Not that anyone cares but can I just clarify this. I now limit my posts to threads where I can offer advice such as PC related which won't turn into a 'binfest'. The thought of being driven away from anything by a moronic kid is laughable. He was, however, one of the reasons I gave up Albion Archives because I have my own views on copyright (which have been discussed ad nauseum many times before) and was not willing to have work I was responsible spread around without being under my control should copyright become an issue. The reason I have cut down posting on all messageboards, not just here, is that there appears to be a trend across the net of which NSC is an extreme example. I have just been looking at a Luton board to find out reaction to a friend's son's trial and found extreme expletives in message thread titles, homophobic abuse and general very over the top abuse and threats as well as the oh so funny wind up threads a la WW, Trigger, Ernest etc. It is the same on other boards I look at.
I'm guessing that this may apply to others who post less or not at all here - I don't believe that Yorkie even posts at Brightonfans now. Yes, she may have come across as patronising. Yes, LI comes across as always right. And yes, I probably come across as sanctamonious at times as was certainly hypocritical with some of my posts made in the heat of the moment on BF. But the fact that such posts bring out a whole raft of abuse - much more than for people making abusive/racist/homophobic/threatening - I think is very telling. Adrie gets far more abuse and less supporters than (fake or real) racists and people who have the sole intention of abusing peple. The sheer number of people who come to Brightonfans when NSC was down with the sole objective of getting banned/upsetting Yorkie/LI was also very telling.
Whether or not people who have left are 'quality posters' or not is irrelevant. I'm guessing that, like me, they really can't be bothered. I know for a fact that I have never posted anything on any messageboard that I would not say in real life. Unless this is a board of complete psychos, I'm guessing large numbers of people couldn't say the same thing. That makes it not for me. I would guess that applies to others as well although I wouldn't presume to speak for anyone else. As I have for the past couple of years, I will continue to look on here as a guest (although far less often than I used to) and contribute where I feel I can be useful on the technical front. But I won't be taking part in any of the other threads that are likely to descend into 'binfests'.
I'm sure nobody cares if I, LI, Yorkie or whoever nevers posts anywhere again. But it seems to me that NSC is at a crossroads and it will be interesting to see the route it goes down. It seems as if the majority are happy with the current situation - it certainly seems to reflect other messageboards. To me it is a shame that what was once seen as a very powerful force in the club with initiatives such as Fans United/REMF etc has seemingly generated into somewhere where 16-25 year olds use it as their own personal social networking site (Acting as a clique, funnily enough) and people of all ages use it for 'hilarious' windups based on racism/stalking or the side splittingly funny one joke merchants such as HB&B. There are still some good threads/news scoops but trawling through the baiting/abuse/wind ups is tedious to say the least. I'm guessing it will stay as more of the same as the only way to crack down will be mass sanitisation which takes away what the board was about. If there were one or two people causing threads to degenerate it would be an easy fix. But the number is much higher.
Right, I will melt back into the guest shadows now. Hopefully I have provided some soundbites for Simster or one of the other two stooges to use in their signatures!All this drivel just because I didn't want people to think that I had been driven away by Adrie!
