A big "Thank You" to Step

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

Firstly, I'm serious, secondly, I'm sober!

When BU was closed without warning I was really peed off as many of us were, so much so that I emailed Jason Rockett's PA to say so. I told her that I felt incredibly let down by the club for letting it happen in the way it did. Not nasty or anything but definitely forthright. Didn't get a reply but heyho.

After the dust has settled and in the cold light of just gone midnight - still haven't seen any of them bladdy shooting stars - I think that Step actually deserves a vote of thanks.

I know that on the face of it he was intermittent to say the least when replying to emails and he did appear to have a somewhat eccentric attitude to reasons for banning people, but after all, he and his team have provided some sort of Blades forum for over a decade.

Firstly with the original SUISA site which then morphed into Viewpoints, and then with BU, so the man has a good record of providing such a medium for conversation, aye, and conflict.

He is partly why there are all these other Blades forums and that's another excellent contribution he has made, albeit unintentionally. I'm sure they would have sprung up anyway but he certainly, in my view, "encouraged" their births due to the aforementioned eccentricities.

So here's to you, Mr Firth - a big thank you from BoSS


Despite those totally needless bans you dished out to me....

 

[puppet]

Firstly, I'm serious, secondly, I'm sober!

When BU was closed without warning I was really peed off as many of us were, so much so that I emailed Jason Rockett's PA to say so. I told her that I felt incredibly let down by the club for letting it happen in the way it did. Not nasty or anything but definitely forthright. Didn't get a reply but heyho.

After the dust has settled and in the cold light of just gone midnight - still haven't seen any of them bladdy shooting stars - I think that Step actually deserves a vote of thanks.

I know that on the face of it he was intermittent to say the least when replying to emails and he did appear to have a somewhat eccentric attitude to reasons for banning people, but after all, he and his team have provided some sort of Blades forum for over a decade.

Firstly with the original SUISA site which then morphed into Viewpoints, and then with BU, so the man has a good record of providing such a medium for conversation, aye, and conflict.

He is partly why there are all these other Blades forums and that's another excellent contribution he has made, albeit unintentionally. I'm sure they would have sprung up anyway but he certainly, in my view, "encouraged" their births due to the aforementioned eccentricities.

So here's to you, Mr Firth - a big thank you from BoSS


Despite those totally needless bans you dished out to me....

hear hear!

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Agree completely. Was a bit annoyed at the lack of notice, but he's helped provide many years of interest and enjoyment. Good luck to him.

 

[AlienWoodward]

Firstly, I'm serious, secondly, I'm sober!

When BU was closed without warning I was really peed off as many of us were, so much so that I emailed Jason Rockett's PA to say so. I told her that I felt incredibly let down by the club for letting it happen in the way it did. Not nasty or anything but definitely forthright. Didn't get a reply but heyho.

After the dust has settled and in the cold light of just gone midnight - still haven't seen any of them bladdy shooting stars - I think that Step actually deserves a vote of thanks.

I know that on the face of it he was intermittent to say the least when replying to emails and he did appear to have a somewhat eccentric attitude to reasons for banning people, but after all, he and his team have provided some sort of Blades forum for over a decade.

Firstly with the original SUISA site which then morphed into Viewpoints, and then with BU, so the man has a good record of providing such a medium for conversation, aye, and conflict.

He is partly why there are all these other Blades forums and that's another excellent contribution he has made, albeit unintentionally. I'm sure they would have sprung up anyway but he certainly, in my view, "encouraged" their births due to the aforementioned eccentricities.

So here's to you, Mr Firth - a big thank you from BoSS


Despite those totally needless bans you dished out to me....

See my user name thingy
Step banned me three times but in a nice way I don't envy the job he had to do.
UTB Step. and thanks for a great forum

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

I'd like to say thanks as well.

From SUISA to BU it was a good read.

Always liked how read and unread threads were different colours so it was much easier than here to pick out where you are with a thread.

Never got banned but didn't post very much. Had one thread pulled so I must have not been a light weight all the time.

 

[Northyorksblade]

Agree to a degree. I have made several friends, some very good ones, who I would never have met, if it hadn't been for BU. And for a long time it was my first port of call in the morning and last at night. But, he was very inflexible, I was only banned the once, but for something I considered particularly innocuous. And yet recently got away with a mad rant at probably len. Also, when he changed the face of the message board, lots of people had a moan and suggested alternatives or reverting to the old style, and it was like it or lump it. He was definitely not very approachable. But hey ho, BU is dead long live S24SU.

 

[puppet]

Agree to a degree. I have made several friends, some very good ones, who I would never have met, if it hadn't been for BU. And for a long time it was my first port of call in the morning and last at night. But, he was very inflexible, I was only banned the once, but for something I considered particularly innocuous. And yet recently got away with a mad rant at probably len .

BUT what you call innocuous is neither here nor there, it was the official club message board and had to be policed as such. I was banned a couple of times from there, when you posted on BU you spouted forth and took your chances!

Also, when he changed the face of the message board, lots of people had a moan and suggested alternatives or reverting to the old style, and it was like it or lump it. He was definitely not very approachable. But hey ho, BU is dead long live S24SU.

A message board with hundreds of contributors is never going to please everyone format-wise. As it was the format worked, was in place, not broken so no need to be fixed.

 

[Jon Bon]

Despite the many bans for the most trivial things, I agree with BoSS. No hard feelings here webbo.

Long live S24SU...

 

[Large Mendonca]

Always grateful to Step for getting my son to model a blades coat on the official merchandise a few years back, didn't get a ban either but then i avoided the conflicts that used to go on.

Cheers Step.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

I agree with all the above. Thanks Step. I know he used to post on the old SUISA board as "Cynical Blade" (and he WAS surprisingly Cynical), so maybe he could now join the fray again as a punter at some point.

One thing that has puzzled me is that Step used to say that links to other sites were banned as it pulled people away from the official SUFC website and more "traffic" generated more revenue for the club. So what's happened to that extra revenue now?

 

[bricktop]

To be honest everyone is thanking him for what a good job he did, but to be honest i found him less than approachable, and he did adopt a condescending approach to the people who posted on there. My view on him may be skewed by a few runs ins with him a while back but i approached him with a contrite e-mail asking for stuff to be left in the past and to go back with a clean slate and it he never even had the decency to respond.

For me the regard that Step held everyone was the way he shut the message board down with no notice or prior warning and to me that is comtemptable and shows him for the arrogant, obnoxious little turd that he was.

I'll be truthful though i liked reading BU over the last few years and there was always something of interest to read on there though, but i think it was the people who made that board than the person who ran it.

 

[puppet]

To be honest everyone is thanking him for what a good job he did, but to be honest i found him less than approachable, and he did adopt a condescending approach to the people who posted on there. My view on him may be skewed by a few runs ins with him a while back but i approached him with a contrite e-mail asking for stuff to be left in the past and to go back with a clean slate and it he never even had the decency to respond.

For me the regard that Step held everyone was the way he shut the message board down with no notice or prior warning and to me that is comtemptable and shows him for the arrogant, obnoxious little turd that he was.

I'll be truthful though i liked reading BU over the last few years and there was always something of interest to read on there though, but i think it was the people who made that board than the person who ran it.

The board was the official club forum. Certain things had to be removed at times and things such as swearing were clearly forbidden in the rules on the front page. To delete inappropriate threads and/or ban subsequent offenders doesn't make him contemptible. BU was an add-on site which Step moderated for very little reward. In the end, the club decided to shut down its own official forum with very little notice - where is that his fault?

You say yourself, you approached him with regard to previous run-ins and asked for things to be forgotten - I wonder how many emails a week he got asking for that from various postees, requests for info regarding club issues and 'what time does the box office open?' type stuff, added to the abuse that no doubt also filled his company inbox at Windmill from forum users? You must surely be able to see that his lack of reply to your own personal mail hardly constitutes contempt??

It was the hardcore postees that patronised people anyway Brownie, though not me, i always thought you were alright for a paperboy (J O K E)

UTB

 

[Toronto Blade]

It was a good site for exiles,and I have met some great friends off that board!Thanks Step for all you did!

 

[Highbury_Blade]

The board was the official club forum. Certain things had to be removed at times and things such as swearing were clearly forbidden in the rules on the front page. To delete inappropriate threads and/or ban subsequent offenders doesn't make him contemptible. BU was an add-on site which Step moderated for very little reward. In the end, the club decided to shut down its own official forum with very little notice - where is that his fault?

You say yourself, you approached him with regard to previous run-ins and asked for things to be forgotten - I wonder how many emails a week he got asking for that from various postees, requests for info regarding club issues and 'what time does the box office open?' type stuff, added to the abuse that no doubt also filled his company inbox at Windmill from forum users? You must surely be able to see that his lack of reply to your own personal mail hardly constitutes contempt??

Whenever i chatted to him on the #sufc chat room with matters unconnected to sufc he always came across as quite an amiable chap.

That said, some of the bans i got were for really trivial stuff, that couldn't possibly have caused offence to anyone.

I didn't actually realise Step was the company director of windmill, so the fact that he personally moderated the board and took the time to respond to my emails sheds him in a different light.

to be honest though, i think bladesunited would be a bit embarrassing to have on his company portfolio. The technology behind it really was creaking, and a redevelopment of it would have probably took too much time and money, and as you say the users of the site did not really make windmill any profit.

i had thought about setting up a forum as an alternative to BU, but i'm glad i didn't now. Moderating a forum takes far too much time, and an unmoderated forum isn't realistic.

 

[JohnDenver]

For me the regard that Step held everyone was the way he shut the message board down with no notice or prior warning and to me that is comtemptable and shows him for the arrogant, obnoxious little turd that he was.

Your argument is totally devalued by your utter lack of class.

 

[Big Mart]

BoSS, wipe that brown stuff off the end of your nose. The ginger numb nuts was the main reason that the message board died. He banned too many posters and let too many of the "in crowd" get away with posting all sorts of garbage under various aliases so no, he was a useless get and deserves no credit whatsoever.

 

[Vancouver]

I thought it was a great service and a great community but there were some clear faults. If it was so hard to moderate (and I'm sure it was) then invite some of the key guys to join as moderators. I manage the community globally for one of EA's biggest games but I don't do it myself; I use people I trust as I can't be on the sites all the time. There were enough people who'd spent years on the site that I'm sure would have offered to help.

BU was a great community (mostly) and it was a shame it was shut down. In these times a lot of people create strong friendships with people they rarely, if ever, meet and to shutdown the connections between those people in such a way I thought was harsh and heavy-handed. A lot of us will have echoed the same emotions when first seeing it was closed down; sadness and loss. It was something which became part of our daily routines and suddenly gone. A shame but this site is looking good and friendly.

 

[sitwell]

It was a good site for exiles,and I have met some great friends off that board!Thanks Step for all you did!

Hello mate I'm flying to Toronto this morning ,will call you if I get chance.
Cheers Sitters.

 

[Stafford Blade]

BoSS, wipe that brown stuff off the end of your nose. The ginger numb nuts was the main reason that the message board died. He banned too many posters and let too many of the "in crowd" get away with posting all sorts of garbage under various aliases so no, he was a useless get and deserves no credit whatsoever.

couldn't agree more. Whenever i had dealings with him he was a patronising so and so.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

BoSS, wipe that brown stuff off the end of your nose. The ginger numb nuts was the main reason that the message board died. He banned too many posters and let too many of the "in crowd" get away with posting all sorts of garbage under various aliases so no, he was a useless get and deserves no credit whatsoever.

I'm not disagreeing with what you say BM, but nonetheless, what I said stands, he provided a wonderful service, if flawed, for over a decade. He also helped me out with other things not related to the BU site.

Brickbats and Bouquets and credit where it's due.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

couldn't agree more. Whenever i had dealings with him he was a patronising so and so.

I refer the right honourable gentleman to my previous answer!

 

[Stafford Blade]

I refer the right honourable gentleman to my previous answer!

we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.