With all due respect, play2cool, this is why it is a good idea to lurk for a while in a forum before starting to post. In particular, it is a good idea to read existing threads and posts -- and contribute to a few -- before starting your own threads. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying your well-thought-out contributions are not appreciated -- they most certainly are! -- but I think if you had spent an hour or so reading, you would have seen a few things that would have been helpful to you:
1) Although a great group of guys, this is a very abrasive and sarcastic board. It just is. You have to expect it and deal with it, or you won't like it here at all. We are always here for each other when the shit hits the fan, but we are not a nice group of people by any stretch of the imagination.
2) In addition to being sarcastic, we also don't take ourselves very seriously here, so it is quite possible you will receive ironic, facetious responses even if people agree with you.
3) A casual review of existing threads would show that a lot of potential trades have already been hashed, rehashed, and in many cases, thoroughly repudiated here. In particular, members here tend to be pretty hostile to the notion of trading future draft picks for players.
Your proposals have been among the most well-reasoned and well-written we've seen here, but they were bound to provoke a rather strong reaction on this board. Spending a while lurking and soaking up the vibe of this place would have prepared you for that, so you wouldn't have felt the need to be so defensive when the reaction came. Every online community has its own unique culture, its own "in crowd" and its own renegades. Lurking can also help you absorb the culture and figure out where you fit in, helping you to avoid unnecessarily stepping on toes or committing some unintended infraction. I'm not saying you did any such thing, just that a bit of reading would have made you more familiar with who we are as a group.
These are just a few hints to help you integrate here. You're going to have to develop a slightly thicker skin if you want to get along here. Otherwise you probably won't like many of us, and you'll hate our resident peanut gallery of assholes, including dakotaT, nerdmann, and myself.
Welcome to the boards. I look forward to seeing more of your contributions in the future. But feel free to participate in current threads in addition to creating your own.
Originally Posted by: Nonstopdrivel