Before I was made a mod (and I didn't ask, just to be clear), I just used to ignore his wind-up posts-which were most of them-and only answer his footy points which, in fairness, were often decent.
But, having become one, you find yourself in a different position where you do things differently from the way you might as a non-mod.
The problem as I see it is that there is a difference between someone expressing their own personal view-no matter how much people dislike it-because it's a genuinely-held point of view which they have every right to express and someone knowing which buttons to press to annoy or provoke posters and then creating threads or posts to do just that.
Not everything P'boro posts falls into the second category, hence the 'encouragement' by both mods and non-mods-to just ignore him when he's winding folk up. But, increasingly, it looks like he's spoiling for a fight with the pro-Ashley, anti-Rafa stuff because he can't seem to post what he thinks without having a dig at people with the opposing view.
We're reaching something of a watershed on the forum, in my opinion. It's getting to the stage where people are either posting less, not posting at all or not enjoying coming on here precisely because of the arguments he causes. And as I've said, there's a massive difference between expressing your own views to make a point and doing so but in a way designed to provoke arguments or simply have a go at people.
In my mind, this is crossing the line. I'm genuinely not trying to be arsey when I say this but the mods have a responsibility to look after the forum, imo, and if the forum is under threat because of the actions of one particular poster then, to my mind, action needs to be taken to 'look after' the forum...otherwise what's the point.
Because of that I've locked a number of threads and also banned P'boro for a week. To be honest, I didn't like doing that particularly but, if it's for the good of the forum, and within the rules, then it has to be done. Obviously, whether a thread is designed to express a genuinely-held point of view or whether that point of view is being overstated to wind people up or the point of the thread is to antagonise people but just dressed up as a personal opinion...is open to interpretation.
We can't go on the way we are and, to me, P'boro-you're the one who has to change your approach or I can only see this ending one way-for the 'good' of the forum.
As a side note, Ghost gets a lot of stick but manages to put his point across-which is quite often the opposite of what the rest of the forum thinks-but without resorting to insults and jibes. This is not about everyone thinking the same but it's about how those different views are put across.
There...I've tried to be as honest as possible.
