Yes, there is an irony here that to market the site I use Facebook and Twitter, and yet I am about to lambast those very same tools for their role in what is become somewhat of a farce.
See I say farce because of the planned protests. I do not deny your right to protest, hell we live in a free country, but I am yet to see one salient united point for this. A series of gripes, which are either protesting against all the board, some about saying its about Mark Arthur, some saying Doughty out, others saying about McClaren, and one scamp about the price of a halftime bovril.
Social Networking is playing a key role in rallying the troops. Just today I got an invite (from someone I don't know) on Facebook inviting me to a protest. It didn't say what about, it just vaguely specified a location and time. Nothing about its aims, its techniques, its methods or any of that kind of valuable information.
That speaks volumes about the lack of coordination.
Social Networking is key to this as you can easily invite a vast array of people to single events. Whether that's by an event on Facebook, or by hash tags on Twitter. The problem then becomes partly in who is organising what, or the fact that a complex game of Chinese whispers goes off till the point is lost amongst the thousands who have seen passed it on.
I don't know if that invite was from an organiser, or just some chancer on Facebook trying to take credit for organising things, because lets face it, on Facebook there is a lot of people hiding behind certain identities currying discord without actually stepping forward. Pretending to be a player or the manager, they know thousands of people have added that player, because they like that player so it can show on their timeline. Not to have some kid fire a million status updates and ridiculous questions at people to the point of annoyance ( i do concede not all them do this)
In fact that these enablers, I say enablers purely from some kind of social studies context, as they (perhaps unknowingly) influence people into a certain belief. Hell I saw Lee Camps Facebook profile, which is definitely not Lee Camp despite what the kid used to try and make out, start commenting on national politics. Is that what you "like" a player to see. Some 14 years old views on matters he clearly didn't understand. These accounts curry feelings by one person being able to present his views to many, often presenting his views as facts, and as I say hiding behind anonymity, instead of actually putting their views out there as their own
Anyone who has used Social Networking sites knows how misinformation or suchlike can spread like wildfire. People see a status or a group and angrily react too.You end up with lots of people believing something that might not be true because one person somewhere set something up.
Its like with the recent riots, being able to send mass messages quickly to people you might never meet, and that message then being forwarded and proliferating till you get a mass movement of people, who may or may not know what the initial aim was. Things get lost in translation. Maybe the first people to want a protest did have a salient end point. It's not what I am seeing or hearing though.
Yes, something is wrong, but the very fact that there is very little common consensus what is wrong suggests something. It isn't clear what. So to start acting like this and wanting wholesale change is some what kneejerk. Some want Doughty to sell up, well we covered this before, who exactly do they expect in? I always get the same response to this question. Someone will buy us, someone out there will. Well, no I don't believe there will be. Last season Mike Ashley was on every street corner in the world hawking Newcastle to people. This is a club with a lot better financial record than we have. More appeal, more fans, fervent support. More income. And no body bought them. Why do people insist on saying someone will us? Everton are a bigger club with more going for them, again no buyers. We lose a lot of money per annum, so why would someone buy into that? People say the clubs being run badly, but if someone came in and balanced the books, those same fans would be angry that prices were raised, players sold and cheaper alternatives bought in, because "running the club better" would see that occur. And what with Financial Fair Play coming in, it would also be impossible.
The simple truth is the football fan is never happy. Just look at the big clubs, who cry foul when they finish second. Second!!!?? We'd kill for that.,
I've also seen today people moaning about lack of communication from Doughty, and this was on Twitter. This is the same site of course Nigel Doughty came on to communicate with fans, and was hounded off by keyboard warriors,hiding behind their monitors or on their phone, feeling the big man. Maybe they think they are like an Internet Simon Bolivar or Che Guevera, bringing down the big men with their action, rather than pimply faced cowards. Same people who probably tweeted Robin Chipperfield their anger that they thought Radio Nottingham pandered to the club. You simply can't win with some people, who I seethe anonymity of the Internet as their chance to rant and rave in a way they would never do face to face
So by all means protest. At least know what your protesting about, rather than a vague notion of knowing your unhappy, but not sure why.
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