Post by Dave on Jun 11, 2010 18:42:16 GMT
Its Stefano’s fault, yes it really is Stefano’s fault, he had to keep putting in his posts about the fact we had now got 700 members on the TFF. Then yesterday morning checking the forum at Toolfix before I set off for Weymouth I noticed we were back down to 699.
I have never concerned myself with the number of members that shows up on the forum, for me it has always only been about the number of active members we have and the number of members who contribute to the TFF.
I view about 20 different forums every week and I have seen some forums with only 50 members that were very busy and very happy forums and I have also seen forums that show they have 2000 members and I wonder where they all are as the members who are using the forum is only a tiny percentage of the whole membership.
It goes without saying I love seeing new people join our forum and I always hope in time they will make their first post and become a regular contributor on the TFF, we are always going to need new blood and we are always going to see others drift away and its so important as far as I’m concerned that we don’t drive anyone away or make them feel this is not a good forum to belong to.
One of the biggest turn off’s in my view is reading a forum where members openly abuse each other, we have had our fair share on here and some really good threads with really great posts made on them have ended up ruined and only fit for the recycle bin and that has to be such a shame when members have put real effort into writing the good posts that were on that thread.
When things do get out of hand and go over the top, the result is a member might leave the forum or simply stop posting on it again, when that happens I do get rather frustrated as I feel it’s the forum that ends up taking the punishment and all because one or two members could not debate in an adult way without letting things get far to personal.
I have learned far more about forums since I set this one up than in all the many years I was a member on one and I have also learned a better way to be a member on one, there was a time when I knew no better due to my experience then of forums, where I would get into many battles with other members and how many times did I end up feeling angry myself?
Far to many times is the answer and is that really the way anyone should end up feeling while using a forum that in my view should really be something that was fun to use, something where you learned things about the club you support and a place where you came in the door, pulled up a chair and enjoyed good debate with other members who may in time also become good friends.
One of the biggest problems on a forum is what we write so often gets read not the way we thought we wrote it and that’s why I encourage the use of smileys as they so often can help to show just where we were coming from.
I so often have heard it said that a post was made in a certain way only to get a reaction, that’s fine as long the post did not contain anything that was posted to deliberately upset others just to get a reaction. I believe a well written post that is interesting is far better and one members will always be happier to add to.
Look at the opening post Merse made yesterday on the thread “I've Just Seen Tom!” and that has turned into a very interesting thread to read and yes its gone off topic a bit, but who cares as some of the very best threads on the TFF went so far off topic and ended up being wonderful to read.
The TFF way has always been from day one that each and every member on here is equal and treated the same way, there are no members who I class as star members who will get treated any differently from anyone else just because they may post more than some others.
Yes such members will always be seen as very valuable members on the forum and would be greatly missed if they left the forum, but they will never be treated any differently by me and they would not expect to be anyway.
Due to what happened in the middle of this week I do want to say a few things about Merse and I hope he does not mind and I will stress these are just my views and ones I don’t expect anyone to adopted just because I hold them.
I was sent a PM the other week where I was told it had been posted elsewhere that the forum was so much a better place as Merse was not a member on there. My view is the TFF is such a richer place for having merse on here as he along with others like Barton, Jon and so many others have brought such great knowledge into our forum.
I do know some feel he is a know it all, well I can tell you there has never been a thread on here that Merse was never unable to offer a worthwhile contribution on it, the fact is he is man who has a great deal of knowledge on so many subjects and also has a great memory.
Some feel he just sits on some high horse and I wonder how much the fact he lives in London has a part to play in that. I know when I thought many years ago he was someone big in the City I was guilty of feeling that, but the fact is Merse while very well educated as done a normal job all his life but one he has loved doing.
Unless a post made by Merse is something he is posting from his memory, then its no more than his own point of view and what he may believe in, it will never be the case he is right or wrong and it may well differ from what you believe, that is what makes the world an interesting place as we all have our own views on any given subject.
If you make a post and it is not something another member agrees with, then you can expect the member will tell you they don’t agree with the views you hold and hopefully tell you why. It does not mean you are being picked on and while it may seem that way if every post you make the poster then posts he disagrees with you again, all it really shows if your view points on so many subjects are very far apart.
We really can’t go on letting really great threads being ruined as some have been lately, next year someone will start reading one such thread and really start getting into it until they get to the bit where the thread breaks down badly due to a member starting to attack another.
We are on here to share our love of TUFC, to have a bit of fun and I don’t want to run a forum where it ends up certain members get to the point where there is real bad blood between them, I came from such a forum some time ago and its not what must happen on here.
We have such a great mixture of real characters on here, at the moment one or two mind you could change their name to Mr Angry with no problem, lets get rid of the anger and instead bring a bit of humour into the forum instead.
Harbouring bad feelings inside will only destroy one person, the person who is holding onto those feelings, let them go as if not they will only fester and turn you into a very unhappy person. By doing that myself I have got to where I am now in my life as I have had far more than my share of things been done to me, I let it all go and I know the real value of being happy and trust me it’s a far better feeing inside that having those bitter feelings.
So onto this weeks winner and how great to have our very first winner who is not currently living in the UK. I got to meet this very fine young man when he was over here to go to a home game with his dad and I was so pleased when he decided to join our forum. I was also very pleased to meet dad as well by the way.
This weeks winner is johannesburggull very well done
One of the posts made this week by johannesburggull
I am going to try to keep my language moderate but apologies in advance if I fail to. Why is there so much damn Afro-pessimism on this board? Why do people think that South Africa is already 'in chaos'? I am currently writing this from Johannesburg, waiting on a ticket to tomorrow's Dutch football team's public training session and with tickets to two games in my desk drawer. My main concern with the tournament is selfish - my university campus is being used as a park and ride for games at Soccer City, Ellis Park, and Loftus stadia: this means there will be a shortage of parking for myself and other staff who have to come to work. Beyond that, and please indulge me while I write this, the preparations here have gone very well and the atmosphere is building nicely.
The murder of Eugene Terr'blance at Easter certainly caused a bit of concern for some, but talk of the new 'race war' - I believe one of the British paper's headline was 'English soccer fans face machete race-war blood bath' - was over-hyped and sensationalist. Race remains a crux issue here, but that said a more serious concern now is disparities in wealth (which often remain along racial lines): address the socio-economic inequalities and other tensions would diminish. Perhaps I can give you a more positive side to things - one of the local rugby teams, the Blue Bulls, recently won the Super 14 trophy (equivalent of the Heineken Cup) in a game played at Orlando Stadium in Soweto (they couldn't play at their home ground, Loftus Road, as it is being used for the World Cup) - this meant that thousands of white South Africans - Afrikaans and English speakers - ventured into Soweto: a space symbolically tied to the struggle against apartheid and into which many white South Africans refuse to venture. The day went exceptionally well, reports from friends at the game and in the media reinforced a sense of national-pride and non-racialism, free of the tensions and concerns so many talk about.
To address some other points - South Africa certainly is blighted by crime and violence, primarily due to the vast socio-economic inequalities that are a legacy of apartheid. That said, the worst of these problems are experienced in specific spaces (ie the townships and sub-economic urban areas) into which very few tourists would venture. Just as there are parts of London, Glasgow, Nottingham or any other city that you would not walk around alone, after dark, so too are there parts of South African cities one would not walk around. While a degree of street-savy is required, too much of the media coverage plays upon moral panics and folk devils in reporting on/about South Africa.
There are certainly very upsetting and troubling incidents of random violence in the country, but these are limited in number compared to the poor-on-poor violence which is often overlooked in media reports.
As for the stampede at the friendly fixture between Nigeria and Korea - this was a fixture organised by the national football associations of the two countries who failed to ensure adequate preparations were in place for the fixture. Having attended many local and international games here there are incidents of concern with crowd behaviour - but may I remind you of the scenes at the Milwall v West Ham game last year? The organisation at the Confederations Cup last year indicate that the World Cup fixtures will be more than adequately policed and safe.
The World Cup is going to be a great experience and, yes, it is being held somewhere that is outside of Europe/North America so there will be a few stumbles along the way but accept that and go with the flow. I, for one, will be heading in to Soweto on Friday to watch the opening match from a fan park or shebeen and thoroughly expect a warm and friendly welcome. Ke Nako!
I have never concerned myself with the number of members that shows up on the forum, for me it has always only been about the number of active members we have and the number of members who contribute to the TFF.
I view about 20 different forums every week and I have seen some forums with only 50 members that were very busy and very happy forums and I have also seen forums that show they have 2000 members and I wonder where they all are as the members who are using the forum is only a tiny percentage of the whole membership.
It goes without saying I love seeing new people join our forum and I always hope in time they will make their first post and become a regular contributor on the TFF, we are always going to need new blood and we are always going to see others drift away and its so important as far as I’m concerned that we don’t drive anyone away or make them feel this is not a good forum to belong to.
One of the biggest turn off’s in my view is reading a forum where members openly abuse each other, we have had our fair share on here and some really good threads with really great posts made on them have ended up ruined and only fit for the recycle bin and that has to be such a shame when members have put real effort into writing the good posts that were on that thread.
When things do get out of hand and go over the top, the result is a member might leave the forum or simply stop posting on it again, when that happens I do get rather frustrated as I feel it’s the forum that ends up taking the punishment and all because one or two members could not debate in an adult way without letting things get far to personal.
I have learned far more about forums since I set this one up than in all the many years I was a member on one and I have also learned a better way to be a member on one, there was a time when I knew no better due to my experience then of forums, where I would get into many battles with other members and how many times did I end up feeling angry myself?
Far to many times is the answer and is that really the way anyone should end up feeling while using a forum that in my view should really be something that was fun to use, something where you learned things about the club you support and a place where you came in the door, pulled up a chair and enjoyed good debate with other members who may in time also become good friends.
One of the biggest problems on a forum is what we write so often gets read not the way we thought we wrote it and that’s why I encourage the use of smileys as they so often can help to show just where we were coming from.
I so often have heard it said that a post was made in a certain way only to get a reaction, that’s fine as long the post did not contain anything that was posted to deliberately upset others just to get a reaction. I believe a well written post that is interesting is far better and one members will always be happier to add to.
Look at the opening post Merse made yesterday on the thread “I've Just Seen Tom!” and that has turned into a very interesting thread to read and yes its gone off topic a bit, but who cares as some of the very best threads on the TFF went so far off topic and ended up being wonderful to read.
The TFF way has always been from day one that each and every member on here is equal and treated the same way, there are no members who I class as star members who will get treated any differently from anyone else just because they may post more than some others.
Yes such members will always be seen as very valuable members on the forum and would be greatly missed if they left the forum, but they will never be treated any differently by me and they would not expect to be anyway.
Due to what happened in the middle of this week I do want to say a few things about Merse and I hope he does not mind and I will stress these are just my views and ones I don’t expect anyone to adopted just because I hold them.
I was sent a PM the other week where I was told it had been posted elsewhere that the forum was so much a better place as Merse was not a member on there. My view is the TFF is such a richer place for having merse on here as he along with others like Barton, Jon and so many others have brought such great knowledge into our forum.
I do know some feel he is a know it all, well I can tell you there has never been a thread on here that Merse was never unable to offer a worthwhile contribution on it, the fact is he is man who has a great deal of knowledge on so many subjects and also has a great memory.
Some feel he just sits on some high horse and I wonder how much the fact he lives in London has a part to play in that. I know when I thought many years ago he was someone big in the City I was guilty of feeling that, but the fact is Merse while very well educated as done a normal job all his life but one he has loved doing.
Unless a post made by Merse is something he is posting from his memory, then its no more than his own point of view and what he may believe in, it will never be the case he is right or wrong and it may well differ from what you believe, that is what makes the world an interesting place as we all have our own views on any given subject.
If you make a post and it is not something another member agrees with, then you can expect the member will tell you they don’t agree with the views you hold and hopefully tell you why. It does not mean you are being picked on and while it may seem that way if every post you make the poster then posts he disagrees with you again, all it really shows if your view points on so many subjects are very far apart.
We really can’t go on letting really great threads being ruined as some have been lately, next year someone will start reading one such thread and really start getting into it until they get to the bit where the thread breaks down badly due to a member starting to attack another.
We are on here to share our love of TUFC, to have a bit of fun and I don’t want to run a forum where it ends up certain members get to the point where there is real bad blood between them, I came from such a forum some time ago and its not what must happen on here.
We have such a great mixture of real characters on here, at the moment one or two mind you could change their name to Mr Angry with no problem, lets get rid of the anger and instead bring a bit of humour into the forum instead.
Harbouring bad feelings inside will only destroy one person, the person who is holding onto those feelings, let them go as if not they will only fester and turn you into a very unhappy person. By doing that myself I have got to where I am now in my life as I have had far more than my share of things been done to me, I let it all go and I know the real value of being happy and trust me it’s a far better feeing inside that having those bitter feelings.
So onto this weeks winner and how great to have our very first winner who is not currently living in the UK. I got to meet this very fine young man when he was over here to go to a home game with his dad and I was so pleased when he decided to join our forum. I was also very pleased to meet dad as well by the way.
This weeks winner is johannesburggull very well done
One of the posts made this week by johannesburggull
I am going to try to keep my language moderate but apologies in advance if I fail to. Why is there so much damn Afro-pessimism on this board? Why do people think that South Africa is already 'in chaos'? I am currently writing this from Johannesburg, waiting on a ticket to tomorrow's Dutch football team's public training session and with tickets to two games in my desk drawer. My main concern with the tournament is selfish - my university campus is being used as a park and ride for games at Soccer City, Ellis Park, and Loftus stadia: this means there will be a shortage of parking for myself and other staff who have to come to work. Beyond that, and please indulge me while I write this, the preparations here have gone very well and the atmosphere is building nicely.
The murder of Eugene Terr'blance at Easter certainly caused a bit of concern for some, but talk of the new 'race war' - I believe one of the British paper's headline was 'English soccer fans face machete race-war blood bath' - was over-hyped and sensationalist. Race remains a crux issue here, but that said a more serious concern now is disparities in wealth (which often remain along racial lines): address the socio-economic inequalities and other tensions would diminish. Perhaps I can give you a more positive side to things - one of the local rugby teams, the Blue Bulls, recently won the Super 14 trophy (equivalent of the Heineken Cup) in a game played at Orlando Stadium in Soweto (they couldn't play at their home ground, Loftus Road, as it is being used for the World Cup) - this meant that thousands of white South Africans - Afrikaans and English speakers - ventured into Soweto: a space symbolically tied to the struggle against apartheid and into which many white South Africans refuse to venture. The day went exceptionally well, reports from friends at the game and in the media reinforced a sense of national-pride and non-racialism, free of the tensions and concerns so many talk about.
To address some other points - South Africa certainly is blighted by crime and violence, primarily due to the vast socio-economic inequalities that are a legacy of apartheid. That said, the worst of these problems are experienced in specific spaces (ie the townships and sub-economic urban areas) into which very few tourists would venture. Just as there are parts of London, Glasgow, Nottingham or any other city that you would not walk around alone, after dark, so too are there parts of South African cities one would not walk around. While a degree of street-savy is required, too much of the media coverage plays upon moral panics and folk devils in reporting on/about South Africa.
There are certainly very upsetting and troubling incidents of random violence in the country, but these are limited in number compared to the poor-on-poor violence which is often overlooked in media reports.
As for the stampede at the friendly fixture between Nigeria and Korea - this was a fixture organised by the national football associations of the two countries who failed to ensure adequate preparations were in place for the fixture. Having attended many local and international games here there are incidents of concern with crowd behaviour - but may I remind you of the scenes at the Milwall v West Ham game last year? The organisation at the Confederations Cup last year indicate that the World Cup fixtures will be more than adequately policed and safe.
The World Cup is going to be a great experience and, yes, it is being held somewhere that is outside of Europe/North America so there will be a few stumbles along the way but accept that and go with the flow. I, for one, will be heading in to Soweto on Friday to watch the opening match from a fan park or shebeen and thoroughly expect a warm and friendly welcome. Ke Nako!
. Only 699 members now .... sort it out! ;D
To describe DtG and Aussie as "my two main adversaries on here" and then to emphasize that the keyboard persona is just that, not "real life" and certainly no different than the public persona of anyone in (say) sport, TV or politics is to hit the nail firmly on the head. I've met and enjoyed time with both ~ Dave at Kidderminster and Aussie in The Green Man at Wembley last year..........................we got on fine and enjoyed one another's company.