As the title suggests, what for some is the idea of a forum (even a blog)? Technologically, as the last few years have evolved, you can now share your passion or hobby with similar or like minded people. Lets be right, as i’ve said before, supporting a football team can always bring out the dark side to some people’s personalities, be it on the pitch, down the pub, i nthe local/national papers or on-line.
Most teams don’t want to be seen to be associated with such “places,” due to the potentially slanderous nature within, but my guess is, senior managers, owners and chairman all read and post on these sites to spur the natives on or gauge public reactions.
These same senior managers, owners and chairman will also moan when the levels of negativity “start affecting” the club or the team. But what happens when your team doesn’t do well ? Sit back and take it (some will) – I doubt it. In this age of instant success and less tolerable society, peoples dark sides tend to rear their ugly heads more frequently and perhaps harsher than ever before – but above all, most of the time, they are expressing their views.
It should never be personal, but can descend or be misconstrued as such – for example, you may have gathered that our team has not been doing well, you can pick out individuals and criticize their performances, but some on our forum say not to do this as “the lads get upset” “doesn’t help to motivate” “we must back them…” etc etc etc but when you’ve only won 4 league games in 1.15 seasons, discontentment creeps in -and the only other place than the terraces on a Saturday to express your view is via The Forum.
On other forums that I subscribe too, the moderators can be a little eager to modify / delete / ban a member for what they think is an offensive or abusive or personal post, perhaps because that poster has not thought through his reply (heat of the moment), understood the mechanics of something or the target audience he / she is writing within.
Food for thought……
