There’s probably a little red flashy light that goes off at RTT headquarters when a post goes over 100 comments an hour.

BTW, imagine what that thread would have been like over at RBR?

While that fracas in my Fanpost got downright hilarious and somewhat congenial after a while, I don’t enjoy having to constantly defend Lane Kiffin and the Vols, which I will always do as long as I feel like he’s doing right by the program, the university, and the fans, and as long as our players are giving everything they got.

So, I’ll react to them each and everytime until they stop or until something is done about it otherwise.

In other words, the situation today would have never occured had Zoltar’s post been taken down immediately. If I’m not going to be able to vehemently defend my coach, my team, and my school, then I don’t want to have to wake up and see garbage like that on a site I go to for all things Vols.

It wasn’t that one comment thread at all. That this happened at the same time was largely incidental; it was the result of a discussion amongst the three of us, and it just timed out that way.

The point was that most of the discussions were getting bogged down. If it’s contained in an occasional thread here and there, it doesn’t get in the way of the rest of the discussions, that’s perfectly fine. Like I said before, we all have different approaches to our fandom. Some people love getting into the free-for-alls, and that’s fine. It just can’t overload everything to the point that those who don’t like it can’t get away from it. That drives people away and hurts RTT in the long run.

And we’re not blaming anybody in this. What happened was a confluence of events that began loooong before Alabama week and have simply happened to build up to today. Heck, some of the initiating discussions have long since ended, but had spawned off some of the other things that led to today.

And a part of it is that RTT has been growing quite a bit recently, and we as admins may have to change how we run things. For so long, it was like a family and we really did little more than an occasional Fulmerizing, but with growth comes new dynamics, and we’re learning to adjust to them on the fly. That’s another one of those backroom discussions, though, and that’s something we’re trying to flesh out as we go.

Did I tell you all that I appreciate you? I do. :-)

I was joking about the Troll Trap. We don’t want them here for anything.

BTW, was it not cool to link to the PTI clip? I didn’t think it would attract so many Bammers.

I think VolBrian was correct in coining this the Great Bammer Troll Invasion of 2009. But I think it was more like an infestation

Hey, I promised I’d be back tonight (in volbrian’s trollbait thread) for the last time until next year and saw that the threads were locked. I do think most people were cordial, and while a few individual posts got personal (and I admit I shouldn’t have responded to those… stupid troll bait! Ya got me, volbrian.), most of it was in good fun. I did submit a few purposeful jabs (example) but didn’t know it was getting that out of hand here.

Being from Tennessee, I respect most of the fans here (and most were respectfully to me), and apologize for anything I’ve done that got out of hand.

Here’s to hoping I don’t need heart meds after the game next year. Don’t let the Bama blogs know this, but I hope the players keep buying into Kiffin like they have; it should make for a stronger team and a better game.

but don’t blame me for the degradation of the environment in your site, Brian. There’s no way that my Kiffin post should have been taken down on it’s own merits. Seriously, I challenged your coach to call a press conference in which he would intentionally get suspended by the SEC. Are you so defensive that you can’t recognize lighthearted teasing by a rival?

It’s like you can’t say a bleepin thing over here (if you’re not a UT fan) without getting spammed with “troll troll troll” and pics of trolls by certain posters whether it’s deserved or not. Which is SO ironic since Brian and a few others are constantly making cracks about Alabamians being illiterate and other such nonsense or saying stuff like

This leads to delusional morons like Zoltar here because it is all they have in their life (at least sports-wise, they will still always have racism). He thinks he actually made sense in his other post and I pity him for that. Their education is pathetic here as well.

For the record, just because this is your UT site doesn’t absolve you from any trollish behavior.

I’m done, move on. If you want to trash Kiffin, by all means do so. It’s not funny to any UT fan, and it doesn’t really earn you points with anybody that I know of besides the people back at your site where the stuff belongs, but I guess it helps you feel better about yourself.

So, by all means carry on because I’m done with it all.

In other words, piss off.

Everyone needs to take a deep breath. No one is saying that other teams’ fans can’t come over here and post. However, if the point of the post is to throw gas on a fire, it really doesn’t add to the discussion. Hey, I love good give and take when it is obviously in fun. Like Hooper said, no one in particular should be blamed. I also agree with Brian in that I don’t want to feel like I have to defend being a Vols fan while visiting RTT. It becomes less fun. For the same reason, I don’t go and post purposefully inflammatory comments on other team sites. I look forward to anyone coming and posting on RTT — even if it is to share an opposing viewpoint. It’s all in the presentation, however. Anyway, that’s my 2 cents (like anyone asked..ha!).