River Ave. Blues is the premiere independent Yankee blog. With multiple posts and thousands of visitors a day, River Ave. Blues has developed into a community of knowledgeable and outspoken Yankee fans. With Opening Day nearly upon us and the upcoming return of Game Threads as well as an anticipating Opening Day spike in traffic, we wanted to lay out some commenting guidelines for those of who wish to contribute to the site.

First and foremost, we urge everyone who reads to comment. We know a lot of regular readers don’t like to comment, but feel free to stop by and say hi anytime. Now, on with the guidelines:

1. River Ave. Blues has never required registration for commenters, and we plan to keep things that way. We ask — but do not require — that you provide a real e-mail address in the e-mail field. We will not share or redistribute your e-mail address, and all e-mail addresses are safe from the prying eyes of spammers.
2. For the most part, everyone reading and commenting on RAB is a Yankee fan. Those who are not Yankee fans choose to enter the fray anyway. When arguing and opining about the Yankees, remember that we are all fans of the same team. To that end, personal attacks and insults will not be tolerated. Any comments that we deem libelous, defamatory, abusive, harassing or threatening will not be tolerated, and we may ban repeat offenders from contributing to the site. The same is true for fans of other teams who are here to insult Yankee fans. Constructive conversation, however, will not be stifled.
3. Do not post links to or make mention of any unauthorized retransmissions of Major League Baseball game telecasts. These comments will be removed.
4. While we try to limit profanity on site, we have not censored comments for profanity. We ask that you be judicious in your use of profanity and keep in mind that fans from all walks of life read and contribute to River Ave. Blues.
5. Keep comments on topic. Every day during the regular season, we will host a Game Thread. In that thread, feel free to discuss the Yanks, the news of the day, what’s happening in the game, etc. For the rest of the posts, do your best to keep comments related to the topic at hand. News tips should be e-mailed to one of the writers. Contact information is available in the sidebar on your left.
6. If your comment does not appear or you receive a message saying it is awaiting moderation, e-mail us or simply wait. Those comments marked for moderation usually fail one of our spam tests, and we’ll approve them as soon as possible.
7. Any comment written out in all capital letters will be deleted. That’s just unnecessary.
8. We understand that many commenters may have blogs of their own. To that end, there is a field in the comments section where you can add the URL to your site. In the comments, your name then appears as a hyperlink. Please do not redundantly place a link below your comment as a “signature.”

We don’t delete comments very often, but we will if we have to. RAB has developed into a successful site because of our readers, and we want to encourage you to contribute. We also want to keep the conversations relevant and respectful. You may disagree with us about Melky Cabrera but do so courteously, constructively and critically.