Welcome to ILWT! Benefits, Rules, & Guidelines

updated on Jun 29, 2009 10:43 PM EDT

Hi! Hallo! Hola! Hej! Haloo! Shalom! Salaam! Ni Hao! Bonjour! Buon giorno! Nazdar! Zdravstvuite! Annyong ha shimnikka! Dobryy den'! Namaste! Merhaba! Kalimera! Etc.!

Welcome to In Lou We Trust, a blog about the New Jersey Devils! The focus of this site is to comment on today's news, talk about last night's game, analyze how the Devils are doing in season and in the offseason. Time from time I like to talk about league-wide issues. However, the main topic is New Jersey Devils hockey.

I want to thank you for checking out the site - be it for your first time or if you have been a long time reader since the Blogspot days. I would like to invite you to become a member of the blog. SBNation provides many features for those who sign up for this blog or the 200+ other sports blogs available on the network. All for the low cost of nothing. Let me break down the Benefits for members:

Comment on posts. You've read my many, many words on a topic, now offer your own thoughts! Perhaps you want to agree with me, disagree with me, point out something I got wrong, or just add an additional thought about something I said somewhere in the post. I tend to check comments frequently and respond to them. I always appreciate it when a conversation breaks out over a topic.
Create a FanPost. A FanPost is basically where we give you most of the keys to the SBN Blogging Platform to let you come up with your own posts. Maybe you want to talk about something that hasn't been covered by me. Maybe you've seen a prospect play firsthand and want to give your own report. Maybe you've done some statistical analysis about something Devils-related. Maybe you just want to give your own opinion but with more effort than you would have in a comment. These are all valid reasons to make FanPosts.

If you'd like to get started on making FanPosts, other SBN blogs have come up with some pretty comprehensive guides on how to make one. Al at Bleed Cubbie Blue has the definitive definition between FanPosts and FanShots. Pension Plan Puppets explains how to tag posts so more people can find them - and how to share them through Twitter. Some (very) good examples of FanPosts on ILWT include this one about long time Devils play by play announcer Doc Emrick by R_Adragna; as well as this short draft preview by thejerseydevil. Basically, if you put a good amount of effort into it, it provides some insight not seen on the front page, and you write it fairly well - people will comment on it, recommend it, and I can even put it on the front page - all under your name/handle! OK, it's not like you win a big pile of money for it, but it's a lot better than having it in the middle of a comment on page 2 buried between a bunch of meaningless noise.
Create a FanShot. Maybe you don't want to write a full post on a subject; perhaps you just want to pass on an image, a video, a quote, or a link to something interesting. FanShots are set up specifically for this purpose. Basically if it's Devils-related or related to something posted recently, make a FanShot and like with posts and FanPosts, you can comment and recommend it as necessary. Again, it'll be under your name/handle and if it's interesting enough to warrant further attention - I can put it on the front page.
See Comments Update as You Go! Too many comments flying fast? Started something, but got up and away for a little bit, and not sure what you missed? Don't worry! The SBN platform will note when new comments appear so you can read what's going on and taylor your comment accordingly! It's quite convenient.
Recommend & Flag Posts Did you see a great comment, FanPost, or FanShot? Recommend it! Hit that little Rec button at the bottom of the post and it'll be Recommended. With another Recs, it'll be a Featured Post and will be, well, more prominently featured on the site. Did you see something inappropriate or just outright terrible - a comment, FanPost, or FanShot that broke the rules? Flag it! This way I can see it and deal with it accordingly.

So those are the benefits of becoming a member! Now I'm sure what you're thinking is, "Hey, John, I get the benefits, but what are the Rules & Guidelines? Well, I'm glad you asked. Let's start with the Rules. I'll try to keep it as simple as possible. Here's the quick and dirty summary - actual details follow:

Note: So far I haven't had too many issues with these; but if this site is going to be a world-class Devils blog, some order needs to be established.

To sum all this up in advance, if you keep your comments, FanPosts, and FanShots clean, respectful to others, and relevant to the subject of this blog, you're good to go!

KEEP IT CLEAN. This means no cursing. I'll let the occasional "damn" or "hell" or "jackass" slide in a comment - namely for GameThreads; but please, nothing gratuitous. I want everyone to enjoy In Lou We Trust and to participate in it. Therefore, the language will stay as clean as a newspaper. If you want a metric for language, there it is. Newspaper-friendly.

Likewise, there will be nothing considered "adult" or NSFW posted in terms of images or links. If you want to link to something else that has some bad langauge (e.g. a video to a song, perhaps), OK, just tag it with a (NSFW: language) or something. But that is the only exception I will allow. We're not getting graphic up in this blog. And I don't know why you'd want to here, there's only tens of thousands of other places online for that sort of thing. For the most part, this will remain a squeaky clean Devils blog.

BE RESPECTFUL OF OTHERS AND THEIR CONTENT. No bigotry - racism, sexism, etc. - whatsoever. There are zero exceptions for this. I don't want to know about context or humor or irony, it will not be tolerated at all.

Likewise, I will also not allow any personal attacks or beefs to happen on this site. I don't know why anyone would want to do this on a Devils site, but that stuff will not be allowed. Disagree with the comment, pick it apart for being as boneheaded as much as you want, but don't pick on the poster. In Lou We Trust will not be a conduit for personal call-outs or stupid drama or so on.

This also includes no trolling whatsoever. Not only no trolling here at In Lou We Trust; but also at any other SBN Blogs. We're a network and truth be told, you have to be pretty sad to want to troll a bunch of sports blogs. If you continually give someone else grief, I will not hesitate to ban you too. In this way, I will also not allow multiple alternate accounts used for this sort of thing - and besides, why would you need multiple accounts? Surely, you're not going to just respond to your own stuff (and if you do, A) why would you take the time to do this on a blog and B) I should ban you out on principle for that. In fact - I will!)

Do not post illegal content like streams to games or anything like that. That's, well, illegal and not allowed here at all. Do not post spam or spam content from elsewhere - spam is disrespectful to everyone online.

Lastly, this may be more suited for FanPosts and FanShots, but plagiarism is not allowed either. Link to the original source when you can - either directly or to the source. If you read something in The Hockey News, toss a link to THN and state you read this info. at THN. If you got something from a message board, then link to the message board post. If you got

KEEP IT RELEVANT. This is a Devils site. Keep the comments appropriate to the post at hand and keep the FanPosts and FanShots Devils-related. If the FanPost or FanShot is more hockey-related than necessarily Devils related, that's perfectly fine. But it's got to be appropriate. I'm willing to consider off-topic posts for off-topic things, but there isn't a need for this as of now - so you'll just have to keep it all on topic.

Also, keep the gossip to a complete minimum. We write so much about a player's performance, their future, how much they should be paid, and so on. If you read about a bit, you'll notice that I don't even attempt the subject. I ask you to kindly please allow them their personal and private space.

This is not a site for your political, religious, business, musical, escaping from Macedonia, philosophical, etc. views. Yes, those things can be interesting. And yes, from time to time, these larger subjects may be part of a post here. But this is not a soapbox for your personal views on the world. This blog can be a soapbox for your views on the Devils and even hockey. There's a time and a place for all of those political, religious, business, etc. things. ILWT is the place for talking Devils hockey.

To sum all this up, if you keep your comments, FanPosts, and FanShots clean, respectful to others, and relevant to the subject of this blog, you're good to go!

As far as Guidelines go, they are really my suggestions for anyone looking to put a good foot forward. I have five suggestions - the most important one being at the end.

NO LIES. Don't just write something that isn't true - like reporting news happened with no proof of it actually occurring. I abhor rumor sites because they are so wrong and they know they are wrong, but publish their wrongness to get attention. People just don't like being misled and so I highly suggest not posting garbage rumors or news without a link to some source confirming it.

ENGLISH. I want to invite everyone from around the world to contribute the fact is that the majority of readers and writers here use English. So I highly, highly, highly recommend posting in English. If it's not your first language, I understand, just give it a go with Google Translator and everyone please be a bit more understanding with that. If it is your first language, please try and write in it. Othawize, ppl will think ur dmb I ct have not underSTAAAND wht u SAY!!!1111! (Note: That was painful to write.) I'm not asking for perfection (I'm definitely not perfect!), but I'm asking for an effort to be made to write something others can actually understand.

PUT IN SOME EFFORT. Not every comment has to be brilliantly insightful or completely perfect. If English isn't your first language and Google Translator gives you something odd, I understand. We all make mistakes. But if you're doing a FanPost or a FanShot, make the most of your chance to shine. Talk about something I haven't covered. Approach something in another direction. Don't just take 5 minutes to write a FanPost; take your time if you have to do so. The result will be something you can be proud of and something I will hopefully and proudly put on the Front Page.

PAY ATTENTION. Read the posts I write before commenting. Read other's comments and posts before continuing on. If you just keep commenting for the sake of commenting, not paying attention to what's going on, you're going to look like a fool. And I can't help you with that.

GO DEVILS. Support the Devils! Passion for the New Jersey Hockey Club is definitely a big plus! And you can have that wherever you are and wherever you go, as long as you support the Devils! Trust in Lou and hope for glory on the ice. That's the best way to fit in. Then again, if you're already here (and you read this far), you probably already have it!

Any questions can be e-mailed to me. Do not post questions about rules and guidelines elsewhere, keep it to e-mail communication. I'll keep you all posted of any changes to all of this.