Community rules

Community Rules and Messaging Terms

Combine Baseball message board and direct messages

Part 1 — The rules

Accounts are held by adults

Athletes do not have accounts on Combine Baseball. Profiles are created and controlled by a parent or guardian, and only account holders can post or send messages.

Access to the board and to direct messages is included with a paid subscription.

Name your own athlete, and no one else's

You may write about your own player by name. You may not name, or otherwise identify, anyone else's child.

That includes a surname, a jersey number, a team plus a position, or any combination specific enough that people locally would know who you mean. In a market this size, "the 2029 catcher from a given town" identifies a child as surely as a name does.

If you need to refer to another player, keep it general. Talk about the situation, not the kid.

This is the rule we enforce most strictly, and it is the one most likely to get a post removed without discussion. A child who is not yours has no say in being discussed here, and no way to answer back.

No photographs of children other than your own

Do not post images of other people's players, including team photos, game shots, and screenshots of other people's profiles or social media.

Image attachments are not currently supported on the board. This rule applies to images shared by any other means, and will apply to attachments when they are added.

Keep it about the game

This board exists so families can compare notes on events, training, travel ball, recruiting and the process generally. It is not the place for:

• Attacking players, parents, coaches or umpires by name
• Accusations about age, eligibility, or performance-enhancing drugs
• Rumours about anyone's recruitment or commitment
• Buying, selling or promoting, unless we have invited it
• Anything you would not say to someone's face at the field

Direct messages

Direct messages are between two adult account holders.

A conversation has to be accepted before it can continue. When you message someone for the first time, they receive that one message and nothing further from you until they respond. If they accept, you can talk normally. If they decline, the conversation is closed and you cannot message them again.

You can block anyone, at any time. Blocking is mutual in effect: neither of you can message the other, and their posts stop appearing in your board view. You do not have to explain it, and we do not tell them.

There are limits on how fast you can start new conversations. These exist to stop anyone working their way down a list of families.

If a post or message names your child

Report it. Use the report option on the post or message and choose "Names a minor."

Reports in that category go to the top of our queue.

You can also contact us directly at support@combinebaseball.com.

You do not need to be the person who was messaged to report a post — if you can see it and it names a child, report it.

Part 2 — How moderation and privacy actually work

We would rather tell you plainly than bury it.

Who can see what

Board posts are visible to subscribers. They are not public, not indexed by search engines, and not visible to college coaches through the coach side of the platform. Coach status confers nothing here — a college coach who is also a parent participates as a parent, and we do not display coach affiliation on the board.

Direct messages are visible to the two people in the conversation.

What we keep, and when we read it

Direct messages are stored, not transient, and we can read a conversation while a report against it is open.

We do not browse private messages. Access is tied to an open report: unless someone has reported a message or a conversation and that report is still open, it is not readable by staff. Once a report has been actioned or dismissed, that access closes again.

If this arrangement is not one you are comfortable with, do not use direct messages. The board works without them.

What happens to a post we remove

Removed posts are hidden, not deleted. We record who hid it, when, and why.

A hidden post is no longer visible to anyone except our moderators — including the person who wrote it. If a post of yours has disappeared, that is why, and you are welcome to ask us about it.

We keep the record because a removed post is sometimes the beginning of something rather than the end of it.

What gets you removed

A post gets hidden when it breaks a rule.

An account is removed for: naming or identifying other people's children after a warning; contacting a family who has declined or blocked you, by any route; posting images of other people's players; threats, harassment, or sexual content of any kind; or anything involving a child's safety, which we act on immediately and without warning.

Suspension or removal does not entitle you to a refund. See our subscription terms.

What we are not

We host what people write here; we do not verify it. Opinions on this board belong to the people who posted them. If something you read here is wrong or defamatory, our role is to remove it when it is reported — the person who wrote it remains responsible for having written it.

We are not able to mediate disputes between families, and we will not adjudicate who is right. We enforce the rules; we do not settle arguments.