An Fear Rua - Forum Closed

Deathwish4 · 11-09-2012 10:56AM #1

Disappointed to see a very popular GAA forum close.

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FROM AFR -

Closure Notice

Exactly twelve years ago this month I set up An Fear Rua-The GAA Unplugged! I have now decided to discontinue it. I have immediately closed the ‘Speak Out!’ forum but the Content Zone will continue for the moment.
An anonymous internet forum is an anachronism. It has been overtaken by the arrival of ‘open identity’ forums such as Twitter and Facebook. This model of internet comment is no longer viable, if the comment is to be within the law at all times as well as the bounds of good taste.

This has been a labour of love. In hard cash it has cost me more than €150,000 over the years. If I costed the time I’ve spent managing it – at even the average industrial wage – the total cost or investment would be the best part of €500,000. I have never made more than €10,000 a year on average in advertising revenue, despite trying the services of five or six ad selling agencies. It is simply not possible to make this site a paying proposition.

In that context, my decision is also influenced by the unreasonable sense of entitlement displayed by a growing minority of Registered Users. There is a sense that they can just register under a pseudonym, pay nothing towards the upkeep of the site or towards an insurance against libel matched by a total lack of any attempt to even understand – let alone accept – that I have a right, and a duty, to administer this site in accordance with the law and in the interests of everyone who used it.
I thank all the decent people who supported the site over the years. I regret that it has come to this and I wish you well in the future.

Volvic12 · 11-09-2012 11:01AM

Very disapointing as I was a frequent visitor to the site. Sad to hear but you have to make the best decision for you.
I suppose we should be thankful that it was kept going as long as it did as it must have been frustrating with some of the abuse & Wumming that was taking place.

Roger Sterling · 11-09-2012 11:07AM

Volvic12 wrote: »

Very disapointing as I was a frequent visitor to the site. Sad to hear but you have to make the best decision for you.
I suppose we should be thankful that it was kept going as long as it did as it must have been frustrating with some of the abuse & Wumming that was taking place.

Might see an influx of new posters here?

GAA biards seem to be very hard to run well. I remember the old UpThe Deise forum was a complete shambles at times.

Tom Joad · 11-09-2012 12:09PM

Not surprised to see it go - must be virtually impossible to police a forum like that and the notice does highlight the issues involved - hopefully it doesn't lead to a invasion of muppets here

basillarkin · 11-09-2012 12:30PM

Sorry to see it go, I will be contributing to the Gaa threads on here now. Some interesting and knowledgable posters on in but recently the WUM's have taken over and ruined a good site.

Syferus · 11-09-2012 12:36PM

Tom Joad wrote: »

Not surprised to see it go - must be virtually impossible to police a forum like that and the notice does highlight the issues involved - hopefully it doesn't lead to a invasion of muppets here

The solution is no different than here or anywhere else. Has a serious sense of taking the ball home with him to me.

derealbadger · 11-09-2012 12:40PM

basillarkin wrote: »

Sorry to see it go, I will be contributing to the Gaa threads on here now. Some interesting and knowledgable posters on in but recently the WUM's have taken over and ruined a good site.

Good to have another M/E man on here

InchicoreDude · 11-09-2012 12:55PM

basillarkin wrote: »

Sorry to see it go, I will be contributing to the Gaa threads on here now. Some interesting and knowledgable posters on in but recently the WUM's have taken over and ruined a good site.

Whats a WUM?

Fianna Fowl · 11-09-2012 12:56PM

Sorry to see it go. Used to check it daily to keep up wil the hurling gossip.

Guess its very difficult to run a site where you dont appoint some regular users as moderators.

iDave · 11-09-2012 12:58PM

Sad to see it go but has only himself to blame. Poorly moderated and bans handed out to good posters while eejits posting stories on 'Celebs', anti-Irish threads from some unionist and the 'GAA Shame' thread titles by hypocritical opportunists were all allowed unchallenged.

basillarkin · 11-09-2012 12:59PM

InchicoreDude wrote: »

Whats a WUM?

wind-up merchant

Fianna Fowl · 11-09-2012 01:16PM

iDave wrote: »

Sad to see it go but has only himself to blame. Poorly moderated and bans handed out to good posters while eejits posting stories on 'Celebs', anti-Irish threads from some unionist and the 'GAA Shame' thread titles by hypocritical opportunists were all allowed unchallenged.

I could never understand how the anti-gah and anti-Irish obvious wums were allowed to run and run

basillarkin · 11-09-2012 01:17PM

Thats the problem with not having mods

Fianna Fowl wrote: »

I could never understand how the anti-gah and anti-Irish obvious wums were allowed to run and run

Annuv · 11-09-2012 01:22PM

Not surprised with this really, with so many WUMs and bile filled posters there in recent times, it must have been a nightmare to moderate. There were some posts yesterday that sailed too close to the wind and perhaps they were the straw(s) that broke the camel's back

Utopia Parkway · 11-09-2012 01:25PM

A pity it's gone. A great place for hurling chat in particular.

castor 1 · 11-09-2012 01:26PM

Ther'll be a lot of lads suffering withdrawal symptoms after this closure !

Bannermen · 11-09-2012 01:52PM

I wasn't a user but i was a reader, though less avid in recent years, of AFR. What struck me was the comical pomposity and over-bearing nature of the moderator - as evidenced repeatedly in his hissy fits and, frankly, terrible manners and sneery disposition when dealing with posters. Not the wums or messers, just regular posters. An unbelieveable crank. Rant over.

chinguetti · 11-09-2012 02:09PM

Shame its gone as it used to be great and a fab source of GAA news, esp hurling.

But it had been full of silly topics on non GAA matters by WUMs in the last two years or so that made it impossible to police for AFR i guess, particularly with libel laws these days.

jordainius · 11-09-2012 02:31PM

The man running it (even though he tried to pass the site off as though it was being run by an extensive team who were all prone to the same mannerisms, same cranky style and all opening topics with the same shocked bug-eyes smiley) did lose the run of himself a fair bit in my opinion, he handed out bans for ridiculous reasons and just struck me as being on a power trip at times.

There were plenty of users who had proven themselves to be valued and trusted contributors over the years who he could have turned to to hand out moderation duties to, as it really is way too much for one man to keep an eye on. It was an okay read at times, I enjoyed reading through the threads related to the club championships in Limerick.

thesultan · 11-09-2012 02:32PM

Really liked this site. Disaster it's gone. What's the next best?

jordainius · 11-09-2012 02:35PM

thesultan wrote: »

Really liked this site. Disaster it's gone. What's the next best?

Hoganstand can be okay but their "moderation" is disastrous, especially considering all comments have to be pre approved. The amount of blatant trolling and fighting they allow is unreal.

thesultan · 11-09-2012 02:37PM

Hoganstand isn't it county by county instead of general

jordainius · 11-09-2012 02:38PM

thesultan wrote: »

Hoganstand isn't it county by county instead of general

There's a general forum too on the main homepage.

Syferus · 11-09-2012 02:55PM

thesultan wrote: »

Really liked this site. Disaster it's gone. What's the next best?

GAABoard.com is pretty much the site An Fear Rua sprang from. Far better behaved general pop. than Hogan Stand and plenty of knowledgeable posters. Football focused but the hurling board is likely to see the biggest influx of ex-An Fear Rua contributors.

MfMan · 11-09-2012 03:13PM

May be wrong, but didn't the publisher disclose that he had some health issues on there recently also? Perhaps this is a factor..... Sad to see it go; he may have been overbearing in the eyes of some, but he had to run it as he saw fit and proper. Was a lot of WUMs there but some decent debate too.

ellinguistico · 11-09-2012 03:29PM

Syferus wrote: »

GAABoard.com is pretty much the site An Fear Rua sprang from. Far better behaved general pop. than Hogan Stand and plenty of knowledgeable posters. Football focused but the hurling board is likely to see the biggest influx of ex-An Fear Rua contributors.

The more successful version of AFR sprang from Clarehurlers.com conceived by a guy called Matt Purcell. Totally agree with the above posters version of events on the publisher. Just think he was too outdated, would not take any recommendations on how to moderate it and was a sneery pompous git to people who spread the word about his site far and wide.

Syferus · 11-09-2012 03:35PM

ellinguistico wrote: »

The more successful version of AFR sprang from Clarehurlers.com conceived by a guy called Matt Purcell. Totally agree with the above posters version of events on the publisher. Just think he was too outdated, would not take any recommendations on how to moderate it and was a sneery pompous git to people who spread the word about his site far and wide.

Well I mean thematically. GAABoard.com was for football what An Fear Rua was for hurling for years and both shared a very hands-off approach to moderating, at least in general.

Hawk Wing 2 · 11-09-2012 04:07PM

I think the pompous, self serving "announcement" sums up that place the best, crying out for attention, it must be remembered that this joker benefited from the closure and the loss of the original and best GAA site on the net. Clarehurlers.com and took on most of the contributors when they folded due to unforeseen circumstances, a fact which the owner never acknowledged, in fact he sniped away during the period of 2000-2003 when clarehurlers was in its heyday

ab84 · 11-09-2012 04:12PM

Premier View all the way :-)

castor 1 · 11-09-2012 04:47PM

Bannermen wrote: »

What struck me was the comical pomposity and over-bearing nature of the moderator - as evidenced repeatedly in his hissy fits and, frankly, terrible manners and sneery disposition when dealing with posters. Not the wums or messers, just regular posters. An unbelieveable crank. Rant over.

That was one of the attractions - watching how he interacted (as you say sneeringly and without manners) with the WUMs - made for great entertainment at times.

Reminded me as a cross betwenn the old Headmaster that was intolerant of any objective comments in his classroom and the rabid 'bainisteoir' that would give you 10 laps of the field for smiling at him.

seachto7 · 11-09-2012 04:49PM

So, lads and lassies, how many times did you get banned from AFR? I got banned twice, under the user names "dung" and "criodain". I won't tell ye why, as I might get banned from here too!

An Fear Rua - Forum Closed

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