Game Thread Guide

[Crystallas]

Everyone is free to do things their own way and take the risks they see fit, but I have to address something about game threads, so let me air out a few points.

Subject
When you make the subject of a game thread, you need the following information.
4 Points of critical information

Quick example:
IGT: Knicks vs Bulls 4/21 at 8:30 on CSN
What(Game thread) Who(Teams) When(Date and time) Where(broadcast)
*For a Baseball regular season series*
IST: Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox 5/10-5/12
What(Series thread) Who(Teams) When(Dates) Where(unless all games are on the same network, don't use this.)

*For a playoff series, make a thread for each game.

-Away Team vs Home Team
In this order, the away team is always first, the home team is always second. If you do it any other way, it's Visiting Team at Home Team. The beauty of this being a Chicago forum, is that we can forgo the City, and just name the home Team. ie: New York Knicks vs Bulls. NY Knicks vs Bulls. New York at Bulls, ect.
I would also try to discourage you from using the ampersat(@) in subject lines because it is a URL switch(like %, &, #), which can cause a problem for generated URL addresses.

-Date and time (or just the series dates)
The date of game needs to be present, along with the time. Some games are bigger than others, and activity is higher on the site at certain times, so at a bare minimum, we want people to see the date and time as the topic line. Now we have ie: New York Knicks vs Bulls 4/10 at 8:30.
We can assume central time, because that is the Chicago time zone. We also can assume PM for the obvious times. However, if you want to add AM/PM or CST, that's up to you.


-Define the title as a game thread
IGT,GT, Game Thread, Game Topic: Mark the subject line of the thread as a prefix for the entire thread. Because we aren't an official licensed affiliate of any Chicago Pro teams, calling it an "official game thread" is just poor understanding and usage of the word "official". I'm not pointing fingers here, I used to make this mistake too, but it's good to understand the difference between something that is official and something that is not, especially in the context of trademarked names.
ie: IGT: New York Knicks vs Chicago Bulls 4/10 at 8:30
The mods here are friendly, and if you whip out a game thread, they'll sticky it if they see it, just try not to make game threads too far in advance and use common sense.
For a series thread, IST is an Internal Series Thread. IST: Cubs at White Sox May 5th-8th

-Broadcast rights
Who is broadcasting the game? Is it ESPN, WGN, ABC, ESPN, CSN, CSN+?
Most people still watch games on a TV. Just add it to the Subject line, and you have a complete Subject. Many games are dual-broadcasted, so when the game is national, use the national affiliate. When the game is only local, use the Chicago affiliate.
ie: IGT: New York Knicks vs Chicago Bulls 4/10 at 8:30 on CSN
It's quick, simple, easy to read on a phone, and if the site bogs down, due to activity, people aren't leaving the site quickly to find the information they need because the page loads are slow.

-Extras. These are optional
Team records, Series round and/or game, Radio affiliate, venue.

-Poll
Add a poll when possible, 2 choices, the two teams. Or add a lulz option for fisch. You need to create the poll before submitting the thread in the options found underneath your post-editor.


Body
The body of the post should have the basic information for a game.

Echo the main information. If you have the radio broadcast, shout the station out. Venues look good too.

-Starters: Likely starters are helpful. Pictures are over-the top and helpful as well. You don't need to have the line-ups or even the starters to have a good game thread, but it helps.

-The rest.
Injury reports, team records, streams, last game/next game schedules.
You can make it as colorful as you want. Add whatever stats and trivia that you like. Try not to over-run the first post with animated GIFs and Youtube clips.



Conclusion
I hope this helps. Anyone can make a game thread, just make sure the minimum standards are met to make things easier and avoid confusion.

[Scoot26]

It seems to me you want this to mostly apply to Bulls games. I see your point on using Official and the @ symbol. As I am the maker of the Bears game day threads, and there is only one game left, I will just continue as I was. Next year, I can most certainly make some adjustments.

Also the length of the title is limited so often times it's difficult to fit a lot into the title, though there are ways to shorten it.

[Crystallas]

It should apply to any game thread. I just used the Bulls as an example. But yeah, I wasn't aiming this as a negative towards anyone, I just see more stuff in the Bulls section and the condensed schedule is going to prompt for a lot of game threads from all over the place.

[Scoot26]

Originally Posted by Crystallas

It should apply to any game thread. I just used the Bulls as an example. But yeah, I wasn't aiming this as a negative towards anyone, I just see more stuff in the Bulls section and the condensed schedule is going to prompt for a lot of game threads from all over the place.

Yes, I even noticed that last year. At least this year we got people putting effort into the opening post of the thread. Last year it was just a title and then "Discuss..." or something like that.

Either way, it is a good standard to have.

[derosabomb]

pay attention to this hawks forum.

[DaBears_85]

This guy makes a pretty sweet IGT:

IGT: Calgary Flames (14-14-4) vs. Chicago Blackhawks (20-8-4)

[CODE_BLUE56]

too much work

[DaBears_85]

Originally Posted by CODE_BLUE56

too much work

Yeah, but the great ones always make it look easy.

[Crystallas]

Originally Posted by DaBears_85

This guy makes a pretty sweet IGT:

IGT: Calgary Flames (14-14-4) vs. Chicago Blackhawks (20-8-4)

Nice body, subject fail.

[Uman85]

Nope.