Good stuff, Midfielder.

Why don't you ever start a thread about any issue in football, Victor?

I've yet to see you do it in 13 years of football forums.

You have plenty of ideas criticising those who do.

What have you contributed to this threat that is proactive, champ?

Your last post is evocative of your negative attitude.

Here is an idea, why don't you provide a precursory synopsis of your last book on football you wrote?

I'd eagerly look forward to it, instead of your constant moaning and negativity.

On psychology, I have a degree in it. 

I'm being positive.


My concept as the progenitor of  this thread, was to ascertain the thoughts of forum posters - the many positive ones .

We have had a lot of input  from many former regular posters, and current regulars.

I see a dichotomy between two groups:

1. Proactive.

2. Reactive.

1.  Proactive posters who are quite positive and post here to  engage in football discussion and access football news. Many of these people start threads about football. They are usually  disinterested in conflict on the internet.

2. Reactive posters who whinge about others and seek internet conflict.  They never start any football threads, but criticise others who do. Moreover, when a critical mass of these negative cynics comprise the majority of posters on any forum, they drive most of group 1 away. Consequently,  the forum dies.

 

There are obviously some who are a combination  of 1 and 2. 

In this thread many of 1 have clearly expressed why they haven't posted here for a while,  or regulars of 1 have expressed more ideas how to improve the forum.  Pertinently, many in group 2 don't like what they read expressed by group1.


If you are reading this, Kevin, in the interests of preserving the forum, listen intently to what group 1 has to say - and - act on as much as possible.

I know you'd like to kick quite a few of group 2 where the does not shine - and - off the forum.

We can do without your amateur psychology, decentric.

And your wild guesses about other people's lives. Keep it normal...

jfc no need to be so fucking bitter Decentric

It would be interesting to know how some of the people who love conflict on the internet are in face to face contact off forum? 

My guess is they are angry, but too cowardly to confront others face to face and diss out abuse. 

The Internet is a great place for them to express how macho they can be by banging on keys. 

There is is a clear message on this thread about most wanting to discuss football in a civil manner on this forum. 

We have seen many posts from former regulars, which has been beneficial. 

There have been some great ideas posted by members. 

I’m just hoping they can be implemented. 

Maybe Kevin Airs needs to peruse this thread? 

Many many many maybe too many moons ago a group of people [me included] believed our lack of media coverage was so poor we created our own little magazine [online] and it was amazingly successful... many of the writers went on to become journalist ... below is a link to some of the mags .... We stopped as the media picked up and as I said many of those in the mag went to work in the media.

As I said no idea if this would work on this site, but the gist of it is some threads would be somehow marked as a mods approved article / story / event or whatever name it may go by.

Bowen we don't need the pictures etc but below are some examples of the magazine and how well it was written, and how many articles...

I offer this as an idea to make the forum different, and I believe it would encourage many who don't come because of its increasing toxic nature to make it a first choice open to see what it is.

Anywho here are some links to """Half Time Heroes"" BTW all articles were read and approved by the mods before publication.

issuu.com/stama/docs/halftimeheroesaugust2010

issuu.com/stama/docs/halftimeheroesworldcup2010review


issuu.com/stama/docs/halftimeheroesjune2010

issuu.com/stama/docs/halftimeheroesmarch2010


issuu.com/stama/docs/halftimeheroesjan2010

Looking at the USA v Thailand WWC thread, we should just consolidate the football threads for a start.

it's called a post

Sounds like a very good idea, but I wouldn't worry about the length of the article.  A well written 250 word article giving fans an update on a particular team's training in the off-season could be just as interesting as a 750 word piece and may bring some new people to the forum,.

Jeez , why do we want to over complicate everything nowadays , soon we will have to have a degree in journalism to post on here ffs , it’s meant to be about football discussion and a bit of fun not “NodeBB” whatever the fuck that is.

In NodeBB you could create a group called "Forum Writer" "Researcher" or the such, then make it invite only. Anyone who creates content like you suggested could get invite by KA himself for what it's worth. You can create groups for specific tasks of the forum "Moderator" "Social Networker" etc

Bowen

Have done some thinking and have an idea, and I am note sure how the forum will react but would welcome, feedback to see if it’s a good idea or the worst suggestion ever made on the forum.

But first a couple of little thing that drives me crazy, a breaking story can have multi people starting a threads and for me it makes sense that’s mods would move the latter threads to the one that was started first. Second like many the name calling and so on needs to kept in check otherwise why come back.

Now back to my idea and its possible it’s the worst ever suggestion or makes a lot of sense.

Some framing to start with, mainstream media gives few Football stories and forums in the say early days of forums where were people could spread good news and mention the positive things that never made the media… in fact back in the day Football stories were rare so forums provided a place to go.

Today Forums have competition from, various other online platforms. Meaning we need to make the site worth a visit.

Finally… OK OK … the idea.. the mods create a concept of forum journalist / writer or what ever name you wanta call it. The idea is posters could submit to the mods essentially a Football article for there judgement that this is a mod recommended and supported thread. The articles be between 500 & 750 words and be reasonably well written and written in a way to encourage debate highlighting a particular aspect of Football in Australia. Smaller threads  as always could be started by anyone and key articles as now published with a link.

How about we divide the forum in two, with a snowflake section for the easily offended. In this area, everyone would agree with the OP and congratulate each other on their posts - not too much celebrating of course. 

That's really interesting insight. Perhaps you could fitler the 'outrage' articles into completely different categories. Worth some deep thought.

Very, very late to this, but for what it's worth...

1. How did you initially discover the forums?
Was definitely through the articles back in the day. Must've been around 10 years ago. It was eye-opening to discover real discussions among real fans that went way beyond the pithy stuff in the papers.

2. What’s kept you around?
Haven't posted a great deal over the years, but picked up a bit recently. Been living abroad for the best part of a decade, so the A-League is perhaps one of my main anchors to what's happening back home. I sometimes wonder if I'd be so into it if I still lived in sleepy ol' Newcastle. My interest in EPL, for example, is at an all-time low. So, I do a lot of work in social media, and quite frankly I'm over the type of kneejerk, know-it-all discussion and hot takes that FB and Twitter engender. For all the petty squabbles here, I usually feel like I can also expect reasoned analysis, different viewpoints expressed in a reasonable manner and a few laughs that aren't for the wrong reasons.

3. Any ideas for acquiring new users?
That's a tough one. I couldn't tell you the last time I looked at this website's homepage. I do think merging the boards would help consolidate discussion. Rumor Mill used to be pumping! The optimist in me says 'more original content!'; the pessimist that the vast number of casual fans out there are mostly interested in rumors and outrage. I guess the A-League is finally getting to the stage where we can get nostalgic about the early years, so there might be some mileage there. (Yes, I supported the NSL in its dying days, but it's so hard to find good info even on the last few seasons.) I like reading some of the historical stuff pages like These Football Times put out about 'golden eras' and great teams of yesteryear and forgotten maestros (I often think about players like Chichi Mendez, Kresimir Marusic, Troy Halpin, even Nick Carle, who should be looked back on as absolute cult heroes),  so maybe more localized stuff like that. Maybe that's just my own weird tangent.

that's fucked up

Holy fuck.

Glad you haven't received anything recently though.

Over the years I got some dms.  Mostly ignored but one I had to report to police since it involved naming my eldest daughter.  

are people still using facebook??

You should only say et al when talking about other humans not entities.

Scratches head also 

Wait what lol.

I've recieved dms  from certain trolls which I wont post as their beyond pale. What makes people think what they post or write online isnt traceable? 

Yep, hit the nail on the head.

Should probably think yourself lucky if that's true

The problem is that back in the good old days of 442 before it became ftbl  we had numerous posters who used to troll and banter but it was all in good fun and if they went to far they wouldve been banned straight away. Now the trolls have gotten worse and mods ignore the problem or the trolls make it like they're the victims even though they derail  threads 

The forum just needs to connect via Twitter etc a bit more. 

Am i the only one experiencing difficulties posting?
And whats with the latest change and the lack of an icon to post pics?
How about a heads up?