The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

I'm sure there is a reason why it cannot be done, but is it not possible to attach this forum to the club's website?

don,t ask me i still struggle to use a calculator

This forum is unofficial therefore it would be bad form to have it linked to the OWS of the new club despite it being run by the fans.

About it being unofficial, I was wondering (not that it really matters), can we not make it the official forum and then link it?

I could be wrong but if the forum were to be 'official' as i understand it it would make the club partly responsible for what is written on here which is a terrible idea.

Yes, anything said on here could be linked to the club. Previous versions of the forum teetered close to the law so keeping it away from the club is better for them, and it means we can always say what we feel without club interfering, no matter if we own the club it could still not go down well with high up people if something against what they believe is said one day.

Also there have been some instances of 'official' forums just becoming mouthpieces for the people in charge of the clubs in question. See FGR's forum for an example.

BartonRaz wrote:I could be wrong but if the forum were to be 'official' as i understand it it would make the club partly responsible for what is written on here which is a terrible idea.

I quite agree - keep them separate. As long as those doing the great work to get AFCRD up and running keep posting on here when appropriate that's all that's needed. One of the reasons the RDFC Supporters Trust failed to run the club was that they banned their board members from communicating with fans via the old forum - and thus alienated themselves from the very people they were meant to be representing - and losing a lot of volunteer help in the process.

On a slightly related note, I see the AFCRD website has a "twitter feed" - the problem with this is similar. For example as I look now it's polluted with a Leeds United badge and one of their fans from Corby tweeting something unrelated to our club - using our hashtag to get themselves "noticed".

It's probably best to keep the forum as seperate from the official club site as possible, that way nobody associated with running the club has to take responsibility for me calling Keith Cousins a giant twat.

Formic wrote:
On a slightly related note, I see the AFCRD website has a "twitter feed" - the problem with this is similar. For example as I look now it's polluted with a Leeds United badge and one of their fans from Corby tweeting something unrelated to our club - using our hashtag to get themselves "noticed".

Formic don't worry it's very simple and quick for us to remove any twitter posts or stop certain accounts that use our hashtag to post anything that is malicious from our feed. It's always going to be a balancing act whenever you have any social media features such as this, but I do think the feed give the fans an opportunity to interact with the OWS and at the same time, encouraging fans to tweet about the club and help spread the word.