Alright, here's how it's going to go down:
It seems beyond a shadow of a doubt now that there simply cannot be a debate on Lampard without passions being raised and tensions arising. That's not a bad thing per se - it's just normal human behaviour. But it leaves us in an awkward position. Maybe if I had been able to police things more and delete posts straight away as I had threatened to do it might have stayed under control, but simply put I don't have the time or energy for it, and half of the stuff I might want to delete is already some way back in the conversation.
We still don't want to censor debate here. That's not the path we want to go down. Similarly we don't want to let this issue bring down the whole forum by letting it go unchecked. So basically, we've discussed it and the whole "Lampard thing" is now going to be Debate Desk only. We don't really care if it's related to another issue and is a legitimate comment somewhere else, because even an innocent comment can still spark a feud. If Lampard's future gets mentioned anywhere it HAS to be here. We are willing to allow argument in the Debate Desk, because we can't really deny this issue exists and people need a place where they can talk about it, but we're not willing to allow the disharmony this is creating to infect other threads.
We're serious about this, and to enforce it there's going to be a simple rule - anything relating to Lampard's future posted outside of this thread will be moved here. On top, you do it once, you'll get a polite warning. You do it a second time, you'll get a 24-hour ban. Further offences will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This place is establishing itself as the hub for supporter discussion, and we simply can't allow the factionalism this argument inspires to spread out from here - the risk of the fan base disintegrating or diminishing over this topic is just too high. Other than that, if you want to let off your steam in here then go ahead - we'll keep policing the thread to an extent and deliberate provocation will still be punished, but it's obvious that there is simply no way to contain the passions this issue is building up, so there's little point us trying to ask people to keep this topic civil.
One other thing I'd like to add. If you don't like the arguments being raised in here, just stop reading the thread. We will still keep an eye on this place to ensure it doesn't turn into a flamewar, but the number of reported posts that we are receiving now is getting stupid, and we don't want to have to deal with this constantly. This topic IS going to cause arguments. If you come in here, expect to see people saying things you might not like.
Just to reiterate. DO NOT talk about Lampard staying or going any place other than this. Just don't.
It seems beyond a shadow of a doubt now that there simply cannot be a debate on Lampard without passions being raised and tensions arising. That's not a bad thing per se - it's just normal human behaviour. But it leaves us in an awkward position. Maybe if I had been able to police things more and delete posts straight away as I had threatened to do it might have stayed under control, but simply put I don't have the time or energy for it, and half of the stuff I might want to delete is already some way back in the conversation.
We still don't want to censor debate here. That's not the path we want to go down. Similarly we don't want to let this issue bring down the whole forum by letting it go unchecked. So basically, we've discussed it and the whole "Lampard thing" is now going to be Debate Desk only. We don't really care if it's related to another issue and is a legitimate comment somewhere else, because even an innocent comment can still spark a feud. If Lampard's future gets mentioned anywhere it HAS to be here. We are willing to allow argument in the Debate Desk, because we can't really deny this issue exists and people need a place where they can talk about it, but we're not willing to allow the disharmony this is creating to infect other threads.
We're serious about this, and to enforce it there's going to be a simple rule - anything relating to Lampard's future posted outside of this thread will be moved here. On top, you do it once, you'll get a polite warning. You do it a second time, you'll get a 24-hour ban. Further offences will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This place is establishing itself as the hub for supporter discussion, and we simply can't allow the factionalism this argument inspires to spread out from here - the risk of the fan base disintegrating or diminishing over this topic is just too high. Other than that, if you want to let off your steam in here then go ahead - we'll keep policing the thread to an extent and deliberate provocation will still be punished, but it's obvious that there is simply no way to contain the passions this issue is building up, so there's little point us trying to ask people to keep this topic civil.
One other thing I'd like to add. If you don't like the arguments being raised in here, just stop reading the thread. We will still keep an eye on this place to ensure it doesn't turn into a flamewar, but the number of reported posts that we are receiving now is getting stupid, and we don't want to have to deal with this constantly. This topic IS going to cause arguments. If you come in here, expect to see people saying things you might not like.
Just to reiterate. DO NOT talk about Lampard staying or going any place other than this. Just don't.
