What this is
Welcome to the PFB forum, dubbed The Chamber by @DrCCowboy, a brilliant name. It only took us eight years to make it for you guys. You’ll notice that we have five categories that you don’t have to pay for – hoops, football, recruiting other sports and non-sports – and one you have to pay for – our PFB+ category.
The Kyles and other staffers will mostly be in the PFB+ forum, dropping rumors and thoughts on a variety of things, and we’re looking for a few moderators to help us run everything else. We’re excited about what this place could be – what we hope it is, and to watch it grow in the years to come.
How to sign up
If you’re simply looking to sign up for a free account and hang in the free forums, you can go here and join for free. If you want to join PFB+, go to the same link and sign up for under “monthly” or “yearly.”
What are the commenting commandments here?
The internet is both the worst and the best. If you’re reading something called “the rules of engagement” about a blog turned website + forum, you have likely already experienced this. Our slogan around here is “the best OSU news and community,” and we desire for you to experience both.
Doesn’t mean things will always be unicorns named Bullet and pots o’gold, but it does mean we’ve strived in these rules to create a space where we can argue smartly, be professional and genuinely enjoy the company of fellow Pokes.
Here are the 10 commandments …
1. Be a pro: The opposite of this is maybe more helpful … don’t be an amateur.
2. This is a sports bar: The Chamber was created to be a sports bar. When I think of sports bars, I think of hilarious debates about ridiculous things and a lot of fun memories with good friends. I don’t think of brouhahas over politics.
3. Debate the argument, not the person: This is a lot easier when you don’t name-call. If you have to ask if what you’re typing is a personal attack on a writer or commenter, it probably is. Don’t be mean or spiteful. Do be extremely sarcastic.
4. Community matters: It does. And we want this to be a great one. Remember that the person typing into his or her phone is a human being, has a story you don’t know and is probably trying to find a lot of the same things you’re looking for.
5. College kids are college kids: They actually are amateurs. Be fair when you get after them.
6. Rumormill: We’re here for all the rumors.
7. Shutting it down: We’re going to error on the liberal side of keeping threads open and not banning users. You’re all adults. Our rule here is mostly around repeat offenders. If you egregiously and repeatedly violate the spirit of any of these guidelines or if your name is continuously flagged in The Chamber for public comments you make, we reserve the right to make you take a 48-hour break following at least one warning. We will announce publicly that we have suspended users on the first violation and then name who they are on the second and third.
If this continues in the future and you’re ruining a good thing for everyone else, we reserve the right to ban you (if you’ve been around the comments section of our site, Richard Kennedy is the example here). If we ban someone from The Chamber we will write an explanation of why that person was banned.
8. Don’t curse: If you do, it better be really funny because Discourse is going to block it either way.
9. Premium content stays premium: This goes both ways. We have subs to everything so we’ll post anything you want behind the PFB+ wall (The Athletic, Go Pokes etc.) Our ask is that you don’t post our PFB+ stuff on the regular portion of The Chamber (or elsewhere).
10. Threads: We don’t need a thread for every little thing. Most of it can simply go in the 2019 football thread or the 2020 recruiting thread. If you think “should I make a new thread?” the answer is likely no.
11. (Bonus) #Content: We reserve the right to post anything in The Chamber on our website because everyone can see it anyway. If it’s posted in the PFB+ portion of The Chamber, we will ask before we post on the main site.
At the end of the day, this is a sports blog. It was created for a community of folks who love Oklahoma State athletics. It was not created so that peace could be brought to North Korea. We write this often, but perspective, humor and kindness are appreciated. One of our core values here at PFB is kindness, and we expect that from our people as well.