To All Members

[vette5573]

Thanks for the replies and it's a great tribute to Rich and the guys who put it all together.

We were also looking for feedback from new members who signed up recently or within the last couple of months or years. We are very interested in how they found the board. Looking to see how the word is getting out there. When Rich and I spoke today, we both thought a trickle of new blood was healthy for the community. The fear is that this thing becomes too big and impersonal too fast. You all validated that it just isn't the case, at least at this moment in time.

You all answered in majority to being open to new members and their contribution as long as they conduct themselves appropriately and that proves to be the case. We all look forward to getting to know new fans and hopefully they feel comfortable reading, posting and being here. Some fans are at different stages in the learning curve of the game of football and should feel free to ask questions. Bottom line is don't be shy. The folks here are among the finest I know and I say that without reservation.

As for the sharing of board time, a lot of us read and sometimes post both boards. There's a lot of good people on both boards. Big city and the Small town. Another reason some of us are here, because we enjoy the camaraderie the smaller group.

[DesG89]

Like a few have previously stated, I came here from BBWC after an invite via e-mail, wondering where all the BBWC old guard had disappeared to. I still post over on BBWC from time to time depending on thread subject but I if given the choice I choose here because of the friendliness and most of all MATURITY. Something I don't see on any other  Giants board

[spiderblue43]

All I can say is thank you Rich for inviting me. That's how I got here from the old board BBWC. And thanks to the stalwarts of this board!

It is a great site! 

[Iamboo]

Like many of you, Rich invited me over to this board.  I'm so glad that he did.  While I still occasionally go back to the BBWC board, this place is my "daily dose" of Giants information and conversation! 

[tomeee]

I also moved from the other board after receiving an invite. This is by far the most civil of all the Giants boards. Rich and all who help are doing a terrific job.

[jerseyguy]

this site was recommended to me by another poster because of the quality of the people who post on here. I think most of us have been on other boards and know what a bad site can be like...

[pagan43]

I was invited to the BBH by Terry, who reached out to me on the BBWC. He was also looking to get the word to Boog, who had at that time dissapeared into the mountains north of Worcester, MA, while persuing his Masters Degree, and was not to be found on-line.

I regularly visit the BBWC. I just visit the BBH first. There is plenty of duplication, but there are also plenty of posters at the BBWC who are worth reading, and who do NOT post on the BBH. However, there is a definite difference in the tone of the two boards, and I think I know why, but I'll get to that in a moment.

I think that what we have here at the BBH is special (many thanks to Mighty and the Mods) for a few simple reasons. We all comment on the Respect given from member to member, the Intelligence that we display when interacting with each other, the Civility we extend even when the topics become heated, and the Honesty in our fandome of the New York Football Giants (we are R.I.C.H. because of this). And, we are right to do so. But what we are commenting upon is the symptom, not the cause.

To get to the cause we need to ask not why we are R.I.C.H., but why the other boards are not? I think there are two major reasons: (1) There are fewer chest-thumping braggarts, who by virtue of immaturity can not recognize opinions other than their own as valid. And, (2) there are no direct links to sites from fans of other football teams.

In the case of reason number 1, I think that the profound lack of low-character, internet brawlers among us stems originally from the selective manner that many, if not most of us arrived: by direct invitation. But it is maintained because we are not actively reaching out through popular avenues to the largest possible audience in hopes of bringing in as many "hits" as possible, to support our advertisers.

It's like casting a net on the Amazon. We'll likely catch some beautiful and exotic fish. But we will just as likely haul in a tangle of vicious piranhas as well. Then, we'll all have to endure their snapping and biting and thrashing about, until they can be evicted, carefully, one by one. In the mean time several of us will certainly be bitten.

But, since there are no advertisers to appease, we slip quietly down a relatively small stream without having to raise the kind of "look at us" ruckus that would certainly attract the braggarts and otherwise maturity-challenged denizens of the cyber-world, while attempting to simply pay the bills.

If we would enter into the larger, main stream, we would almost certainly attract the attention of the unwanted as well as those who would become welcome additions. So, we need to ask ourselves: do we want to risk the piranhas or not?

On the second reason, the BBWC is a member of the Scout organization. A little tile on every webpage that part of Scout links the BBWC to every other Scout web site. Since Scout hosts websites for most of the NFL teams, there is always a lighted path that directs fans of other teams directly to the BBWC.

I'd like to think that every team has a core of good natured, mature and respectable people in their fan base. But I think we all know that every "river" has it's piranhas, doesn't it?

In my experience, the most heated, least civilized and immature arguments on the BBWC occur when chest-thumping idiots butt heads with opposition fans who come trolling for a fight. If the broad channels that allow this trolling were to be shut off, then the trolls who used them would have to look harder for their opportunities. Most of them simply don't have the patience to persue their trivial goals that far. They give up, and move toward easier avenues of childish diversion.

There was one other reason that the early days of the BBH remained blissfully free of braggarts and trolls: The original name was the Big Blue Gentlemens Crew. I think that most people probably assumed that this was some kind of upscale strip-club site.

Normally porn is a fabulous attractor on the internet. But, since we are "Gentlemen", and the site doesn't scream "College Girls Behaving Badly", the porn mongers just kept on surfing by.

I like things the way they are. I don't know how we can bring in more people without risking a replay of the BBWC situation. But right now, I have to go log onto CGBB and get my fix before lunch.

pagan43

[TuckerF]

I was a relative newcomer to BBWC when the sniping began,  and I followed the posters who seemed more reasonable than the others on BBWC,  Rich was kind enough to invite me to join here and although I will occaisionally post on allthe boards (BBI included), I consider this board the best and my home of Giants friends

[bamagiantfan]

I think the title of the post says it all, "To All Members." It doesn't say, "To All Posters."

As American Express likes to say, membership has its privleges, but it also has responsibilities for appropriate conduct and decorum. I still stop by other boards regularly but rarely post anymore. The responses aren't as knowledgable and respectful as they are here. They are often ill-informed but more importantly they can be condescending, rude, or worse on those boards.

I've had several instances here where after much heated debate in a thread, a fellow poster and I started to get a little rough with each other. In every case we took it off the board and discussed our conduct in personal messages, often trading apologies, and left the discussion with a good ending - even if we still disagreed. That level of class and tolerance just doesn't exist anywhere else. This board is one-of-a-kind, and it is the Members of it (with the help of an appropriate level of moderation from those running the Board) that make it so.

[terrymeisner]

i came over from bbwc and i am like many here and visit other boards, but this is home and has been since its' inception....kudos to rich and the mods for a job well done ....go Giants!!!!!

[MickeyJints]

I just followed who I considered the good and civil posters from the BBWC board to here. I know I don't post much, but I do enjoy reading all of your comments.

[slg11]

Like most others came from BBWC. The tone of that site had changed over the years and many of my old buds came over here.

[DesG89]

pagan

You think the rediculous head butting arguments on BBWC are the worst? You need to go to BBI when someone posts a thread someone finds fault with in some degree. Instead of ignoring said thread and moving on like one should they go out of theor way to belittle the person that started the thread and more people pile on and it starts an unneccasry argument. And for the most part that site is supposed to be mostly mature adults and if that's true it's sad. or even better a few years back when they had so called "insiders" to feed the masses tidbits of info especially around the free agent period. Doubters would be raked across the coals

[Bill Brown]

I came from the BBWC board soon after Rich and the others started this board.  When this one was starting the BBWC had turned into a board that was way out of control.  It seemed to me that the "old timers" were being trashed by a whole lot of new posters.  I still go to the other board and it does seem to have settled down with a bunch of regular posters.  As you can see by my stats, I only post on rare occasions but I consider this board home and I am here reading every day.  For that I thank you all.

Bill

[nygnts4ever]

I was signed as a FA from BBI.  Relative noobie to boards at the time....somehow found myself on BBI for a little while and was noticed by Mighty....all the stars were aligned and there quite possibly was a little divine intervention involved...

Have seriously never looked back until this evening (because if this thread)....still have BBI saved in My Favorites, but have not been there once since becoming a Member here.

After reading many of the other posts, I feel extremely fortunate to be able to call myself a Member.  I love the level of discussions that I have access to here.  Like most posters, I have been in some "semi-heated" conversations....I always try my best to preface most of my comments with IMO....that's all I have, is my opinion.

I like the idea of controlled growth.  In most cases it proves to be the best path.  But I also recognize that with all growth comes new questions...