Announcements

[Calzone Lord]

Gang,

We had a pretty lengthy meeting on our yacht from 4 all the way to 4:12 pm.

We covered a lot of ground... such as the direction of the board, employee development, and what we can do for YOU, the poster, to make this a more desirable place.

We thought, first and foremost, that we really want to encourage our open door policy to each and every one of you. Please, don't hesitate to shoot us a private message with any questions or concerns, or better yet, just post them here in the open forum so we can have a round table discussion.

We just want you to know you're our most valuable asset and we want you to feel at ease with coming to us for any number of things. Just note that we typically check out for the day around 1pm and we are fairly inebriated by noon.

We also want to keep YOU, the poster, informed of what is going on with any strategy or policy changes, future works, as well as changes in poster personnel. So let's start. Here are some news and notes from around the board:

- After much careful consideration, we may trade the poster '10 Pnt Move Up' to the Thoroughbred Champions board.

We asked for a trade with MtConverse "Straight Up" ... but but all we could get in return was an expired 10% off coupon on Sundays only for vertical blinds at a now defunct window treatment store in Sandusky Ohio. We feel good about this deal.


- We are still commited to building an enviornment and culture of happy people who beat the devil out of their keyboard and post good thoughts. We have decided that this most happy tune will be the new DerbyTrail.com theme song...please watch and enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLO7t...ature=youtu.be

Remember folks, when you post ... DerbyTrail.com is YOUR world and YOU are the creator.


- Lastly, this is more of a request than an announcement:

Whoever is sh!tting in the coffee pot, please refrain from doing so. It's damaging the machine, as well as slightly ruining the flavor of the coffee.

Thank you.


- The New Team

PS: Whether you think you can or you can't - you're RIGHT!

[geeker2]

I love how Ross's Fro changes in size

[Rudeboyelvis]

How much of Scav's contract is going against our salary cap?

He was a bargain early on, but now he's in the money years of that elongated agreement and is barely phoning it in.

I don't know what we can get for him, but if we can't turn him around, we may need to consider an outright release and focus in grooming our prospects.


This is a tough business, but it is business.

[Danzig]

i think doug needs to take more field trips and post the play by play. pictures are a plus...but only clean 'before' sock photos, please.

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by Rudeboyelvis

How much of Scav's contract is going against our salary cap?

He was a bargain early on, but now he's in the money years of that elongated agreement and is barely phoning it in.

I don't know what we can get for him, but if we can't turn him around, we may need to consider an outright release and focus in grooming our prospects.


This is a tough business, but it is business.

Good call.

I'm going to make a few calls to GM's at other boards and test the waters. It's hard to say what Scav's market value is right now.

[MaTH716]

Is Richard being shopped as trade bait? It's the only explination I could think of for all the playing time is his getting lately.
Wow, if Richard could be dealt then no one is safe.

[hoovesupsideyourhead]

Originally Posted by MaTH716

Is Richard being shopped as trade bait? It's the only explination I could think of for all the playing time is his getting lately.
Wow, if Richard could be dealt then no one is safe.

zigfried and roy weep..

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by MaTH716

Is Richard being shopped as trade bait? It's the only explination I could think of for all the playing time is his getting lately.
Wow, if Richard could be dealt then no one is safe.

we'd probably only get a conditional draft pick.

[Sightseek]

Dear New Team:

While I respectfully applaud your efforts to breath new life into Nerdy, no open forum, year end awards or trades are going to cut it. Now, this does not mean that you should take the all-expense paid trip to Costa Rica off the table. My summer tan has faded and I haven't updated a bikini pic on Facebook in months so I need this trip.

NT will rise from the ashes like the Phoenix the moment a four-legged Hero strides into town.

The knee-jerk reaction of such salty veterans as Blackthroatedwind and cmoriales is likely to be "No, not that!," but hear me out fine Nerdies. It is in the moments when faced with such statements as "Imagine how much he would have won by if he was asked!" or "She did only what she needed to do to win." that we, as a forum have risen to Greatness. Pages upon pages of lively debate will emit forth from our lively fingers! We scoff at the lack of competition, the cherry-picked spots and lack of true brilliance of our present-day Hero. We tell stories of the Grand thoroughbreds of decades past and when that doesn't work, we make magazine covers featuring the delusional and obsessed poster and his/her fine stead.

Ah yes, the photoshops. That will always be our greatest contribution to the horseyboard world. No one does it better than NT.

Sincerely,

Sighty

[Sightseek]

p.s. If any of you guys darted Riot, take the rest of the year off! You have truly done enough.

[Calzone Lord]

That put a smile on my face and a teardrop in my eye, Sighty.

Very beautiful.

[Rudeboyelvis]

I might suggest that the New Team board of directors revisit whatever "direction" was decided upon on the DT Yacht back in Dec. 2012 - those decisions ARE CLEARLY not working.

We have lost a great deal of traction in this market. The loss of Coach Pants was almost insurmountable, and now coupled with the frequent, consistent and glaringly steady stream of departing DT regulars - our situation has surpassed alarming, and is now boarding on critical. Del Mar Fruit Club critical.

Occasionally, decisions are made that on the surface, appear to be salient in logic, forthright, and intelligently thought out. One such decision, I humbly may suggest, was the darting of an ENTIRE ROOM. Drastic, yes. But on the surface, a very effective method of staving off interactions between DT members that may have been taken out of context to presume nasty, personal attacks on one another.

One unintended consequence of vaporizing the entire room is that the action also opened the exit doors to a great number of frequent posters, some with ties to the horsey world, some not, but contributors nonetheless.

The unfortunate upshot of all of this is that the forum has become veritable wasteland, it's namesake in full stride, just 7 weeks removed from the Derby. It should not be this way. We need to reinstate the politico room, and invite our long lost regulars back with open arms.
We also need to reach out to some of the other forums and invite them back to the newly rejuvenated DT.

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by Rudeboyelvis

I might suggest that the New Team board of directors revisit whatever "direction" was decided upon on the DT Yacht back in Dec. 2012 - those decisions ARE CLEARLY not working.

We have lost a great deal of traction in this market. The loss of Coach Pants was almost insurmountable, and now coupled with the frequent, consistent and glaringly steady stream of departing DT regulars - our situation has surpassed alarming, and is now boarding on critical. Del Mar Fruit Club critical.

Occasionally, decisions are made that on the surface, appear to be salient in logic, forthright, and intelligently thought out. One such decision, I humbly may suggest, was the darting of an ENTIRE ROOM. Drastic, yes. But on the surface, a very effective method of staving off interactions between DT members that may have been taken out of context to presume nasty, personal attacks on one another.

One unintended consequence of vaporizing the entire room is that the action also opened the exit doors to a great number of frequent posters, some with ties to the horsey world, some not, but contributors nonetheless.

The unfortunate upshot of all of this is that the forum has become veritable wasteland, it's namesake in full stride, just 7 weeks removed from the Derby. It should not be this way. We need to reinstate the politico room, and invite our long lost regulars back with open arms.
We also need to reach out to some of the other forums and invite them back to the newly rejuvenated DT.

Unless he's actually been darted, this post is my attempt to help you get Coach back on the board. He's a more valuable member than I am, at least from a volume and LOL standpoint.

I just figure that post number 4,871 for me isn't likely, statistically speaking, to be the first one in history that I'm able to make without him quoting it and basically calling me a dumb ****, regardless of the topic, tone, or content of my post.

The above Coach bait is all I have to offer right now.

[Rudeboyelvis]

Originally Posted by brianwspencer

Unless he's actually been darted, this post is my attempt to help you get Coach back on the board. He's a more valuable member than I am, at least from a volume and LOL standpoint.

I just figure that post number 4,871 for me isn't likely, statistically speaking, to be the first one in history that I'm able to make without him quoting it and basically calling me a dumb ****, regardless of the topic, tone, or content of my post.

The above Coach bait is all I have to offer right now.

Coach isn't coming back. I doubt Indian Charlie is either. And add about 15 - 20 others that regularly participated here and perhaps you may get the point.

This is an attempt to stop the bleeding of participating, interactive members away from this forum by reinstating the politics room.

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by Rudeboyelvis

Coach isn't coming back. I doubt Indian Charlie is either. And add about 15 - 20 others that regularly participated here and perhaps you may get the point.

This is an attempt to stop the bleeding of participating, interactive members away from this forum by reinstating the politics room.

I was mostly kidding. I get it.

I'm sure I racked up 95% of my career posts here more than three or four years ago, and it's certainly not for a lack of interest in racing in the last three years. I'm more interested and invested now than I was five years ago. But I've got mine, and I'm sure everyone has their own reasons for not frequenting regularly.

Mine was generally nasty attitudes that made it more work to post and participate than it was worth. Maybe that has to do with the politics room, maybe not.

Either way, your point is spot-on. I've always been reading along even if I'm not posting, and my daily trip by usually lasts about three minutes these days.

[bigrun]

Originally Posted by Rudeboyelvis

Coach isn't coming back. I doubt Indian Charlie is either. And add about 15 - 20 others that regularly participated here and perhaps you may get the point.

This is an attempt to stop the bleeding of participating, interactive members away from this forum by reinstating the politics room.

Why don't you post a poll thread here to re-open the Politics/Society forum.
Yes
No
Don't care

I tried but don't know how to do the poll format...

[Danzig]

i can't help but think that it will take me waaaay longer to get my next 24k posts than it took to get the first. it's too bad that a few bad apples spoiled that barrel for the rest of us. i miss it, i miss the discourse (altho it did get rough at times) and i still read stuff and think oh, i could...and then i remember we can't talk about such things here anymore.
slate is the only other place i post-and it's just not the same.

[Dahoss]

Originally Posted by Rudeboyelvis

Coach isn't coming back. I doubt Indian Charlie is either. And add about 15 - 20 others that regularly participated here and perhaps you may get the point.

This is an attempt to stop the bleeding of participating, interactive members away from this forum by reinstating the politics room.

This is just my opinion, but who cares about people posting about politics if they aren't talking about racing also?

When this board was going great it's because there were great discussions on racing. People actually had opinions on races both before and after the races and shared them.

I'm not sure why that doesn't happen anymore, but I just don't think people stopped talking racing because they couldn't argue the same political stance over and over again anymore.

[GenuineRisk]

Purely my opinion, but I didn't think the Paddock was any more polite than the Politics Room was. In fact, many times I thought people were much nastier to each other in the Paddock. The Politics Room had actually been pretty civil the last few days of its existence, compared to before. It seemed a weird time to end it.

As someone who doesn't have the time to aggressively follow racing the way many of the more knowledgable posters here do, much as I enjoy reading threads in the Paddock, I was (and am) reluctant to share an opinion in the Paddock because of how nasty some posters could be in tearing apart someone else's opinion. Making other people feel stupid is not a good way to encourage participation, especially for novices like myself. On the bright side, there's not much of that going on now. On the not-bright side, there's not much of anything else going on there now.

I also think Riot did a lot for keeping traffic moving in both rooms. She was extremely prolific, extremely opinionated and extremely polarizing and you could almost always count on a thread she posted in making for some very entertaining reading. Because people who didn't like her just couldn't stop themselves from replying to her posts. And hilarity would ensue.

I really miss the Politics Room because it was one of the few places I know on the web where liberals and conservatives would regularly argue things on a more-or-less even footing. Probably because what brought us here was a common love of something else.

It's a bummer, but, as Danzig said in a thread a few weeks ago, the lack of DT activity means I've been much more productive at work lately, so there's always a pony somewhere.

[RockHardTen1985]

Originally Posted by Dahoss

This is just my opinion, but who cares about people posting about politics if they aren't talking about racing also?

When this board was going great it's because there were great discussions on racing. People actually had opinions on races both before and after the races and shared them.

I'm not sure why that doesn't happen anymore, but I just don't think people stopped talking racing because they couldn't argue the same political stance over and over again anymore.

I agree.