wow, Internet retards!!
Jul. 12th, 2007 07:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7Wow apparently a member of the roller derby league we skated against wants to lodge a formal complaint because I wrote mean things about them in my blog.
Yes.
I wrote mean things about them in my blog. Isn't that slander?
...
Y'all need to learn the legal definition of slander, methinks.
But I digress.
The point that infuriates me is that everyone, our own league members included, seems to think the issue is that the other team was skating dirty.
That's not the issue.
They also think that the issue is rendered moot because some of our girls committed fouls as well.
That's so far from being true that I don't know where to start with that one.
The issue is that their refs had so little control over the action that skating dirty was a legitimate tactic. Fouls are designated in every sport as actions that, when taken by a player, gives her an unfair or dangerous advantage over another player; leads to the game play's detriment; and possibly endangers the health and safety of those skating. If the refs do not call fouls, then it is folly not to commit them, as they, by definition, give an advantage significant enough to affect game play.
Of course a team skating another will have to adapt to the other team's tactics. That's part of what makes sport so interesting.
But their tactics were outside the scope of the rules that we had learned to skate by. Some of us could adapt-- witness Sweets' behavior in the video I linked to-- but that doesn't mean we wanted to adapt, and didn't mean that what we were playing was, in our minds, legitimate roller derby.
Which is why we issued them an ultimatum, which I really feel we shouldn't've had to. We were assured they skated by WFTDA rules; we were lectured by their refs on the enforcement of WFTDA rules. But when we were skating, the WFTDA rules were nowhere in sight.
It is a dangerous sport: we all accept that. It is a rough sport: we all accept that.
But none of us wanted to be badly injured playing something that could barely even be recognized as the sport we had learned-- that was not the sport we had agreed to play.
I don't know why this is so hard to explain. I'm not a sore loser: I don't like losing, but I like playing enough that I put up with losing. I almost always lose everything I compete in, so I'm used to it, and accept it. It wasn't the scoreboard that bothered us (although the fact that points we felt we'd legitimately scored weren't being added really didn't help our disenchantment with this pseudo-sport). It was the fact that it wasn't what we'd signed up for, it wasn't that much fun, and it wasn't terribly interesting that made it no longer worth the severe physical risk.
I really, really don't know what all the fuss is about, as it was a one-off deal and we've learned our lesson: Don't skate out without bringing refs.
Yes.
I wrote mean things about them in my blog. Isn't that slander?
...
Y'all need to learn the legal definition of slander, methinks.
But I digress.
The point that infuriates me is that everyone, our own league members included, seems to think the issue is that the other team was skating dirty.
That's not the issue.
They also think that the issue is rendered moot because some of our girls committed fouls as well.
That's so far from being true that I don't know where to start with that one.
The issue is that their refs had so little control over the action that skating dirty was a legitimate tactic. Fouls are designated in every sport as actions that, when taken by a player, gives her an unfair or dangerous advantage over another player; leads to the game play's detriment; and possibly endangers the health and safety of those skating. If the refs do not call fouls, then it is folly not to commit them, as they, by definition, give an advantage significant enough to affect game play.
Of course a team skating another will have to adapt to the other team's tactics. That's part of what makes sport so interesting.
But their tactics were outside the scope of the rules that we had learned to skate by. Some of us could adapt-- witness Sweets' behavior in the video I linked to-- but that doesn't mean we wanted to adapt, and didn't mean that what we were playing was, in our minds, legitimate roller derby.
Which is why we issued them an ultimatum, which I really feel we shouldn't've had to. We were assured they skated by WFTDA rules; we were lectured by their refs on the enforcement of WFTDA rules. But when we were skating, the WFTDA rules were nowhere in sight.
It is a dangerous sport: we all accept that. It is a rough sport: we all accept that.
But none of us wanted to be badly injured playing something that could barely even be recognized as the sport we had learned-- that was not the sport we had agreed to play.
I don't know why this is so hard to explain. I'm not a sore loser: I don't like losing, but I like playing enough that I put up with losing. I almost always lose everything I compete in, so I'm used to it, and accept it. It wasn't the scoreboard that bothered us (although the fact that points we felt we'd legitimately scored weren't being added really didn't help our disenchantment with this pseudo-sport). It was the fact that it wasn't what we'd signed up for, it wasn't that much fun, and it wasn't terribly interesting that made it no longer worth the severe physical risk.
I really, really don't know what all the fuss is about, as it was a one-off deal and we've learned our lesson: Don't skate out without bringing refs.
