The Reasons For This Forum

This forum prefers to have everything out in the open, I have listened to you views and I have gave you mine, we simply won't ever agree on these matters, so I'm more than happy to agree that we disagree and have nothing further to say now or in the future on this issue.

Your choice is simply, you're happy to be a member and understand not only how this forum is run,but what it stands for. Or you disagree with it and feel you would not be suited to be a member, I will leave the choice up to you.

Dave R

Great I'm very pleased and happy with that and look forward to reading you views on TUFC and disagreeing if I don't agree

You will need to find a picture that you want, put it my pictures. then If you do not use say photo bucket, open an account, its free and you only need to use a user name. Once set up upload you picture, then resize it to the avatar size.

Go to your profile and then to modify profile a little way down you will see it say avatar url. On photo bucket copy the one that is marked direct link and paste in the avatar url go to bottom of page and save settings.
Any problems please let me know. Dave R

Find a picture you want to use and send it to the fourm email address and I will host it for you and put it in your proflie.

Considering my intro post on here was a hope that this forum would concentrate on TUFC and not differences between sites, I really should let this thread wilt. But it’s like an itch you can’t stop scratching. There have been some very interesting points raised and it really does make you think about wider issues of tolerance.

There seemed to be a nice black and white consensus view here that no moderation was good. In an ideal world, I am certain that is right. Unfortunately, we are not in an ideal world and when you scratch below the surface almost every issue is far more complicated than it initially seems.

This site has often quoted Mervo as an inspiration (has the great man signed up here?), and I think that Mervo’s principle would be total freedom of expression on the grounds that those who say daft things expose themselves as the kind of people who say daft things. Broadly I agree with that, and I would tend towards letting people have their say.

The ignorant post on the “Songs” thread on dotnet pushes that liberal approach to breaking point. I have seen both my parents die of lingering illnesses and so it pushes my tolerance to the edge to defend the right of someone to laugh at Frank Lampard’s mother dying of cancer. Yes, it does expose the stupidity of the poster, so there’s an argument for letting him embarrass himself. On the other hand, somebody could read that post having just attended the funeral of a loved one lost to cancer. Should he or she have to read that crap?

The “Happy Birthday Colin Lee” thread is a different kettle of fish. I’ve read the thread again to see what people are getting so irate about. The worst comments I can find are:

“Sorry but...
Arrogant
Miserable
Over paid
(My personal opinion)”

and

“I cant stand the man. Arrogant waste of space. what does he actually ever do?"

Now I certainly don’t think either of those are the kind of comments that need moderating. The latter is plainly daft and has been shown as such by several posters stating the bleeding obvious: the Board knows what it is doing and would not pay a big wage to someone who does nothing, and the development of the club in twelve months suggests a job well done. The former, as the poster himself states, is a personal OPINION. It may or may not tally with other people’s opinions. But it’s hardly the most hateful thing I’ve read on dotnet.

The uncomfortable fact is that we all think that OUR particular take on the world is the benchmark. The Lampard comment crosses MY decency threshold and offends me – so I would be happy to see it deleted. I see the Lee comments as harsh, but they don’t cross my decency threshold so I would let them stand. Other people will disagree.

I do find it bizarrely inconsistent for a poster to be utterly outraged that someone has a poor opinion of Colin Lee’s attitude when that poster has in the past condoned not only poor opinions of but personal abuse of and even lies about previous (and even current but longer standing) inhabitants of the Plainmoor Boardroom. I’ve read false accusations on the old dotnet about Brian Palk. I’ve read false accusations about income from Boots & Laces being misappropriated by Mike Bateson. I’ve read vicious and nasty personal abuse about Mervyn Benney, Mike Bateson, Debbie and Richard Hancox. All this took place in “the Good Old Days” without a peep of protest. So what’s the difference now?

Of course I know what the difference is. The club is on the up. Colin Lee has played a big part in that. He is in our good books, so we don’t want to hear any criticism. Previous regimes were at best tolerated and at worst detested, so nobody (or hardly anybody) cared about fair play. The idea that you should ban any negatives about someone you like, but allow abuse of and false allegations about those you don’t like does not sit well with me – it is hypocritical.

There has to be a degree of moderation on a forum such as this otherwise the forum would not work.

I would have removed that song if it had appeared on this site, I wouldn't have removed any posts from the Colin Lee thread.

Anything that could get the site into legal trouble should be removed, also anything that crosses the line of decency. Now this is the difficult bit because we all have different levels of tolerence. How do we judge what has and what hasnt crossed the line..I dont think we will ever agree on where this line should be so compromises have to be made.

Threads going off topic, arguements and bickering should in my opinion be left alone to die a natural death. I certainly wont be moderating such things, but if anything oversteps my boundries then I guess I will, I dont see how it can be any other way.

Or have I got this totally wrong, or mayby I am talking nonsense because i have have a few glasses of red wine...you decide

The answer is no Phil, it is only red so those that need to pm the admin will know who I am. I'm just a member like everyone else and my name in red, will never be used to have any power over anyone.
If I'm wrong I will say so, if I make a mistake I will also say so and put it right. I'm not here to win, only to try and run a good forum, nothing more or nothing less.

Dave R