Message boards are not for the faint-hearted

THEY can be brash, reactionary, often incoherent, occasionally downright libellous but increasingly harder to ignore.

Internet message boards for football fans are a relatively new phenomenon but have quickly become an addiction for many. Whereas once information about your favourite club would be gleaned from the match programme or conversations in the pub, technology has revolutionised the way fans interact with each other.

On the face of it this can only be a good thing for all parties – fans feel more informed about their team, which encourages loyalty, strengthening the support. At their best they can be an invaluable source of information, especially at lower levels, and give another outlet for terrace humour – famously former Gills defender Guy Butters was once put up for sale for £5 by fans while at Brighton.

However, there is a darker side to the boards, which all too often threatens to undo all of the benefits. With virtually all contributors using pseudonyms, some use several, it gives anyone with an axe to grind a free rein to peddle their often extreme opinions.
If you look hard enough it will not be long before you find something critical about any player. While they can be over the top, it is mostly nothing worse than you would overhear in conversations at the pub, but because the posts are permanent and can be read hundreds of times they can easily cause lasting offence.

The biggest problems come when players, managers or club staff cross the line and read, or even contribute to message boards. Gillingham striker Mark McCammon admitted last week he had been stung by derogatory comments he had read while out injured.
His manager, Mark Stimson, probably has the right approach when he advises his players to stay clear of them.

With big clubs who have thousands of fans paying to watch them every week it is easier to brush off the criticism, but at non-league level it can become more corrosive. Message boards may only have a handful of people who regularly contribute and it can be far too easy to get dragged into a slanging match with each other.
This is particularly a problem when the forums are attached to the club’s website, with players or board members contributing. While it can start off with admirable intentions of keeping everything at the club transparent, there are certain things within a club which have to remain confidential.

Herne Bay and Folkestone Invicta have had problems this season as the lines have been blurred between official news and comments on their forums. This week the normally unflappable Ashford Town boss Steve Lovell launched a stinging rebuke on the club’s official site about comments he read on the club’s forum.

There’s little doubt message boards will have an increasingly important role to play, but to avoid a lot of the problems perhaps it is best to keep them independent. Fans’ forums should be for fans, anyone who is intimately involved with a club and is of a sensitive disposition should probably avoid them altogether.
One example of an independent message board that works well is the thriving Kent League forum. It is not attached to any club and is a useful meeting point for fans from all 17 clubs in the division.

David Pritchard