I'm pretty sure they are fully aware of the implications of using twitter. It's just a quick PR stunt, something to put in the press.. That's all.

I am certain the RFL are indeed well aware.

Clearly Ian 77 Redux isn't.

You can always spread the question over 2 or 3 tweets

Defeats the object of the medium!

If you can't say it in the character limit...don't say i

Yet you can say it in 2 or 3 tweets or use twitlonger, so why not take advantage of the benefits of twitter.

And you've had (practically) unlimited characters on here yet you still can't finish your sentence.

If you can't finish what you were going to say, don't say it.....

Whoosh

I'm glad someone was paying attention...

Clearly, way too subtle for some though.

It's provided nothing more than ammunition for @RLMeltdown so far. And some of the stuff has been hilarious so far.

Thus far I've seen homophobic abuse, threats of violence and one lovely person expressing his fervent wish that a current SL refs dies of AIDS.

It was a nice idea but I'm afraid as RL fans, we don't deserve it.

Some of us do.

The Refs have tweeted that they've had a lot of questions so far and will answer as many as possible by tomorrow.

If they stick with it long enough, I reckon the stupid gits will get bored (and/or all be blocked!) and things will settle down.

Twitter is no different from society in general, there have always been objectionable loudmouths, boors, bigots and miscellaneous wipes, it is just that now they have a variety of ways of defecating to a larger audience. The sort of subhuman apologies that used to be heard only on radio phone-ins, they also infest "Readers Comments" sections and other playgrounds for sick people and social inadequates.

Well, they're doing a good job so far! Q&As all make sense even when written within 140 characters and all good questions with some enlightening answers. It's particularly interesting to see the refs answering criticisms of a particular incident within their own match!

I'd like to see those people banned from grounds, but they probably only watch on telly anyway.

First Q&A session just finished, thought it was very good. Terence Albert & Thaler admitted to a couple of errors and a few rules were clarified for a few people, plus how the refs are answerable for their performances and what sort of training they get up to. We all get annoyed by referees at times but they're only human - they make mistakes and miss things from time to time.

Ignore the muppets & keep this going. Good work fellas.

Good do, enjoyed it.

Like I said the other day, referees are used to having all sorts of obscenities hurled at them in person. It is water off a duck's back, I am sure they won't be bothered in the slightest by a few numpties attacking them online. It seems to have worked well this afternoon and I have learnt a thing or two!

Interesting to read that the Referees would favour a second official on the pitch. Definitely something that would improve the game i think.

I saw that - Alibert said that he'd missed the Cas players not getting back for the drop-out and Thaler said that had he seen Paul Sykes knock on, play would have been brought back after Hock's rampage.

Interesting way to take the sting out of the situation; when the man in the middle publicly says "yep, I got it wrong," what more bile and vitriol can you chuck at the bloke? I guess the serious questions arise if the same bloke is admitting mistakes every week; at that point, his competence becomes an issue.

I am aware that Twitter limits characters, it was just that I was joking so didn't think through the practical implications of asking if a referee could be punched in the face via a Twitter Q&A facility.

Serious business this message board lark. Jesus.

That was always the problem when Cummins used to be on Boots n All, and in general with his tenure - that he would never, ever suggest the ref had made an error, he'd always have some amazing reason why the ref had actually got the calls right no matter what

All anyone wants is for them to say "yes it was a mistake, we'll try to make it better in future"

Ah..."humour".

Stevo's views on back chat about this are quite amazing. He is paid to question the ref and twitter users do not, as if that makes our opinions invalid, as well he states social media has gone mad. Personally I was really pleased with the first week of #asktheref even though my question didnt get asked. and players in general use it the right way.

As far as I am concerned we not only pay for his wages through paying for sky, we pay to attend matches. If as a group fans have questions they want answering we have as much right as Stevo to get answers to our questions.

The full Q&A session is now [url=http://therfl.co.uk/more/referee/asktherefon the RFL website.[/url

So, Hicks thought his performance was fine for the HKR v Leeds game. Probably won't bother reading in future, because if he genuinely thinks his performance was acceptable then we will get nowhere with improving the standards.