Should good teams schedule more good nonconference opponents?

[robertearle]

and if you're going to constantly make personal attacks then it's less likely I'm going to reply to you.

[/B]

Works for me.

 

[TitleIXHockey]

Works for me.

I'm not going to let you bully me or anyone else here. Responding with constant digs the way you did drives off other posters. I can understand that it's a bit tough when there aren't that many people to begin with and any time you post it is going to be a large percentage of the small number overall replies, but you went over the line again and again with personal attacks. I've posted similar questions before and they got no replies, so I opted for a more discussion-spurring title and expanded in the body of the post.

A number of people have replied, many of them taking a bit of chagrin at my choices, but you're the only one who's made it personal and been a bully and a problem. I don't know if you follow me on Twitter a lot, but I post my picture and generally try to meet people when I go to WoHo events. I am not that hard to find at the Frozen Four. Do I need to worry about you assaulting me?

 

[robertearle]

I'm not going to let you bully me or anyone else here. Responding with constant digs the way you did drives off other posters. I can understand that it's a bit tough when there aren't that many people to begin with and any time you post it is going to be a large percentage of the small number overall replies, but you went over the line again and again with personal attacks. I've posted similar questions before and they got no replies, so I opted for a more discussion-spurring title and expanded in the body of the post.

A number of people have replied, many of them taking a bit of chagrin at my choices, but you're the only one who's made it personal and been a bully and a problem. I don't know if you follow me on Twitter a lot, but I post my picture and generally try to meet people when I go to WoHo events. I am not that hard to find at the Frozen Four. Do I need to worry about you assaulting me?

"so I opted for a more discussion-spurring title"; some might call that "trolling". I'd agree.

(I thought you weren't going to respond to me...)

 

[TitleIXHockey]

"so I opted for a more discussion-spurring title"; some might call that "trolling". I'd agree.

(I thought you weren't going to respond to me...)

What I actually said was:
"if you're going to constantly make personal attacks then it's less likely I'm going to reply to you."

Your response suggests a tacit acknowledgement that that's what you were doing. I feel like the way you act online, you're a potential safety threat in person. I don't know if you go to events or not, but like I said, I do and I'm easy to find so I'll be taking steps at events in the near future to ensure my personal safety. Thanks.

 

[robertearle]

What I actually said was:
"if you're going to constantly make personal attacks then it's less likely I'm going to reply to you."

Your response suggests a tacit acknowledgement that that's what you were doing.

Only if you're, you know, insane.

No, it does no such thing.

 

[TitleIXHockey]

I realize y'all don't want to read that, but I think that when someone comes at me repeatedly I have a right to push back and wondering if it's going to escalate is justified. RobertEarle's posts started as a decent pushback and then he quickly escalated and made it ugly. I am editing his posts quoted below for brevity, scroll back if you want to read the full ones.

At the point when I called him out, RobertEarle had 12 of 51 replies in the thread by my count, several of them sarcastic, aggressive, personal, or all three. RobertEarle can point out his responses to ARM and others as evidence that he was operating in good faith, but I think that juxtaposition makes it even more clear that his replies were unnecessarily personal and agressive towards me.

After the last one I decided I wasn't going to tolerate RobertEarle's bullying anymore and pushed back, which he responded poorly to. I suppose I could have tried harder to deescalate, but I'm not sure how you deescalate something like that without outright capitulation. I felt that the number and content of RobertEarle's posts were a bit of a red flag and, considering that I make myself easy to find at women's hockey events, I became concerned that RobertEarle's aggressive online conduct would spill over into real life if he noticed me. It's like geez, if he comes at me this much online, what happens if he recognizes me in Duluth or something?

I don't know if he follows my Twitter or not to the point where he'd be able to do that, but I prefer not to take chances. It's a lot easier to address things now by asking if I have to worry than it is to dodge a fist I might not see coming in Duluth or wherever. I asked him point blank if I had to worry, and he made a snarky comment, for what it's worth. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but I think in cases like these, prevention is key and cure is too late. We've seen gamergate, swatting, and Kyle Rittenhouse. Online aggression spills over into real life all the time and I would rather make certain I'm not going to be a statistic of it than assume "eh, he's probably fine" even though he probably is.

Even if we accept the absurd notion that neutral site games "don't count" and home games "don't count" as "good nonconference opponents"

I think your premise is absurd, and I think UW's record under that absurd premise is actually pretty good.

This is uncalled for and a complete fabrication. I never said certain games did or didn't count, I highlighted a specific subset of games for discussion.

Your premise is absurd, and your 'methodology' as to what 'counts' and doesn't 'count' is ridiculous.

This came after I explained which games I was looking at further. Unnecessarily aggressive. At this point, RobertEarle has replied several times to where it felt like he was drowning out the rest of the thread.

Yup, that's it. Mark Johnson is worried about getting to 20 wins, so as to keep his job safe. You've nailed it.
SMH....

I personally didn't completely agree with the post RobertEarle is responding to here, but it didn't warrant such an unnecessarily and aggressive answer, especially to someone I haven't seen post very often. If this is the type of response they get, they're not going to want to come here.

Sorry, but according to "the rules" such four-team weekends don't "count".

If they did, then Wisconsin games vs Northeastern and BU and Robert Morris would have to be acknowledged, and then the premise looks even worse.

Another sarcastic jab at something I never said.

 

[Lindsay]

I can imagine. Even those of us who started out with little in the way of an imagination now understand that we live in a world where a six-year-old student can shoot a teacher. It helps me to remember that the same world also produces people like Sydney McLaughlin, Anna Shcherbakova, and those we follow on the ice.

I believe I see a version of the best in humanity when I watch kids play, usually at public spaces. Inevitably there is always some big kid helping the little ones, or they’ve all organized themselves into some inclusive game that has no restraints on who can play. Or their reaction when someone gets a minor hurt etc is just so compassionate and frankly better than what some adults can muster.

 

[pgb-ohio]

I've posted similar questions before and they got no replies, so I opted for a more discussion-spurring title and expanded in the body of the post.

I have a lot of sympathy for this specific point. No doubt "All 17" of us have had the experience of putting a lot of effort into a post, then getting crickets in response. Re-doubling our efforts to respond to legitimate questions is something all of us should take to heart.

At the same time, there is a fine line between discussion-spurring and trolling. Navigating that fine line doesn't really matter to the troll, but it's a real challenge for those who are sincerely hoping for good discussion.

To the Western ear, the idea that Western teams are dodging Eastern teams is pretty jarring. Our experience is that the exact opposite has been true for a long time. Our grievance probably has more to do with NCAA pairings over the years, rather than regular season scheduling. But in both cases we've faced resistance from teams not wanting to travel West of the Alleghenies.

Take a couple of shifts in our skates. With an open mind. I hope you can get of glimpse of why the thread-starting post felt like trolling to many Westerners.


Footnote: It's really cool that you were adventuresome enough to relocate to Seattle. Still, in the world of College Hockey, whether one is an Easterner or Westerner is usually a function of school loyalties rather than current residence. And of course readers will factor in school loyalty when digesting posts.