I've been seeing these pop up in a lot of threads lately. Whether it's calling someone or something "gay," "homo," or the pseudo-clever designation of "cigarette." They don't make you clever or help get your point across. I can't say I never did the same thing when I was a bit younger, but I can say now that I really wish I hadn't, because it make me want to stop reading things I used to write. 

Anyway, realize that while the administration staff doesn't like to step out of the box and start banhammering people, we will do it if we have to. This has never been a problem in the past, and I'm pretty sure Bo$$man is the first person that we've given more than a one-day ban to that hasn't been an obvious spammer in a long time. We're not big fans of making rules, but we also want this to be a laid-back and causal environment that doesn't need a lot of policing. If you're an older member, this probably isn't targeted at you. But as every football season starts, we get a new influx of visitors. This year it was an appreciably large number of new users, considering the excitement of the Texans actually doing something in free agency. 

Tim has often said that our one big rule is no personal attacks. I don't want to speak for him here, but just because we don't have "no homophobic slurs" scrawled out in permanent-ban-if-you-cross-the-line ink doesn't mean we're big fans of what has been going on in the comments. 

Think of your membership at BRB a little like being invited into our house. We've invited you in over a lovely dinner, perhaps scones. Or barbecue if you're not feeling English enough for scones. Feel free to kick back a few and have a merry time. Feel free to use the restroom. Feel free to cordially tell us that our fancy Persian rug looks like a drug-induced hallucination.

We're very tolerant hosts and are willing to put up with a few gaffes. We don't mind if you chew with your mouth open. But if you start making our other guests feel uncomfortable on a daily basis and cross the line between creative use of hate speech to abusive use of such, you're going to find that one of two things will happen. We'll either have to have to be a lot less lax on the rules, or we'll have to toss you out like so many unsold David Carr jerseys.

In other words: Just don't be a jerk about it.