Welcome Back!

[Mike1]

After five weeks away, the forum is back with a new name, a new image, new functionality and, most importantly, some new rules.

When we first launched the forum six years ago we weren’t really sure how it would develop, but the underlying principle was the same which had underpinned The Gooner since it first published in 1987 – to provide a platform for ALL Arsenal fans to share their views with other Arsenal fans.

Over the last year, and in particularly over the last few months, I began to doubt that we were still meeting that objective as I heard from more and more people who told me how they no longer visited the forum because of the negativity and abusive posts. This was at least in part our own fault for having an extremely lenient attitude to what people were allowed to post, with no hard and fast rules about what was deemed acceptable, which also made it more difficult to ban people who over-stepped the mark.

A sequence of events in late January and early February finally persuaded me to suspend the forum because I felt it was damaging not only the reputation of the fanzine, but also of Arsenal fans in general such was the level of abuse directed at the manager, players and other fans who had opposing views.

However, despite the work which the forum creates, I was persuaded that it was still a valuable resource for Arsenal fans to have and with a better infrastructure in place, we should give it another chance.

So we set about upgrading the forum software, making some new rules and recruiting more moderators to keep an eye on the place. Please remember that if it weren’t for them giving up their time the forum wouldn’t exist, so please show your support by familiarising yourselves with the new rules - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34077 - and giving them as few problems to deal with as possible.

I appreciate that the rules won’t be to everyones liking, but the aim is to attract a wider audience to the forum and to do that, we needed to make it a much friendlier and more welcoming environment than it has been in the recent past.

There’s quite a bit of new functionality and I’d suggest you take the time to familiarise yourself with the User Control Panel which contains many of the options available. If something doesn’t work the way you think it should, please let us know and we’ll try to get it sorted.

As this is a fresh start, we also felt it was a good idea to give the forum a new name and “Gooner2Gooner” seems to sum up what it should be about.

Enjoy!

Mike

[flash gunner]

All the locks have gone so i take it we're back!!!!

[REB]

straight to work flash and get off that twitter

[flash gunner]

straight to work flash and get off that twitter

Im so glad that i never have to use twitter again

[brazilianGOONER]

straight to work flash and get off that twitter

Im so glad that i never have to use twitter again

we're all glad that you won't have to use twitter again flash

[flash gunner]

straight to work flash and get off that twitter

Im so glad that i never have to use twitter again

we're all glad that you won't have to use twitter again flash

[augie]

straight to work flash and get off that twitter

Im so glad that i never have to use twitter again

Amen to that brother flash

On a personal note I am delighted to see the forum back cos, being the sad sod that I am, I have feel that my days are incomplete without it What I will say though, and I dont want to start off on a bad note, is that I dont like the way that it is suggested that us "realists" have driven others away with our negativity and abuse. I will certainly hold my hands up to the negativity part but up until recently the vast majority of the abuse has come from the akb. Of course lately we have seen an over the top level of abuse directed at anybody positive but the vast vast majority of that came from one member and many of you think that he is/was a troll anyway. What I am trying to say that is that if there is blame to be apportioned out here then it should be done fairly to all "factions" of the Gooner Army. I also hope that this new clampdown doesnt result in the baby being thrown out with the bath water.

Finally I would like to express my gratitude to mike for sticking with this forum and not shutting it down and the new layout does look great.

[arsenalmorris]

Woo were back

[HashKads]

straight to work flash and get off that twitter

Im so glad that i never have to use twitter again

Amen to that brother flash

On a personal note I am delighted to see the forum back cos, being the sad sod that I am, I have feel that my days are incomplete without it What I will say though, and I dont want to start off on a bad note, is that I dont like the way that it is suggested that us "realists" have driven others away with our negativity and abuse. I will certainly hold my hands up to the negativity part but up until recently the vast majority of the abuse has come from the akb. Of course lately we have seen an over the top level of abuse directed at anybody positive but the vast vast majority of that came from one member and many of you think that he is/was a troll anyway. What I am trying to say that is that if there is blame to be apportioned out here then it should be done fairly to all "factions" of the Gooner Army. I also hope that this new clampdown doesnt result in the baby being thrown out with the bath water.

Finally I would like to express my gratitude to mike for sticking with this forum and not shutting it down and the new layout does look great.

Such nice words Augie.

I'm going to miss winding you up on Twitter

[flash gunner]

I'm going to miss winding you up on Twitter

You were so good at it too

[augie]

That twiiter is a pain in the arse - how does anybody do that crap all year round ?

[Dan_85]

, we're back. Having to actually do some work killed me.

[Henry Norris 1913]

I spent time with my family, it was horrible

[Gunnersaurus]

The site looks great, I love how you waited for a good spell to relaunch it (just kiiiidding)

[Goonuz71]

So good to have you back again ....new layout is spot on ...well done .....NOW dont it up lad and lasses with silly tit for tat rows

EDIT by M.50: Profanity prohibited. No warning issued this time but please post within the rules. Thanks