New Positions for Old Favorites

So, it's sum-sum-summatime here at MHH and the blisteringly hot days have everybody's fuses short and tempers flaring.  So the MileHighHockeyBraintrust (which looks really cool when embroidered across a t-shirt at nipple level, trust me) were kicking around some ideas for lightening the mood, considering some feedback, and overall trying to improve the reader (and staff) experience.  While unrepentant butthurt is a probably a lucrative Japanese fetish it is not typically a viable way in growing a healthy online hockey fan community.

So, we considered some options:

• Option the First:  Fuck it.  Burn this mother to the ground.  Scorched earth.  "...Nothing but rubble, ash, and death. A land only good for one thing. Graves."

• Option 2: Move to New Jersey.  I hear there's good money in hockey in the Garden State.
• Option C: Install some new policies and enforce some old ones.  Kinda like Lockout '05.

Well, moving costs, they are a bitch and the state minimum for arson is 15 months (for a class 6 felony since we're morally obligated to light Jibbles on fire).  So we went with the last one.

First step in the New Mile High Order? Remind everybody of the Rules.  Stimulating Reading. Pretty simple really. No biggie there, right?  Our unofficial but still a good idea policy of no politics or religion are still in effect too.  You know, keep it classy.

Then we decided that since some personality issues, perceptions of personality issues, past history, lack-o-humour, general bag-o-douchery, and mild ill-will may still abound from time to time, we'd put some measures in place to help squash them a little better.

So to that end, we've named our own half a waffle, A.J. Haefele to the position of Über Moderator of Comment Threads Where People Get a Little Out of Control.  Or Über-Mod for short.  I've been assured that he will not start wearing round spectacles with tinted lenses or referring to everybody as "Man", man.  If he either sees or gets notification of threads gone awry, he will shut them down. Explanations will be given when necessary and entire posts will be shut down, bannage will happen, and there will be no joy in Mudville if people don't play well with others.  He plans on drawing a hard line and attempting to apply some consistency.  This doesn't mean that other staff members can't trim, flag, warn, or otherwise manage the threads.  It just means that the buck will stop with A.J. on these issues. If you've got any questions or need to report a flaming thread, A.J.'s electronic mail address is listed in his profile.

Which brings us to our next position change: me.  I'm pretty much done with Mile High Hockey at this point in my life.  Two young kids, small business ownership, a smoking hot wife, and the need to see daylight have taken their toll on my contributions to this place.  I've also grown a rather low tolerance for bullshit both in the real world and on-line. I love writing previews and recaps, I love doing the Anatomies (even if they take for-ev-er), and in general love this site but I'm not around much. I wish it was different because some of my best friends are members of this place and I'm still thankful that Joe and Dave considered me one of the lynchpins of the community with my infrequent writing and breath-taking anger management issues.  But this place doesn't run itself and Cheryl and Co. can still use my help in a very important role: Ombudsman.  Go ahead, I'll wait while you Google it...

Here. You're so lazy...

a person (such as a government official or an employee) who investigates complaints and tries to deal with problems fairly

So while my writings and insight-filled comments may continue to dwindle, I plan on trying to help as much as needed in a different way.  So if you think that a member(s) of the staff have done something that shows favoritism or somebody seems to be getting away with something because nobody will call them on it, let me know.  Be precise with the complaint and let me know what the issue is.  I will evaluate it, share my findings/observations with the necessary staff and notify SBN's bigwigs (when necessary) if there is any hesitation to implement change or otherwise satisfactorily address the issue.  If necessary I'll do a quick post to let the site know about the issue. This goes for the overall tone of the site as well.  If you think we're sliding toward Wingin' It in the Hockey Wilderness, I encourage you to bring that kind of thing to my attention as well.  We all want this to be the best Avalanche site on the web with a vibrant, energetic, knowledgeable community that looks forward to being here.The email address for the Ombudsman address is pretty simple too: mhhombudsman@gmail.com.

This is a serious issue that Cheryl and the rest of the staff want to address but my genuine hope is that it won't descend into a complaint box for malcontents and trolls.  If you have a specific gripe against me based on MY behavior, that is the one and only time to go to another member of the MHH Staff with it.  Everything else goes through me. I promise to take every serious issue seriously.  I'm going to approach the site with a clean slate and try to help everybody move forward.

Hopefully this new structure will smooth away some of the recent issues, improve the overall community and user experience, and help continue to grow and support the great site we have here.