A long time ago, people watched sporting events without the benefit of social media. This is commonly referred to as the dark ages of sports. Then, in the late aughties, Darren Rovell brought us into the light when he invented Twitter for the dual-purpose of better commodifying the human experience and giving individual members of society a means by which we might inflict increased scorn upon one another for differing opinions on sports.

After this, we began to consume sports in an entirely different fashion, conversing in the most snarkish fashion imaginable while exchanging insults with people all around the world. It was a revolution.

And that revolution continues today, shifting the measurements by which we judge each other as sports fans. No longer do we consider how long one has supported a sports franchise to be telling of one’s status as a fan. Instead, we look to the amount of sick burns one has laid down on opposing players and fans of other teams. One’s success or failures in social media now informs one’s success or failures as a sports fan.

As it is with everything, there is an absolute right way and an absolute wrong way of using Twitter to follow sports. It’s black and white with absolutely no gray, whatsoever. As a self-proclaimed expert in this field, I get mentioned all the time on Twitter by followers asking me about proper social media etiquette. In order to avoid these requests from further polluting my @ mention feed, I thought I should share my depth of knowledge on issues pertaining to Twitter, as it specifically relates to sports fans in an easily accessed blog post.

And so, without further ado, here are the ten most important rules that exist for sports fans using social media.

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