Of Forums and things

OK, I'm going to write a little bit stream of consciousness, so maybe my point will disappear off into the ether.

It has been an interesting time on the Phoenix Forum, what with the resurgence of the old Aces/Phoenix debate. And I've been very carefully having my Phoenix hat on, because I knew that I couldn't really say what I wanted to say.

It is an odd situation to be in - anyone who knows me knows I am hardly in the habit of self-censoring - but in the end, the thing I wanted someone else to say got said. My point was proven, although I am not convinced the people involved realise it.

It is a hard job moderating something like the Phoenix Forum, and a job that will only get harder when the team come back. Basically you always have to tread a line between allowing fans to say what they think and the bigger picture that the forum - being official - reflects the club, to potential customers, to potential players and to sponsors. There was a lot of resistance to an official Forum, and I understood it completely - especially I was likely to be one of those spouting off on a regular basis.

One of the real downsides to being a moderator is that you don't have the wiggle room in a debate - someone can throw unwarranted abuse at you, yet you can't throw it back. You also have to hang fire on locking/deleting a thread for fear of accusation of abusing your moderating powers. (Ironically this leads to threads going further than they should, because you over-compensate.)

On the other hand, you will generally win through cold hard facts, rather than any particularly florid writing. Take me on face to face (and in the right mood) and I'll have you believing black is white as a way of avoiding admitting I'm wrong. On the Phoenix Forum, no chance of getting away with that. But using The Facts is powerful enough to win the debate.

But how do you win a debate? Lets make one thing clear - two people arguing online are never going to agree. It is - what is the phrase - barrack room lawyering(?) - at best. All you can hope for is to win over the lurkers and the readers - you debate in public, and your arguments must stand the test of public opinion. And if you can use Facts and lob in a well timed bit of abuse, all the better. (I'll never forget the only major argument I've had on the Phoenix Forum, where the person in the wrong told me he knew all about something because he'd seen it for twenty-odd games, whereas I didn't know what I was talking about... because I'd only seen it for twenty-odd games - that one was very, very funny.)

So why this post? Dunno, just had to vent. I also moderate another Forum, and I'm just generally tired of the abuse. Or more rather, just tired of not really being able to answer back. Moderators don't have more power than regular users. We actually have less. We have to keep our powder dry. We can't say what we really think. We have to leap into a heated debate at the right time, which is impossible - we are either too late or too early.

Sometimes, just sometimes, you really aren't allowed to tell people what you think. Anyone who knows me will tell you exactly how difficult that is for me to abide by.