Thing is, times move on, McLaren has moved on to his painting, Oldham has bagged a great job with Wish FM, people have grown up and moved on to other things.

I have spoken to a few "younger" posters and the reason they don't come on here anymore is a combination of a few things, mainly that any thread can descend into the usual slanging matches etc and the other is the rise in social media etc.

Although why someone would want to put themselves through some of the brain melting nonsense spouters on the "official" or "Elite" FB sites is beyond me.

Once met JohnD on the Western terrace with Teech many moons ago during a Catalan game, really nice guy.

Never met Puig but certainly heard the "stories"

They may well have a similar low opinion of the type of posters you get on here. A lot of people actually enjoy following this club and are positive about it....you do that on here and you get insulted with "sheep" "apologist" "towing the company line" etc. It's not a very welcoming place for anybody who isn't highly critical of the club.

there is critising constructive criticism to stimulate honest debate and then there is baiting for what reason I don't know

I completely disagree - boards like this are about opinions as most on here have very little inside knowledge as real facts.

Leeds is the best run club in SL but this doesn't mean they get everything right all the time and pointing that out is surely part of what a message board is all about. An example would be the issues over the ST for the SS 2017 and the proposed new stand. That was a cynical move that nobody at Leeds should be very proud of.

Leeds have been incredibly successful in the last 15 years but the alarming drop in the standard of SL cannot be ignored. Nor can the drab style the team has adopted over much of McDermott's reign. Pointing these things out is not insulting "the sheep" who genuinely see things differently it is just that, a different point of view.

Hopefully the polarising of views will continue otherwise this will be a very dull board indeed

The constant bickering between the same 2/3 posters is boring AF. They should have all been banned years ago - the forum would be a lot better for it.

Absolutely. This place is a graveyard cos of it.

Loads of great posters lost.

Well why don't you guys post something good sometime and it might attract people back instead of sitting there pining for past glory days?

Read lionarmour's post. Big difference between constructive criticisms and differing opinions to the slagging off it often is.

William Eve and the others mentioned seemed to rely heavily on Leeds' misfortunes, especially William. Bit hard to do when Leeds keep being successful. He came recently as Parkside Freddie mostly going on about how much Cas were better than us and would smash us in the GF....when that goes t*te up for him it's hard to have the material to work with and why he disappears until next time.

That was exactly my point but apparently I was wrong.
I'm pleased to have it somewhat vindicated.

I would agree with you as I believe that is a factor too.

At the risk of taking the topic somewhat on a different course, the standard of domestic RL has been on the decline for some time, there are seldom interesting things to talk about which have not been covered before for instance - with the exception of it being in 'our blood', RL in 2017 has very few talking points and is a much duller, manufactured version of its former self, for instance 2003-2007 where I believe the SL at the top of the tree was at its highest standard.

Players and coaches have "media training" and how to play with the straightest possible but it has made listening to players and coaches a mere waste of time. Interviews are the same old regurgitated soundbites time after time and what should be RL's most marketable asset (the players) are mere foot state soldiers - perhaps that was why Macs interviews in the last couple of games were so refreshingly captivating to listen to. The game has very few characters these days and very few things to talk about. As a result, the element of engaging fans is far lower than what it should be.

The place is a graveyard and has been for several years because of social media and it's the same with message boards the world over.

Nothing to do with a few posters plaiting fog, that's been happening on here since day one.
It might be more noticeable now but that's only because there's barely a handful of people posting regularly.

that Leeds Utd forum seems to do well still although that might be because most of them are banned everywhere else

I think some are looking at the good 'ol days through rose tinted glasses. Yes, this place was more lively and had more people posting, but most threads turned into pi55ing contests, with the same 2 or 3 posters involved, much like they do now.

I would love to hear the thoughts of AP, William Eve, Keith Swiftcorn and Parkside Freddy as to why they have deserted SS.COM and don't post anymore

Anybody remember John Senior ? AP used to wind him up something awful !

Those message boards worth posting on are still flourishing even with social media these days.

If this place was worth posting on, more people would post, new + old.

This place is completely pants.

Yet here you are!

It is funny isn't it, admits they're better sites but spends his time on here complaining about how rubbish this one is. Shocking that posters aren't flocking to here to read his insight

Hahaha. It's true. I'm not part of the problem though. Like YOU PRINTER. Only joking.

I enjoy nostalgia. So I'll just continue to complain at how crap it is on here till I'm over it.

I stopped following him on Twitter when he started disappearing up his own , he followed me back briefly until my views weren't the same as his and he didn't like it

Surely all we need is to keep the Ryan Bailey thread going and this place will be humming again?

This sort of forum simply isn't how most people, particularly younger ones, interact with each other on the interweb. Personally, I'm happy not to have facebook which seems to be the home of narcissism and cat videos, and find twitter utterly pointless. Probably cos I like talking cr*p using lots of words where one would do and don't particularly care if anyone reads what I write. I'll go down with this forum like one of the band members on the Titanic.

It's actually Wire FM who provide the bulk of my games but I do occasional stand ins on Wish FM and I'm also fortunate to get some games with Radio Yorkshire as well. I'm very fortunate to do what I do and I don't take any of it for granted. There's a great responsiblity on the radio of bringing the game to life and putting pictures into the person listening and it's one I enjoy greatly.

In the peak times of this forum, it was perfect for me as being as I was obviously based outside of the city. I've met some of the best people ever via this forum, some now who I would class as very close friends indeed. The fact I first encountered my now wife on these forums should also tell it's own story.

Before the advent of Facebook and Twitter this was the only real way to vent your frustrations about the game and talk about what was going on but the advent of social media has changed all that. I'll be honest to being more of a casual observer at the moment. I tend to drop in a couple of times a month or if a big news story has broken.

The people involved in this forum, I'm talking Paul and Gary who moderated for years bought a lot of people together for little to no reward. If you look at some of the events put on over the years, three spring to mind for me. The event at Bradley Mills Cricket Club after the Huddersfield away game in 2003 was epic. The live "Stevo Bingo" event painstakingly put together by John_D to raise money for Katie Butler and finally one I didn't go to but heard lots about was the Matt Adamson leaving do on the Monday after the first Grand Final win.

It was a place for debate, discussion and arguments and that probably still continues to this day. I'm just not around much to see it.

Good to know things are going well for you (Oldham) Matt.

Aye, seconded big man.