So I just want to make clear. 1Eyed Eel is the Parramatta Eel's Supporter website. It's here for the fans to have a voice.
I have a journalism background. I hunt out information I think fans would like to hear about, and we've been lucky enough to develop a community where we have a good number of people who have been able to contribute exclusive revelations about signings, and other such happenings during the year. There hasn't been much that has happened at the club last year, that wasn't mentioned here first.
And yes, there have been lots of red herrings in the mix too, but I believe we live in an environment where information proliferates and transparency and the power of the individual to decide right from wrong, crap from truth rules. You're all big enough to make up your own minds, and it's not up to me to set down draconian rules about what you can and can't post.
The moderators here have the option to trash blogs that appear to be obviously off the mark or a blatant attempt to cause trouble, and I believe that has worked extremely well since it was put into effect.
So no, I'm not going to stop you from posting an email from the club to members. Once an email like that gets sent out to 10,000 people it is in the public domain. There is no privacy violation, there is no copyright violation and even if the entire email is not posted, someone like myself or another news outlet is going to pick out all the interesting bits and turn it into a news story anyway.
As I understand it, the club contacted Tony to request that these emails not be published and Eelmatic complied with those wishes. I appreciate everyone being concerned about the issue, but as long as we comply with the laws of the land then this is a free forum for expression, opinion and exchange of information. I believe these fundamental philosophies of freedom of speech have at least partly contributed to the site's growth in the past 18 months. We're not a publicity outlet, we are the mouthpiece of the Blue and Gold supporter base.
And to the club. Guys, I really hope a "here are 10 reasons we hope you renew your membership next year" is not considered part of the value-add you are offering to the membership base. You should want that email to be as distributed far and wide, because surely your wanting to attract new members as well as retaining the existing base. You should be delighted when a "good news" email like that gets published, not asking for it to be pulled down.
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I felt a bit sad hearing that the club wanted the email to be taken down. My intentions were obviously not to cause trouble, but only to forward some information I found somewhat interesting.
I hope this was only a one-off and they have no issues with future emails being posted, and I hope we don't all of a sudden need permission from the club, to tell us what can and can't be posted on this public forum. That's the moderators job.
Thanks for understanding.
The value-add argument is utter crap (are you listening Tony)! If the club wanted to have a members only function - say a members only 'meet the players' day - they could quite easily manage that by sending invites out to members only and requiring membership badges shown upon entry.
Anything else, i.e. news regarding the state of the club, potential signings, annual reports, general news etc SHOULD BE SHARED WITH ALL FANS!!! This exclusivity bullshit is what is sending the Tattersals Club on Elizabeth Street broke. In this competitive environment the club should be looking at ways to increase membership by increasing incentives, not stemming the news flow to non-members!
The management of our club are so inept that they obviously can't see that tools of free marketing are valuable commodities and despite the fairly liberal helping of stupidity aired on this forum it IS a community who have come together and, via collective efforts, have created a superior experience for fans at the game - which in turn has increased gate numbers!! And the club must be aware of this because they appear to be using Tony as a conduit to feed various pieces of information to we fans.
This mob really ought to take a long hard look at themselves lest they find themselves serving a shorter term than Kevin Rudd!
But, the value add argument is still crap! You don't have to fence off the players at fan day, but recall that fiasco last year at the Roxy? Simple solution. Email to members advising of a members only signing of jerseys/caps/whatever day with the players inside the building, a line outside, and a members badge the requirement to get inside. Even if one were to publish such an email on this or any other public site, it wouldn't make any difference because unless you have the membership badge, you don't get in. All it requires is a little management - obviously a stretch for the 'keystone cops' at our club!
Thus, those people who pay for memberships can get added value for the financial contribution to the club - on top of their cheap Chinese made paraphernalia in the membership packs.
So, now that you have the ears of Spagnolo and co, should an email be circulated to members only outlining, for example, a specific recruitment strategy and a club rep asks that it not be published on this or another web site, would you stand in their way??
Because as far as I'm concerned that sort of information belong to all supporters of this club whether they support the club financially or just in their hearts!!
Surely you don't need to hold an Honorary Doctorate to figure out that 'id' can be used to sift away non members from members only events.
I mean it is not that difficult to place members card on a lanyard, or even just flash them on entry to gain access to these functions.
I've never been myself so I'm not too sure how it all goes down, but if emails are the only way for members to get acess to these events, then I'm sad to say that our club is really out of touch.