that site. goET (Christopher Fittz of SBNation Dallas) was just trying to deal with an unknown user who looked like he was trying to start trouble by immediately coming in and bashing the Rangers and then becoming very angry and defensive when his bashing was met with ridicule. If you were a commenter that he had more history and a better understanding of your intent... I feel very confident you would have been given considerably more leeway and (as he often does) he would have asked for people to leave you be.

There's another poster on LSB named "steel home" who many thought you were actually just an alias of (who loves to do nothing but piss and moan about how awful the Rangers are). He's a jackass. And goET has given him a one day ban more than once when he comes in with intent to incite and be a general nuisance. However... when he comes in and isn't going bananas... he doesn't let other people bait him into a mess.

As much as you may feel you were misunderstood... I am certain you misunderstand goET as the LSB moderator. He's a swell guy.

It's cool, Joey. I don't think you're doing anything wrong or you should change anything for one person. It appears that most of the guys like the chats as they are. Maybe the problem is with me and my tastes. It's not like I don't enjoy the site, or that being turned off the chat turns me off from what you and the other writers are doing here. Sometimes when I can't get the game on TV, and I look at the box score on yahoo but it doesn't really tell what's happening. So then I go into the chat to get a feel for what's happening in the game and I'm immediately greeted by a description of someone fornicating with a chicken, or so-and-so's mother sodomizing so-and-so, etc.

True. On hindsight maybe I could have approached my first chat on the site differently, but I was super pissed at Ogando for starting off another game with Toronto in a hole. I was perturbed with the people jumping down my throat, but I was ready to defend my accusations (e.g., this team has a lost more than its won after its winning streak to start the season.) What set me over the top was the quick ban. To me that was uncalled and an outrage. I have never been banned from a chat room before in my life and trust me, if you ever read any of my rants at the dailythunder chat room they have been much more fatalistic, depending upon the game. Being banned was uncalled for. If you're going to ban me, then ban me for a real reason. If you're banning me out of stupidity then I'm banning you in protest and letting others know how stupid you are.

You weren't banned for a stupid reason... you were given a timeout because goET wanted to prevent the GDT from descending into madness with people berating you.

A few things to consider... as upset as you were at that moment, goET the moderator is also a Rangers fan and was equally upset. He's trying to watch the game too... not deal with someone coming in and trashing the Rangers and the vitriol that generates.

Also... it was a temporary one day ban. That is just saying, "Take a break." You are more upset at the principle of "What I'm banned?! How dare he?" than the actual harm done.

If you want an apology, I bet you can fish one out from goET. He's a very reasonable guy and the antithesis of a jerk. Of course if you go to him and tell him how stupid he is you probably won't get one... but I bet if you emailed him and mentioned you were a BBTiA regular who, in hindsight, perhaps got off on the wrong foot at LSB but you're disappointed you received a ban so quickly. I feel confident you find he's not a jerk in his response.

Of course if you email him ranting and raving how stupid he and everything about LSB is... well... you'd probably get a different response.

On the whole... I recommend Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People book and course. That is not a joke... it is a handy book and will improve most people's communication skills.

I have plenty of friends and don't need to read that old book. An internet chat room is no way indicative of one's true ability to communicate or be influential. Most people create internet personas and change them regularly. As was said above, many people say things on the internet or act in ways they would never do in real life communication. The veil of anonymity enables many things.

Skeletor, GoET uses time outs on occasions to prevent threads from imploding. If you had posted exactly the same thing in the postgame thread or morning discussion thread I doubt it would have led to a temporary ban.

LSB now has so many posters it's hard to keep up. And it's pretty toxic much of the time. I end up skimming a ton of comments and I participate a lot less than I used to just because of the sheer volume of comments.

I really enjoy the gamechats here, though I do agree that occasionally the talk goes a bit over the line with offensive comments. Joey is pretty laissez-faire, which I think is fitting for what is essentially a virtual living room or sports bar, but we can all do a better job policing ourselves without ruining that atmosphere.