Welcome to the Community
Last Updated: August 6, 2020
At its heart, The Key Play (TKP) is an active and growing online community. Thoughtful, intelligent, and funny posts by the members are what separate the site from others online. The community is both passionate and diverse. While (mostly) everyone here is a Hokie, we all come from varying backgrounds. Please realize everyone is different, and treat all posters with respect. Please don't ever force a moderator to use the phrase, "Jerk Alert", or make someone feel unwelcome.
As a community, we encourage all thoughts on Virginia Tech athletics, whether they be supportive, critical, or otherwise. However, please keep it respectful, well informed, and refrain from personal attacks towards players and coaches. Criticism for the sake of criticism does not add to the discussion, and neither does rah-rah homerism for the sake of rah-rah homerism. Statistics, screen grabs, diagrams, etc... may help your point across better, and that benefits the entire community.
Before you post and contribute to the community, ask yourself, "Does it make TKP better?" If you answer 'no', stop what you are doing.
Posting a new Forum Topic
This applies specifically to submitting a new forum topic.
- Don't start duplicate threads. Use the tracker.
- Provide a clear, sensible and descriptive title for your post. "Tyrod Taylor..." is not a clear descriptive title. "Tyrod Taylor to Play Entire Preseason Game" is.
- When posting a question, prefix the title with "Ask TKP: ".
- Prefix the title of an off-topic post with "OT: ".
- The topic body has to be something more than "Nm". That is to say, your title shouldn't be the entirety of your post. This isn't TSL. You don't have to be an essayist, but a few well-thought sentences generally makes for a much better discussion to follow. If you're referencing a Tweet, article or YouTube video, link or embed it. Provide a source. Explain why someone should click on link. Facilitate a conversation with your initial post, then lead the discussion.
- Share original content (e.g. embed the original tweet, not a link to another post/website with said tweet), add context / relevant information (e.g. Hudl film for a topic about a new scholarship offer to a recruit).
- Don't post threads with the sole purpose of riling people up. For instance, "ESPN just said ______ about us - they suck!", "Bleacher Report sucks!", etc. are not worthy of topics \ threads.
- Don't start a new topic to rant.
- With the exception of tickets, don't post anything for sale.
- If you're embedding a video, image, etc... or sharing a link, use the Preview button to the right of Save before you save. Ensure the embedded content and links work before you save and it becomes available to the rest of TKP.
Posting and Commenting Guidelines
This applies any time you start a new topic or post a comment.
- Use proper grammar and spelling.
- Refrain from posts consisting entirely of: "FIRST!", any repetition of "LOL", "The Germans bombed Pearl Harbor", "!!!1!", etc... They're neither witty nor funny, and do not add to the discussion.
- Respect the signal to noise ratio. In other words, don't post or comment or topic for the sake of it. Don't post comments that require further (missing) explanation. You don't have to be an essayist, but a few well-thought out sentences generally contributes to the discussion better. If you're referencing a Tweet, article or YouTube video, link or embed it. Ensure your comment is thorough to the point where everyone else contributing to the thread understands it. Don't deal in riddles or mystery. Brevity can be fine as long as there is context.
- Don't copy and paste entire articles into posts and comments. Limit it to the most relevant paragraph(s). Include a link to the original source so people can read the entire article. Wrap pasted text inside <blockquote></blockquote> tags using the quote button.
- Don't copy and paste content from premium (pay-to-read) websites. Don't share links to premium (pay-to-read) content.
- Don't discuss politics or religion.
- Don't post hateful comments related to race, gender, sexual orientation, or religious beliefs.
- Don't post or embed (pictures, GIFs, videos) things that are not safe for work (NSFW).
- Consider the source of information you share.
- Don't self-promote.
- Don't post any third-party polls or surveys.
- Please follow and respect the moderation team's well-intentioned direction.
The Key Play's Community Powered Moderation System
Turkey legs are a delicious, sobering, slab of meat on a stick. They're also The Key Play's karma currency and moderation mechanism.
Members can award them to each other by upvoting comments and forum topics. If someone posts a funny picture, witty reply, good statistic, something you like etc..., then upvoted and give them a turkey leg. Conversely, if someone flames, wages a personal attack or doesn't follow the community guidelines, then downvote. Do not downvote for disagreeing with someone's opinion. In general, upvote more often than you downvote.
Users below -25 turkey legs won't be able to comment. Users below 50 turkey legs won't be able to start forum topics.
