Changes to the message board
As you may have noticed... I've made some changes to our beloved message board. The most noticeable change is the addition of a new section for league discussion by other teams, and whoever else wants to register. That section is open to all. The Beers portion of the message board is still very private. You must be logged in to see it. This is so that we don't have every moron from the league spamming us with their retardicity (thanks Andrew Pobuda). It is also so that we can continue our free and open discussions such as why we should recruit various animals to play. If you've ever seen the league's guestbook then you may have noticed 2 things. 1. That it's definitely not the best way to discuss league issues since it was designed to leave 1 time messages without replies. And 2, that most of the people on there post some pretty stupid stuff and don't have any accountability for it since they can post anonymously. I thought that adding this section would help both those problems. Yes, we would be bringing some of the sub par, loud-mouthed members of the league into closer proximity with us, BUT, I think it will also be a more appropriate setting and venue for intelligent conversation as well (such as the type we're used to seeing on here). If you have not registered yet, feel free to. This board is run by me and me alone so don't worry about giving your email address. I require registration because otherwise we get spam about paris hilton and whatnot. So what do you think? Was this a big mistake? Or should we have some faith in the other members of the league to not make this place a big pile of proverbial crap?

Even if they're mostly ok/intelligent/well mannered (so far so good, Royals), I still don't think the LEAGUE message board should be on the Beers message board, even unofficially. It inconveniences us a bit...we're forced to make our forums private and invisible to everyone but actual Beers/acquaintences, who we have to add manually. Anybody who's interested in the team and wants to check us out will not see the private forums, only the league forums, which will confuse them (and make them go "eww" if the league board is indeed full of idiocy, like the league guestbook). At any rate, it gives us more responsibilities (we'd actually have to actively moderate it if you really want it to be better than the guestbook). If some idiot gets banned, have fun getting emails like "y u ban me" and then people bitching about the moderators/Beers/board/whatever. I have 2 alternative solutions that are very feasible. One, strongly suggest to the league that they register a forum on forumer.com since it is pretty cool and better than leaguelineup's thing (I assume). They don't like the guestbook so maybe they're open to suggestions. You can set it all up for them if they want. Or, if YOU want to make the league message board, open up another forumer account and make an entirely new forum for it. This would make all parties happy, I think. There's absolutely no need for the league message board to be on the Beers' message board, so if you want to create one it will do no harm to either the league board or ours if you create a separate one. Basically, just take what you've got now in the league section, put it on another board, invite them to that board, and put ours back to the way it was. Then you can moderate the other one or whatever or give it to the league or have some other manager moderate it or anything. If it turns into a big pile of proverbial crap, it won't really matter, we've still got our forum. also what's the context of this: "If you have not registered yet, feel free to. This board is run by me and me alone so don't worry about giving your email address. I require registration because otherwise we get spam about paris hilton and whatnot. " So yeah, make an entirely different forum if you want a leauge forum, attaching it to ours isn't going to help anything. At any rate, if your'e going to make a new forum, do it SOON, before too many people register on ours.

I took your advice and I'm preparing another board for the league (whether they want it or not).

ish
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago--never mind how long precisely --having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me. There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs--commerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its extreme down-town is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land. Look at the crowds of water-gazers there. Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip, and from thence, by Whitehall northward. What do you see?--Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. Some leaning against the spiles; some seated upon the pier-heads; some looking over the bulwarks glasses! of ships from China; some high aloft in the rigging, as if striving to get a still better seaward peep. But these are all landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plaster--tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks. How then is this? Are the green fields gone? What do they here? But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seemingly bound for a dive. Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land; loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses will not suffice. No. They must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can without falling in. And there they stand--miles of them--leagues. Inlanders all, they come from lanes and alleys, streets and avenues, --north, east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite. Tell me, does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither? Once more. Say, you are in the country; in some high land of lakes. Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries--stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever.

Of course... the more sophisticated spam-bots can still get through.

can someone sum all this stuff up for me. too much reading

I brought it back to the way it was. Maybe I'll make the league another board if they want...