Premium Recruiting Board Rules

Along with the General Rules for all message boards here are a few other guidelines and rules to follow:

There are a lot of people on this board with many different personalities, opinions and temperament. With that in mind, I have put together a few guidelines and rules that should make this board run smoother and hopefully maximize everyone's enjoyment.

* Please no more chest-thumping in an attempt to give yourself "board cred". Nobody wants to hear "I told you so", "I knew it all along" or "my sources were right again". Most people that say this are wrong as often as they are right with their predictions, news items, sources, or locks. Of course, they never remind people when they miss the mark but love to announce to everybody when they get one right.

* Please don't profess or even hint at being an "insider". There are a couple people that are pretty knowledgeable with what they post, and they are a great addition to this board, but they make up a small percentage of those who claim to have inside knowledge or sources. What's really pathetic is when somebody reads something on another site or message board and then brings it to Warchant in an attempt to develop "board cred". A lot of that stuff is bogus anyway and just makes you look bad in the end.

* Don't make a big deal out of something you are posting if you think it's newsworthy or interesting. Part of what the boards are here for is to exchange information and rumors. That's great and have at it, but cut out the "I have big news" posts or vague hints at something big coming, or giving winks on the boards. All you do is get the board wound up over what is usually not as big as people build it up to be.

You may remember a couple years ago when a poster announced he would have big news in the chat room - the room overflowed, the boards went nuts and when the news turned out to be pretty minor people blew up and even made some threats. I'm the one that has to clean up the mess in the end. One joker last year kept hinting at big news coming and gave winks to people but would never say what his news was. As a result, posts went on for weeks on both this board and the free board with people asking what the big news was, when it turned out to be totally worthless. Or some people make vague claims just to claim victory when the next big news item comes down to again, to again try to establish "board cred". If you have something that you think is newsworthy just post it.

* Lay off the pranks to get people to click on a post. Again "Big news" or "This will kill the Gators" posts are old and no longer funny. Like it or not, some people treat recruiting like life and death and get very upset when they click on what they think is going to be something big and it turns into a prank. It ends up leading to fights. We definitely need a little levity on the boards to loosen people up, but please find another way to do it.

* Enough with the "in before the lock" posts. It's no longer funny and just brings what is likely a poor post back to the top of the board. If people are caught doing it often enough you will be banned. Instead of trying to be funny, email the moderators about a questionable post - moderators@warchant.com.

NEW: Links or citing to Twitter or Facebook entries of people that that hold themselves out as media, or work for a premium FSU website, are no longer permitted (basically the same rule we have for fan blogs and competing premium websites). As for the fans, they often spread unfounded rumors or pull information from legitimate media outlets and co-opt the content as their own and try to take credit for it. This rule does not include Tweets or Facebook entries of people associated with legitimate news outlets (Tallahassee Democrat, ESPN, WCTV, etc.) that are credentialed media. Other premium websites use Twitter/Facebook to market their product and it basically comes down to spam when it gets posted on our message boards. If you see a Tweet or Facebook entry you feel needs to be addressed on Warchant.com, please bring it to our attention.

* I will remind you again to not post commitment/decommitment rumors/reports you pick up on websites or radio stations outside the Rivals network. There have been examples in the past where there was a premature report that a recruit had "committed" when that was not the case. Some people see this, ignored our rules and post that there is a commitment, when that was not the case. A lot of times we know a kid is getting ready to commit, but has yet to actually commit (tell the FSU coaches "I'm going to sign with FSU" or "I'm committed"). Just because a recruit ended up being a commitment in the end doesn't make the original story correct. If we have to do it we will start banning people who continue to do this. This causes a royal headache for us. A lot of it can be avoided if people just followed our rules.

* Please don't post our information on other websites. Our staff works hard to give you the best and most accurate information so we take a dim view when our stuff shows up on other message boards so you can develop "board cred" there. One clown posted a commitment we broke within seconds on another board and bragged that we would never catch him - he was banned the next day and lost all access to the Warchant.com boards (no rumor mills, no recruiting tables, etc.). Just show us a little respect and keep the information you see on this site on Warchant.com.

* You don't walk into McDonald's and talk about what is going on at the burger joint down the road and compare the two in front of the customers and management. You would think that would be common sense but a few people here love to post recruiting information/rumors they find on other websites and then compare them to what is reported on Warchant or Rivals. Examples: "On XXX network it says so and so ran a 4.8 40 but it says 4.6 on Rivals, who's right?" "So and so is reporting Joe Smith isn't an FSU commitment but Rivals/Warchant says he is. What's up with that?" Rankings, updates, etc. from other networks are not welcomed on Warchant. Do not post them, as they will be edited or deleted. You put us, especially me, in a bad position when you make posts like this. I don't like bad-mouthing somebody else and I don't like having to defend myself every time something appears elsewhere on the web varies from what is reported here but I don't have much of a choice when somebody asks me directly on this board. I'll say it again, if you see something out there that varies from what is being reported here, or varies from what it says in the prospect database, and think it's important, email the moderators! If it's something we can look into, we will do it. We are all sick and tired of this nonsense and will simply ban you if it keeps up. If you feel you must discuss it on the message boards instead of emailing us then take it to the Rivals National Recruiting Board. They are a lot more open and what can be posted and that's not my backyard, this is.

Recruits & Parents of recruits will no longer post on this board

So you are aware, we will no longer permit recruits or the parent of a recruit to post on this message board. I have discussed this issue with representatives from FSU and the parent of one recruit and we believe it is in everybody's best interest if recruits and parents of recruits refrained from posting on this board. With the way the NCAA is these days there are just too many potential pitfalls of having fans, some of whom are boosters and alumni, interact with recruits and/or parents. After what the NCAA did with the Kentucky basketball recruit that was interacting with fans on his MySpace page there is sufficient reason to believe the next step will be for them to go after a recruit that is (or his parent is) posting along with fans on a message board.

I would hate for a recruit to lose his eligibility because of something that happened on a Warchant.com message board, and I'm sure some of you wouldn't be too happy about it either.

It's disappointing that we will lose a few very good posters for a while but I think this move is in everybody's best interest.

I'm sure a lot of you don't agree with some of our rules, but show us a little respect and follow them.

Gene Williams (Dot Com)

Warchant.com