Seriously, do y'all want a positive vibes only thread?

[top dawg]

1 hour ago, Turtle said:

Moderation of a thread, cant fix human nature.

But it can help clean up the place, and steer it in the right direction. 

Moderation, by it's very nature, is supposed to be about keeping things in the middle. It's about trying to steer people from the extremes towards the center. That way, people can express their opinions without being subjected to sheer clownery.

[frankw]

16 minutes ago, top dawg said:

But it can help clean up the place, and steer it in the right direction. 

Moderation, by it's very nature, is supposed to be about keeping things in the middle. It's about trying to steer people from the extremes towards the center. That way, people can express their opinions without being subjected to sheer clownery.

There's a fine line between steering conversation and dictating thoughts though.

I could see the desire for this tactic if the team were doing okay and the discourse was still volatile. But this team hasn't been in the playoffs in going on 7 years. The last thing fans need is to be told how to deal with losing.

Edited October 21, 2023 by frankw

[top dawg]

27 minutes ago, frankw said:

There's a fine line between steering conversation and dictating thoughts though.

I could see the desire for this tactic if the team were doing okay and the discourse was still volatile. But this team hasn't been in the playoffs in going on 7 years. The last thing fans need is to be told how to deal with losing.

I don't think it's a matter of being told how to deal with losing. Everyone has a right to say their piece, but at the end of the day the Huddle is a football discussion board, not a beat-a-dead-horse board. 

[Waldo]

31 minutes ago, frankw said:

There's a fine line between steering conversation and dictating thoughts though.

I could see the desire for this tactic if the team were doing okay and the discourse was still volatile. But this team hasn't been in the playoffs in going on 7 years. The last thing fans need is to be told how to deal with losing.

Or thinking things are going well or will turn a corner soon. 

This has been a very poorly run team for years so different fans overcompensate in different directions. I can't imagine Cleveland or Detroit fans could scrape much positive vibes together during their long years at the bottom. 

If they want to see more positive and less negative then the team is going to have to prove it's worth giving anything but more derision because that is absolutely what they have earned.

[frankw]

45 minutes ago, top dawg said:

I don't think it's a matter of being told how to deal with losing. Everyone has a right to say their piece, but at the end of the day the Huddle is a football discussion board, not a beat-a-dead-horse board. 

I can agree there are subjects that have reached beaten dead horse status. But if you're referring to Bryce Young well unfortunately unless he pulls a full 180 and looks like a ROTY candidate that poor beaten horse isn't going anywhere. Looking good at home in the Texans game against the #2 pick could make a big difference in building some level of goodwill for the fans though.

[Turtle]

On 10/21/2023 at 1:31 PM, top dawg said:

I don't think it's a matter of being told how to deal with losing. Everyone has a right to say their piece, but at the end of the day the Huddle is a football discussion board, not a beat-a-dead-horse board. 

its a good point - bottom line if the team were performing better on sundays the weekly banter would take on a more optimistic hue.

I think its just a season man, people are bummed right now, and it shows in the sentiment here/local radio etc

[Wes21]

On 10/21/2023 at 1:52 PM, Waldo said:

This has been a very poorly run team for years so different fans overcompensate in different directions. I can't imagine Cleveland or Detroit fans could scrape much positive vibes together during their long years at the bottom

As a longtime Lions fan (since 1980s) that has been on the message boards since the late 90s I can give you some insight.

Barry's Lions thru the 1990's - the team was exciting to watch and they made the playoffs (5) times in those (9) years.  The team won a playoff game in 1991 and a division championship in 1993.  Both are the last time the Lions have done either one of those things.  Oddly enough Lions fans were "tired of being mediocre."  Making the playoff just to get booted in the 1st round year after year was annoying.  In the year 2000 the team was a field goal away from making the playoffs.  Many Lions fans were rooting for the team to lose because they didn't stand a chance in the playoffs.  So what was the point?

2000 thru 2008 (Matt Millen Error) - The fanbase was extremely optimistic thru the start and even middle of this time period.  Fans knew it would take some time to purge old contracts and start over, but at least we were trying to do something other than play mediocre football.  Fans wanted Mooch to be the coach but couldn't get him, so the team settled for his underling Marty Mornighwheg.  Even though the team sucked in 2001 and 2002 there was still hope that the team was building something for Mooch.  Finally, Mooch became available in 2003 and the fanbase went nuts.  This was the dream scenario.  That optimism carried fans thru 2003 and most of the 2004 season.  The 2005 season is when fans gave up hope for Mooch and started getting louder about moving on from Millen as GM.  Then Millen "did something different" by bringing in another new coach (Rod Marinelli) and backing him up with a big name offensive coordinator (Mike Martz).  This bought optimism again thru 2006 and most of the 2007 season.  If you ask Lions fans when they gave up on Coach Rod and the 2008 Lions, it was literally the first drive of the 2008 season.  On the 3rd play of the game Falcons rookie QB Matt Ryan hit a 62 yard bomb for a TD.  The game was 21-0 before the end of the 1st quarter and Lions fans got alot of things accomplished on their honey-do lists that season.  Matt Millen was fired before the end of the season.

2009 thru 2013 - With a new GM (Martin Mayhew), new coach (Jim Schwartz) and new QB (Matt Stafford)...optimism was restored again!  The team was "building something" in 2009 and 2010 that the fans believed in.  Then in 2011 the team overachieved and had the fans living the dream of winning a playoff game.  It didn't happen, but the team was scrappy and battled hard every game.  The 2012 season was seen as a temporary speed bump until the team went on a long losing streak to end the 2013 season.  The team had a losing record for 4 of the 5 seasons in this period but fans were optimistic and hopeful for most of it.

2014 thru 2017 - This was the most success the team had experienced since Barry's 90s teams but for whatever reason the optimism wasn't as high.  It started with the fact that Jim Caldwell was brought in as the coach, and virtually noone was excited about it.  Then the team had an 11-5 season and came within (1) win of taking the division in the final week of the season vs the Packers.  Fans convinced themselves that the team was winning despite Jim Caldwell, not because of him.  The team fired the GM in the middle of the 2015 season and brought in Bob Quinn to replicate "the Patriot Way."  Fans were optimistic because it was inevitable that Caldwell would be fired and a new coach would take over.   After the 2017 season the GM declared "9-7 isn't good enough" and fired Jim Caldwell.  Optimism was restored.  I should also mention that part of the optimism that happened during this time was because long time owner Willie Clay Ford died and his wife took over.  WCF was always the boogyman that fans thought needed to be out of the picture for the team to have any success.

2018 thru 2020 - This is the darkest time that I can remember on the Lions message board.  Fans were excited about bringing in "rocket scientist" Matt Patricia, but that soured quickly.  Patricia is a generally unlikable guy in the way he goes about his business and talks down to reporters and fans.  He also traded away some of the teams best players just so he could eliminate their voices from the locker room (Quandre Diggs, Golden Tate, Darius Slay).  There were varying degrees of optimism thru the 2018 season and to begin the 2019 season.  Midway thru the 2019 season is when fans gave up on Patricia and wanted him gone.  He was clearly being outcoached, so it wasn't just fans hating the losing.  As the team kept losing it became clear how unlikeable Matt Patricia was.  He couldn't even get legit NFL coaches on his staff, he had to dip into the college ranks for guys to come coach for him.  And the fact that noone from the Patriots staff came to coach with him was also a huge red flag.  The end of the 2019 season and all thru the 2020 season is when the message board was an absolute cesspool and they lost alot of members.  If you said a single positive thing about Matt Patricia back in 2018, the thread was bumped and ridiculed.  If you said "let's wait and see, give the guy a chance" the thread was bumped and you were raked over the coals.  It was bad.  And that is when the policy came out that bumping old threads was not allowed.  You could link to them or screenshot a particular post, but never a full bump.

That brings us to the current situation.  Fans were loosely optimistic in 2021 and ready to jump off the ship when the team started 1-6 in 2022.  Winning definitely helps.  But in all of my years following the Lions, the fans have always given a new coaching staff a pass on the first season.  The hate I have seen for Frank Reich and his staff in their first year with a rookie QB is new to me.  The Lions went 2-14 under the same circumstances in 2009 and the fans didn't blink.

[Waldo]

28 minutes ago, Wes21 said:

As a longtime Lions fan (since 1980s) that has been on the message boards since the late 90s I can give you some insight.

Barry's Lions thru the 1990's - the team was exciting to watch and they made the playoffs (5) times in those (9) years.  The team won a playoff game in 1991 and a division championship in 1993.  Both are the last time the Lions have done either one of those things.  Oddly enough Lions fans were "tired of being mediocre."  Making the playoff just to get booted in the 1st round year after year was annoying.  In the year 2000 the team was a field goal away from making the playoffs.  Many Lions fans were rooting for the team to lose because they didn't stand a chance in the playoffs.  So what was the point?

2000 thru 2008 (Matt Millen Error) - The fanbase was extremely optimistic thru the start and even middle of this time period.  Fans knew it would take some time to purge old contracts and start over, but at least we were trying to do something other than play mediocre football.  Fans wanted Mooch to be the coach but couldn't get him, so the team settled for his underling Marty Mornighwheg.  Even though the team sucked in 2001 and 2002 there was still hope that the team was building something for Mooch.  Finally, Mooch became available in 2003 and the fanbase went nuts.  This was the dream scenario.  That optimism carried fans thru 2003 and most of the 2004 season.  The 2005 season is when fans gave up hope for Mooch and started getting louder about moving on from Millen as GM.  Then Millen "did something different" by bringing in another new coach (Rod Marinelli) and backing him up with a big name offensive coordinator (Mike Martz).  This bought optimism again thru 2006 and most of the 2007 season.  If you ask Lions fans when they gave up on Coach Rod and the 2008 Lions, it was literally the first drive of the 2008 season.  On the 3rd play of the game Falcons rookie QB Matt Ryan hit a 62 yard bomb for a TD.  The game was 21-0 before the end of the 1st quarter and Lions fans got alot of things accomplished on their honey-do lists that season.  Matt Millen was fired before the end of the season.

2009 thru 2013 - With a new GM (Martin Mayhew), new coach (Jim Schwartz) and new QB (Matt Stafford)...optimism was restored again!  The team was "building something" in 2009 and 2010 that the fans believed in.  Then in 2011 the team overachieved and had the fans living the dream of winning a playoff game.  It didn't happen, but the team was scrappy and battled hard every game.  The 2012 season was seen as a temporary speed bump until the team went on a long losing streak to end the 2013 season.  The team had a losing record for 4 of the 5 seasons in this period but fans were optimistic and hopeful for most of it.

2014 thru 2017 - This was the most success the team had experienced since Barry's 90s teams but for whatever reason the optimism wasn't as high.  It started with the fact that Jim Caldwell was brought in as the coach, and virtually noone was excited about it.  Then the team had an 11-5 season and came within (1) win of taking the division in the final week of the season vs the Packers.  Fans convinced themselves that the team was winning despite Jim Caldwell, not because of him.  The team fired the GM in the middle of the 2015 season and brought in Bob Quinn to replicate "the Patriot Way."  Fans were optimistic because it was inevitable that Caldwell would be fired and a new coach would take over.   After the 2017 season the GM declared "9-7 isn't good enough" and fired Jim Caldwell.  Optimism was restored.  I should also mention that part of the optimism that happened during this time was because long time owner Willie Clay Ford died and his wife took over.  WCF was always the boogyman that fans thought needed to be out of the picture for the team to have any success.

2018 thru 2020 - This is the darkest time that I can remember on the Lions message board.  Fans were excited about bringing in "rocket scientist" Matt Patricia, but that soured quickly.  Patricia is a generally unlikable guy in the way he goes about his business and talks down to reporters and fans.  He also traded away some of the teams best players just so he could eliminate their voices from the locker room (Quandre Diggs, Golden Tate, Darius Slay).  There were varying degrees of optimism thru the 2018 season and to begin the 2019 season.  Midway thru the 2019 season is when fans gave up on Patricia and wanted him gone.  He was clearly being outcoached, so it wasn't just fans hating the losing.  As the team kept losing it became clear how unlikeable Matt Patricia was.  He couldn't even get legit NFL coaches on his staff, he had to dip into the college ranks for guys to come coach for him.  And the fact that noone from the Patriots staff came to coach with him was also a huge red flag.  The end of the 2019 season and all thru the 2020 season is when the message board was an absolute cesspool and they lost alot of members.  If you said a single positive thing about Matt Patricia back in 2018, the thread was bumped and ridiculed.  If you said "let's wait and see, give the guy a chance" the thread was bumped and you were raked over the coals.  It was bad.  And that is when the policy came out that bumping old threads was not allowed.  You could link to them or screenshot a particular post, but never a full bump.

That brings us to the current situation.  Fans were loosely optimistic in 2021 and ready to jump off the ship when the team started 1-6 in 2022.  Winning definitely helps.  But in all of my years following the Lions, the fans have always given a new coaching staff a pass on the first season.  The hate I have seen for Frank Reich and his staff in their first year with a rookie QB is new to me.  The Lions went 2-14 under the same circumstances in 2009 and the fans didn't blink.

Yikes. I thought the Error era was a lot worse inside the fan base, it was brutal outside of it. The few Lions fans I know just laugh and say 'I'll believe it when I see it' to anything positive I say to them about the Lions and that fills more than a few gaps. Thanks for the detailed inside view. 

I don't really feel sorry for any of these people at this point. It's not even the wins, it's the product on every level. I gave Rhule the benefit of the doubts and he absolutely never earned anything positive. My stance is if you want respect earn it because I'm tired of giving stuff away to people who don't deserve it. IDK if it's how Tepper has been running the team since he got here or what but I have no goodwill for free left at this point and they really haven't earned any from me yet. 

[LinvilleGorge]

On 10/17/2023 at 7:15 PM, LinvilleGorge said:

Winning cures everything. If we start winning the positive vibes only crowd will poo post for a few weeks dunking on the frustrated crowd and then after that most everyone will be happy.

All it took was one ugly win.

[Jaxel]

The first win was always going to be ugly, no matter who it was against. But we needed to climb that hill, now it's time to see if we can follow it up.

[LinvilleGorge]

8 minutes ago, Jaxel said:

The first win was always going to be ugly, no matter who it was against. But we needed to climb that hill, now it's time to see if we can follow it up.

I was just referring to the new wave of absolute poo posters. It was always very obvious who it was going to be but they just wanted the board to be more civil and positive they said.

[jb2288]

12 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

All it took was one ugly win.

You literally cannot handle that Bryce outplayed CJ today lol it’s awesome to watch the melt real time 

[LinvilleGorge]

2 minutes ago, jb2288 said:

You literally cannot handle that Bryce outplayed CJ today lol it’s awesome to watch the melt real time 

LOLOLOLOL

It's hilarious that you think I'm mad. I'm literally laughing at y'all make a fool of yourselves.

[jb2288]

Just now, LinvilleGorge said:

LOLOLOLOL

It's hilarious that you think I'm mad. I'm literally laughing at y'all make a fool of yourselves.

It’s okay we’re laughing at you too. I’m sorry CJ didn’t get his 5 TDs today you wanted