Crap, another one of *those* posts

A few years ago, if you’d told me a virus that killed over 100,000 Americans in less than six months would be the most divisive topic ever on this blog, I would have thought you were kidding.  I mean, what could arouse more useless heat that Richtophobe vs. Richtophile?

Shows what I know.

Here’s my problem.  Like it or not, COVID-19 is having an enormous impact on college football and is likely to do so for the foreseeable future.  I can’t ignore it here.  But after watching the avalanche of irrelevant, yet impassioned, takes on yesterday’s post about the possibility of football being postponed until next spring, I realize that some of you have no brakes on the subject.

Sure, there were a few on topic comments, but they were drowned out by a deluge of stat battles, media bashing, political whining and “mine is the superior world view” smugness.  It’s not like there was a single new concept introduced, either.  People seem to think if they say “we have to go live our lives” often enough, the readership here will eventually come around to 100% agreement with them.  That typically isn’t how repetition works, as I observed a few years ago:

Quit grinding things into the ground.  I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but repeating the exact same thing ad nauseam doesn’t win you any converts.  People aren’t growing tired of coming here because they’re intimidated by your towering intellect.  It’s because they know what’s coming and don’t want to see it again.  And again.  If you can’t find an original way to express yourself – and Gawd knows, it’s not like I don’t give you plenty of opportunities to find new angles to analyze the issues – hold your tongue.  Trust me, we won’t forget where you stand.

I don’t care how you live your life (nor should you care how I live mine), and I’ve reached the point where I’ve had enough of watching the comments section go down the toilet like it did yesterday. It’s especially irritating because the Playpen exists for the express purpose of letting y’all have your say to your heart’s content.  For some selfish reason, that’s not enough for some of you.

I came very close last night to instituting a mandatory registration for commenting, which would require you to furnish me with a legitimate email address in order to comment, but I’ve decided on another tack for the time being.

My timeout threat seems to have had a good effect on reducing personal insults, so I’ve decided to expand its purpose.  You go off-topic in a comment thread, you get one Playpen warning.  Do it again and your posting privileges will be suspended.  Don’t take the warning as being specific to whatever subject you broached to generate it; if you go off the reservation, it doesn’t matter which direction you take.

Keep it in your pants until Wednesday seems like a more than reasonable basis for posting here.  If you can’t control yourself, either find a message board where you can coax your mortal enemy into following so you can wank endlessly with yourselves or expect to be shut down here.  I promise you’ll get exactly the respect here for your posts that they deserve.

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