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    Football fan forums...how are yours?

    The Sporting Gijón one I occasionally look at - https://portalsportinguista.com/ - is pretty astounding for the negative opinions of many of the posters of the players, directors, club as a whole, despite the team only just being outside the PO places.

    How is your club's fan forum or forums? Interesting, worth reading, full of juvenile nonsense or what?

    #2
    I have to say that our forum - http://bathcityfc.forumotion.co.uk/f1-bath-city-stuff - is pretty prosaic and somewhat worthy stuff. We have just been through a period of a couple of years that has seen the community buy-out of the club, a supporters vote on 3G, a relatively massive redevelopment of the ground where the supporters and local community have had input, our most successful season in ages and a recent drop in form that threatens our play-off place. However, from the forum, you would have thought that we have had consecutive seasons of mid-table obscurity with no change of management nor ownership. I think that it must be a numbers game. When I was on the Cardiff City email lists (yes, that long ago), it was almost OTF-esque in its strength of opinion, quality of writing and debate and wide range of topics (even often outside of football, let alone Cardiff). To be honest, that all came from a core of 10-15 posters (some common to OTF) whereas the Bath one probably has that many regular posters in total. The main Cardiff City message boards, on the other hand, were even busier, much lesser quality across the board (although there have been some exceptional posters on there) and were instrumental in the rebrand, although there was opposition on there. Again, the numbers were large - in relation to Bath's - and the conversations fairly lively, at least. I think that there is something to do with Bath's being non-league as well. As with the unspoken rule about there not being less violence at non-league games, perhaps there is an unspoken rule that non-league forums are politer and less controversial.

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      #3
      https://www.fcutrecht.net/ , lots of bitching when other fans warn that expectations are too high, new signings are useless and the technical staff are just chums with the owners. Wild exaltations and expectations of open-top buses and qualification for Europe whenever the team manages to win. Pretty much what you'd expect from an average, but hubristic team in an average league. But we love them really.

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        #4
        It would be unfair of me to describe ours as a football forum that doubles as a recruiting arm for UKIP because most of the people on it already are members.

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          #5
          I haven't looked for ages, but I think this remains the main AFC Wimbledon one, and is shit on toast:

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            #6
            Loftforwords: https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/footba...rangers/forum/ is the largest and best QPR by some distance. The single biggest reason for this is the time and attention given it by moderator Clive Whittingham. Not only is he an avid Rs fan, he's also a professional journalist, with the writing standards that traditionally implies. It sort of rubs off on everyone. While there are, as you'd expect, widely differing and intensely expressed opinions on just about everything, rarely do things get out of hand. The site is a valuable resource, particularly if you live thousands of miles away.

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              #7
              I stopped using what felt like the main Oxford United one a year before I left the UK. It was full of a mix of racist arseholes and just complete idiots. The few intelligent voices had fucked off. The less dickheadish forum was very slow, and full of people showing off insider knowledge and full of conspiracy fear, so I never found it very interesting. I'm totally disconnected from my club now, apart from seeing results on the BBC's web page.

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                #8
                "Shit on toast" is a new one on me.

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                  #9
                  I always thought it was an Americanism

                  "Shit on a Shingle" was the WWII moniker for the chipped beef on toast that was featured frequently in rations.

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                    #10
                    There's one main forum remaining for Carlisle, a continuation of what became the dominant one in the days of Footymad. 90% of threads descend into the same people saying the same things about the same people, which is tedious. It's occasionally useful for rumours, and for non football local news. The forum itself is represented on an overarching fans liaison group, so users do get to put questions in to be answered by the board of the club.

                    It's fair to say that the rolling Brexit thread on there is very different in tone to the one on here. One of the main Brexiteers on there is a guy who tried to get control of the club a couple of years back, but failed when his consortium didn't come together as he expected. He was seen as the messiah by some at the time, but since failing to takeover the club he's stayed on the forum and continually waved the flag for anything pro Tory, anti Labour, anti TU and/or pro Brexit, therefore managing to alienate a lot of his followers to the extent that most people are now delighted he never took control.

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                      #11
                      The original Argyle forum has been going since the mid-90s but has become moribund since our admin period around a decade ago. What was once a decent place for debate has become all but a mouthpiece for James Brent and any dissenting or critical voice have found themselves set upon by the attack dogs or simply banned. Amazingly someone actually paid money to buy it and has tried to monetise it by getting local businesses to sponsor sub-forums and even certain threads (like the Brief Synopsis match review). Considering the buyer enjoys directors box privileges courtesy of our ex-chairman maybe the sanitization isn't so surprising. A recent layout upgrade coupled with adverts and pop-ups all over the place has made it completely unreadable.

                      As a response to this a rival forum has gained quite a bit of traction which has been most decidedly anti-Brent but actually the most popular forum is the Argyle Freechat facebook page. The facebook page can be great and certainly more lively than either forum but tends to be full of threads saying exactly the same thing (for example tonight there are about a dozen seperate Adams Out ones) so trying to wade through it all to find interesting debate can be nigh on impossible.

                      You'll won't shocked to learn that the three sites are constantly sniping at each other. Pasoti is seen as the home of the aviva, named after the type of fan portrayed by Paul Whitehouse in that advert and anti the Fans Trust, ArgyleTD is the home of freaks, weirdos, educated wankers and folk that don't go to games. It is also solidly pro-Trust. There have been continued accusations that the site owner has abused his power, getting a contributor to the matchday programme removed and another fan banned for using falsely using their carers ticket. Freechat rises above it, mostly because many of its users don't use the forums, but disagreements between the factions tend to take palce on there.

                      It probably seem all quite internecine but, like all these squabbles, only involves about one percent of the fanbase and while both sides are entrenched I guess most people dont' give a fuck. It's also why we're the UKs biggest village.

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                        #12
                        I’m an Arab Anonymous on Facebook and it was relentlessly negative for ages this season but has suddenly become over optimistic as we have begun to score more than one goal, beat close rivals, guarantee 2nd etc

                        Dundee’s 8 defeats in a row and impending relegation has done wonders for their mood, too.

                        Living in exile, I find it invaluable for rumours, the general mood at the club, what we sang after the ref’s howlers etc and although there’s been the odd dodgy comment (good admins, tho) the prevailing political consensus is pro-independence and anti-sectarian

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                          #13
                          I haven't been on any of the Wednesday forums or facebook groups for years. It's not so much the occasional casual racism that rears its head (or in some ways worse on Wednesday forums the occasional poster who still blames Liverpool fans for 1989), all that is possible to ignore, and luckily it does seem small minorities. It's the wild mood swings I can't be done with. Lose one game and the entire squad needs to be taken outside and shot and the manager got rid of, win the next and it's all "we can still get promotion". This coupled with ludicrous levels of expectation, like we are a champions league club somehow accidentally (but very temporarily) not where we should be, drives me up the wall. I follow twitter during a match, but that's it basically.

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                            #14
                            Orient’s main one is still fairly decent, even if not a patch on what is was a decade-plus ago. Like other bulletin boards, some people peeled off for facebook groups, twitter etc. so traffic has fallen. But it’s still a hub for chatting about the club we all support. And most on there still get the stupidity of taking a tinpot team like Orient too seriously, so it doesn’t get overpious.

                            And any other subject goes, really. Not many outright twats or far right types on there, and enough lefties to keep debate open.

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                              #15
                              There are two Oldham Athletic forums - OWTB (http://www.owtb.co.uk/discover) is sensibly moderated and until this season had a decent mix of posters with relatively little nonsense. This season has seen more infighting and sniping, though it generally avoids the casual racism and the worst of "just banter innit". The other one (members.boardhost.com/oafc/) uses really terrible forum software and seems to have a much more snippy and toxic community.

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                                #16
                                The Robins Nest Forum is filled with about 10-15 (including myself) regular posters and the odd one who comes on now and then. On Social Media it tends to be the subject of derision, mainly from one local journo who got fed up with the negativity on the forum.

                                It tends to be busier when we're poor, with a lot of posters hoping to pull the "I told you so" whenever they can, and like every other forum it swings from one extreme to the other based on the most recent result. With that being said, we could be having a Worldy of a season and there will still be one or two looking to pick holes at the club in some way, shape or form. One guy even did an "I told you so" about Gary Johnson being a poor manager during our Conference winning season - after we had just broken the club record for most league games undefeated.

                                It has a non-footy section, and other footy section, but I tend to avoid these. Mainly because the main WUM frequents these areas with his hip brand of racism and homophobia that seems to go unpunished (the only time I've ever reported a post on a forum came from homophobic comments he made about a family member of mine - as usual nothing was done about it).

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                                  #17
                                  Gave up on the Rotherham ones years ago. Still check the Wealdstone forum most days. Defeats get more posts than victories...

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                                    #18
                                    I rarely visit the Chelsea fora. Opposition ones (Red Cafe, RAWK, KUMB) tend to knock the spots off of them.

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                                      #19
                                      We've gone unbeaten at home for the first time in over fifty years, are playing exciting football, scoring great goals, have over ninety points and have a chance of finishing as champions with one game left.
                                      That didn't prevent someone from saying that the season has been a disappointment and we've underperformed.

                                      Other than that, basically like the Owls sites that ad hoc describes (with the Championship taking the place of the Champions League).

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                                        #20
                                        I’m on the Aberdeen one on footymad. It can be ok, but at times can be dire when certain posters basically repeat the same message a 1,000 times and other posters having repetitive childish, playground arguments.

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                                          #21
                                          dcfcfans.uk forum is actually rather quite good, heavily moderated so no unnecessary swearing and most of us are aware that kids may be on there, racist posts removed pretty sharpish and political topics kept to specific threads. Is however party funded by the club, so criticism of the club is light although allowed.

                                          Lad that runs it, David, ran it as a hobby for a good few years and is a level headed sort

                                          Main topic is to debate whether Chris Martin would have saved our season this time round or if George Thorne will.ever return to his glorious form of a few years ago.

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                                            #22
                                            Club run forums (fora?) tend to be such a bust, although the Derby one seems ok.

                                            Forest Green's is so heavily moderated that even criticism of the manager is quickly stamped down on, let alone the actions of their board, etc...

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