Is it just us that have a bit of dignity?

I usually don’t make a habit of reading Blue Moon or Red Cafe etc, or indeed other Liverpool forums…
But yesterday I was pointed in the direction (again) of the Online Gooner forum.
I was on there before where the had a poll of who they hated most, Spuds or Victims…

Some real nasty stuff in there, murderers, JFT 39 (reference to Heysel) plus the obligatory bin dippers and racists (Suarez vs Evra)…

But reading the match thread was disturbing, and I am not squeamish about stuff.
Calls for someone to “do the skinny kid in the knee” for Morton, calls for Mane to be sucking oxygen on a stretchet whilst his leg is broke in smithereens…
Really vile contemptous stuff…

Even at our worst we rarely if ever wish injury on an opponent. If we do its usually snuffed out without Mods intervening.

I guess I have a question and a bit of admiration.

Q: Is this stuff the norm on other forums? The name calling ie Murdering Bin Dipping Cunts is one thing, but openly desiring serious injury is another.

Also, much as I hate Utd, City etc and much as we hate other teams, we don’t stoop so low, and I think that is commendable.

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There’s a couple of people who are at that level, calling for injuries to players etc, but I think largely because the majority of posters find that a bit tasteless it’s not so common.

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Even at that it’s usually spur of the moment stuff.

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I’ve never been on the Arsenal forum , but out of the two Manchester ones Blue Moon is far and away the worst imo. The invective on there is taken to a completely different level , and the moderation appears to be non-existent. The tolerance of it seems to act as an encouragement , and it’s as if there’s a competition between posters to see who can post the most disgusting abuse. What is noticeable too is the way that actual football has very little to do with it. It’s the demonisation of an entire city and its inhabitants that really seems to get their juices going. What these morons don’t understand is the things that they think justify their villification of us are actually what sets us apart from the rest and gives us the type of kudos they can only ever dream of.

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Never been on another teams forum but have read links posted on here. I think out of all the rival fans I’ve come across the arsenal are the most vile.

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I have visited pretty much all the large forums.

Part of it was scouting for how to set up TAN and learning what not to do !

My take is many of the smaller clubs (Say Leicester and smaller) the community and fans are very good. Most are proper football fans. They can appreciate other clubs like Liverpool and can be somewhat objective. They support their club not for glory, but because they enjoy the game.

The toxicity is really the big clubs. City, Chelsea, Arsenal, United, Everton, Spurs. Where a rivalry frequently only exists in their own heads. I never for example realised just how much Chelsea fans hated us till I went to the Shed End.

Out of these to be fair Redcafe is the best. It’s a pretty decent forum. They tolerate fans from other clubs. There is some good football debate. Blue moon is probably the worst, followed by I thing GOT (Everton forum).

My take is that some of their fans use it as a crutch to identify as a true fan. See I hate Liverpool sooooo much. I would not piss on one of their fans if they were are fire. See I belong, I’m one of you guys. It then becomes a game of one upmanship.

Thing is part of the issue is I think many of these sites lack a community feel. Frequently, perhaps because of the size it seems they are simply a platform to express their own frustrations rather than debate.

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I think part of the problem is wider than the football rivalry too. There’s a real contemptuous poison directed toward Liverpool, the city and its people, by otherwise half decent people. It’s one of the last bastions of prejudice and outright snobbery that largely goes unchallenged.

In another online context, different to football, an online golf game, it came up in passing that the person I was playing was an Arsenal fan. Before anything else was said, they were getting stuck into Liverpool, the city and people.

I told them I couldn’t stand prejudice and snobbery, and ended our interaction.

I’m not even sure if people are aware that they do it, as it seems so pervasive.

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On all my travels the one thing that can safely be said with confidence, is that Scousers…
"Are Not Soft"
Anyone that grew up in the city will Know exactly what those three little words mean…!
We never back away from a fight…
We never back away from an argument…
Most importantly.
We never back away from an injustice…!
Throughout the UK I have had my fair share of abuse, and snide comments directed my way simply because of my accent and being a Liverpudlian… You inevitably stand your ground, you give it your all, you don’t come away from any type of scrap unless you can hold your head up high…
If they get the better of ya… you go back again, and again, and again… they won’t win, whoever they are.!
It is ingrained in our DNA… How many times as a kid, from 4 or 5yrs of age, has your mum or dad told ya that if that kid picks on you again, then don’t come home until you sort it out or you will get a bigger hiding from us…! Our parents, their parents… they all had it rough… tough upbringings forge tough people.
One common denominator always raised its head in all of this for me though…
Most if any at all of these ‘Gobby Twats’ had never visited Liverpool nor knew much about the heart and soul of the place…
Now social networking is the train that these same type of imbeciles spout their poison from… I suppose we are an easy target when so much widespread venom already exists…
Funny though, never hear much criticism directed our way when these people are in the City, with the risk of repercussions…

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Ever read through RAWK? That’s why I’m here.

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Yeah, we don’t have a particularly strong claim to the moral high ground even if we’d like to think we do. There are pretty toxic elements within all fanbases and ours is no exception.

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Once you get to a certain size as a forum you attract a wider range of people and it’s hard to avoid bringing in lunatics with it - often people who barely even watch football but just want a community to belong to. In some cases its even more insidious for example some parts of 4Chan explicitly ran campaigns where they would mob other forums, increase the bile there and then start “Q Dropping” them in order to convert some people to the QAnon conspiracy theory. Not saying that has happened necessarily on any football forum but Blue Moon in particular reads as more of a conspiracy theory forum now than a football one.

TIA struggled with this a few times. Pure weirdos coming into the site but we had a decent moderation team. Without that its almost impossible to not get flooded by bad faith people.

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Yeah, I miss those guys…

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We can now pun with impunity though :wink:

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And in honour of UM…a quiz question…

Which country’s capital city has the fastest growing population?

Ireland, of course. Every day it’s Dublin.

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Somebody has pulled his Christmas cracker early…

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What are you doing talking to my wife?!?!?

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Mutual wankery done yet ?

I went on Bournemouth’s for a while years ago, that was ok, Swansea fans generally used to rub along well I think the Toshack connection was the reason.

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In reference to Gooners, I know two. The first was a lad who I knew through the TA. I first met him in 98 and he seemed sound. We’d gab about football in general and get on. Then after the 2001 cup final he got snidey. He messaged me after we’d lost 1-3 to Barca later that year because Overmars had scored the 3rd. We went through a lean spell against them for a few years after that and he’d always crow about their wins. His texts have dried up recently though. He’s never been abusive about Scousers or the City in general but he’s a proper sore loser. In contrast to him though is my very good Gooner mate who is an absolute gentleman. We’ll sit and talk about footy, politics, music and any general stuff. He couldn’t be more different from the other lad. That’s why I try not to base my opinion of footy fans on the away support that come to Anfield or the rantings on forums. When I take Mrs CDO and my mate Bobbeh to the Etihad I see some decent and some knobhead fans. All fanbases are a mixed bunch. :+1::nerd_face:

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I agree about there being good and bad in all groups of people.
I think the Online Gooner forum is moderated by a pig, hence the dickhead behaviour of the members.
Groupspeak takes over, and they all want to out do each other with vile and nasty shite.
Here we can disagree, but by in large we can at least recognise the right to opinion. Other forums tend to lead in one direction

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