21st November 2008
It is with regret that we announce the death of the Hornets online forum.
Due to rather unpleasant circumstances earlier this year, the forum was suspended for a while, but supporters and some club officials asked that we reconsider. So we did.
But recent events have forced us to think that enough really is enough.
Administrating the messageboard is a bit of a tricky balancing act: if we let some threads run their course we get accused of favouritism or working against the club. If we lock certain threads, we get accused of curtailing people's 'right' to air their opinion.
It's never been our intention to run a sanitised environment that toes the party line. It's been important to us to be objective, independent and to provide a place where Hornets fans can be honest and open.
Equally, we've been committed to supporting successive administrations at the club as we understand the magnitude of the task they face day in day out.
However, when the forum is accused from all sides of being a negative force, it's only sensible to take a step back and reconsider its purpose and its effect.
Being blamed for all of the ills at the club was a little hard to take. Dealing with a constant flow of aggressive, rude, annoyed, accusatory or just plain moaning emails takes time and energy that we can ill afford to expend.
But when we receive correspondence with a heavy undertone of legal action, Mark and I have to seriously consider our exposure and legal liabilities. And, as we both have homes, families, cars, jobs and lives to take care of, it's time to call it a day.
As you appreciate, the messageboard is only part of a wider website.
Rochdalehornets.com has provided the club with its sole online presence for over ten years - at our own expense and at NO cost to the club. As Rochdale Hornets is the only club in the RFL not to have an official site during that period, we've become the defacto voice and face of the club on the web, but that too is now being reconsidered.
Ultimately, people tell us that the messageboard is a vital 'community facility' that enables Hornets - and other - fans to communicate and receive information more quickly than any other medium: and we agree.
But enough IS enough and it is someone else's turn to have a go.
As mentioned earlier in the year, there are other unofficial messageboards at RLfans.com and RugbyLeague.org. They are not run, administered or moderated by anyone connected to Rochdalehornets.com, but by other generic RL web organisations.
Jim and Mark