Minty

Well, that should get him an appearance on A Question of Sport now...

To be fair, that will always be the case at some point - you have to accept that sometimes things will be done that you don't agree with. The onus has to be on making moderation as consistent (and as easy) as possible for those doing the job, and, as I said before, communicating with people as much as possible directly, to prevent the need for threads like this.

Can I suggest at this point you PM JustMike (or whoever it was) and try to discuss it with him?

Being a mod is never easy, being a good, pro-active mod is even harder in the short term, but it makes it much easier long term once you earn respect. The key to it is communication. Tell people why you've made a decision to do something (or not do something), be prepared to admit that you're wrong sometimes, and don't for one minute assume any kind of 'holier than thou' attitude. Work with posters, not against them. That said, when a site is allowed to get as off-topic as this one now often does, partly because of the sheer weight of posts, then any attempt to moderate it effectively becomes even harder when, as has been pointed out, so much else is let go. Especially when what is locked is relatively minor in comparison. That's not any individual mods fault, but because there aren't enough mods to keep up. Ideally there would be no need for mods... we would ignore the posts we don't like, and respond to those we do, and a form of natural selection would take place. It's easy to criticise Mods but we should all look at our posting behaviour at the same time too. After that, it depends what kind of site we want and how heavy we want the moderating to be, and that is a very subjective thing... with so many posters, it'll never be to everyones liking, but at present it does seem to be too sporadic and inconsistent and there almost might as well be none. I hope Mods take this on board constructively. I've been there and done it many times, and perhaps it also needs revisiting by Steve and Baj - or they need a 'management team' to look after it for them. As much as people moan about the board, there is no denying its popularity and perhaps it just needs a bit more Mod resource as a result? IMO major changes aren't needed, just enough visible, pro-active moderators who communicate effectively.

It's all relative. If I was still young, single and living at home, then chances are I would go most weeks still, but I have higher priorities for my finite amount of money now that I'm none of those things. I know plenty of people who still put football as a priority no matter what... that's their choice. I will try to get to a few games this season but the combination of money and time make it very difficult. Plus I work every Saturday, which doesn't help either. I couldn't put an exact value on it... I have an amount I'm happy to spend each season, and so as tickets get more expensive I guess I'll just go to less games.

Nowt to do with the Societal player... But Shaw just had to pick a tackle and then make the most of it. Look, it's not a serious suggestion, but I'm just saying that the thought did cross my mind and put it out there...

That certainly swings things (pun fully intended) our way...

Well, that's Warner and Clarke gone, two major wickets... Top 4 gone, 125 needed, 6 wickets remain. Game well and truly on.

I'm not usually one for conspiracy theories, but it all seems a bit convenient this... if i didn't know better i might suggest that there is an actual plan to prevent Luke from playing for the U-21's while the club think he is still growing etc. So they've perhaps agreed with him that he won't play for the U-21's and will get 'injured' before any call-up, maybe even been incentivised (compensated?) accordingly...

Our heaviest defeat... the 6-1 at the Emirates...! http://www.soccerbase.com/referees/referee.sd?referee_id=865

Through choice or 'policy' or something else? Or is there that little quality back home? Excuse my ignorance, have no knowledge about US football at all to be honest...

I must admit I knew little or nothing about Cropper before he joined Saints, and still don't really... but to be called up to the senior squad at 20 is still good going, irrespective of how much or how little talent the US allegedly has nowadays. Their standard is not that bad and there must be decent competition in MLS, surely?

There is some clear raw talent there though, and you can't coach that... given the rate of return of most Academies, I think we'll have at least 2 of that side make it close to the first team, which most clubs would bite your arm off for. We've almost been spoilt over the years, and now feel more disappointed when one doesn't make it.

Hattrick each would be nice...

Norwich drew 1-1 with this lot last week... might be an interesting comparison after FT.

Careful, or you might start to get just as repetitive...

Oops, apart from the fact that Rut did in the OP...

Surprised no one has commented on the fact that it's got stripes behind our name...

Follow-up from Fry after comments back to him: http://stephen-fry-me.tumblr.com/post/57612746754/speaking-out A predictable article from the Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2387310/ANDREW-PIERCE-Its-preposterous-Stephen-Fry-compare-Russias-treatment-homosexuals-Holocaust.html And a further reply from Fry himself: http://stephen-fry-me.tumblr.com/post/57805910021/the-daily-mail-and-lord-dacre-appeasing-again

As I quoted, that:

This is just ridiculous. If it used neglected children and/or animals in some way, then yes of course that would be inappropriate, but it doesn't in the slightest... it is so clearly ridiculously over the top in the way it plays up to the notion of marmite being loved or hated, it actually takes some effort to link it to neglected kids or animals IMO... They're taking the **** out of their own customers in some respects and fair play to them for that. Laugh along with it and move along, nothing to complain about here.

As noted in the article and many of the comments, in a world where we have colossal wastage and obesity on the one hand, and starvation and food poverty in others, what we actually need to do is address the supply chain issues that exist first and foremost, and technology like this shouldn't even be needed for decades, if not longer. Couple that with Bexy's excellent post above, the priorities for Governments should be obvious, but it won't happen.

To be honest, I've always suspected we're gonna f*ck ourselves up, in one way or another. And I mean 'we' as in the Human Race, not specifically the UK or England. I just find it... well... 'disappointing' I guess... that so few people are able to see beyond their own short term futures. Ho hum.

So, in summary, we're f*cked? Great.

The wisdom can stay, it's the rest we can do without.