PonyFans.com

I know that many fans are die hard fans that post on this page in that they will never go against the hometeam. Those fans I commend. However there are some fans who post on this page that are less optimistic than others. I realize that this is a forum that is basically uncensored. That I also commend. However, I would like to remind fans which post on the board that many of the young men who play the game for us visit this page often. The young men that sacrifice their time and physical beings to entertain us are effected by what we post. These guys might not always live up the high expectations that we as fans place upon them, but they do their best. The young men that make up the SMU Mustang Football squad desire our support and encouragement. So please give them all the encouragement it takes to win, regardless if they are playing Northridge or Nebraska. A postive attitude goes a long way to support these guys. To the fans who bring the umbrellas, see you at the next game regardless of the previous weeks's outcome. To the fair weather fans I will see you again when the sunshine returns.

[This message has been edited by TWU1890 (edited 09-14-2000).]

Great post. I could not agree with you completely. All of the moderators (myself included) had to decide, when we first opened the site, how we were going to police the board.

The way we saw it, there were a couple of options.

1) Let the board be a free for all with little to no moderation

We went against this because that accomplishes nothing. We are not in this for the money; we are here to promote excitement for SMU Athletics. I am a former player and my partner is a trainer at SMU, and we both have strong ties to the players on the team. We certainly do not want anyone’s name rubbed in the dirt. We have not, and will not allow any pointless flames towards any of the players. We also decided that we were going to not allow meaningless trash talk from opposing teams. That is why you have not seen any.... every post that has fit that description has been deleted A.S.A.P

2) We could police this board to death, not allowing anything that is not 100% positive.
We also decided against that. The reason is no team, I don't care if you are Florida State or Boise State plays perfect every time. Fans have the right to criticize their school. They are not doing it because they hate the school, but because they love the school. Under these guidelines, I would have to delete a post even if its topic was "SMU played poorly".

The third choice was to keep the board as positive as possible with over-moderating it. This is the way we chose. We are all die-hard SMU fans. We want to see nothing bashing our school or our players. There has not been any post of that nature allowed. However, if a person chose to criticize a player that is fine, as long as it is not malicious in any way. Saying John Doe did not play a great game is fine, but saying John Doe sucks of course would not be allowed.

You are completely right, a lot of the athletes of this fine university visit this site, as well as former athletes, and athlete's parents. We want them to feel as comfortable here as possible. I encourage all PonyFans to keep their posts as positive as possible.

Like I said before, I think the board has been very positive thus far, and I hope it stays that way. MustangMatt, PonyPride, and I will make sure of it. If you ever have any problems with any of the posts on this board, please feel free to e-mail us at [email protected]. We are here for you.

Great post, TWU, and

Thanks!

TWU1890 - Great post. I agree with you wholeheartly! The players work so hard and I think they give their all every game.

The team was awesome against Kansas. Since then, two tough losses. Come on Mustangs, bounce back!! You can do it! Shake off the 2 losses and let's win. Get focused, make those tackles and catches and let's Beat Tulane!

------------------
Go Mustangs!!
-MustangMom