SBN's Jim Bankoff posted over at Blog Huddle a little while ago, and I heartily encourage those of you old and new to Camden Chat to give that a read.
In short, Camden Chat has been integrated into the Yahoo! Sports team page for the Baltimore Orioles. We expect and hope to gain a slew of new users from this, and we welcome all of you with open arms. Camden Chat has been online since 2005 (and has existed since 2003 including my tiny, unread blog that preceded this one), and 2009 will be our fifth season with daily coverage of the O's.
Here's what you can expect during the season:
- Live game threads for all 162 games, plus we go the extra mile and yak about the All-Star game and home run derby, too. One of our highlight game threads came last year on April 6, when Luis Hernandez drove in the game-winning run to beat the Mariners, 3-2. Warning: There is profanity in there.
- Post-game recaps and a place to talk with your fellow Orioles fans.
- A great platform for discussion of trade talk, offseason moves, spring training, prospects, etc.
- FanPosts and FanShots -- if you want to post your own article on Camden Chat, fire up the FanPosts! You might even wind up featured on the front page. Some of our liveliest discussions come from FanPosts, including off-topic stuff. If you see something interesting online you want to share with the community (photo, link, video, etc.), post a FanShot. Those can also wind up on the front page.
As far as guidelines go, this stuff is all very important. You get a quick run-through when you sign up for an account here, but I know not everyone reads through that, and I know most people have enough common sense to not actually need to read through it. But these are the Camden Chat community rules. Follow them:
- Racist, sexist, homophobic, etc., terms will not be tolerated. Period. If you call something "gay" in a derogatory manner, you're done. It might seem harmless to you, but it's simply not going to fly here, no matter who you are.
- Do not harass or personally attack users. There are very easy ways to disagree with someone's point or thought without resorting to calling them names or insulting their intelligence. If you get out of line, you will be warned. Do it again and you will be banned. There's no three-strike policy here. You get one warning.
- Don't spam anything. Don't spam your site, don't spam products, just don't spam. If you want to advertise, buy space. HOWEVER, you are 100% welcome to put your site or blog or whatever in your signature that will show up on all of your posts. Just contribute to the community as a commenter and you're all good on that front.
- Profanity is OK, just not on the front page posts. You'll never see worse than "hell" or "damn" in main articles, because I know people read at work. Also, don't go completely overboard. F-bombs happen, particularly during games (in anger or jubilation), but limit it a bit.
Like I said, most of this is easy to figure out, just common sense. And I don't want it to be intimidating at all. I say once more that we welcome all new users with open arms. This should be THE place for O's fans to talk about our team.
Welcome to Camden Chat and SB Nation.
Other blogs that may interest you: Baltimore Beatdown (Ravens), Hogs Haven (Redskins), Federal Baseball (Nationals), Testudo Times (Maryland Terrapins), Japers' Rink (Capitals), Bullets Forever (Wizards), Bad Left Hook (Boxing -- hey, I gotta get my own plug in here!)
A full list of SBN's hundreds of blogs can be found at the SB Nation home page.