By Albatross
September 30 2005

The Monkey Hanger's Message Board - at least in the form it's existed in for the last year or more - no longer exists. Farewell then to one of the most used HUFC Internet Forums; and the one that helped the "Never Say Die/Two Little Boys" recording become a reality. Can I just say that from personal experience of helping out on ITN for a little while and then running this site myself for 3 years or so, running a Message Board is one of the most stressful things you can do - especially if it's a busy one. In theory someone should read every single message and decide if it should be allowed to stay. In practice, you're reliant on the people that use the board knowing and respecting the limits placed on it. Whether you feel those limits are unreasonable is beside the point - a forum is not Speaker's Corner, a place you can turn up at and say almost anything, it's an Internet Message Board that someone has had to take a conscious decision to set up. Free Speech doesn't enter into it.

Godfather defined limits, and from his moderation policy made it clear what was and wasn't acceptable. He's now found that the job of dealing with a board where the limits have been regularly ignored or paid lip service to is simply not worth the candle any more. After all, that isn't his job - it's his hobby, and who wants a hobby where all that you're getting from it is grief? (I know there's an argument for saying that in that case how come HUFC had any fans at all during the 70s and 80s, but that's a little different.....)

Things aren't getting easier either. There was maybe a period of adjustment a few years ago, when the Internet as a whole was still finding it's feet and no-one was quite sure what was and wasn't allowable. Now however we're seeing people sued or threatened with legal action becuase of what's on message boards, and administrators having to try and cope with new situations such as the "Don't mention John Leslie" saga. The HUFC Official Site no longer has a board; ITN was without a board for months not too long ago. Cast your net a bit wider, and it's hard to find any club where at least one forum hasn't had problems, whether legal or simply the owner getting fed up of the hassle.

Running a Message Board - particularly a busy one - is quite literally a thankless task. No-one sees 95% of the work that goes on to keep things running; and frequently when people see the other 5% of it, they complain about draconian moderating, ask why a particular thread has been deleted, proclaim the death of free speech, or question why they can't talk about a particular subject. Having a team of moderators helps - providing the team agrees to stick to a particular policy - but only in terms of the flak being spread a little more thinly. Very few people ever bother to say "thanks for providing this place."

So thanks from me at least to Godfather, it's been a lot of fun at times and if and when you get your own site up and running I'll be happy to add a link from Pools Online. And if you (or anyone else for that matter) fancy writing for this site in the meantime, you know how to get hold of me!