Kaptain Kouta wrote:
Nice work, Jars.
Now if only you had have posted this yesterday, you could have snagged the POW!
JohnM wrote:
To a degree I understand where you're coming from Jar, but I'm not particularly comfortable with any suggestion that people 'should' think or post a certain way.
A very big part of the reason our club is in this mess is because for too long we had a completely unnaccountable culture where the membership base were taken for granted, where elections were quasi-secret affairs held after midnight during the waning moon, and where Carlton supporters with no connections to the club other than an interest in it, and a love for it, were left in the dark regarding the true position of the club.
Forums like TC give EVERYONE a voice, and individual readers can decide for themselves where the truth lies after having read differing opinions.
In many ways, the stuff that the 'negative' posters write is merely a counterbalance to the crap that trustworthy and believable and mainstream publications like the Herald Sun publish - puff pieces with smorgo and denis linking arms for the benefit of the members.
Furthermore, I don't believe it's TC's role to paint a nice picture for the Carlton supporter base. It's TC's role to give everyone in the Carlton community a voice.
OK, so a guy like Synbad is pretty single-issue. In that respect, he's really no different to an anti-nuke campaigner, or a climate-change advocate. As a poster, he's not 'balanced'. But in the totality of debate, he's helps to balance those people who don't share his viewpoint.
Personally, I put myself in the 'feeling very negative about the current administration and board' camp - and feel that nothing right now is more important for our future than the recognition by the Carlton community of just how poor our admin currently is.
Anyway, it's a good post and well worth debating in a sensible manner.
Sorry KK - John M would have won it.
The idea that there should be some way to post is scary shit. There are obvious guidelines in place to do with abuse/defamation/etc but as far as wanting people to post in a certain way that's either positive or negative count me out.
I'm sick to death of the negative shit too but I have a choice to respond or ignore it. Online threads usually contain a mix of coversations within the one page. Engage where you choose and leave the rest to those who choose to engage there.
The club is a mess at the moment but last week they did something good (although unfortunately the good was in hanging onto what we already have rather than actually improving our current situation). It was worrying for a while but once the outcome of trade week became clear I didn't see too many posts suggesting that they'd handled the situation with Thornton and Russell badly during the week at least.
I think when things are done well it's generally recognised and when things are done badly that's recognised too. Unfortunately when your football club's at its lowest point in its history it's not that surprising that there are a number of things being done badly.
What I find particularly curious is that those who are generally labelled "negative" also tend to be the ones putting up interesting and often sensible suggestions for how to do things better. Anyone who's ever read a BV piece on our onfield structure or a Synbad piece on how to create momentum from a marketing and membership perspective will know that these are people who care deeply about our current state and see a way out of it. I'd far prefer to read that than a bunch of gung-ho Pollyannas jumping up and down and yelling "Jolly Hockeysticks - everything is dandy!" or "We're Carlton - @#$%&! the Rest!". That's just mindless sloganeering. I want solutions and it's those considered "negative" who seem to be providing them from where I'm sitting.
If people are posting in a negative manner it's generally because they're frustrated. To argue that the manifestation of that frustration is propaganda but trying to paint a positive picture "for the sake of the brand" isn't is more than a tad hypocritical. As far as I'm concerned a forum is exactly that - a place of ideas and exchange. If you don't buy someone else's position then fight for your own.