Mod. Notice Lions Board - tell us what you think...

[josephs_79]

Again another post probably explaining one of my paragraphs a lot better than i could. Thanks TBD

 

[Haso]

This is the best GEE up thread of all time, I love the cycle of bigfooty, when you have been around on this forum as long as Rip and I have you have seen this all before. Once I sat myself right in the middle of it, now I just perversely watch you guys ride your emotional highs and lows with each other. Call it a modern day soap opera. Personally, I don't really take notice of too many individual posters, you all just blend in together like one cosmos to me. It takes a lot for a poster to catch my eye these days. Personally I would like to thank you all for making my morning coffee and toast ritual such an enjoyable one every morning around 5am. Please keep it up!!!!

ps. this is what supporting a team that has been s**t for the last 10 years and has ****** up so much with recruiting and employing does to the supporters of a footy club!!!! Let's hope the next 10 years are a little more enjoyable!

You're not a crumb, mate. You're the whole loaf.

 

[Elixuh]

Would it be too painful to have 'normal' non-footy related threads in the main section rather than in 'the den'? Might break things up a bit and we may get less derailing or w/e.

 

[Viceregal]

I have recently pulled back a bit on my BF reading due to time constraints/burgeoning other interests etc. As a result instead of watching *every* thread on the board (punting related ones the exception) and the Roster watch board I have reduced it to the ones I anticipate finding interesting / informative / enjoyable etc.

Do I get an alert for a thread sometimes and click on it expecting something interesting and find myself underwhelmed by the content - absolutely. Do I sometimes just click to the next page hoping we were back on track - sure. Is it enough to make me stop reading that thread - depends on how much I value the self-perceived core content of that thread over the current subjectively conceptualised filler currently padding out that thread. Are there threads that I no longer visit due to a overly high filler:content ratio yes. Are there times when I am reading a 'normal' thread and one of the standard thread-derailment comments gets posted and I get a sinking feeling inside and wish that they (not a clique/non-clique reference here - referring to the 'they' that indulge in what that behaviour is at the time) had at least left *this* thread alone - sadly yes. Are there posters that I pretty much ignore (via skimming rather than the ignore function) - kind of and more so the ones who only visit in times of pain and then only to gloat ... no one like mxett etc when I foray over to the ASADA board!

All that being said I know that I am not a poster possessing great insight into almost anything football related and so much if not all of my input is leveraged off of other poster's comments (and yes I have added to the thread filler myself possibly more than I realise (and sometimes as soon as I post it I realise what thread I am in and feel guilty for potential self derailing but cannot delete the post now so ...) and was I not here the BF world would turn quite nicely on its way and were I to disappear there would be little to no angst, sorrow etc on the part of the community.

So do I have the right to complain - technically yes - but morally no - for anything upon which I could complain would smack of hypocrisy.

From my limited exposure to other boards this seems like a higher-end-of-the-scale place and it seems to have a different feel to it (more comforting but that could just be because it is my 'home' and I know the people better.

 

[Voss the boss]

Haven't read this whole thread but I have been around this thread for a few years now. I have seen many come and go and no matter what value they bring, I feel we have lost some real character, which creates our own unique culture on this board. To some, this place can be like an extended community family and like every family there are some siblings, cousins, uncles we prefer to others but hey that is how it is.

So far I have not commented on this so called clique, I have thought about it and come to the consensus, that I am not sure there is but there seems to be s a group of "untouchables" (and if you read that word and got a feeling through you body then maybe this is you) that can do and treat any poster how they want and when challenged are supported by the masses for some unknown reason. What I personally would like to like to see these people have a think about how they can impact the board as they play a huge role in what it can be.

I want to say this though, I get as much value and enjoyment out of reading posts from Dylan12 and Sizematters, (as I did mikeyblueeyees) as I do with Quigley and POBT and that my friends is the beauty of this place.

Mods are doing a great job - and I personally appreciate their work.

I will leave you with this.....don't ask what a mod can do for the board ask what you can do for the board.

peace out.

 

[Albi_Mangler]

I am relatively new to the forum having stumbled upon it about a year ago, and only recently decided to start contributing. So I would like to give my view from a ‘newbie’.

I probably like many Qld based AFL supporters grew up with absolute saturation of RL in the media. I didn’t play or watch AFL growing up as it simply wasn’t on the TV or in the paper in the 80s. It was easier to follow the NBA than Aussie Rules. Even now many of the AFL media programs rarely focus on the Lions in any great depths so BF and Twitter are now my main source of AFL and Lions information. I have learnt a lot about the game and our club from this site, and have actually felt more involved and informed since coming here.

Overall I think this forum is excellent. I really like the organised structure of threads where I can read about topics I am interested in. For too long I was stuck on the wasteland of Facebook where the conversation is extremely poor, limited in depth and amounts to essentially people yelling random thoughts into the void.

This page contains more information, analysis and opinion on tactics, form, players, recruits than anywhere else I have found on the internet and for me the occasional joke-jibe-disagreement is just par for the course on any internet forum where anonymity which allows people to initially participate can also easily lead to a culture of aggression, hindering or detracting from in-depth discussion. On this I think the mods do an excellent job!

For me it is easy enough to just keep on scrolling past or ignore anything that I am not interested in. But I am not sure what you can actually do to reduce or prevent any of the conflict or negative stuff other than everyone remembering some golden rules to online communication (e.g. clearly articulating your point, using emoticons, limiting sarcasm and not posting when you are emotional *may be difficult in matchday thread or post-game after a loss).

 

[Skoob]

For me it is easy enough to just keep on scrolling past or ignore anything that I am not interested in. But I am not sure what you can actually do to reduce or prevent any of the conflict or negative stuff other than everyone remembering some golden rules to online communication (e.g. clearly articulating your point, using emoticons, limiting sarcasm and not posting when you are emotional *may be difficult in matchday thread or post-game after a loss).

Sums it up I reckon.

I don't wish to offend anyone, but the word 'precious' comes to mind when I read that there is "too much of this" or "random that".
Most of the seriously serious threads, (Draft discussions, Should we trade X, or Bring back the Jumper) are pretty much kept on track. As has been mentioned, derailments, jokes etc are organic. That is, they are borne out of the topic or a comment made on that topic. From there it will only go for as long as a chunk of people carry it. If it is one or 2 people participating, derailments die due to weight of numbers not buying in or staying on topic. Usually, if it becomes too tedious for someone, they'll say so and an effort is made to return to topic. It is very much a natural course.

To feel ignored or not get a discussion or response to a post, should not be taken to heart. We have all posted something with no response. That is life really. It is no-one's obligation to acknowledge your ideas by entering discussion. If someone wants to they will, but equally if they wish to change the subject they can.

I just click & scroll. If I see something that I wish to discuss, I will. If I see something I disagree with, I weigh up how much I care before responding. Sometimes I will do so out of boredom or for self entertainment. Same if I see something stupid. If I see something funny or clever, on topic or not, I might decide to join in or consider it too late to jump on the bandwagon.

I very much agree with The Brown Dog's assessment of what the forum is. A place for chat revolving around our club and footy in general. Sometimes serious, sometimes not, and sometimes a place to get something off the chest. For me, things just aren't bad enough to stop me coming here. I think it functions exactly as it should. As a discussion board of all sorts of characters. It is not a service that should be expected to deliver a strict format of information or well behaved Q & A source.

 

[WhiteLionFeva]

I'm a relative newcomer to the Board. When I see the number of posts and years of membership of some on here I feel nothing but admiration for them. I learn more about football and my club by visiting our board than I could ever learn from the established media. Some here are truly knowledgeable and insightful of football and our club in a way I could never be. OK, we have a certain bias but that's what binds us after all. As far as I am aware, I don't know any of the posters here personally, although I do often find myself at the footy wondering which of the Lions people around me are my BigFooty colleagues (and hoping some of them aren't).
Like others have said, if I don't want to read or contribute to a thread I just give it a miss. If I do decide to get involved I sometimes contribute more than I should and what I say occasionally offends for which I apologise (this process might be therapeutic).
I don't engage in the in-jokes, mainly because I am of an era that means it mostly goes straight over the top. But I don't get offended when others feel the need and I find a lot of it entertaining to a degree. If not I turn off and leave it to those who do.
We all have outside pressures which sometimes mean we don't come here as often as we would like or find the need to leave altogether. But I am sad whenever I hear someone say they are leaving the board because of things that happen on it - my message to the Mods is to guard against that as best they can. It should never become that serious.
I know we have all posted things here we regret. I have had only one nasty moment since I have been posting and it was substantially my fault. A fellow poster had said he (I know it was a he) was going to refuse to renew his membership because of something that had happened with the club (I can't remember what) and I retorted and said I though that was a weak act. I shouldn't have and it provoked a rather angry response and counter-response. We ended up agreeing to disagree but I haven't seen much of that poster since and I only hope I wasn't the cause of his departure.
I don't think we should be too hard on ourselves. A good measure of the calibre of any BF board is the dialogue between members after a loss. You might try visiting some other boards and you will see what real tension is. On some boards the mere selection or non-selection of certain players can turn into near meltdown and some of the things said would straighten your hair. I see very little of that here which is pretty remarkable given the relative lack of success of our team of late.
I plan to stick around for a good while yet. Hell, what else is there?
Go Lions!

 

[Toffee Lion]

This is like one big therapy session where everybody is sitting in a circle and goes around the room explaining their circumstances.

I'll just be that guy who is slouching on their chair and gives a faint "Nah, I'm all good with everything - ya'll carry on".

 

[Old Den]

A young Richard Pryor disagrees with you, POBT

I like the in jokes even when they go right over my head like this one.

We all get various degrees of entertainment or none from what is posted...for example,I like your sig WhiteLineFeva as I came across it many years ago and of course it was part of a series of in jokes between two famous people of their day..I have been tempted to post "I wish I had said that" and now I have.

I think argument and verbal jousting is fine if posters hold their self control and keep away from the nasty stuff and perhaps some of these threads are shut down a bit early at times.

I do appreciate the forum and it is good for an oldie like me to relate to the cross section of ages here...it is always a special thing for me to talk to people in general as well as rellies and friends of my "day" especially as those F and R's are well and truly thin on the ground now,just as it is great to converse with my nine grandchildren (mostly teenagers) even though six of them live far away.

I also have never had anybody on my ignore list but I will admit that there have been times when I have been sorely tempted.

 

[Sherrinator]

I do enjoy the banter here, and we do have fun while having some pretty serious and informative discussions/debates.

I would like to see the whole "announcing of ignoring people" incur an infraction though (you can do a 24 ban right?). It happens nearly every game and it sucks (been on the end of it before and it sucks).

You are now on my ignore list

 

[patfullfankezz]

You are now on my ignore list

Haven't I always been on your ignore list?

 

[Fatcat08]

I do enjoy the banter here, and we do have fun while having some pretty serious and informative discussions/debates.

I would like to see the whole "announcing of ignoring people" incur an infraction though (you can do a 24 ban right?). It happens nearly every game and it sucks (been on the end of it before and it sucks).

If this is a ban from watching the tv series 24 then hang on to your hats folks because you're all about to get named!!

On a more serious note I agree with bits and pieces of most of the posts above. A few things that I'll throw in there that have really annoyed me lately are:

a) the continuous re-stating of the same position by posters. The same sentence or point of view doesn't need to be restated over and over again in response to every post in a thread. If you want to elaborate on the reasoning behind your view, fair enough but don't simply just re-state it again and again almost word for word
b) The constant posting about getting howled or shouted down. Just because people disagree with you doesn't mean they're stifling your point of view. You also dont have to go and try to point out that you were right, especially when the arguments in several cases weren't really about the rightness of a particular statement.
c) the talking in absolutes. Statements like "we are going to do X" or "team y is going to pick Z". Maybe just think about rephrasing these things a bit, unless you've got some impeccable source then you don't really know and if you did I would doubt that you'd be posting it on a forum such as this. Feel free to speculate or arrive at an educated guess but try to word it that way. Using absolutes gets people offside immediately and creates possibly unintended reactions. I've got no issue with people believing that something will happen, but that's not to say its a certainty.

Overall I think this board is in pretty good shape. Things will ebb and flow with whats happening to our club, there's no getting away from that. After a loss there's a lot of reactionary posting and arguments which is only natural. Thats when some of the joking tends to escalate, due to the fact that people want a change from the negative postings. After a good win however things tend to flow a lot smoother as people tend to take a bit more time and consider what they're saying before posting. If we could take a bit of the latter and shift it to when we have a loss I think we would find an overall upswing in the sentiment across the board and a fair bit less of the injokes flying around to break up the ranting. By all means get passionate after a loss, but try to put in some reasoning in there as well.

At the end of the day this board will always mimic the fortunes of our team. When they're up and winning the main tones are positive, when we're in the shits on and off the field like we have been in the last few years then it will always tend to go downhill. If we can all just pause a second before replying and have a bit of a think in the down times I believe we'll all find a happy medium between what we're all looking for in this board.

 

[James North]

I only posted that joke to illustrate that it's run its course.

And that in itself is funny.

An onion joke.

 

[Old Den]

I only posted that joke to illustrate that it's run its course.

And that in itself is funny.

An onion joke.

Like the James Asterisks North contributions then?...I still like them but will be very sparing in future,

 

[lionshine]

Burn the place down and start again!

 

[James North]

Like the James Asterisks North contributions then?...I still like them but will be very sparing in future,

I have a couple of middle names already, which is completely ridiculous.

Any new ones that you suggest will certainly be taken on board!

 

[Sherrinator]

Haven't I always been on your ignore list?

I keep un-ignoring you, then you disappoint me again

 

[Sherrinator]

If this is a ban from watching the tv series 24 then hang on to your hats folks because you're all about to get named!!

On a more serious note I agree with bits and pieces of most of the posts above. A few things that I'll throw in there that have really annoyed me lately are:

a) the continuous re-stating of the same position by posters. The same sentence or point of view doesn't need to be restated over and over again in response to every post in a thread. If you want to elaborate on the reasoning behind your view, fair enough but don't simply just re-state it again and again almost word for word
b) The constant posting about getting howled or shouted down. Just because people disagree with you doesn't mean they're stifling your point of view. You also dont have to go and try to point out that you were right, especially when the arguments in several cases weren't really about the rightness of a particular statement.
c) the talking in absolutes. Statements like "we are going to do X" or "team y is going to pick Z". Maybe just think about rephrasing these things a bit, unless you've got some impeccable source then you don't really know and if you did I would doubt that you'd be posting it on a forum such as this. Feel free to speculate or arrive at an educated guess but try to word it that way. Using absolutes gets people offside immediately and creates possibly unintended reactions. I've got no issue with people believing that something will happen, but that's not to say its a certainty.

Overall I think this board is in pretty good shape. Things will ebb and flow with whats happening to our club, there's no getting away from that. After a loss there's a lot of reactionary posting and arguments which is only natural. Thats when some of the joking tends to escalate, due to the fact that people want a change from the negative postings. After a good win however things tend to flow a lot smoother as people tend to take a bit more time and consider what they're saying before posting. If we could take a bit of the latter and shift it to when we have a loss I think we would find an overall upswing in the sentiment across the board and a fair bit less of the injokes flying around to break up the ranting. By all means get passionate after a loss, but try to put in some reasoning in there as well.

At the end of the day this board will always mimic the fortunes of our team. When they're up and winning the main tones are positive, when we're in the shits on and off the field like we have been in the last few years then it will always tend to go downhill. If we can all just pause a second before replying and have a bit of a think in the down times I believe we'll all find a happy medium between what we're all looking for in this board.

But if we paused and thought first, noone would post anything.

 

[ninja_lion]

As a long term lurker, who signed up, then lurked again for a couple of years before I ever posted, I can't say I've noticed a particular change in recent times within the culture of the board. Quite happy that we're discussing it every now and again though - as one poster said it's like a Leading Teams session (and I don't think that's a bad thing!)

Quick thoughts:
- As mentioned (often), enough of the in jokes. I've been reading here for years and don't get many of them
- A group of people disagreeing with you does not automatically = clique. It just means that on the particular topic at hand, your opinion happens to be in the minority. Don't take it personally - we've all been there at some stage I'm sure.
- OTOH, there is sometimes a noticeable passive aggressiveness shown towards some posters opinions. I think this is often because they've stated something as an absolute (or fact) rather than framing their post as an opinion, and that rubs people the wrong way, especially if they've got personal in stating said "fact" (eg. "anyone who thinks otherwise is stupid/kidding themselves/knows nothing about footy"). Regardless, if their post rubs you the wrong way, I don't think it's acceptable to target them for it. I was pretty uncomfortable with how people went after Dylan12 re the Merrett thing last week (probably because I seemed to inadvertently start a shitfight despite trying to be logical rather than emotional ,and so felt somehow partially responsible). I should probably have stood up and posted that in order to state my distaste for how things went, but I probably thought I'd done enough damage and stayed out of it
- The whole Roster Watch sub-board is fantastic, and a key thing that keeps me interested. Most other clubs don't have anything remotely close to it.

Overall I think we're a pretty diverse bunch, and it must be a hell of a job to moderate said bunch, so I feel all things considered the mods are doing a pretty good job

 

[jackess]

As a long term lurker, who signed up, then lurked again for a couple of years before I ever posted, I can't say I've noticed a particular change in recent times within the culture of the board. Quite happy that we're discussing it every now and again though - as one poster said it's like a Leading Teams session (and I don't think that's a bad thing!)

Quick thoughts:
- As mentioned (often), enough of the in jokes. I've been reading here for years and don't get many of them
- A group of people disagreeing with you does not automatically = clique. It just means that on the particular topic at hand, your opinion happens to be in the minority. Don't take it personally - we've all been there at some stage I'm sure.
- OTOH, there is sometimes a noticeable passive aggressiveness shown towards some posters opinions. I think this is often because they've stated something as an absolute (or fact) rather than framing their post as an opinion, and that rubs people the wrong way, especially if they've got personal in stating said "fact" (eg. "anyone who thinks otherwise is stupid/kidding themselves/knows nothing about footy"). Regardless, if their post rubs you the wrong way, I don't think it's acceptable to target them for it. I was pretty uncomfortable with how people went after Dylan12 re the Merrett thing last week (probably because I seemed to inadvertently start a shitfight despite trying to be logical rather than emotional ,and so felt somehow partially responsible). I should probably have stood up and posted that in order to state my distaste for how things went, but I probably thought I'd done enough damage and stayed out of it
- The whole Roster Watch sub-board is fantastic, and a key thing that keeps me interested. Most other clubs don't have anything remotely close to it.

Overall I think we're a pretty diverse bunch, and it must be a hell of a job to moderate said bunch, so I feel all things considered the mods are doing a pretty good job

For me these 2 are related. The clique thing is just a joke for me. Just because a few of the most frequent posters tend to agree on almost everything and disagree with a lot of the opinions I and some others have doesn't mean that they've organised this.

 

[Hollow Knight]

For me these 2 are related. The clique thing is just a joke for me. Just because a few of the most frequent posters tend to agree on almost everything and disagree with a lot of the opinions I and some others have doesn't mean that they've organised this.

James North & Haso - I'm on my lunch break, can one of you guys draft up a reply to Jackess giving our general endorsement of his comments and we'll go over it in our afternoon team meeting?

Will also need a recommendation on whether we should all click "like" on his post.

Cheers

 

[Elixuh]

James North & Haso - I'm on my lunch break, can one of you guys draft up a reply to Jackess giving our general endorsement of his comments and we'll go over it in our afternoon team meeting?

Will also need a recommendation on whether we should all click "like" on his post.

Cheers

Oh I thought you were all the same person?

 

[patfullfankezz]

James North & Haso - I'm on my lunch break, can one of you guys draft up a reply to Jackess giving our general endorsement of his comments and we'll go over it in our afternoon team meeting?

Will also need a recommendation on whether we should all click "like" on his post.

Cheers

You realise remarks like this, while are (I'm hoping) meant to be light-hearted, actually come across as snide comments?

 

[Skoob]

I think it's a bit much call for the culling of 'in jokes'. Just because you don't "get" something, means others can't have fun? Social media is by definition, social.
Sure, if it is being a disruptive, negative influence on the thread, then there is obviously a limit, but is the alternative to only make comments or quips that only everyone will "get" or understand?
Or should there be no joking around at all?
Sometimes, someone will make a reference to song lyrics or movie dialogue that I don't get. Should we agree on no more of that?