WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION TO SAM'S FREE CELTICS FORUM

[Sam]

Welcome to Sam's FREE Celtics Forum—a completely free message board forum for Boston Celtics fans and friends of Boston Celtics fans.

For those who may not know the story, this forum was founded by long-time Celtic fan Richard "Dick" Dorr. He posted for a long time on the Boston.com forum as "SlipperySam" (not an unsavory character, but nicknamed in honor of his good friend, Celtics legend Sam Jones). He shortened the name to just plain "Sam," and started this forum for Celtics fans and their friends who desired a troll-free environment in which to engage in knowledgeable, congenial discussion and debate about the Celtics and basketball. Following Dick's lead, board members even stray off-topic from time to time as appropriate. The only rigidity on this forum is a no-nonsense enforcement of civil discussion.

Dick passed away in August of 2015, leaving a legacy of accomplishment and an amazingly long list of friendships.  The board is now managed by it's administrators, who strive to maintain the forum according to Dick's original vision.  You can find us by looking for our board names in royal purple print below our avatars.  

Our commitment is to offer unusually high-quality and informative basketball discussion, news, stats, game-on threads, post-game reflections, occasional trivia, and other features we'll develop over time—and all within the bounds of conversational civility.

Here are some of the useful and enjoyable features you will find on this forum:

• Vigilant and reasonable moderation
• Permanent banning of trolls who are in obvious and deliberate violation of the rules of civility
• Private, timely warnings for less serious posting violations (so as to avoid being too quick with the ban button)
• Easy editing of your own posts
• Ability to send and receive off-board private messages to and from other board members
• (Optional) email notification of receipt of private messages and/or responses to your posts
• Indication of the threads with new posts since you were last logged on to the site (they show up as red)
• Continually updated listing of all members currently logged on to the site
• Easy process for conducting polls
• Avatars and personal profile options
• Emoticons (a raft of smiley faces, etc.)
• Ability to post images and videos
• Game On! threads
• Ongoing statistics about the board, including number of posts by each member

Checking out the Forum

To examine the forum in greater detail, simply go through the easy, no-obligation process of registering,  There is no fee for trial or ongoing membership.

• Go up to the top of the screen and click on "Register."

• You'll be asked to agree to terms.

• You'll then go to another screen where you'll select a "user name" (board name) and will provide your email address and a password you select (at least 6 characters). This does NOT have to be the password you use on your email account; you can select any password the system will accept.

• You'll then see another screen, where you'll be asked to reconfirm your password.

• You should receive instructions to go to your email account and open a welcome message. When you open that message, you'll activate your account on the forum. By the way, the message contains your user name and password, so you'd be well-advised to save it for future reference in case you forget either.

• At this point in the process, REBOOT THE FORUM using the URL: https://samcelt.forumotion.net/your-first-forum-f1/
(VERY IMPORTANT)

Using the Forum (or Board)

• You're now ready to use the board.  The home page identifies four sub-forums that you may be using at one time or another:

> Hot Celtics and Basketball Topics (the sub-forum on which you'll access, read and respond to discussion topics). Click on any thread you wish to read.  Click on "NEW TOPIC" if you want to start a thread. Click on "POST REPLY" at the bottom of any thread to which you wish to respond.

> Game On! (the sub-forum we use for the threads that discuss Celtics games while they're in progress).

> Welcome! & Help (the sub-forum you're on now—and also the sub-forum that has many helpful hints about using the board).

> Ongoing Threads and More (the sub-forum containing many important threads that we don't want to get lost over time)

> Links, Books, Media (the sub-forum containing many helpful links (such as where to find live video feeds of Celtics games if you can't see them on local or national TV; a list of books about the Celtics).

Other sub-forums are for the use of the administrators and moderators of the board.

• You'll probably want to play around with the site, which is fine. One possible place to start is by clicking on the word "Profile" at the top of your screen and then clicking on "Preferences." This will give you a bunch of choices on what you want displayed about yourself and what options you wish to use and avoid. In the thread entitled "HELPFUL TIPS ON USING THIS SITE," we've posted a list of tips to help you in navigating and using the forum. There is also a FAQ option at the top of the screen.

The sub-forum with the great majority of posts is "Hot Topics."  The "Game On!" sub-forum should be of interest during each game.

You will note some advertising with is run by the organization that makes forums like this one available.  The operators of this forum have nothing to do with the advertising and will not be making a penny off it.  It should not be overly intrusive, and we've been told that every effort is made to tailor the focus of the ads to the content of this forum.

Have fun, and please let us hear from you.  And, at any time, feel free to email us directly at SamsCelticForum@gmail.com if you have any suggestions, concerns or gripes.  We think you'll find us pretty responsive.

We look forward to sharing insights with you.

The Administrators of Sam's Celtics Forum

[Sam]

The provider of the format for this board is Forumotion, which makes the format available to virtually anyone. We are adapting the format to use by Celtics fans.

The governing body of this forum is comprised of the ADMINISTRATORS; NYCelt, Pete and gyso. Together, we set the policies and do our best to address technical issues. (For the latter, we sometimes go to Forumotion for support.)

The MODERATOR on the forum is bobc33, who usually sets up and hosts the popular Game On! thread.

The RULES OF POSTING are as follows:

• Conversation will remain within the bounds of courtesy, civility, and respect. On any sports board, there will be the normal give-and-take of debate, which can sometimes become agitated. It is expected that posters will monitor their own degree of agitation so as to moderate their comments when the conversation threatens to become unduly contentious or insulting.

• There will be no gratuitous taunting, baiting, personal attacks, or name-calling.

• Unless cleared with an administrator, there will be no explicit or implicit promotion of any commercial or non-commercial enterprise, nor will there be any solicitation for sale of any goods, public or private.

• Unless an exception is cleared by an administrator, there will be no medical or other professional advice given on this forum, public or private.

• Language will be regulated by reasonable bounds of public decorum.

• Unless an exception is cleared by an administrator, topics will be confined primarily to basketball.

• Fans of basketball teams other than the Celtics are welcome as long as their intent is to post within the spirit of friendly competition and conversation. If support of another team or if the denigration of the Celtics takes on a habitual, taunting or excessive dimension, it will not be tolerated.

• There will be no knowing posting of material that violates copyright or trademark rights.

• Material that libels, defames, is abusive or obscene, or violates privacy rights will not be tolerated.

• It is expected that posters will be truthful in their remarks and will not knowingly misrepresent any facts.

The PHILOSOPHY OF THE ADMINISTRATORS AND MODERATORS of this forum will be as follows:

• Posts on the board will be reviewed with a sense of fairness, objectivity, and reasonable flexibility in keeping with the normal give-and-take of a message board.

• When rules infractions are observed, administrators will determine whether they are sufficiently serious to warrant deletion of a post and/or warning of the poster or immediate banning of the poster.

• Banning will be accomplished by IP number.

• Every effort (including warnings) will be made by administrators to mitigate serious rules infractions before they get to the banning stage.

At the time of this posting, the THREE ADMINISTRATORS are: NYCelt, Pete and gyso.