Things I Feel the Need to Address

I'm not perfect. I know this. And maybe it's the stress level I've suddenly shot to over the past 24 hours, but there are some things that are really bothering me about the site right now.

On Banning: I thought it was absolutely terrific that Andrew received the support he did from the community here. Tyrone did an admirable thing by bringing the situation to light, and the outpouring of support was tremendous. However, I cannot tolerate this. You cannot show support for one user by banning another, however insensitive Jamel's remarks may have been. I don't know how Andrew feels about the ban, so I won't speak for him, but I don't think it's right.

I also feel that User:09dillb's ban was slightly unwarranted as well. Yes, he had vandalized some articles, but at the same time, he apologized to me and stopped. I asked him why he did it, and he calmly told me that he had originally come to ArmchairGM wanting to contribute to the site but became very frustrated with some of the users on the site. And if you look at it, he did try. Despite what some of you may think, he did at least attempt to write some real articles.

I can definitely see where some users might come away with the idea that everyone else here is out to get them. We have standards; don't pretend that we don't. I guess you could say I'm offering my standards in this post. But to ridicule someone who is still relatively new to the site is going overboard. How can we ever have a "Most Improved Writer [or User] Award" when we don't allow room for improvement?

To those calling for these bans: Stop. Unless it's very obvious there's no other choice, I won't do it, and by that time, it'll probably already be done by someone else. Try reconciling your differences or simply ignoring the user before you cry (sorry to use such a harsh term) to the admins for a ban.

On Live Blogs: A much more minor beef I have is with these live blogs that keep popping up. Let's get something straight, I'm not a live blog hater, but I think there's a lot more to offer in them than straight play-by-play. This is your chance to opine on the game while it's going on.

And as for those who aren't watching the game, there are several sites that offer a "Game Cast" type option, and that's where I go when I want the play-by-play. I come to ArmchairGM for the perspectives and debate. So unless Dan, Rob, David and Aaron want to cook up a Game Cast for us to play with, I'm hoping we can get some more perspective and debate into these live blogs.

After all, they're still called blogs, so I should hope if you transcribed the comments, it would be good enough for here, not here.

I feel like I've bitched enough now. I just had to get it off my chest. Feel free to criticize me or agree with me.