It's great that you don't, but others will. And those same others will do it even more in my local forum if they know people can't do the same in their's. Is a little consistency such a surprising request?
What's that quote about a foolish consistency? The scenario you are painting makes it sound like this will encourage DC fans to troll with impunity because they feel others can't retaliate, but most forums these days crack down on trolling. Again, this is a one-off, never happened before thing (afaik) and I don't see it happening again anytime soon, although I would stop short of saying it's absolutely verboten.
Sounds like this has been discussed at length and a decision come to. I may not like it, but it's your call to make. Hopefully we won't see negative repercussions of whatever sort come out of this. If we do see further problems as a result though, please take them seriously and reconsider your current position. That's all I had to say, other than thanks for running this madhouse... thanks, tom
You obviously have not dealt with kids (young and old) on a regular basis. If you make it forbidden then they will absolutely want to do whatever it is that is forbidden. Simply saying it is forbidden makes it a target. Amen, brother. Just as DogCrapUnited will get their ass kicked in 2006. [Further discussion continued in MLS rivalries. ]
Ive been in Madrid and haven't seen this thread until now. My opinion - Knave was correct. I have done the same a couple of times. When there have been extremly controversial issues that affect Arsenal supporters the last thing anyone needed was to have a Chelsea supporter or Man U supporter come in and disrupt the thread. E.g. when we won the season unbeaten I put up a "Memories" thread just for Arsenal fans. In my opinion the club boards are more like communities, and if the community wants something for themselves that is their right. The issue can be discussed in a 100 other places.
You're comparing apples to oranges. It's perfectly reasonable to put up a "memories" thread and limit it to Arsenal fans since the thread is about Arsenal fans' memories of the unbeaten season. But the Nowak/Ellinger situation was of league-wide interest and involved another team besides DC United.
But the DC United fans wanted to discuss the issue in their perspective. You've been on here long enough to know that any racial issue is immediatly followed by trolls and personal attacks. Therefore Knave wanted a safe haven for DC United fans to discuss this important issue. As you say, it involved another team. You were and are quite able to post on the subject and discuss it there. Quite frankley this is a case of "I can't do it so I want to do it even more scenario, and I'll keep on showing how right I am even though I could quite happily discuss the issue elsewhere". (That's not yourself, just an overall view of the situation)
That's certainly reasonable. My main concern was that Knave closed the thread to outsiders from the onset. It would have been much more reasonable to start with the thread open to everyone, moderate it heavily, and see how things turn out. Only if things deteriorated badly, should a thread be closed to outsiders, IMHO.
Again, I can see your point - but I respectfully disagree. Knave decided to take his standpoint based on HIS experience of modding the DC United board, and from being on here long enough to know that racial issues WILL spiral out of control. There is point in giving the benefit of the doubt. If there was no other place to discuss the issue - fine. but there was and is and so it is not as though yours or anyone else's point wouldn't be able to be posted anywhere on the site.