Ulster Rugby Online

[darkside lightside]

Also even if a forum on the official website is, by its nature as a fan's forum, not necessarily representative of the club's position on things - it can still carry a perception of an official 'approval' or 'sanction'. So I can imagine that the club is much more content with a widely-used fan forum being hosted on an unofficial website like this, when carrying material like speculation on transfers, criticism of the management etc etc.

And the moment a forum starts feeling heavily moderated is the moment when people, or me anyway, lose interest - a good example is the ironically-titled grauniad "Comment is Free" site, where in fact comment is only free if you don't say things that the ham-fisted moderators don't agree with - and I've noticed that some interesting and provocative commenters, who make the place far more interesting than the bland and right-on chattering class salon it otherwise is, after a period of arbitrary censorship (because let's call it what it is) stop commenting at all.

in this place, I've only ever been moderated once, for swearing in a fit of rage during the last world cup - and regretting it the next day and returning to edit, only to find that Father Jack of all people had done it for me

also the official messageboard seemed to have attracted a huge number of complete tools, not to put to fine a point on it. any time i looked there seemed to be an endless series of flegs'n'anthems type posts, and topics headed up "X Player is Crap!!!!" and stuff...

[mikerob]

The IRFU forum used to be good at one stage as well but went the same way as ur.com a few years previously. I think the official munster rugby website has also killed off their forum so problems running these are not unique to Ulster.

Some GP clubs (like Bath and Leicester, I think) run official forums on their websites but I think they "outsource" the moderation to a group of fans rather than giving it to a club employee to do as part of their job.

flegs'n'anthems was a perennial problem for the IRFU and UR website as they were the perfect subject for WUMs across the political spectrum. Even on political websites like slugger otoole, flegs'n'anthems and other politics in sport subjects generate massive threads.

[hans]

"So I can imagine that the club is much more content with a widely-used fan forum being hosted on an unofficial website like this, when carrying material like speculation on transfers, criticism of the management etc etc. "

Although the club may be much more content do you think the UR supporters are? As a supporter, do you get all the information you want from the UR website and are you able to feedback to UR when you need to?

[mikerob]

"So I can imagine that the club is much more content with a widely-used fan forum being hosted on an unofficial website like this, when carrying material like speculation on transfers, criticism of the management etc etc. "

Although the club may be much more content do you think the UR supporters are? As a supporter, do you get all the information you want from the UR website and are you able to feedback to UR when you need to?

Losing the forum probably meant that ur.com lost a large number of hits on their website.

Most commercial websites wouldn't be happy if this happened - I don't know if UR care or not.

UR.com provides the basics like team news and ticketing news plus some additional stuff like player and staff interviews but they never reveal that much.

[ColinM]

As i said in a previous post, i like to look at UR.com for domestic results, fixtures and cup draws. Even that information is sketchy at times.

As i also said in a previous post, i check in here for other information. If UR.com were to supply that I'd be amazed.

[crazyhorse]

Just noticed this debate. I don't bother with the UR site at all since they stopped the forum. I can't really see the point of setting up a website if its not going to offer interactive features.

[darkside lightside]

Although the club may be much more content do you think the UR supporters are? As a supporter, do you get all the information you want from the UR website and are you able to feedback to UR when you need to?

well at the end of the day, what level of interaction can you really expect with a sports club, over and above accurate and timely information on fixtures, travel, events, tickets etc etc - i.e. functional matters? I'd say that is what I expect from the main site, and more or less, what I get. I also read the player interviews, which are ordinarily the usual kind of modern anodyne gubbins, but some are quite interesting.

As a fan it would be great to have boundless access to the thinking of the powers that be, players etc - but in practical terms, for one reason or another, this isn't going to be possible, and tbh I'd even more rather that they concentrate on being good at rugby, than being good at corporate communication.

That being said, I personally would appreciate a bit more engagement from the CEO - we all know that there are a number of things which preoccupy fans (for example, the stadium question) and which run and run, and about which it is very difficult to know where exactly the club stands. Obviously they owe us nothing, and items which are commercially sensitive or whatever are naturally off-bounds - but I don't see why on matters which aren't especially sensitive, communication couldn't be more open. sometimes UR seems like a bit of a black box.. I would be hard-pushed to say, right now, what UR's stance on the development of Ravenhill/new stadium is..

For example a regular column by the CEO on the main website, where he can run through what's taking up his time - sometimes I fear, as a fan, that UR is in something of a state of stasis, with its odd system of corporate governance and not much in the way of visible development of the commercial aspects of the club, the infrastructure etc etc. So it would be nice to hear that something is actually happening...

[WhiteKnightoftheWeld]

I think the problem with the UR Board was threefold.

Firstly - it takes real self restraint to allow a reasonable level of criticism of your organisation on a board that you control. The temptation was to remove anthing that was critical of Mike Read in particular and Ulster rugby in general. By doing this they lost integrity and credibility and this actually spurred some poster on to be even more critical.

Secondly Being the "Official message board" of Ulster Rugby people were inclined to use it as a conduit to get their gripes and niggles directly to UR and felt a certain satisfaction in Posting their vitriol on the Official board with an implicit challenge that if it was removed to proved that UR were being control freaks.

Thirdly. Moderating a forum takes time and needs to be frequent if not constant. This board is moderated by around half a dozen of the regular posters and users whio between them catch most things pretty quickly. I believe the UR board was moderated by one or two of the office staff who had other dutues during the day and couldn't reasonably be expected to spend their evenings and week-ends doing what is necessary to run a board well.

Not sure the main issue was being able to accept criticism, or allocating the time to manage/monitor it (agree it probably is a strong factor though)

Certainly the line fed when the forum was pulled as i recall was along the lines of tarnishing the image of ulster rugby to potential players and potential sponsorship...

eg why would an overseas player want to join ulster when he reads how rob dewey gets slagged off for not even playing?
why would a major NI company or overseas company invest money in UR when the so-called fans seem more content to slag off the team than show support for it?

agree that (particularly) from a sponsorship viewpoint this may be difficult to swallow, but it cant not be a factor

I'll still look at match reports, team announcements, interviews etc related specifically to the ulster team - less interest in the domestic info provided - on ulsterrugby.com. while a lot of stuff published there ends up here, i generally look at UR as the info provider and here as source of comment/niggle/wind-up cables...

[fuzzylogic]

Would normally only use official site to buy tickets if im coming home for the weekend or a holiday and theres a match on at Ravers and to keep an eye on domestic and schools rugby.

Quite like the player interviews too, their not 100% rugby related and at times its nice to read about what players do in their free time and the foreign guys are settling in to life in NI, I think that goes a long way to making fans feel just that little bit closer to the squad. The current interviews all have a mention of Paddys day and I think its Isaac and Bryan both say they will do a bit of training and the most likley have a pint. Most people reading can relate to that and it makes the players seem a lot more accessable. Always a good thing, no ones going to pay money to go see a team full of arseholes, unless of course your an English football fan.

For some reason I would usually come here or the BBC website to look for any news stories or team announcements! Before checking the UR page. The forum was a big loss for them in terms of site hits but their were too many people going on and slagging off players, management and UR as whole and UR just cant have this on their own page!

[cables]

Provided you can get on the same wavelength as the contributions on the UR website, you can glean advance information regarding team selection for future games. As an example, just today I found one such tip from the horse's mouth as it were:

Make sure you are at Ravenhill to catch Bryan, and the rest of the Ulster team, as they take on Ospreys in Ulster’s penultimate Magners League home fixture of the 08/09 season. Tickets for the Friday night match (3rd April, kick-off 7.35pm) go on sale on Monday 16th March from; the Ravenhill Ticket Office, Ravenhill Ticket Line 02890 4932 22 Option2, and on-line at http://www.ulsterrugby.com. Let’s give the Ospreys a Ravenhill Roar to remember.

It's brill but you have to be tuned in to get it.

[BR]

If you got moderated on the official site, there was a sense that your 'right' to freedom of speech had been impinged by a 'public' body; and you would tend to be a bit annoyed about it. We all feel we are a part of Ulster Rugby (and that is a good thing)

If you get moderated here (IIRC I have only once) - while you may disagree, you accept the refs decision, turn and walk 10. The people here don't have to answer to their public for their decisions (if they don't want to) - we are merely visitors to their realm.

It's like if someone were to ask you to keep your voice down in a public square; you may feel a bit aggrieved. If you were sitting in a friends living room and they asked you to keep it down, you would respect your hosts wishes.

Provided you have someone supplying such a great service, then unofficial is a much better way of doing message boards, IMHO.

[Rooster]

If you got moderated on the official site, there was a sense that your 'right' to freedom of speech had been impinged by a 'public' body; and you would tend to be a bit annoyed about it. We all feel we are a part of Ulster Rugby (and that is a good thing)

If you get moderated here (IIRC I have only once) - while you may disagree, you accept the refs decision, turn and walk 10. The people here don't have to answer to their public for their decisions (if they don't want to) - we are merely visitors to their realm.

It's like if someone were to ask you to keep your voice down in a public square; you may feel a bit aggrieved. If you were sitting in a friends living room and they asked you to keep it down, you would respect your hosts wishes.

Provided you have someone supplying such a great service, then unofficial is a much better way of doing message boards, IMHO.

Totally agree with that entire post of BR's
I doubt if there are many here that have not had a few posts moderated at one time or another, I know I have had a few most except it and see therir errors and carry on, some get minor bans and return later also accepting their punisment and a few have been chucked onto cyberspace death row never to return and it seems to end there but on the UR forum there were countless posters who kept returning and causing trouble seemingly just to try and cause problems for UR with their attitude and mindless posts till it got to the stage it had to be closed before someone started getting legal minded.

[hans]

For example a regular column by the CEO on the main website, where he can run through what's taking up his time - sometimes I fear, as a fan, that UR is in something of a state of stasis, with its odd system of corporate governance and not much in the way of visible development of the commercial aspects of the club, the infrastructure etc etc. So it would be nice to hear that something is actually happening...

Do you feel as a supporter you recieve enough information on the business deelopment and new stadium side? Is this important to supporters?

[ColinM]

For example a regular column by the CEO on the main website, where he can run through what's taking up his time - sometimes I fear, as a fan, that UR is in something of a state of stasis, with its odd system of corporate governance and not much in the way of visible development of the commercial aspects of the club, the infrastructure etc etc. So it would be nice to hear that something is actually happening...

Do you feel as a supporter you recieve enough information on the business deelopment and new stadium side? Is this important to supporters?

I dont think we receive any information on the above (apart from the odd phoie of the new stand) Of course this is of utmost importance to supporters, and whilst a lot of this is going to be commercially sensitive we would feel more involved as part of the club if more info was provided. For example what is UR's current view on progressing phases 2, 3, 4 of the Ravenhill redevelopment either as opposed to or in conjunction with a new shared stadium?

[colind]

Strange thing Colin but Mike Reid must have been reading your thoughts

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/10026.php

Colin