An update on dealing with some of the excessive negativity on here

Status
Not open for further replies.
If you really cannot hold yourself from spouting insults at the team or the manager for every little indiscretion they make - I would suggest a better diet, less stress and more exercise, because that behaviour really isn’t healthy especially if you’re not a child.

I don't think passion about something you love can be duped down by eating more veg. Ill try it though :p
 
I like it.

I have to say, as much as I think we have played some poor football at times this season, I haven't used the matchday thread during a game for a while because it is so over the top. It used to be a bit of fun for me sharing the the matchday experience when watching at home where no one else gives a shite about football, but it just hasn;t been any fun, even when we are winning, for quite a while.

I've even stopped looking at the United forum for days after a match if we don't get a result, too bloody depressing.
 
This should be interesting. Something needed to be done. We won on the weekend, not that you could tell.
 
Many of you have probably read the thread about the "disgraceful level of support for the club on these forums". That has sparked a discussion among the modmins and we've decided it's time to address some of the excessively negative posts on here.

Specifically, posts that are nothing but a hysterical attack on the team, a specific player or the manager. These need to stop.

Examples:
  • "We're so shit"
  • "He's such an awful player"
  • "What a donkey Lukaku is"
  • "Sell this fool"
  • "McTominay is an awful footballer"
  • "The manager is rubbish"
  • "I hope we lose so Mourinho gets the sack"
These kinds of comments add nothing to discussions and are ruining many threads on here. From now on the modmins will be clamping down on that kind of thing with warnings and bans for repeat offenders.

We see these kind of posts most prominently in the match threads and player performance threads, but they are showing up in other discussions as well. We know posts in the match threads are in the heat of the moment, and we already allow a lot leniency in those threads, but that's no excuse for these kind of hateful posts.

Pogue said it perfectly in one of his posts in the "disgraceful support" thread:


The type of posts listed in his second paragraph are what I'm talking about.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that you can't express negative opinions. You don't like how we're playing, that's fine. You don't think Mourinho is the right man for the job, fair enough. You think Lukaku's first touch is poor, well ok then. Those kinds of opinions are still perfectly ok to post but need to be expressed in a reasonable fashion. Make your point and back it up. Getting hysterical and posting rubbish like the examples above is just not on anymore.

Furthermore, we'll be closing player performance threads during matches from now on. They'll be open again once the match finishes. There are far too many posts in those threads during matches along the lines of "WTF was that from Smalling? Shocking player!" or "Lukaku scores! Told you he was awesome!!".

Player performance threads are not the place to comment on a specific thing a player does in the middle of a match, they are for discussing a performance after it's finished. Once the match is done you can make a (hopefully) level headed post about how a player performed in the match.

I hope that's clear. Any questions?

Finally! Thanks Niall
 
I like it.

I have to say, as much as I think we have played some poor football at times this season, I haven't used the matchday thread during a game for a while because it is so over the top. It used to be a bit of fun for me sharing the the matchday experience when watching at home where no one else gives a shite about football, but it just hasn;t been any fun, even when we are winning, for quite a while.

I've even stopped looking at the United forum for days after a match if we don't get a result, too bloody depressing.

The match thread will still be full of knee jerk comments ranging from people thinking the sky is falling, to floating on cloud 9, sometimes in a matter of seconds. But is that not what it's like watching a game of football that your team is playing in? So that won't be changing in the match threads but hopefully this change will help in other threads.

There's another discussion about the match thread I want to have which I'll put in a separate thread.
 
10mk940.png
 
It's always important to note that from my understanding it will be a discretionary decision.

So the guidelines are just guidelines.

I personally think it's a welcome change. It doesn't mean you can't convey a negative point. Simply just needs to be relayed in a different way.
 
you've got every right to think its a shit post and I'll defend your right to say that every time.

All I am saying is that there are instances that explaining why a player is shit is silly. Think of the likes of Smalling, Mcnair or Moyes. Should we even debate that?
If there’s no need to debate it, then there’s no need to post a crap post about it on here.
 
You have to commend devilish on somehow managing to find a way to mention Gary Neville + ipad in this thread
 
As an occasional offender, I welcome this. I will try to cut out the emotional negativity post match, these rules will help me do this.
 
I've seen posts wishing injury's on players, those are the types of things that should be clamped down on.

But I'm a big believer in freedom of speech, football is a emotional game and people like to vent their frustrations and forums like this is a good place to do that, so if people think "we are shit" something most have have thought a few times whilst watching United this season I'm sure or "............. is a awful player", why can't someone write that?

I do think clamping down on 'opinions' like that the forum will be losing something and be a worse place for it, would Twitter ever get censored like that?

I think a bigger problem on here is there are large percentage on this forum are not even United fans, RedCafe is more accommodating to rival fans joining than any other forum I've been on, but some are true wind up merchants and take it upon themselves to put you on a downer even when things are going well, I'd say people who have a reputation for doing that are more toxic to the forum than people who give 'opinions' in the heat of the moment and that should be clamped down on more so than this.
 
Match threads on any forum have always, in my experience, been an avenue for hyperbolic reactions. Gives the user an opportunity to vent and I just take it for granted that all the reactions are amped up beyond reason, pinch of salt required. Expect a little more reason in the other forums, but still don't think that criticism should be highly edited, as long there is fair point to it and a willingness to argue other viewpoints without resorting to abuse.
 
Can we have a thread just for negative comments which everyone else can ignore? I must admit I quite like reading them even if I try not to make them.
 
That's going to upset some thinking they can just post what they want and get away with it, personally not before time.
 
Can we have a thread just for negative comments which everyone else can ignore? I must admit I quite like reading them even if I try not to make them.

Good idea, chuck all the bad eggs in to one cursed basket. Plus it could serve as a punishment for people who step out of line.

"right, that's it, you're banished to the 'Post Shit Here' thread until further notice"

"wait, what? Nooooooo"
 
I've seen posts wishing injury's on players, those are the types of things that should be clamped down on.

But I'm a big believer in freedom of speech, football is a emotional game and people like to vent their frustrations and forums like this is a good place to do that, so if people think "we are shit" something most have have thought a few times whilst watching United this season I'm sure or "............. is a awful player", why can't someone write that?

I do think clamping down on 'opinions' like that the forum will be losing something and be a worse place for it, would Twitter ever get censored like that?

I think a bigger problem on here is there are large percentage on this forum are not even United fans, RedCafe is more accommodating to rival fans joining than any other forum I've been on, but some are true wind up merchants and take it upon themselves to put you on a downer even when things are going well, I'd say people who have a reputation for doing that are more toxic to the forum than people who give 'opinions' in the heat of the moment and that should be clamped down on more so than this.

Free speech doesn't really apply to the caf though as it is a private forum. They can basically put whatever restrictions they want in place. If we don't like it, we leave and express ourselves elsewhere. That ain't a freedom of speech issue.

As is people can still vent, they just do it in the matchday thread. The only people really losing out are the ones who want to be able to shitpost everywhere, despite it irritating the hell out of other posters.

As for the opposition fans, I've seen far fewer complaints about them than I have about the negativity in the football forums so I doubt most people think they're a bigger problem.
 
But I'm a big believer in freedom of speech, football is a emotional game and people like to vent their frustrations and forums like this is a good place to do that, so if people think "we are shit" something most have have thought a few times whilst watching United this season I'm sure or "............. is a awful player", why can't someone write that?

I do think clamping down on 'opinions' like that the forum will be losing something and be a worse place for it, would Twitter ever get censored like that?

I think a bigger problem on here is there are large percentage on this forum are not even United fans, RedCafe is more accommodating to rival fans joining than any other forum I've been on, but some are true wind up merchants and take it upon themselves to put you on a downer even when things are going well, I'd say people who have a reputation for doing that are more toxic to the forum than people who give 'opinions' in the heat of the moment and that should be clamped down on more so than this.
Freedom of speech isn't a thing on a private forum. If someone needs to vent do it in the matchday thread or elsewhere instead of clogging up discussions with childish, emotional nonsense.

Saying 'we are shit' or 'Smalling is an awful player' offer absolutely nothing to this forum, in fact it's the amount of posts along those lines that has made a number of people not want to bother posting about United on here any more. Twitter is a completely different site that isn't really comparable to the Caf with regard to what you expect from a discussion.

The United forum is full of United fans radiating negativity, that's nothing to do with opposition fans.
 
As for the opposition fans, I've seen far fewer complaints about them than I have about the negativity in the football forums so I doubt most people think they're a bigger problem.

It’s because I can them all :D
 
I've seen posts wishing injury's on players, those are the types of things that should be clamped down on.

But I'm a big believer in freedom of speech, football is a emotional game and people like to vent their frustrations and forums like this is a good place to do that, so if people think "we are shit" something most have have thought a few times whilst watching United this season I'm sure or "............. is a awful player", why can't someone write that?

I do think clamping down on 'opinions' like that the forum will be losing something and be a worse place for it, would Twitter ever get censored like that?

I think a bigger problem on here is there are large percentage on this forum are not even United fans, RedCafe is more accommodating to rival fans joining than any other forum I've been on, but some are true wind up merchants and take it upon themselves to put you on a downer even when things are going well, I'd say people who have a reputation for doing that are more toxic to the forum than people who give 'opinions' in the heat of the moment and that should be clamped down on more so than this.
1. It's a private forum. Speech is moderated.

2. Nobody is "clamping down on opinions". The OP literally says that.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying that you can't express negative opinions. You don't like how we're playing, that's fine. You don't think Mourinho is the right man for the job, fair enough. You think Lukaku's first touch is poor, well ok then. Those kinds of opinions are still perfectly ok to post but need to be expressed in a reasonable fashion. Make your point and back it up. Getting hysterical and posting rubbish like the examples above is just not on anymore.

3. If you see an oppo on a WUM, then report them so we can deal with it.
 
Freedom of speech isn't a thing on a private forum. If someone needs to vent do it in the matchday thread or elsewhere instead of clogging up discussions with childish, emotional nonsense.

Saying 'we are shit' or 'Smalling is an awful player' offer absolutely nothing to this forum, in fact it's the amount of posts along those lines that has made a number of people not want to bother posting about United on here any more. Twitter is a completely different site that isn't really comparable to the Caf with regard to what you expect from a discussion.

The United forum is full of United fans radiating negativity, that's nothing to do with opposition fans.

Doesn't matter if it's a privately forum or not, the site is open to the public to join to talk about football and with that you've got to be open to listen to different opinions on football whether you agree or not.

Placing restrictions on what people can and can't post is basiclly making this forum North Korea.

If people don't think Scott McTominay is a good player (for example) people have a right to opinion on that, having a forum of everyone singing from the same hymn sheet how x player is fantastic, the forum will be losing something.
 
Last edited:
United and Mourinho should stop fecking about and this wouldn't be such a problem...

On a serious note, the player performance closure during games is a great idea. The Chris Smalling thread is a genuine eye sore on the forum at the moment. Incidentally, he's been brought into this thread with the same shite.

The 'negativity' across the forum is over egged, mind you. It's largely just a difference of opinion between people who think Mourinho is doing a decent job and those who don't (something a lot of people are starting to act like snowflakes about).

When Van Gaal was coming to the end of his tenure the forum was comparably negative - the main difference being that the vast majority of people quite rightly agreed. Right now there's a big divide and it inherently (and understandably) rubs people the wrong way.
 
Great decision. Although, can we have performance threads open during the half time break?
 
I do think clamping down on 'opinions' like that the forum will be losing something and be a worse place for it, would Twitter ever get censored like that?

Probably not, but it fecking well should.
 
When Van Gaal was coming to the end of his tenure the forum was comparably negative - the main difference being that the vast majority of people agreed. Right now there's a big divide and it inherently (and understandably) rubs people the wrong way.
I'm not so sure. Even when the forum was very depressed about LVG I didn't see the kind of personal vitriol being thrown the way of our players I see on a regular basis now. The quality of discussion was of a better caliber.
 
That’s not what we are asking at all and you know it. Don’t be so obtuse.

The post you are replying to is exactly the hyperbolic, snide and childish posts we are arguing against. People going to extremes and being disingenuous by making absurd claims that they “are not being allowed to have an opinion” despite the fact they have already given that opinion or that they are somehow being asked to do the impossible by not being asinine or myopic.

It’s a strange victim mentality.
 
Doesn't matter if it's a privatly owned forum or not, the site is open to the public to join to talk about football and with that you've got to be open to listen to different opinions on football whether you agree or not.

Placing restrictions on what people can and can't post is basiclly making this forum North Korea.

If people don't think Scott McTomminay is a good player (for example) people have a right to opinion on that, having a forum of everyone singing from the same hymn sheet how x player is fantastic, the forum will be losing something.

Good thing we’ve clarified that we aren’t clamping down on differing opinions isn’t it then.
 
Funnily enough two staunch defenders defending their right to 'freedom of speech' are two people I've had on ignore for about a year or two now. Quelle coincidence.

It's a good move all around, introduce mandatory reading comprehension tasks to stay on this site while you are at it and some people will be fecked.

Edit: third idiot joined in this page, make it three.
 
Last edited:
If people don't think Scott McTomminay is a good player (for example) people have a right to opinion on that, having a forum of everyone singing from the same hymn sheet how x player is fantastic, the forum will be losing something.
And another 10 years after that must interview at least 1 gay and 1 transsexual.
You can still complain about gays and transexuals being interviewed for managerial positions.
 
It's the extreme, unfounded, agenda driven stuff (2) that looks most ridiculous to me. But I wouldn't want us all posting in the style of (1) either.

1 - That Phil Jones own goal was dreadfully unfortunate. He is still the Best CB in Europe.

2 - If we'd have sacked Jose after not winning by at least five at Anfield when they were there for the taking, this kind of North Korean crackdown wouldn't be necessary.

But is worth a try for me if it's serious opinions that are being garnered here.
 
Doesn't matter if it's a privatly owned forum or not, the site is open to the public to join to talk about football and with that you've got to be open to listen to different opinions on football whether you agree or not.

Placing restrictions on what people can and can't post is basiclly making this forum North Korea.

If people don't think Scott McTomminay is a good player (for example) people have a right to opinion on that, having a forum of everyone singing from the same hymn sheet how x player is fantastic, the forum will be losing something.
It literally does matter if it's a private forum. What can and can't be posted is entirely at the discretion of the owner of the site. Can you not see the difference in quality and value between saying 'Smalling is shit' or something like 'Smalling has made a number of mistakes in recent weeks and I don't think he's good enough to be a long term starting centre half for us'? The first is pointless and adds nothing, the latter is a debatable point. If you can't see why the torrent of posts like the former are unwanted then it's pointless continuing this conversation. It's important to bear in mind that this is the result of an absolute metric feckton of negative posts dragging people down and not the mods/admins deciding to turn this into happyfuntimeland on a whim.

Yes, asking people to be analytical in their criticism and not repeatedly calling things shit is exactly like North Korea. A brilliant point well made.

Yes they do have a right to that opinion. It'd be nice if when posting it they provided their reasons for thinking it and not just saying 'McTominay is crap'. That's all that is being asked and I don't understand why this is an issue.
 
I'm not so sure. Even when the forum was very depressed about LVG I didn't see the kind of personal vitriol being thrown the way of our players I see on a regular basis now. The quality of discussion was of a better caliber.

I don't read the match threads (got to be mad!) so can't comment on the vitriol in there. I agree the player threads can be a mess, though. But as for the United forum as a whole, I feel much of the discussion is moreso divided, which can exacerbate the perception of negativity.
 
Some of you need to re-read my OP. You’re over analysing what I said and jumping to the wrong conclusion.

Opinions, negative or otherwise, will not be clamped down on/censored. Just try and put more effort in than “he’s so shit”, “we’re shit”, “everything is shit” <head explodes>!

The match threads are a special case where emotions run high, always have been, and will stay that way. We get that. But please refrain from sweeping ultra negative and hateful posts of the ilk highlighted in my OP.

Therein lies the problem. Comprehension is a real issue but some just don’t want to understand. The same posters that have a negative agenda are the same ones here complaining and completely ignoring the fact that you said that you were not clamping down on negative opinions or criticism but on the one liner abuse and melodramatic crap.
 
Anyone who reads the OP and concludes that this is a clamping down on opinions clearly lack reading comprehension skills.

Or maybe they need a good pokey bum wank to lift their spirits.
 
I've seen posts wishing injury's on players, those are the types of things that should be clamped down on.

But I'm a big believer in freedom of speech, football is a emotional game and people like to vent their frustrations and forums like this is a good place to do that, so if people think "we are shit" something most have have thought a few times whilst watching United this season I'm sure or "............. is a awful player", why can't someone write that?

I do think clamping down on 'opinions' like that the forum will be losing something and be a worse place for it, would Twitter ever get censored like that?

I think a bigger problem on here is there are large percentage on this forum are not even United fans, RedCafe is more accommodating to rival fans joining than any other forum I've been on, but some are true wind up merchants and take it upon themselves to put you on a downer even when things are going well, I'd say people who have a reputation for doing that are more toxic to the forum than people who give 'opinions' in the heat of the moment and that should be clamped down on more so than this.

Because posts such as "we are shit" and "so and so is an awful player" are outright lies.

1) How could a football team currently occupying second spot in the Premier League possibly be shit?

2) How could Smalling, for example, possibly be an awful player when he plays his football for United.

Think about it, where is the use of logic in your description of the teams overall ability, or that of a specific players individual ability?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.