redandwhiteonline.com mentioned in article in AFL magazine

[liz]

Hardly. I think if you have another read , you'll see liz was just pointing out an obvious flaw in Legs comment, about being a brother, which would mean that both Jude and Martin, would have the same surname.

Jeepers you misread that big time. You said Blake's son when it was nephew and then there was aplay on the relationship stuff meaning Blake had upset his sister!!!!!!!!!!!!Duh

Hopefully these two observations have addressed Moggo's concerns. They are both spot on in explaining my comment.

[Mogg0]

Yeah, I apologised for it.

I don't mind Main, he's a nice bloke and 'Plugger and The Mighty Swans' was a good read. Tends to cop it because he dares to have a loud opinion and sometimes sways in his objectivity.

[stellation]

Yeah, I apologised for it.

I don't mind Main, he's a nice bloke and 'Plugger and The Mighty Swans' was a good read. Tends to cop it because he dares to have a loud opinion and sometimes sways in his objectivity.

And the difference between that and people who post on this site is?

[swantastic]

I've had hard ball gets - and I have the grass stains to prove it.

The grass stains aren't from the hard ball gets.

[Industrial Fan]

The grass stains aren't from the hard ball gets.

I would argue the opposite Mr Humphreys!

[Doctor J.]

What a hypocrite this bloke is...he bemoans the fact that Nico calls Bolton names but proceeds to call Nico a name that would most probably get him banned if he posted it on RWO.

Big big difference, Big Al, which I am surprised you can't see.

Martin Blake puts his name to it and goes further by declaring a personal interest. Nico can contact him and speak to him directly about it if he has an issue with his comments. Could even challenge him in the court system, if he felt so inclined.

On the other hand, who the @@@@ is Nico? Nico can, and does spew his opinion based vitriol under a heavily guarded sheild of anonimity. If you dare attack Nico personally, (as Nico does Jude) I'm certain one of the mods will protect his precious feelings by deleting the post. Been done before, so I can assume it will happen again.

Jude Bolton, or anyone else for that matter doesn't have that luxury when Nico launches his attacks.

[Triple B]

You should have been a carpenter, not a doctor.

Another nail hit perfectly flush on the head. Well said.

[Doctor J.]

I find it amazing that these people who bag our people for critisizing players, have obviously never spent much time sitting in the outer, or in a pub, or discussed footy around the water cooler on a Monday morning.

That Scott is one massive assumption you have just made.

[ScottH]

That Scott is one massive assumption you have just made.

Yes, but my point is sitting amongst the faithful for which ever club you follow, there are those that hurl all sorts of abuse at their own players, even the Swans. Not everyone falls into that category, usually they are venting at the 3 M&M's on the ground.

[CJK]

Precious.

As precious as most of the responses here.

Delicious irony.

[SimonH]

Big big difference, Big Al, which I am surprised you can't see.

Martin Blake puts his name to it and goes further by declaring a personal interest. Nico can contact him and speak to him directly about it if he has an issue with his comments. Could even challenge him in the court system, if he felt so inclined.

On the other hand, who the @@@@ is Nico? Nico can, and does spew his opinion based vitriol under a heavily guarded sheild of anonimity. If you dare attack Nico personally, (as Nico does Jude) I'm certain one of the mods will protect his precious feelings by deleting the post. Been done before, so I can assume it will happen again.

Jude Bolton, or anyone else for that matter doesn't have that luxury when Nico launches his attacks.

The anonymity issue tends to be rather overstated. (And I'm sure that you're well aware of the irony of you writing under a nom de plume to get across your point that a guy shouldn't make attacks without revealing his real name.) I think by consistent style of writing and themes, we can be satisfied that there is one guy who uses the nom de plume 'Nico'-- it's not a whole Weather Underground-style team. Suppose we were to get the missing information that you and Blake apparently crave: his name is Steve Parrish. Or Wie Xian. Or Ricardo Montalban. The conclusion from this pulling-away of the mask: so what? He's not famous. One name is as good as another to those who don't know him. It would make absolutely no difference to anyone's assessment of the accuracy of his opinions. The 'no legal recourse' argument is specious, as litigation always goes after the largest liable target: the publisher in the case of newspapers/magazines/books, or the organisers/publishers of online forums in the case of anonymous comments made on them. As is the 'you can't abuse him' argument: your complaint is that you can't use RWO as your soapbox to broadcast abuse of him. If you want to abuse him personally: just send him a PM. If you want to abuse him to the world: you can set up a 'Nico is a w***er' blog with appropriate links to make out your case, in 5 minutes flat. If no-one knows what the real name of Nico is, your blog couldn't even be defamatory.

Equally and oppositely, Martin Blake puts a name on his articles because that's what professional journalists do. Not because he's a warm and welcoming guy who wants the world to be able to speak directly to him. Nico is able to respond through the publisher because it's an accepted part of running newspapers/periodicals that you accept and respond to complaints about your articles, and/or publish letters. That is an institutional responsibility-- not a personal one. Martin Blake might feel like writing something directly in response to Nico, if Nico wrote to him, but he's not obliged by his profession to do so. (And Nico did write something, in a tone more moderate than many journos use when they're attacked, in response to Blake's attack on him.) Nico is neither invited nor probably welcome to track down Martin Blake at his home or in his personal life to remonstrate with him about what he's written. Anything personal about Martin Blake's life that we know, is because he voluntarily told us. Apart from those tidbits of information, that I and most other readers have no way of verifying the accuracy of, beyond just taking his word for it, 'Martin Blake' is just another handle for me.

The only actual difference between the two is the internal psychological effect that anonymous posting can have on people. That's a complex and interesting area, but it boils down to the proposition: 'people will behave worse if they think they're not accountable to anyone for their actions'. This is sometimes true. But:
a) only sometimes, and only for some people; and
b) where people have invested something of themselves in a particular online community, the threat of exclusion from that community is a real incentive; and so the fear of being either harshly judged or excluded from the community entirely (by moderators) does introduce an element of accountability. Regardless of the fact that the moderators also don't know the person's real name.

[Young Blood]

I've just read the Blake article for myself.

I have to agree that Nico's abuse of Jude has been among the ugliest I've read on RWO. But I think it's off the mark to criticise Nico as a coward for making the comments under an 'alias' - that's just the way that these forums work.

[stellation]

Actually, Nico- has Martin Blake ever attempted to contact you through the site to discuss your views about Jude?

Reading the message given to non registered folks it clearly states they can easily join and send a message to someone who posts on the site, surely Martin could actually attempt to PM a poster?

By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM),

[ScottH]

I've just read the Blake article for myself.

I have to agree that Nico's abuse of Jude has been among the ugliest I've read on RWO. But I think it's off the mark to criticise Nico as a coward for making the comments under an 'alias' - that's just the way that these forums work.

I wouldn't call it abuse, but it is criticism, and not all of it is unwarranted.
Jude has been a favourite of mine since he started, I had him pegged as a future captain in the early years, but he has failed to live up to my high hopes in recent years. Still no one is above criticism.

[ScottH]

Actually, Nico- has Martin Blake ever attempted to contact you through the site to discuss your views about Jude?

Reading the message given to non registered folks it clearly states they can easily join and send a message to someone who posts on the site, surely Martin could actually attempt to PM a poster?

That may require some of Judes courage to do that.