chatroom poison

[Diggeragain]

this has been building up with me for a while. and it is how much damage chat rooms like ours do. those of us who can't get to the matches regularly get more and more of footie fix from the Internet. Some of its fun, some of it is blowing off steam, too much of it is poison. The constant slagging of individual players, Rafa, Rick and other teams fans too. It's getting to me. this is not about being an out-of-towner. It is knowing how to be a proper supporter. I've always been ultra loyal to Liverpool managers and refused to slag off a player unless he wasn't trying. Now I too sit and scream at the telly at individual players, shout at Rafa for baffling decisions (he'd often baffled me by the way but he's more than not right), and compose long posts in my head about my current pet hate - mine at the moment is Voronin. I haven't seen him live - I have no real right to pass judgement. But the chat room poison is telling all of us that we are not properly passionate supporters if we don't treat every match as a matter of life and death. It is just because we care that we are allowed to get every moronic grumble off our chests.

Do not think that this Internet licence does not matter. It does. It will get managers sacked, turn once good players into quivering jellies and will destroy good will between fans and players, and fans of different teams. Just witness some of the horrible chanting that we hear now. A few season ago at Millwall I was sitting there and shocked at the hideous Hillsborough chants from Millwall. At the time we noted that not even ManU fans chanted that stuff. They do now.
Many of you will think the fan sites are good for the game. Some of you will think you have a birthright to get any knee-jerk reaction off your chest any time you want. You may think it is harmless enough to shout your mouth off on a safe fans-only site. When we end up with Rafa sacked, good players destroyed and hooliganism creeping back into the game - I wonder will you take any responsibility then?

[-V-]

Your being a bit dramatic pal. Relax a bit, having critics is good for managers and players, keeps them in their place. Otherwise they wouldnt try.
Nobody is seriously abusing players. Just stating the obvious which is that some of them are crap.

Hopefully Voronin pays attention to the slagging and quits though

[tomasjj]

Interesting post.

You take it too far though, certainly when you imply that ranting on here leads to hooliganism. Besides, you also tar all internet forums, and then all members, with the same brush. That is unfair. That there might be some link to give credence to your analysis and points, yes to an extent I am sure that can be said, but I think you are over-emphasizing the importance.

[Imy]

The internet chat room just provides another avenue to talk about football, perviously it may have been down the pub, at school/uni/college, work etc etc

The internet brings more people to the party, i don't know any real life Skando's or someone living in Mauritius but forums like this bring people from all around the world together to talk about football.

[GordonGecko]

The internet chat room just provides another avenue to talk about football, perviously it may have been down the pub, at school/uni/college, work etc etc

The internet brings more people to the party, i don't know any real life Skando's or someone living in Mauritius but forums like this bring people from all around the world together to talk about football.

Not every cloud has a silver lining eh?

[PLY]

I don't blame the internet for it all to be honest although it may add oil to the fire , I blame Sky Sports and it's overhyped immediacy.

Every game is deemed as "vital" and "must win" and questions are asked about manager's suitability on the say so of a once average footballer who turned down the chance at management and a hairy Coventry fan who used to work for Radio City.

[MrMichael]

I don't blame the internet for it all to be honest although it may add oil to the fire , I blame Sky Sports and it's overhyped immediacy.

Every game is deemed as "vital" and "must win" and questions are asked about manager's suitability on the say so of a once average footballer who turned down the chance at management and a hairy Coventry fan who used to work for Radio City.

That, and computer games like fifa and FM

[Imy]

Not every cloud has a silver lining eh?

[Darth Marty]

Good post though, it is easy to get carried away on here and I try not to anymore. Back in the glory days we used to lose matches.....would we have slagged off managerial decisions, players who simply had a bad game, or other random events then? Probably.
I think my style of support is more like coops'....support Liverpool regardless of whether they win lose, play good or bad. At the end of the day none of us are qualified to manage Liverpool, direct liverpool or make huge decisions about liverpool. As always what I will continue to do is to shout and scream at my team, be elated if we win, be hacked off is we lose. I love this team and nothing will ever change that.

[Guest]

That's a good post but probably a little bit over dramatic. But in essence you've got it right. People should focus their energies into other things other than LFC. There is more to life than football, football and football all the time. Shanks quote, years ago, was obviously made tongue in cheek. That won't mean we're any less of a LFC supporter, but that should certainly help getting a balanced view on things.

[Venton]

The anonymity that the internet provides means that many of us cast aside our usual restraints when it comes to expressing ourselves.

If we are sat talking to our mates after a match we have the same feelings but express ourselves entirely differently, building our case perhaps and trying to look at things from different sides. If we went straight in with "Rafa is ****e, sack him" we would instantly be involved in a heated debate with the others, most of whom would agree that the point was extreme and stupid.

On a chat room, however, we can just say what we want and walk away from it instantly without any feeling whatsoever for the consequences. There is no need to be restrained in any way. You can see from this site (by no means the worst) and many others that people happily insult each other big time for the slightest perceived transgressions. If we did that in real life we wouldn't make it through the week without ending up in hospital. And you know that half of the ones on here who end up spouting venom left right and centre and 9st geeks who would piss themselves at the first sign of trouble in the real world.

Also, when you get home you can stop talking about it until you meet up again. On the internet you can go on and on and on and always find people ready to respond.

That is why you get a fair proportion of extreme posts on these kind of fansites, nestling right up against informed opinion, in a way that you don't in real life.

It's a great place to watch people blowing off steam. There's nothing more relaxing than seeing others heading towards their early evening coronaries.

However I don't think it has any effect at all on the real world. "Responsibility"? We shouldn't kid ourselves that anything we post on here really makes a difference.

[PTP]

why our people posting stuff like this in the LFC forum

[PLY]

why our people posting stuff like this in the LFC forum

Because it's nice to see reasoned debate rather than the feet-stamping , dummy-spitting nonsense that prevails in the LFC forum at the minute.

[Diggeragain]

The anonymity that the internet provides means that many of us cast aside our usual restraints when it comes to expressing ourselves.

If we are sat talking to our mates after a match we have the same feelings but express ourselves entirely differently, building our case perhaps and trying to look at things from different sides. If we went straight in with "Rafa is ****e, sack him" we would instantly be involved in a heated debate with the others, most of whom would agree that the point was extreme and stupid.

On a chat room, however, we can just say what we want and walk away from it instantly without any feeling whatsoever for the consequences. There is no need to be restrained in any way. You can see from this site (by no means the worst) and many others that people happily insult each other big time for the slightest perceived transgressions. If we did that in real life we wouldn't make it through the week without ending up in hospital. And you know that half of the ones on here who end up spouting venom left right and centre and 9st geeks who would piss themselves at the first sign of trouble in the real world.

Also, when you get home you can stop talking about it until you meet up again. On the internet you can go on and on and on and always find people ready to respond.

That is why you get a fair proportion of extreme posts on these kind of fansites, nestling right up against informed opion, in a way that you don't in real life.

It's a great place to watch people blowing off steam. There's nothing more relaxing than seeing others heading towards their early evening coronaries.

However I don't think it has any effect at all on the real world. "Responsibility"? We shouldn't kid ourselves that anything we post on here really makes a difference.

Brilliant post - but where I don't agree with you is that what happens on here has no effect in the real world. I'm afraid that it does. I used myself as the example. Bit by bit, little by little, the totally free speech of the chatrooms seeps in - it favours the people who shout loudest and most controversially, even most irresponsibly - and it creeps into our heads and some of it stays there. It's insidious precisely because people think it has no consequences. it does and it can cause real harm

[Venton]

Brilliant post - but where I don't agree with you is that what happens on here has no effect in the real world. I'm afraid that it does. I used myself as the example. Bit by bit, little by little, the totally free speech of the chatrooms seeps in - it favours the people who shout loudest and most controversially, even most irresponsibly - and it creeps into our heads and some of it stays there. It's insidious precisely because people think it has no consequences. it does and it can cause real harm

Possibly. It would be interesting to see exactly how much the prevalence of the internet is affecting attitudes generally although I imagine it would be difficult to study effectively. I tend to think that this is just a tiny sideline to real life but maybe that's my age. Kids today spend far more time actually socialising with other people on the interweb so it may have more effect than I thought.

I have to agree with PTP though - we are heading rapidly towards The Library...