An Fear Rua - Gone!!!!!

[Bud Wiser]

I never went there to see the site because I had a tangle with him for touting on here for some of our posters to go over to their forum about ten years ago. 

[Fionntamhnach]

I was a regular in there since the 90s.  I even used to write a column for him.

In more recent years I noticed a change in his tone though, he was getting angrier and more easily provoked at the slightest thing.  I used to report bugs and suggest fixes for them and he used to thank me for it, but one time more recently I reported a problem with his news feed (it was throwing up random news stories that had nothing to do with the GAA).  His response was I could go somewhere else if I didn't like it and "your constant whinging about this site is getting to be a pain in the hole." 

He once made a rule about Heysel, banned all discussions of the subject because of some thread that had gotten out of hand. So later the issue of the Hill 16 wall came up and I was talking about crowd control and pressure and how people underestimate how much pressure a big enough crowd of people can exert.  I happened to mention that it can be enough to knock a wall down like at Heysel.

Well the next day I awoke to a tirade of angry abuse in my personal email inbox saying he was "disgusted with my behaviour" and castigating me about my attitude.  That was me banned for life.  In theory I could have registered a fresh account and gone back but I'd hate to be posting under a regime like that, so I never bothered going back.

My banning email said that I was an idiot simply because I posted after someone made a potentially libellous comment. Sounds like I got off lightly.

[Captain Obvious]

Any warning of a closure before he closed it down?

[Eamonnca1]

He used to be a civil enough crater. It's only in the last lok of years he started acting strange.

I'd reserve judgment.

[AZOffaly]

I never went there to see the site because I had a tangle with him for touting on here for some of our posters to go over to their forum about ten years ago.

Yeah, that was the same time as myself Bud. He never forgot that either

[spuds]

He was on RnaG earlier around 5:30pm, came across well in fairness. Said was relieved to be closing down the site as was fierce hassle especially the last 2 years. Pretty much repeated what was quoted earlier.

[deiseach]

I never went there to see the site because I had a tangle with him for touting on here for some of our posters to go over to their forum about ten years ago.

In the spirit of that spat, you can give me some hits by reading my thoughts on the demise of AFR here.

[brokencrossbar1]

I never went there to see the site because I had a tangle with him for touting on here for some of our posters to go over to their forum about ten years ago.

In the spirit of that spat, you can give me some hits by reading my thoughts on the demise of AFR here.

Are ye saying that this place can't be the place to think? Well, maybe not

[blanketattack]

One episode known as IP-gate was hilarious.
There was lots of accusations that people were setting up multiple accounts and posting under different aliases and so to stop this or at least track who was doing it, the owner rather naïvely changed the system so that all posts were listed with the Ip-address that they were posted from.
It's fairly easily to trace someone's location/company from their Ip-address so lots of people's real life identities were compromised.
It was pandamonium for a while trying to put the genie back in the box.

[johnneycool]

One episode known as IP-gate was hilarious.
There was lots of accusations that people were setting up multiple accounts and posting under different aliases and so to stop this or at least track who was doing it, the owner rather naïvely changed the system so that all posts were listed with the Ip-address that they were posted from.
It's fairly easily to trace someone's location/company from their Ip-address so lots of people's real life identities were compromised.
It was pandamonium for a while trying to put the genie back in the box.

I think that was around the same time a contributor used the tag of David Trimble was winding the hell out of all the non Tipp contributors and subsequently got banned. Even the use of the name Trimble was asterisked out after that!

[deiseach]

I think that was around the same time a contributor used the tag of David Trimble was winding the hell out of all the non Tipp contributors and subsequently got banned. Even the use of the name Trimble was asterisked out after that!

He was winding the hell out of everyone. Four corners of a bollix. Still, the way AFR spat his dummy out over it  after tolerating it for years was bizarre

[drici]

I think that was around the same time a contributor used the tag of David Trimble was winding the hell out of all the non Tipp contributors and subsequently got banned. Even the use of the name Trimble was asterisked out after that!

Aye, remember a client by that name in April 2003 coming on here and making one post about Armagh players being on steroids. The next post on the thread was from someone calling themselves Déise Girl who wrote that there was a problem with their site but if it was fixed she wanted him back over there and for GAABoard not to accept him as a member.

[SLIGONIAN]

I think some of the comments on here are very insensitive and show a serious lack of compassion, the guy who ran AFR has been sick for a while now, i remember he had an op a while back aswell. Its hard enough going through life but having illness on top of it makes it way harder, makes you more irratable, makes your decision making harder, and you tend to focus on negatives. Its hard to keep a positive focus. So give the lad a break its no coincidence that he may have got angrier with his life getting alot harder and externalizing it, no need to be precious about yer own self importance. I dont know AFR btw but you could read between the lines. If he reads on here i wish him all the best.

[Orchardman]

This has been a labour of love. In hard cash it has cost me more than €150,000 over the years. If I costed the time I’ve spent managing it – at even the average industrial wage – the total cost or investment would be the best part of €500,000. I have never made more than €10,000 a year on average in advertising revenue, despite trying the services of five or six ad selling agencies. It is simply not possible to make this site a paying proposition.[b][/b]


good luck to the lad if he has been ill, all the best with it. But if the figures above are anyway close to how much he wasted them he is a fool, i'm sure there's better things he could have done. I never used the forum, and it's years since i even looked at the site, seemed to be a load of munster shite

[Eamonnca1]

I never went there to see the site because I had a tangle with him for touting on here for some of our posters to go over to their forum about ten years ago.

In the spirit of that spat, you can give me some hits by reading my thoughts on the demise of AFR here.

+1

It's hard to feel sympathy for the guy after being on the receiving end of his abusive behaviour, but we know he was in poor health so you have to forgive. Not much point in holding a grudge. 

I quite enjoyed the place in its heyday after the Clare Hurlers invasion. I particularly liked The Squinting Eye column, always an enjoyable read about the smaller details and the stories behind them.  Whether they were based in fact or not I was never able to figure out, but they were always well written.  And I agree with you that the forum was often a source of some very informed opinions, it's just a shame you had to skim over so much personal handbagging and point-scoring between regular contributors to get to the good stuff.

I'm not sure if discussion boards are as obsolete as people say they are. Boards.ie seems to be doing pretty well, and this place seems to be ticking along nicely.  The only problem with discussion boards is that they've become so easy to set up.  Any old eejit could go to yuku.com and start a board right now, but it all depends on whether or not you can attract a critical mass of quality contributors.  Established communities like this are at an advantage.