Former members, Future members and members who will never be.

[Razoray]

I lurked on here as a non member for about 2 years as I was not confident enough to post being a wool an'all. Since i joined up I have posted rarely but have felt that when I did that my opinion was welcome. I did feel like a new member of a gang, but would always be given a chance to speak and be listened to. There is definitely less of an outsider treatment for newbies here than other sites I have visited.

To be honest the only reason I am not and never have been a member is because I am too lazy to organise it. I have a problem with my online banking but organised with Dave via PM to pay the membership and have never got around to it. When I think about it I am disgusted with myself as I am in my bank at least once a month and could easily get a bank draft to pay it. I just keep forgetting and shame on me for that.

What I will say is that I would have no problem whatsoever paying £25 and a whole lot more for the upkeep to this site. The level of enjoyment, laughter, anger, frustration and emotion that I get from it daily, is phenomenal. Someone on here (or the GF) said lately that even though he has not met most of the members on here, he feels a kinship, even a friendship towards some members. I fully understand that and thoroughly enjoyed the thread where people described their vision of some of the better known posters here. We all do it let's be honest!

One thing I would like to say however, is that we all have our views on the goings on, past and present, in the club and we are entitled to our opinion on those issues. However the level of vitriol, contempt and dissent from some on here for differing views is astounding, especially when we all have the same goals for the club. I have friends who are fellow reds who have virtually the same opinions as some guys on here on certain subjects, the polar opposite to mine. That doesn't mean that we are still not friends or that he is a cunt. It just means that he has a differing opinion to me on that one issue, and maybe sometimes puts it across in a manner that pisses me off. I'll still call him a pint when it's my round though, I'll still babysit his kids if asked etc.

It's very sad that we have lost some excellent posters on here altogether and that some posters only frequent the GF and MF due to differences of opinion on certain subjects with a few. If it was real life, they'd have it out and move on.

[Melchett]

I'm quite partial to lemon meringue pie..

[TheResonator]

A lot of the posters I found most interesting are not in yellow any more or don't seem to post that much, people like TK-421, Purplenose, and I don't see Anubis or RoboRiise posting that much either...

 

I think the tipping point for me was when pb got banned for wishing AIDS on another poster and his dog. He needed the ban but how were things allowed to get to that stage? Personally, and I know others differently, I thought he was as sound as they come.

 

The main reason though is that some members clearly have carte blanche to say whatever they want, whether it's to the detriment of the credibility of the site, or debate, or whatever (except, I'm presuming, racist/homophobic stuff). That's fair enough to some extent, it's one of the prices you pay for lax moderation -- and nobody wants this place to get like RAWK but, personally, I don't agree with it enough to chuck my money behind it. It's also the main reason I can seldom be arsed to post these days, not that I was ever prolific.

 

The other reason is that I think it's wrong to have neg & rep exclusively as a perk of membership. Neg, fair enough, but if you like what someone's saying you ought to be able to rep it. It just creates a more positive community atmosphere if the quality gradation system (such as it is) is there for everyone to have their say rather than just those who are paid members.

 

Those are the reasons I didn't renew my ST. Might as well keep them all in one place. I will say though that whatever the negatives there are still loads of good things about the site, see titty city, the gf in general, site content, mocking our enemies, etc. etc.

[Nunavut Patrick]

I'm quite partial to lemon meringue pie..

 

I made an awesome one the other day. The meringue is the hard part.

[razor]

I refuse to belong to a group that would so readily accept somebody like me as a group member.

 

We need better standards.

[Squabblefest]

Right, might as well establish my freak credentials here..

 

I pay my £2 a month because I just fucking love this place. Simple as that really.

 

The jokes, the insight, the level of debate, the knobheads getting their arses handed to them on a plate, the essays where posters pour their thoughts out and you get the odd nugget that really strikes a chord inside yourself that you'd never even considered before; at it's best this place is a godless iconoclastic free for all and a couple of quid a month for a site as good as this, with the quality of posting and it's understanding and perception and judgement, (and fucking brilliant tags, lets not forget the fucking brilliant tags), then I can't really justify not paying it to be honest.

 

Sure, there's problems. Every six months there seems to be a handful of over-excited, insight-free bellends who clog up the boards for a few weeks. Some of the rows on here go on way too fucking long, when the respective posters have stated their cases comprehensively and it's just tedious diminishing returns after that. And I'd also agree that we're sometimes not as welcoming to new posters as we could be, (although that's more to do with earning your stripes by not acting like a fucking prick early on and it does take a while to establish yourself on here). Which reminds me, I really should rep xerxes because his stuff on the new stadium has been really fascinating and is precisely the sort of reason I log in here so regularly..

 

But that RAWK comparison is utterly redundant in my opinion.

 

Whereas that place will remove your comments and ban you if you're not seen to be very publically treading the party line; in this place you live and die by the strength of your argument and that's exactly how it should be.

If you can articulate a strong well reasoned case for your opinion, if it'll hold up to the scrutiny of the other posters who will try to knock it down and destroy it, if it will hold up to the type of barrage that it'll get in a place like this; then your argument will live to fight on to tomorrow.

Where exactly the same thing will happen..

 

So this place isn't perfect. It can be unfair, it can be boring, it'll frustrate the fuck out of you at times but as long as you've got a, (reasonably), open mind and don't always react with a venomous fury every time your opinion is challenged then it'll also give you access to some of the most insightful and comprehensive opinion pieces on Liverpool Football Club on the web and I really enjoy logging in here and I'm happy to help fund it when I can afford to.

[Trucker Paddy]

Slightly off subject but whatever happened to Hamstrung? He was an excellent poster.

[Hand Shandy]

Slightly off subject but whatever happened to Hamstrung? He was an excellent poster.

 

You're missing his tits, aren't you Trucker...

[Guest The Big Green Bastard]

I have 2 reasons why i haven't renewed.

 

1. My personal circumstances have changed considerably as of late, most notably a new younger model with big titties that gives great suck-treats.

 

2. There are a couple of posters in gold that annoy me.

 

hope this helps.

[Hand Shandy]

Point 1 - lucky bastard!

 

Point 2 - I bet they still annoy you...

[Trucker Paddy]

 

You're missing his tits, aren't you Trucker...

 

Yep!

[Guest The Big Green Bastard]

Point 1 - lucky bastard!

 

Point 2 - I bet they still annoy you...

 

i will renew and rep this in the near future. i miss rep/neg.

[hamstrung]

Slightly off subject but whatever happened to Hamstrung? He was an excellent poster.

 

I am become lurker, destroyer of worlds.

 

I reckon forumming probably has a natural lifecycle, where you've pretty much read all the stuff that's been posted before. For me its a bit of that, and babies, work etc taking priority.

 

Natural wastage those management types call it.

[Trucker Paddy]

 

I am become lurker, destroyer of worlds.

 

I reckon forumming probably has a natural lifecycle, where you've pretty much read all the stuff that's been posted before. For me its a bit of that, and babies, work etc taking priority.

 

Natural wastage those management types call it.

 

Good man Hammy, hope life is good for you

[05 Milan]

I'll pay what Dave feels he needs in revenue to keep making the fanzine, the match reports and the totally awesome weekend round-ups, as that's what he does for a living. Maybe people would be better off viewing the ST fee as funding all that stuff, instead of just being an entrance fee to the forum.

[Elite]

I would go Gold but have better things to spend my money on to be honest. If I had more money I definately would but my prioritys lie elsewhere.

 

I am grateful that you can be part of this site without payment, if that changes fair enough. I know running websites deoesn't come cheap. Hats off to Dave U and I am sure others give a bit of their time for the benefit of this great forum.

 

There is this weeks arselicking over with!

[Closer To God]

I'll pay what Dave feels he needs in revenue to keep making the fanzine, the match reports and the totally awesome weekend round-ups, as that's what he does for a living. Maybe people would be better off viewing the ST fee as funding all that stuff, instead of just being an entrance fee to the forum.

 

Thats how I feel also.

[Trumo]

The other reason is that I think it's wrong to have neg & rep exclusively as a perk of membership. Neg, fair enough, but if you like what someone's saying you ought to be able to rep it. It just creates a more positive community atmosphere if the quality gradation system (such as it is) is there for everyone to have their say rather than just those who are paid members.

 

It actually used to be like that not so long ago. Membership gave you the right to neg, but anyone could rep a post they thought was decent. I think that was in the days before we had the MF, and it's something that should be brought back.

[RoboRiise]

Like others have said, the MF isn't the point of a season ticket for me, it's a bonus.

 

I don't post as much as I used to on here just because I've got other things going on at the moment. It's coming up to six years since I joined now though and it's still the only footy forum that I visit regularly. I donated to the site back before membership was brought in and if I'm honest I'd have donated more than I did were it not for two things. The first is that I have a memory like a sieve. The second is that every time I thought of doing it, there was always something else that the money needed to be spent on.

 

I like the 12 month cycle of a membership because now I just treat it like any other bill; it's on the calendar (not that it really needs to be with the reminders on the site itself when it's getting near to expiry) and it gets paid when it falls due.

 

When I think back to the site when I first joined there's so much more content generated by Dave now with the weekend round-ups, the podcasts and so on and it's easy to forget that this isn't like the Guardian, a huge media organisation, making podcasts and stuff available for free on their site - TLW is effectively a one man band and even as an OOT, I like that fact that I'm supporting a business local to the club I love, run by a proper fan.

 

Ultimately though, loyalty only goes so far and if it was shite, I wouldn't pay for it - the same is true of the magazine. As things are right now, they both represent excellent value for money.

[Pidge]

Golden years...

[stringvest]

It's a shame that people get so het up when people have opinions different to their own, particularly on the Internet. In order to justify themselves, they turn those they disagree with into hate figures and start to obsess. It's a forum, where people are allowed to give opinions. I can honestly say, hand on heart, that there is nobody on here that I have a problem with. In fact, the only person I ever had an issue with was Mac4. There's loads of people I disagree with, but it's the Internet folks. I've met plenty of people on here in real life, and they all seem like eminently nice people. This forum is a great place to express your point of view, but also to read opinions that you might not agree with - I've certainly had my perspective challenged and altered on certain things because a poster will have written a compelling case for the opposite view. It's worth £24 of my money, and the magazine is great too, not always because of the content, but because you know that your contribution is helping to keep things afloat for Dave.

 

Each to their own though.

[Scousa Tomo]

Too many bellends who havent got a clue about footbal nevermind LFC,I have came close to buying a season ticket a couple of times, but then i read posts from utter mongs like unrighteous and think... do i really want to help to give this pleb a platform ?

[Skidfingers McGonical]

Too many bellends who havent got a clue about footbal nevermind LFC,I have came close to buying a season ticket a couple of times, but then i read posts from utter mongs like unrighteous and think... do i really want to help to give this pleb a platform ?

 

With a post like that Tomo, many may feel the same about you.

[Sugar Ape]

Too many bellends who havent got a clue about footbal nevermind LFC,I have came close to buying a season ticket a couple of times, but then i read posts from utter mongs like unrighteous and think... do i really want to help to give this pleb a platform ?

 

What did I say about not posting if you couldn't be civil? Fucks sake. If you want to cause shit go into another thread.

[Scousa Tomo]

With a post like that Tomo, many may feel the same about you.

 

just bein honest love.

 

What did I say about not posting if you couldn't be civil? Fucks sake. If you want to cause shit go into another thread.

 

Sorry, had a few too many corona m8 didnt mean to offend.

Gunna log off and get ma drink on... peace.