March Madness and Other Important Matters

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Off Topic
Posted on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 10:46:09 AM EST
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My old friends know this is one of my favorite times of the year - the NCAA tournament bracket comes out tonight, March Madness begins.

Who will you be rooting for? And for those who have degrees in bracketology, who do you predict for the 4 No. 1 Seeds?

Games are being played today that could determine the 4 No. 1 seeds. Here are my choices - Ohio State (win or lose over Wisconsin today), Kansas (win or lose over Texas today), UCLA (despite 2 straight losses to end their regular season), Florida (if they beat Arkansas OR if NC State beats North Carolina). Two teams that might be whining about this? Wisconsin and the Tar Heels. They could win and still be 2 seeds.

This is an Open Thread. Feel free to bring other very important issues to the table.

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March Madness and Other Important Matters | 36 comments (36 topical)

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March madness? (5.00 / 4) (#1)
by LarryInNYC on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 11:51:37 AM EST

Do you have an excuse for the other eleven months of the year? :-)

: Heh (5.00 / 2) (#5)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 12:00:41 PM EST

March 17th (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by Che's Lounge on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 11:51:56 AM EST

next Saturday, is St. Patrick's day, and a huge march on the Pentagon is planned.

OH S**T! I forgot to set my clocks!

Next Weekend should be A-Political (5.00 / 2) (#3)
by Slado on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 11:57:23 AM EST

Next Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday should be reserved for College Basketball.

The greatest sporting event in the world(IMHO) will take place for the next 3 weekends and millions of fans will cheer, agonize, celebrate and enjoy the weekend of unforgettable moments all leading up to the "One Shining Moment" send off in the end.

It's great.

Hope my Commodores can replicate the magic they had in 2003. Hope the SEC shows again why they're the best confrence in the country and hope everyone has DirecTV like me so they can watch every game at the same time!

BTD I hope you have this package or a bar seat reserved for the weekend because this year could be the craziest yet!

I root for the Gators (5.00 / 1) (#4)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 12:00:10 PM EST

and the SEC generally.


Really? (5.00 / 3) (#9)
by LarryInNYC on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 12:17:03 PM EST

The SEC has a basketball team? Hard to imagine all those suits running around the court. I'd be afraid to pass the ball for fear of being charged with insider trading.


: Heh (5.00 / 1) (#12)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 12:20:54 PM EST

Do you? (none / 0) (#8)
by jimakaPPJ on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 12:13:54 PM EST

Please tell me that isn't true..


Please do not even scare me with the thought (5.00 / 1) (#13)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 12:21:41 PM EST

that the words Gator Nation mean anything to you.


: No. Thank God. (5.00 / 1) (#33)
by jimakaPPJ on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 07:35:13 PM EST

I am the hated UT.
Good luck until we meet.

I think all the games will be online live (5.00 / 1) (#6)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 12:01:34 PM EST

as well.


As a Californian (5.00 / 1) (#10)
by Pithy Cherub on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 12:19:39 PM EST

UCLA must shake it off and dominate. As a person born in Cheeseland, well,lactose intolerant but have fond hopes for them.

Gators, hmmmm, Gators...

: Yes (5.00 / 2) (#14)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 12:23:48 PM EST

The defending national champions in football and basketball.
Those Gators.

I wish... (5.00 / 2) (#17)
by joliberal on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 01:40:05 PM EST

I could concentrate on things like basketball right now. Instead I am preparing for finals in anatomy and physiology and microbiology. I am a returning student so the hard part is that I have to compete against 19yo, with their fresh neurons and speedy synapses.

: Yes (none / 0) (#25)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 03:06:08 PM EST

The View From Madison (5.00 / 1) (#19)
by TChris on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 01:52:49 PM EST

The Badgers, of course, to win it all.

: Beat the Buckeyes today first (5.00 / 0) (#22)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 03:04:01 PM EST

: Beat the Buckeyes today first (5.00 / 1) (#24)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 03:04:35 PM EST

BTD... (5.00 / 1) (#28)
by Teresa on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 05:16:26 PM EST

Your Gators got the overall number one seed. I saw some brackets that had them as a number two so they must have really impressed the committee with their tournament performance.

Good luck (and go SEC!)

BTD (none / 0) (#7)
by jimakaPPJ on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 12:13:14 PM EST

You now have open theads??

Who knew?

: Open Theads? (none / 0) (#11)
by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 12:20:23 PM EST

What's with the new round of censorship? (none / 0) (#15)
by roy on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 01:23:33 PM EST

Since TalkLeft switched to Scoop and enabled comment ratings, I've seen maybe 1-2 comments per week get rated to 0 and hidden. Almost all were hidden for good reason -- spam advertisements for other sites, totally empty of content, or wildly offensive use of profanity or slurs.

In the last couple days, the number of hidden comments has jumped. Jim's got 7 hidden comments, not counting a handful that I already un-hid by rating back up. IMO, some of Jim's others should be unhidden, too, but I'd rather open a discussion than silently become Jim's personal megaphone.

(The above may look like gibberish to some of you. If you haven't been made a trusted user by the system, there's nothing to indicate that comments can be or have been hidden.)

From the Trusted User Guidelines:

Please use your "zero" rating with care! It is only for use on comments that are wholly content-free. If you think the poster is clueless, or an idiot, or you just don't agree with them, that is not grounds for a zero rating. Zero is for comments that are offensive, script-generated, or otherwise content-free and intended solely to annoy and/or abuse other readers.

It looks like we've started censoring comments for being merely dumb. Some of the hidden comments are borderline (personal insults), but most are the sort of lame-assed stuff that serves a purpose by fueling discussion.

(It's worth clarifying that I'm NOT writing on behalf of any site admins. No person designated me as "trusted". I get to see hidden comments become Scoop did the math and saw that my comments tend to be rated up if at all, and it decided to expose itself to me.)

And Jim, sorry for writing about you behind your back, so to speak. I have a hunch you'll weigh in here if it gets interesting, so it'll even out.

Democracy? (5.00 / 1) (#16)
by squeaky on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 01:36:12 PM EST

Well roy, even though I find most of ppj's comments inane, I have not given him zeros. But since someone did and feels that they were offensive, you should continue to give them a push to make them visible again.

Others may be honestly zero rating ppj in keeping with the guidelines. As long as you have the power to 'vote' why not use it as you see fit.

Peaches was unzeroing for a while, guess he gave up on ppj. No wonder.


: Perhaps (none / 0) (#18)
by squeaky on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 01:42:58 PM EST

The new proliferation of zero's are from the dkos crowd. They seem to have less tolerance than has been the case here. I had a comment disappeared at dkos once and was stunned as it was not offensive as it was contrary to the self-congratulation going on in that particular thread.

: squeaky (none / 0) (#30)
by jimakaPPJ on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 06:08:02 PM EST

Well, since you guys don't want to debate Brit Hume, I can see how you tremble at the sight of my moniker.

That has been fixed (5.00 / 1) (#20)
by Jeralyn on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 02:59:00 PM EST

Only me, TChris, Big Tent and LNILR can now give 0 ratings which will hide a comment. I thought it already was set up that way, but apparently not. It's now changed, so commenters cannot rate a zero.


Makes More Sense (5.00 / 1) (#21)
by squeaky on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 03:00:41 PM EST

It's still letting me 0-rate comments (5.00 / 1) (#26)
by roy on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 03:36:25 PM EST

That sounds like an improvement, but I just hid this one.


Yes, but (5.00 / 1) (#27)
by squeaky on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 03:45:23 PM EST

It is still on the thread.


: You may be special (5.00 / 1) (#29)
by roy on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 06:01:30 PM EST

I suspect it's because you're a trusted user and your preferences are set to show you hidden comments.
I still see it, too, if the Show Hidden Comments options is set to Yes (which is how I normally have it), but not if I have it set to No (which approximates the behavior for non-trusted users).
If yours is set to "Yes" or "Show until I've rated", I would expect you to be able to see it, regardless of whether non-trusted users can.

I undid it (5.00 / 1) (#34)
by Jeralyn on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 07:56:44 PM EST

and now users can't zero rate comments to hide them. Only I can.


Comment Rating Guidelines (5.00 / 1) (#31)
by Jeralyn on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 07:06:32 PM EST

Note that there isn't a rating for 'I disagree'. If you disagree with something in a comment, post a reply saying so (and why).

The lowest rating is one. The highest is five. You can see who is doing the rating by clicking on the rating/number in any given comment.

If someone is routinely giving "1" because they don't like a particular commenter, that is not right.

Let me know by e-mail and I will erase all their ratings (the only control I have.)

Jimakappj does not deserve to a 1 rating because you disagree with him. He is a member of this community as much as everyone else.

There should be no trusted users other than me. If that's incorrect, I'll have it changed.


trusted vs. untrusted (5.00 / 1) (#32)
by Jeralyn on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 07:29:27 PM EST

That's a silly distinction and one that can be too easily abused. I'm looking into eliminating this.


Confused (none / 0) (#35)
by squeaky on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 09:19:54 PM EST

i can understand a 5 rating, as something well said or strong agreement, but what gets a 1 rating other than something strongly disagreeable? Atrocious grammer? I am not trying to be snarky, it's just that I am unclear about the lower ratings or the point of ratings in general.


Comment Ratings (5.00 / 1) (#36)
by Jeralyn on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 09:32:13 PM EST

Low rated comments are those that tend to be inflammatory or trollish and anti-community or just obnoxious.

Consider whether or not the comment is well-written, well-reasoned, informative, funny, etc -- if you highly recommend others read it, give it a 4 or 5.

If you received a low rating, you should ask yourself what you did to get such a response, and abstain from doing it again. It's also bad form to rate in vengeance, or to "modstorm" users.

A 4 or a 5 is a comment you are recommending others to read.

The point is, don't just lowball a comment because it comes from someone with an opposing viewpoint from you. There should be something else objectionable about it to give it a low rating.


: Thanks (none / 0) (#37)
by squeaky on Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 10:04:29 PM EST

That is clearer. Looking at the ratings others have given seems to help as well. Still is a bit murky but I think that is the nature of the beast.