Pulling together

[Guest therabbitt]

Interested to hear the thoughts of the membership of GN on the possibility of another Setting The Standard type discussion, or even revisiting the old one and giving it a bit of a refresh. All of the tit for tat stuff is tiresome and I'd love us all as supporters to work past it.

 

http://forum.rangersmedia.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=182797&st=0

 

Hope the link is ok with moderators, if not, I can copy and paste.

 

Oh, and hello Gersnet.

I really hope that Craig Whyte takes over Rangers and not because he will be able to clear our debt with the bank and hopefully sound for playing staff reinforcements, but because we all need a fresh start.

 

The site that I help to run has came under a lot of criticism in the past few days, sparked by an interview by our Chairman that has has brought a lot of 'inter site rivallry' to the fore. I get a real sick feeling in my stomach when there is a discussion like this on any Rangers site and it's something I really wish there was an easy way to surmount.

 

Our fractuous support really is tiresome. I may be an administrator on RangersMedia, but that doesn't mean that I instantly have a dislike for Follow Follow or anyone that posts there or runs it - quite the opposite to be honest. I love a lot of things about the site and all of the other sites have much merit and I respect the work that is put in for all of these places to run. It's testament to our supporter base that so many people give up so much of their own time to provide an arena for fans to share views, write articles and find ways to help different charities.

 

The fact that I have friends whose intentions and (user) names are being dragged through the mud doesn't mean that I dislike Follow Follow or anyone that posts on it. It might mean that I'm a bit hacked off at some individual members because I disagree with them, but then as with the club, we don't ever know the full story on anything, so it's difficult to make a balanced judgement from gathering scattered pieces of a jigsaw and trying to make a picture; especially when all of the pieces are not even there.

 

Attributing an opinion to a whole entity containing a massive membership would be churlish. I respect what the people who run Follow Follow have achieved and will continue to achieve. Many of their articles and the discussion that goes on within their forum are fantastic and I am a keen reader, yet I don't post or contribute there. That is for no other reason than I post on RangersMedia and don't have time for two forums in my life, my posting on RM isn't event that prolific anymore as I'm more concerned with the news homepage than anything else. In fact, perhaps differently to many posters on RM, FF, DTB or GN I chose the site I got involved with purely as I did a Google and it was the first one I found. I needed a Rangers outlet when I was living away from home in Ulster and I found one. Simple.

 

The reason that this latest flare up sticks in my craw a bit is that I honestly thought that relations between sites were beginning to turn a corner. In fact, I'm still hopeful that we can all somehow find some common ground to all work from, after all we do have so many shared interests and desires. That aside, I don't buy the whole, we should all be pals just because we are Rangers fans - the 'fellow bear' argument doesn't hold much water as there are annoying people in every walk of life that we wouldn't want to be associated with. Regardless, Rangers is a shared interest and a great way for people to find common ground.

 

On Saturday I helped out with selling the blue noses for the Rangers Charity Foundation.

 

On Twitter, I asked several different Rangers guys if they could ask around of anyone wanted to help and the guy who has the Follow Follow account (apologies I don't know usernames or anything) kindly put a thread on FF and a few people came along to help based on that. I was more than thankful for that and for me, I found it very positive that a tentative step towards working together for something positive had been found. In fact, I ended up standing with one of the FF members who volunteered throughout the day and I thought he was a cracking guy - you'd think sometimes by the way that threads, admittedly on both forums, went that I should have thumbed my nose at the guy purely because he is a member of another forum; to me, that is beyond crazy and hopefully everyone can see that.

 

Are RM perfect? No.

 

We do have individuals that have personal baggage with others, from other sites and other walks of life, but lets not use the banner of a website name as something to continue to hold aggreivances with each other or an excuse to pitch what is essentially two groups of supporters with different online habits. If people wish to discuss something with each other than they should do so, but not lumber in the thoughts of individuals as the thoughts of the collective.

 

We do encourage free discussion and free speech on our forum and I'm fairly sure that FF try their best to do the same. The long held beliefs that sites ban members who don't toe a party line is surely something of the past? I really hope so. I can honestly hold my hands up and say that to the best of my knowledge, we have no hidden agenda as a site and we want to encourage nothing more than to hold discussion on issues relating to Rangers.

 

I'm proud of our moderation team and happy for the time and effort that they give up to work towards providing a place for debate - reasoned or not. If there are ever any problems then we do our best to handle them in an amicable way and in the best way possible. If there is ever any personal abuse that people aren't happy with then I'd urge people to use the 'Report' button or contact a member of the team directly and we'll endeavour to do our best to sort it out. No one should be getting personal abuse or threats, if they are we need to know about it to nip it in the bud. Slanging matches within threads are not the ways for things like that to be handled in my opinion.

 

Not everyone will agree with moderation decisions, especially if it is themselves or even a friend of theirs and the team have licence to handle those situations in the way they see fit. We have to trust our moderators or there'd be no reason to have them there at all.

 

I'm happy to meet or talk to any Rangers supporters on any issues and if there is a desire to do that on a personal face to face basis then we should all try to make it happen. I don't want to let potentially poisoned personal relationships to get in the way of two or more internet sites, talking about the same issues in a different place, being able to work together on issues that affect something that we all love so much.

 

I long for the time when we can have a change at our club and hopefully everyone can be inspired by the sweeping changes and find a way to all stand together and pull in the same direction. When that happens, we'll be a real asset to the club and the support at large. We really should endeavor to 'do', rather than postulate on separate forums.

 

Going back to the matter in hand, I genuinely respected the organisers of the protest for getting up from their chairs, removing the username monikers and becoming real people to try to work on something they believed in. How many of us out here can hold their hands up and say that they are trying to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem?

 

My membership doesn't allow for me to post on Follow Follow, but if I could I'd post this exact same thing there and happily wax lyrical about what we could maybe do to work going forward. If someone could post this on FF or activate my membership then I'd be happy to do so. The membership of RM and indeed FF might not engage with that for whatever personal reason, but we shouldn't let that get in the way of people who don't have any baggage or any desire to perpetuate lingering feuds just because we are 'supposed' to feel like that.

 

Whenever we are taken over, let's use it as a clean slate. In the not too distant past we had the "We Deserve Better" campaign and the subsequent "Setting The Standard" series of debates that both had their individual merits. Why should we not try to find a way to combine the two into a new series of discussions that could act as a new start and all look at ways in which Rangers could be revolutionised for the better from top to bottom; from merchandising to marketing, from scouting to seating. Within our support at large we have a massive amount of really talented people, if we all put our heads together we could find some real solutions to problems facing our club together. How could we revolutionise the club if we were given the keys tomorrow?

 

Why don't we channel our energies in a better way, forget the negatives and look for ways to really help make a difference?

 

I'd extend this invitation to all corners of our online support, from the membership and staff of RangersMedia to that of any other Rangers site and I really hope that some will take me up on this offer. I realise that in the grand scheme of things, even within the Rangers online support, I'm nothing more than a guy that happens to help out a forum and write some Rangers articles, but to paraphrase from something I read earlier, "even from the smallest of acorns, a might oak can grow". I'm up for trying to be a do-er rather than a say-er, is anyone else?

 

New Rangers, New Start.

Edited April 4, 2011 by pete

[pete 2,499]

I thought this deserved a thread on it's own if anyone disagrees or thinks the heading is wrong please let me or admin know.

[pete 2,499]

It would really be great to get all our supporters fighting in one direction.The initial response to setting the standards was immense but unfortunately it would seem to me that the flag was put in the hands of people who had nothing to do with it and therefore it died a death. Updating it and adding idea's from other sites and then handing it to a new owner would be a great idea in my eyes. It would also let us see how much the new owner respects idea's from the fans.

 

For those who have not seen setting the standards.

 

http://www.gersnetonline.co.uk/archived/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=775&Itemid=31

Edited April 4, 2011 by pete

[Frankie 8,198]

I'm sure all of the Gersnet membership would be eager to explore any opportunity to work together with any other supporters wanting to change the status quo!

 

[Stimpy 0]

It'd be great for us all to work together for furtherance of Rangers. That peice has hit the nail on the head.

[maineflyer 0]

I posted yesterday in support of Rabbit's objectives but let's not kid ourselves that having a great idea that would actually benefit the Rangers support as a whole is the same as achieving those objectives. There are such profound divisions amongst the website activists, and such deep apathy and ignorance amongst the wider support, that unity of action by the fans may not actually be achievable to the extent it causes any beneficial change. The causes of this today are the same as they were three or four years ago and the divisions run very deep indeed.

 

If we're going to advocate unity then we need to be talking about how this might be achieved. I'd suggest that when you can get the owners/organisers of GN, RM, VB, FF and the others face-to-face around the same table and achieve agreement to cooperate then you might get somewhere. Otherwise it will just be another fine aspiration that will wax and wane without effect like all those before it.

[Frankie 8,198]

I posted yesterday in support of Rabbit's objectives but let's not kid ourselves that having a great idea that would actually benefit the Rangers support as a whole is the same as achieving those objectives. There are such profound divisions amongst the website activists, and such deep apathy and ignorance amongst the wider support, that unity of action by the fans may not actually be achievable to the extent it causes any beneficial change. The causes of this today are the same as they were three or four years ago and the divisions run very deep indeed.

 

If we're going to advocate unity then we need to be talking about how this might be achieved. I'd suggest that when you can get the owners/organisers of GN, RM, VB, FF and the others face-to-face around the same table and achieve agreement to cooperate then you might get somewhere. Otherwise it will just be another fine aspiration that will wax and wane without effect like all those before it.

 

While it would be useful for the site 'owners' to be involved, there is nothing stopping 'ordinary' posters from grasping the baton on this if they feel that would be a more workable solution.

 

During the STS thing almost 2 years ago we did have some good consultations with most of the websites and fan groups (FF and RST aside). It was a very positive exercise but ultimately didn't work overly well (or obtain results) due to apathy from the club and, because it suggested change for groups like the Assembly, they weren't keen to push the project either (although they did kindly organise a debate).

 

Nonetheless the issues from that report (and others) are still prevalent now and there's no doubt they should be revisited again and again until they are addressed properly. I'd be delighted to see any support/site/group explore what can be done and the more people involved (site owners or not) the better. Especially if they're different names free from any perceived baggage that people will use as an excuse not to participate.

[Stimpy 0]

It's certainly worth a try.

 

Engage every forum, blog and supporters group and see what they need, want from Rangers.

 

The platform of News Now is very useful but we'd have to go further than online bears and that's where the traditional main stream media would come in. There's also the hard sell and the donkey work of engaging fans at Ibrox come match day.

 

We'd also need some very smart people with the right skills set.

 

Despite what people say, think etc, The RST would be involved.

[Frankie 8,198]

I'd like to think the RST could put past problems aside for the better good this time and I'm sure everyone would welcome their participation. Same goes for FF as despite the criticism it receives it is still by far the biggest forum and has a large number of members who could contribute to any proposal.

 

Like you say though, the bigger challenge is taking such a project offline and reaching people who don't use websites as well as those who are not usually interested in off-the-field stuff such as this.

 

As a first aim, I'd suggest a sit-down meeting between interested parties would be extremely useful in finding out what is possible. I'm sure there are a variety of venues and dates which could suit all.

[Stimpy 0]

I'll put my head on the line and try and compliment Rabbit's post. Get it published via here? GersForum and hopefully Frankie you could do it on RM? Also send it out to DTB and FF.

 

See if it gets the ball rolling!