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OwlsFan
02/10/2018, 11:15 AM
I just thought I'd make a few comments on my 10,000th post on foot.ie. Now almost half of them I'd say are in the Word Association thread but it still work out at on average 2 posts a day over the past 13 years :O !!. It's a great website with wide ranging views on all topics and thanks to dahamsta for running it. I would be very sorry to see it close should that ever come to pass.

My favourite thread, apart from Farewell Then.. which I started back in the day, is the one on the RTE Panel and the various threads which took place in the Trapp era. As regards the former, as many old stagers here would know, I had an obsession about the bias of that panel under Bill against every Irish manager and the thread gave me an opportunity to vent my frustration, although I know my opinions became tiresome to some. The Trapp era I enjoyed exchanging views with many and while some got heated, they were interesting nonetheless. There is no doubt that the numbers have declined posting in the Ireland Forum but it still remains a hotbed of differing and educated opinions. I have tried the odd post in the League Of Ireland Forum, although with a name liked OwlsFan I am generally chased out with my tail between my legs, although I have 15 years under my belt supporting Rovers home and away.

But the website is nothing without its contributors and off the top of my head (and a little investigation), these are the ones who spring to mind:

Stuttgart88: always worth a read with great knowledge and informed opinion and although we disagreed on many aspects of the international team, one whose opinions I and most here greatly respect.

jbyrne: must be my lovechild because I agree with at least 90% of his posts and isn't afraid to go against the trend.

DeLorean: one of the few who still post about the English game. When I first joined, there were even separate threads about Liverpool/Everton let alone the leagues themselves. Such threads have pretty much faded away.

geyser: always grateful for his post, when I was getting some stick in the RTE Panel thread for my constant whining, for making the following comment: Owls has the complete right to express his opinions on the rte panel, he doesn't start these threads but once the thread has started ..... he cannot resist. RTE is a public service broadcaster and the window to the national team for the bulk of the population. Other media outlets are not public service. I find Owls' analysis original and a refreshing contrast to the status quo public service censorious propaganda and self assumed/appointed role as the authority on Irish football. Just because they are popular does not mean they are removed from observations and perceptions about their hypocrisy, bias, agendas, and of late their p'iss poor shoddy attempt to present the acclaimed alternatives available to what Trap selected for the squad.

tetsujin1979: irritated me a bit with a pm a few years back, but only a bit, and he keeps the Ireland Forum ticking over with lots of tidbits and informed comments.

Eminence Grise: thanks for the posts in Farewell then.. :)

cfdh_edmundo: the only member whom I have had the pleasure of meeting back in the day in Paris I think.

Gather round: while I wouldn't agree with many of his posts, it is refreshing to see the views of a Northern Ireland (and Crusaders) fan.

Real ale Madrid: disagrees with most of my posts with some vehemence whether it is on the RTE Panel, Politics, Current Affairs, abortion or Rugby. Makes life interesting.

bennocelt: thanks for all the red cards :)

paul_oshea: never sure what view he will take on a matter but always good to see his posts.

BonnieShels: for a Shels fan, he does know something about football ;)

nigel-harps1954: have to admire his passion for the Harps and while we wouldn't agree on an awful lot, another informed football man.

liamoo11: haven't quite worked out your general football philosophy, but interesting nonetheless.

mark12345 + Bungle: the frustration with the long ball oozes out from every pore but perhaps someday your dreams will be realised.

Lionel Ritchie: a Leeds fan. Enough said.

I could be here all day so favourable mentions also to SkStu, Charlie Darwin, osarusan, DannyInvincible, CraftyToePoke, ArdeeBhoy (criticize Celtic at your peril), Kingdom, backstothewall (of the name change), Fixer (please change your avatar - I keep mixing you up with me), Ole Ole, samhaydenjr, seanfhear, Mr A, shakermaker1982 and Passinginterest. Sorry, if I have forgotten anyone there. Oops, almost forgot the entertaining pineapple stu.

From the lapsed members, I miss Sligo Hornet: we even had a 4 page thread on Watford vs Sheff Wed back in the day https://foot.ie/threads/111292-Watford-v-Sheffield-Wednesday-Monster-Mega-Thread?highlight=owls, NeilMcD (very serious with informed views), Noelys Guitar, Dodge, Spudulika (because he liked my comments on the RTE Panel) and KK77 for his views on English football.

On the blacklist but missed all the same for their controversial views: TheOneWhoKnocks, Yapster and An Ceannaire although they may be the Holy Trinity (i.e. one and the same).

Believe it or not there were two other Owls fans: Jebus and TheOwl.

And not forgetting the late EireBhoy who would be so heart broken now to see the demise of McGeady

Here's to many more years of foot.ie
Mr A
02/10/2018, 12:42 PM
Ha. Johnny come lately with his opinions. Ha.
the 12 th man
02/10/2018, 4:48 PM
Ha. Johnny come lately with his opinions. Ha.


You're only raging because you didn't get a name check :p

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit;; Noticed your name but you didn't get your own section..:D
Eminence Grise
02/10/2018, 4:49 PM
And here's to the next 10,000, OwlsFan. It's the regular contributors like yourself (and those on your list) who make this site what it is.
OwlsFan
02/10/2018, 4:52 PM
Ha. Johnny come lately with his opinions. Ha.

Didn't realise that you had been around so long. I wonder who are the longest serving contributors. the 12th man (sorry for your omission) I see goes back to Oct 2003. Do I hear any longer ?
the 12 th man
02/10/2018, 5:03 PM
Of the regulars pineapple stu is August 2002.Any more offers?
pineapple stu
02/10/2018, 6:14 PM
dahamsta (https://foot.ie/members/1) is member number 1 (of course!)

You can change the number to cycle through the next members. Ali-G is member number 2 - don't remember them at all! Many of the first will be Cork City fans; the site was originally set up as a Cork forum.

Where does the 16 years (or 14 for OwlsFan, or 15 for the modest 12th man!) go though? It is amazing to look back at some of the busy posters who have departed and who mightn't even be known by the newer posters - dmandmythdledge (https://foot.ie/members/6444-DmanDmythDledge) with 7800 posts for example, or A Face (https://foot.ie/members/25-A-face) with 15000 posts; even BonnieShels (11000 posts) hasn't been seen for the last two months. Then there's the characters of old, for better or worse - SuperGretna, the bishop, Bluebeard, Spudulika.

I think we're losing more than we're gaining. And yet there is a good community feel here I think. Internet forums are in general decline, what with the Facebook and the twitter and so on [/grumpy old man]. But there has to be a place for them; the quality of debate is generally better than on the Facebook sites where any muppet can post. And it's a good place for LoI fans to (try) put aside rivalries and all come together to chat about the league/national team.

Is it worth hijacking OwlsFan's birthday celebrations to pose the question as to what we could do to boost the site a bit?
SkStu
02/10/2018, 8:56 PM
Nice post and thanks for the mention. Enough to lure me out of my slumber.

Just wanted to make sure we remember Dunny who we lost a couple of years ago at too young an age. RIP.
Eminence Grise
02/10/2018, 9:01 PM
Is it worth hijacking OwlsFan's birthday celebrations to pose the question as to what we could do to boost the site a bit?

Why not spin it off into a new thread, and see what comes up?
paul_oshea
03/10/2018, 7:44 AM
I think the forum is dying sadly. Maybe LOI is good still.

An_Ceannaire was not towk, citizen_erased and an_ceannaire came across as the same two, but were different people.

I've met most of the main posters on here(and most of who you have mentioned above), didnt know chfh_edmundo had met up with you OwlsFan I would have enjoyed that encounter. Very well travelled and culturally aware fella he is.

I can tell you about a good few of those who don't post anymore, many still post on ybig, most still go to away games.

You find with the big posters(numbers) that its over a shorter period of time, its filling something missing in their lives, whether its too much time or whatever else. Then they leave and post much less or not at all. Yes i had way too much time on my hands when working in Consultancy :)

BTW travelled shows up underlined above is this forum gone to American English or something? :rolleyes:
Real ale Madrid
03/10/2018, 9:05 AM
You find with the big posters(numbers) that its over a shorter period of time, its filling something missing in their lives, whether its too much time or whatever else. Then they leave and post much less or not at all. Yes i had way too much time on my hands when working in Consultancy :)


I can't say I agree with that. The reason I came here to post first day (in the old CIT computer room) is because I'm interested in LOI football and to a lesser extent the national team, and the majority of people I hang around with are not! And that hasn't really changed in the 16 years I've drifted in and out of the place. Its great to come in here and read people's views - it tangents into other sport and things but that is a merely spin off. This is a great place and long may it continue.

As an idea - maybe a facebook closed group for members of the forum ( with 100+ posts or something) to interchange views in real time during games with links on the forum here, might be a way to generate informed debate while weeding out the rubbish you see on social media.

I'm Oct 2002 so PS beats me by a few months!
DeLorean
03/10/2018, 9:44 AM
Is it worth hijacking OwlsFan's birthday celebrations to pose the question as to what we could do to boost the site a bit?

This (https://foot.ie/threads/216738-International-Football-and-World-Club-Football-forums?p=1894603&viewfull=1#post1894603) was never completed, just a couple of minor tweeks which confused things for a while and it's been left in limbo since (and p!ssed off OwlsFan iirc :o). I thought they were good proposals.

I actually missed most of the World Cup debate while it was going on, not a forum I'm used to entering so don't have it on my shortcuts.
paul_oshea
03/10/2018, 10:38 AM
I can't say I agree with that. The reason I came here to post first day (in the old CIT computer room) is because I'm interested in LOI football and to a lesser extent the national team, and the majority of people I hang around with are not! And that hasn't really changed in the 16 years I've drifted in and out of the place. Its great to come in here and read people's views - it tangents into other sport and things but that is a merely spin off. This is a great place and long may it continue.


I agree with the first few sentences here as its similar to where/when I started out. I was also on it previously around 2002/2003. I don't really post here anymore for a few reasons. When DR "makes" his final decision Ill explain why on the Ireland forum.
Mr A
03/10/2018, 11:04 AM
Didn't realise that you had been around so long. I wonder who are the longest serving contributors. the 12th man (sorry for your omission) I see goes back to Oct 2003. Do I hear any longer ?

Was probably a lurker before that. I was active on the old eircom league board Johnny Ward ran while he was at DCU way back in the late nineties. That place used to be unmoderated and could be good but was also often carnage- like a lot of the facebook stuff today.

As the years roll by it's interesting to watch the different trends and changes. Updating on match night used to be a big thing, now the apps and websites are so good that that's almost gone. But people like interacting around football- that's what makes it great. That's the idea behind the Mobstats updates from Harps for example. When the games became commonly available on streams we thought it was over for Mobstats- but actually it had no impact at all. People value the interaction more than seeing the game as it turns out.

So is there a future for foot.ie? Absolutely. But it'll keep on changing. In five years maybe it'll be another club on top and their fans will be insufferable.
Ezeikial
03/10/2018, 12:04 PM
So is there a future for foot.ie? Absolutely. But it'll keep on changing. In five years maybe it'll be another club on top and their fans will be insufferable.

Do you think that taking a random pop at fans of other clubs will change?
OwlsFan
03/10/2018, 1:13 PM
How could I forget gustavo https://foot.ie/threads/99286-The-say-anything-what-s-on-your-mind-thread?p=1805086&highlight=gustavo#post1805086 How is he getting on does anyone know ?

As I say I was working mostly from memory and of course there's tricky-colour and the 12th man who has been around since 2003 !! There are no doubt numerous more in the LoI threads but as I said, I am usually afraid to venture over there.
pineapple stu
03/10/2018, 4:26 PM
Gonna start a new thread on it as suggested earlier; will let random reminiscences go here.
dahamsta
04/10/2018, 6:40 AM
Congrats on the 10k OwlsFan. I remember when I hit 10k on Boards.ie, oh so long ago, it felt like a momentous moment. I'm more of a Reddit man now though. :)

I miss A face in the crowd. :(
Mr A
05/10/2018, 10:06 AM
ruben_sosa. Used to post fairly mad stuff. I remember a brilliant post in this thread, but like Sosa himself, there is no trace of it.

https://foot.ie/threads/101013
Hitman
05/10/2018, 5:04 PM
Of the regulars pineapple stu is August 2002.Any more offers?

Nothing but a blow-in.
EAFC_rdfl
10/10/2018, 9:27 AM
Here's 22 pages of nostalgic gold...
https://foot.ie/threads/81119-Dumbass

Has to rank right up there as the best thread on foot.ie
the 12 th man
10/10/2018, 12:07 PM
Re read most but not all,I wonder was Hitler mentioned at all near the end?? :p
OwlsFan
11/10/2018, 10:04 AM
Re read most but not all,I wonder was Hitler mentioned at all near the end?? :p


Godwin's law ?
paul_oshea
11/10/2018, 2:12 PM
Here's 22 pages of nostalgic gold...
https://foot.ie/threads/81119-Dumbass

Has to rank right up there as the best thread on foot.ie

I think its quite sad you find that funny. Its playground stuff, if i saw it in school yard full of 8 year olds, I'd feel just as sad. Reflection on you more than anything else.
dahamsta
11/10/2018, 2:17 PM
Here's 22 pages of nostalgic gold...
https://foot.ie/threads/81119-Dumbass

Has to rank right up there as the best thread on foot.ie

Ah FFS, that's the day gone now.

Bring back Dodge!
NeverFeltBetter
11/10/2018, 2:42 PM
Here's 22 pages of nostalgic gold...
https://foot.ie/threads/81119-Dumbass

Has to rank right up there as the best thread on foot.ie

That thread sure is...something. The page and a half of it I read anyway.
dahamsta
11/10/2018, 9:30 PM
There's a lull in the middle, but it gets fun again towards the end. ;)
EAFC_rdfl
11/10/2018, 9:37 PM
I think its quite sad you find that funny. Its playground stuff, if i saw it in school yard full of 8 year olds, I'd feel just as sad. Reflection on you more than anything else.

Dumbass
dahamsta
13/10/2018, 12:37 PM
Hey hey, keep it in the dumbass thread!
tetsujin1979
19/10/2018, 10:11 PM
17,000 posts. I have a life. Honest.
DeLorean
23/07/2019, 3:38 PM
Humbled to join the five-digit club!
SkStu
23/07/2019, 4:31 PM
Humbled to join the five-digit club!

that's what your missus said.
the 12 th man
23/07/2019, 4:32 PM
Humbled to join the five-digit club!

Post count whore :D
CraftyToePoke
24/07/2019, 2:44 AM
Humbled to join the five-digit club!

What, no speech ?
Owly set the standard here and you are non league by comparison.
DeLorean
24/07/2019, 7:38 AM
What, no speech ?
Owly set the standard here and you are non league by comparison.

I don't like to make a fuss, you know :o
OwlsFan
13/08/2019, 8:05 AM
Now that I have retired and don't have a work screen in front of my anymore, I am not posting as much (one would have supposed that it should have been the other way round). Perhaps with WEdnesday top of a league for the first time since 1996, it might awaken me from my slumber and I can have more exchanges with myself on the Championship thread :) Off to the Den on Saturday with my stab vest at the ready.
DeLorean
19/08/2019, 12:39 PM
Now that I have retired and don't have a work screen in front of my anymore, I am not posting as much (one would have supposed that it should have been the other way round).

Happy retirement OF!
I'm the same, well not retired but find myself having to catch up with all the foot.ie posts on Monday mornings! Disappointing day at The Den. :(
tetsujin1979
06/11/2019, 1:36 PM
18,000 posts. I do sleep. Sometimes.
nigel-harps1954
07/11/2019, 10:00 AM
18,000 posts. I do sleep. Sometimes.

At least 17,000 of them must have been something to do with puns though.
BonnieShels
24/01/2020, 9:58 PM
Now that I have retired and don't have a work screen in front of my anymore, I am not posting as much (one would have supposed that it should have been the other way round). Perhaps with WEdnesday top of a league for the first time since 1996, it might awaken me from my slumber and I can have more exchanges with myself on the Championship thread :) Off to the Den on Saturday with my stab vest at the ready.

Missed this!"

Happy retirement OwlsFan!

Similar story with my last job. Didn't lend itself to dossing as much on foot.ie as I used to.

But now that that's done with...

---

also, raging I missed my 10th anniversary last year.

00:05 January 15th 2009 it all began.

So I guess here's to the next eleven!
OwlsFan
03/02/2021, 4:49 PM
Thanks. If I had known I would spend most of it in lockdown, I am not sure I would have retired. Managed to go through a lot of stuff in the attic and found old photos to distribute to those who appeared in them. Jigsaws I never did before and now find them interesting. Thanks God some sport is back on tv. The wife is working from home so the luxury of lounging around in the PJs and letting the dishes build up until she's due back are over.