Ladies and Gentlemen,
This site has never been the most endearing to the club or even parts of our own fanbase. A common piece of feedback I receive privately is that some find it too negative or drama-filled, which is why many choose to stay away. At times we clash hard and put each other down, the club, the players, and even Super, who pays for this site out of his own pocket. Some of this could understandably offend players’ families. In conversations I’ve had with people within the club’s hierarchy, the club takes a fairly open-minded view and accepts that it can’t control what others say or think. That’s a mature approach.
That said, I believe the majority of us are good eggs, mean well, even if some are rough around the edges and a small minority hold more extreme views. Over the past decade, I’ve met many wonderful people through this site, some of whom I now count as close friends and have learned a great deal from. You’re a big reason I’m still here and why I care about this community.
If you’re willing, I’d appreciate your thoughts on the direction the site should take. Ultimately, Super will decide, but it’s helpful to understand how people feel, here or privately, on:
- Current affairs and political blogs: Even if personally enjoy them, these often become the most feral and attract extremist views, especially in challenging times. They can flood the site and turn off many who simply want to talk footy, the one thing we all share. Life has enough dramas.
- Moving these blogs to The Cave: Making them members-only may be a win-win, it allows discussions without overwhelming those who’d want to avoid it.
- Any other ideas for improving the site.
Please don’t comment on political, religious or current affairs issues in this blog. This is about improving the site, not saving the world from an apocalypse.
Replies
I like the idea Poppa and just like US Christmas Pardons it involves sparing turkeys
Thanks for the info. Don't know precisely what he said but it was said at an emotionally charged time.
Many of us would strongly object to a long Wiz ban, a time-out would seem to suffice. He has a singular style of posting and when in form he is a force of nature who can pull a good laugh. He skates close to the edge, out on the thin stuff, and sometimes you break the ice. It's your own fault, but when valuable things falll in a hole you don't you don't cover the hole, you pull them out, give em a hot minute to dry off and sharpen their skates, then head off again...together.
He should be told what is happening snd in my opinion.....FREE WIZ
Coming from Sydney 45 years ago and arriving in Brisbane, I had very limited exposure to my beloved Eels from an information perspective.
When I joined 1EE about 10 years ago it provided that link I was missing about my team.............
Philosophically this was my first involvement with social media. I am not on any other outside of TCT which was realalistically a spin off of 1EE and I still post there infrequently and respect 60's foundation of that site. I even suggested the 2 sites should be merged. It was actually unrealalistic in hindsight when you understand the personality differences.
So yes I am of the view that we are different and looking more like TCT is not that desirable unless you want to be the same.
I understand the points being made by Hoe by opening this up.
This said I am one of the sites most polarising personalties (its just me I do not do it with any deliberacy) and have created some division in that respect. This process is not an opportunity to defend myself , so I won't! Most people know me well enough to have their own opinions. I am by definition centre right and have voted left on a number of occasions.....
So I am focusing on people rather than subject at this stage.
The people on here are honest, vitrolic, humerous, insulting, lovable and dumb as dogshit!.....(sounds like a family) I am not sure we need to change the mix as they are a reflection of the honesty on here and in a way that makes us unique.
I feel where we have lost it somewhat is in the political and cultural aspects that parade themselves in various ways through our whole society.
Some people say to me lets have a conversation but exclude, Religion, Politics and Racism......sorry but that is like taking 80% of the content away and leaving us with Sport only.....acknowledge at this point the ladies would prefer to talk about their children and grandchildren.
Obviously the vitrolic enters into all those subjects and great sensitivity exists between the cultural aspects, I believe where Hoe is directing this discussion and these issues respectively is the dangers involved in turning people off trying to understand these things better.
We are lucky we have a person like Hoe moderating, mainly because he has the intelligence and judgement to manage a process that would be impossible for a biased person to moderate. Whether you agree or disagree with Hoe's judgement's (he is probably centre left) is not the point, we respect him enough to make a decision that we can fundamentally agree is giving people opportunities to express themselves without calling for special laws. He has rarely suspended anybody and deserves the right to delete discussion's adjudged as inappropriate. I can think of no better person to empower!
My summation of this is to give Hoe the power to be trusted to perform what we need, as its a bastard of a job and if we just accept that someone has got to do it, I cannot think of a fairer person to do it than him.
PS Everyone has the power to refer these matters if they don't like his judgements to Super! Super can be the final arbiter in a system that effectively exists in our democratic society. i.e. Free speech and the ability to appeal to a higher authority. It does not always work but tell me a system thhat works better?
Poppy this site went downhill as soon as Phil Sim left , While Phil had piss poor standards and judgment when it came to club matters he ran this site in a very fair way and never once pushed his lefty views on here or removed blogs or posts that didn't fall into line with his lefty views. No doubt you remember the good old days on here and all the stoushes many of us had on all subjects , the fact you never had a heart attack during these stoushes is testament to your heart health .
The moderation on this site is basically all about being a apologist for the club and has been for a long time , as fans we have the right to hammer the people who run the club as much as we like especially since their epic failures have given fans so much misery , they never get to face members so forums like this are the only way fans and members can vent .
The site is slowly turning into TCT and no doubt it would be the mods dream of having a blanket ban on criticising the club , a perfect example of this is the recent two bit forum that members had with the club management.
Do you think people who attended this tea party event asked any hard questions? Do you think one person had the foresight to ask Jim Sarantonis a question like why as CEO for last 6 years and having the greatest advantage of any other club CEO in nsw in having the 2nd largest CBD in nsw with $9b dollars worth of property developers and construction companies he has failed failed miserably in tapping into this failed in bringing these people to the club ? No fucking chance .
Do you thnk Super or anyone else at this event ask the simple question of why haven't the people who run the club been able to make Parramatta a attractive destination for players?
Do you think they would ask why they can't bring the best people to the club be or players or staff ?
Do you think they would ask why the club has bottom of barrel standards ?
Do you think they would asked why we have have a epic low standard head of football in Mark O'Neil who has been a epic failure still at the club ? Of course not .
They would of asked question regarding the the type of blue being a bit dark on the jersey or if the hats members received in their members packs can be made from 100% recycled materials .
When it comes to political or social subjects I have no issues with them being banned primarily because the mods will remove what is posted based on what does not match their views and beliefs, if you ask a question that they can't answer in a way that won't suit their narrative it will be removed , if a blog is not going the way that suits the mods narrative it will be removed and we have a long history of this with Super .
Phil Sim was a lefty but he never once removed a blog or post because it did not meet his lefty beliefs , you could actually have a debate with Phil and then agree to disagree but he would not close or remove a blog just because it was not going his way .
Frankie,
If a toddler comes into your home and continually craps all over the floors and walls, nappy-free, the adults have to clean up the mess. That's why some blogs when they go overboard get closed and some of your posts get deleted.
Overall, a very small number of posts overall get deleted in the grand scheme of things (probably 1-2%).
Frankly, if you despise this site so much, Super, me or what the mods do, rather than complain like a broken record player in Victim re-loop, why don't you start your own site or go to Reddit or 4Chan where there is far less moderation.
Haha you obviously don't use reddit , reddit is full of leftists and very moderated unless you post porn , you can post whatever filthy pictures and videos on reddit
Kenny, you're right. I've never used reddit. I heard anything goes on there. Okay, so maybe that's a bad idea then. What about 4Chan?
Fongy, a lot of the points you have raised there are repetitive from you for a long time. We have never been on the same page, other than occasions where we can find common ground.
To be fair most of the people you have criticised whether it be Mark O'Neil or Jim Saratinos I have supported and see no need to change. My support has not been to say they are doing a great job as much as me believing they are doing a job in the circumstances that makes life very difficult for anyone placed in their position.
Jim Sarantinos I think has still alot to offer and given no ready alternatives that will blow things out of the water, i see no reason to underplay his attempts.....I think you misunderstand the political structure of our board with respect that they are not pawns to be kick started like the benevolent Dictators running what we see as the "succesful" clubs. Penrith have broken from that pack and I see us trying to emulate them.
Mon is a different issue and I dont think we know or understand enough about him to be as critical as we have been, if MON has a 5% support base on this site, I would be amongst them, not for the reasons that his critics would have but for the lack of knowledge and understanding we don't understand. I like to support the underdog as you know. You also know I speak my mind so I cannot and do not want to get into Right and Left arguments, I play it the way I see it.
I do support Hoe on a lot of things but I disagree about the Cave, I am personally not a Cave Dweller, so I suspect i will stay out of that one.
Poppy with the utmost of respect as our beef is over , I know exactly how the structure at the club is ant it one of the biggest issues .
Again with respect what have continued to say about Jim and the people who run the club , can you defend or say that I'm wrong when I say they have failed to take advantage of having the 2nd largest CBD and that they have failed to make Parramatta a attractive club for players to join ?
We can't keep accepting failure , you are on your 80s and I hope you and your wife love till 200 and I also hope people your age get to see Parramatta win a comp . But as I have always said , it will no happen with this lot and I will bet on my childrens lives on it .
I can say a lot about Jim and about some of the directors and a lot more in general but I know I will be banned .
Thanks for the olive branch Fongy, and I picked it up a while ago. always enjoyed our banter along with Snake.
Now I am going to say something with respect as well. If you went back over a period of time the aspect of the biggest CBD and the people power of Parra, goes all the way back to the early sixty's and Parra making the move for Ken Thornett, Jack Argent was the driver in those days and that run went all the way throught the up to 1976 when we made the GF.....plenty of hurdles were tripped over getting to there let me tell you!
Even then we recognised the power of the CBD and the juniors and of course a restriction in the number of imports. Where we first fcuked up was 1987 when Denis Fitzgerald sat back and waited for the next set of superstars to come through.....they overlooked that Price, Cronan, Sterling, Edge actually came from outside of that process. I came to Brisbane in 1980 so I never saw what was happening in the Leagues Club in those days and onwards. Yeh! I came back for Grand Finals but really knew nothing. Truth be it I still know nothing now being a 1000kms north. BUT I have been saying to everyone we have always been the sleeping Giant since 1981.....actually what you are saying Frankie, but no one has done a thing about it to make it happen/work, apart from the respite in the 80's.
BUT how many people have tried to awaken that GIANT. My guess is too many have been like you Frankie, critical but nothing else? In the current frame I am happy enough to go along for the ride.
Don't forget it was only since 2014 we have actually got back onto a straight and narrow path. BA did a great job for a few years, the Leagues thanks to some good management and an administrator finally found their mark/market. You recognised BA for what he was but you did not recognise him for what he had been. Success can be a bit like that. We didn't have the football management to strategically take us through this period. So now we have to go through another stage, lets call it the Ryles period.
I actually think Saratinos can go the distance and until MON's replacement is found, but he will be dragged through the mud until then.
We are still waiting for the Messiah Frankie and the first thing is you need stability (i think we have that now), once you have that you can start looking at the quality, not of the herd, but of the cowboys running it.
So Frankie the opportunity is there for you to get behind the team now and put whatever positive energy you can carry through. I am sure there will be more shit times to come, but hopefully not shittier!
Most people "like" you Frankie, you have it over me, half of them hate my guts, you have a charisma that help's make the site, its now time to join the Unicorns and we can all come through the encouragement stage and call them out when they fcuk up, but keep going whenever they fall down.
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