Hey folks,
here’s your periodic reminder about commenting on the articles we post here on Arseblog News. The first thing to say is that we welcome all of your opinions but … and here’s a big but …
BUT
… please think about how you express that opinion. We understand – having done this for over two decades now – that there is massive variance among fans about all kinds of topics. You might love one player but not care for another. You might be 100% behind the manager, or think he’s got questions to answer. You might think we should sign this player, and definitely not that one.
It’s how you present that opinion that is so important. We need to understand that people can disagree with our opinions without it feeling like a personal insult. We need to be able to disagree with things ourselves, but do so in a way which leaves the topic open for discussion.
To that end, and to put it in vaguely football terms: play the ball, not the man. Discuss, debate, and argue the point – but keep to the point. Don’t reduce it to personal attacks, name-calling, insults etc. That gets nobody anywhere, and it gives us more work to do in terms of moderation because those things are not allowed here.
You will have seen this week, and in recent times, big social media companies have basically given up on the idea that they have any responsibility for the things people publish on those platforms. It already has led to – and will lead to further – normalisation of attacks on people for who they are, where they come from, their sexuality, religion, and much more.
We’re not the same size as Facebook or Twitter, but at Arseblog we believe very strongly we have a responsibility to the people who use our site. They should not be subjected to, or even exposed to, blatant racism, sexism, homophobia, misogyny, discrimination, or personal insults in any way. We don’t shirk that responsibility in the pursuit of profit like the billionaire heads of these social media platforms.
That is why we have strict moderation policies (you can read our comment policy here), and tools. It’s also why some of you, who never engage in any of that behaviour, get caught in the moderation queue. We understand how frustrating that can be, but we believe the trade-off – which allows us to ensure Arseblog News remains a safe and hopefully fun place to talk about Arsenal – is worth it.
We say this because it is something we have to address now and again to remind people in general, but also because we’re not blind to the fact there’s an undercurrent of tension this season. When expectations are high, and you fall short, that obviously frustrates people and in the heat of the moment people can get angry and post things that they probably shouldn’t.
So again, please think not just about what you want to say, but how you say it. We’re all Arsenal fans here (except the opposition fans who try to comment but never pass the moderation queue hahaha), and we all want the best for the team and the club itself. We might not agree on how that’s going to happen, or if it’s going to happen, but in a world when so much out there is toxic and unpleasant, we’d ask everyone who comments or wants to comment to do their best to spark the kind of discussion that leaves those elements on the outside.
With love, Andrew and all the Arseblog team ❤️ – Jan 10th 2025
Update: We replaced the featured image due to inadvertent use of an AI produced stock image.
Thanks to the whole arseblog team for providing this platform. Feels like kind of a rare safe corner, a nice place to celebrate, commiserate, debate, and share our love for this club. I find myself regularly having a cheeky chuckle at the comments section so cheers to other readers as well.
When commenting, be more like Santi and less like Nasri. Being an occasional Benny Blanco is okay.
Agreed. Or more Ødegaard, less Gallas, sprinkling of André Santos (is that when you took your name inspiration?)
Thank you for everything and here’s to a great weekend.
Thanks Blogs
The vilest comment here still has more class than the “safest” comment on places like AFTV. This here is a wonderful community.
Bald guys rule!
✌️
We are a protected class!
Hopefully as content creators, and not as football managers.
This is really the only website I check on a daily basis, whether i’m having a bad day or not. Some sites I stay away from because I know the content will just escalate any existing stress/frustration I might be carrying.
This place is more of a home. Sure sometimes your brothers/sisters can be annoying… but 99% of the time I leave here feeling better about things.
I appreciate the time and effort spent not only on content, but also on fostering a sense of community.
I thank Arseblog for providing this Platform for us. It’s painful to see what is happening to our team after 2 seasons of nearly winning the title.Painful because it is avoidable if the glaring imbalance in the team had been addressed in summer. NO TEAM can win a tittle *without* a natural striker.
That is it !
Amen!
Thank you for reminder Andrew, I can fall into making a personal comment so I will do my best to remain healthy. Here’s me first attempt Sammy; I have hugely frustrated Sammy at times this season. I was in Wednesday but the following day I thought this. In 2024 we took more points than anyone. We conceded the least goals. We scored the second most. It’s been a tough start with injuries, illness, some terrible ref decisions and diabolical var interference. This is not the time to panic and turn on the team and manager. Yes, we seem to have… Read more »
Thank you to all of you at Arseblog. Never been a need on this site to be too personal just forthright.
Just allow us to type TP without getting censored
I think your “censorship” issue might be with the courts, not with Arseblog.
It’s a little strange that we can’t discuss possibly the biggest issue of our season, in a sensible way without mentioning the player in question or engaging in speculation. It means that everything else that we discuss lacks context, eg. Future transfer plans, contracts etc.
Care to explain more about such court order that prevents someone’s name from being mentioned in this site but allows it everywhere else on the internet?
Explanation here
Thank you blogs. I won’t say I agree with calling that an “explanation”, but I can see how a heavy handed approach can make your life easier in this case.
I don’t understand why that’s not an explanation? It’s exactly why this player has not been named – and it’s not a heavy handed approach, it’s simply respecting the legalities of the case.
Do we even know there’s a case against [X]? The club has continued to back him, and play him, last 18 months despite initial rumours he was the player accused. I doubt they would do that if there was anything of substance to suggest he was guilty of a crime.
You live in a soft and sensitive society where everyone is always waiting to prosecute and execute an accused person even without facts as long as there’s an allegation.
Your exaggeration is disingenuous and unhelpful. The player in question lives in a society where execution is illegal, where the legal system is flawed but requires, as a minimum, the presentation of facts to bring a prosecution and where less than 5% of reported rapes result in a conviction.
If someone is innocent, we hope that either the case never gets to court, or that once their, they are acquitted. Doesn’t always happen, but that’s the theory.
If someone is guilty, then going round shouting the odds in public can undermine their right to a fair trial, and as a result they might get off.
So it’s best not to speculate or name people.
𝗍̶𝗁̶𝖾̶𝗂̶𝗋̶ there
Understandable that some of us get very frustrated when the team hits a rough patch, but I’m sure we all want nothing but the best for our beloved Arsenal, to win trophies and achieve success, all peace and love, and huge appreciation to the Arseblog team for offering us the platform to freely express ourselves. But like the boss always says, respect is very important, so while we may have different opinions on the way forward as fans, let’s maintain respect for each other always, we’re all part of the Arsenal community. Also sidenote: I’ve recently started following the women’s… Read more »
I think we should also remind a minority of people here that English is not the first language of most Arsenal fans. We have fans all over the world and they try to their best to make a comment in English. To constantly correct people on the English language or minor spelling errors without a relevant reply to the actual football post is ……very sp*rsy!
That’s even worse than F**ck
Flick?
To write!
i‘m one of them and i don‘t feel corrected at all… 😃
Not sure why there is the need to politicise things on a football forum but it’s contentious at best to say that social media companies are now evil by creating and normalising unpleasantness. Before now the “moderators” were in charge of what was allowed to be posted – and as a consequence free speech was frequently denied especially if it happened to differ from the moderators “liberal” version of reality.
The conflation of ‘free speech’ and people’s right not to be abused is quite odd to me.
Look at what Facebook have done this week, if you think those are acceptable standards for any online platform, I don’t know what to say.
I believe in free speech, but free speech with consequences. Whereby anyone is free to say whatever they like, but if it’s outright racist or abusive etc you are within your right to ban said person. I think this would work better than a moderation version, where as the above reader mentions, means that inoffensive posters are often curtailed from the discussion as they are awaiting moderation while the conversation is live/fresh. Btw appreciate the site and all the great discussion that takes place.
Allowing people to be abused online just because you’d rather not wait five minutes for a moderator to approve your comment once in a while does not seem reasonable to me.
I’ve been accidentally lumped into the moderation bin a few times over the years, and Blogs fixed it right away each time.
Maybe this is directly because of the moderation and if so I accept that I am wrong, but I feel that 95% of commenters on here are respectful and while things can get hot under the collar, rarely resort to abusive comments. I find myself currently getting moderated for every comment I make and I’ve never spoken a bad word against anyone here I’m struggling to understand it.
Me too for the last 4 years…lol…hey blogs can you take me off the naughty list? Probably not…
I will never understand why so many people want the owners of social media companies to be in charge of what they can and can’t say and hear.
It was relevant as a direct contrast to how this much smaller but similarly “social media” site is proceeding
Very well said Andrew and thank you to the team and you for all you do to keep us informed and give us a place to rejoice, vent, debate, gloat, etc..
This is such a great site, with constructive interesting debate, and merciless trolling of Sp*ds.
Peace and love to all. Especially all the sad f*ckers who don’t share my exact opinions.
Thanks for your ongoing integrity Arseblog! Very much appreciated.
Most important things unlike Facebook (don’t know Twitter or threads ) we are all Arsenal fans
Anyone apart from me remember the early to mid 80s version of arsenal? Honestly things aren’t that bad 🤣
We can all just get angry and not need to burn down the entire club.
My dad first took me to Arsenal in the 1960s because his friends at work all supported Arsenal. Brought up in Hackney, I was surrounded by Spuds. They did the double in 1961 and all I heard from other kids was Jimmy Greaves this Jimmy Greaves that. The 60s were painful indeed. Since then there have been good times and lean times.
People who think the current team is a failure didn’t live through the lean times.
Spot on Andrew!
I’ve been a lover of Arsenal for 53 years and as irrational as I am to be a football nut, there are far more important things in my life to be genuinely upset about.
It’s a game, it’s a pantomime and an escape, so don’t lose your minds over it.
Peace and love to all!
100% this, well said.
I was going to respond with a tidal wave of invective and personal insults, in an almost certainly doomed attempt at humour. Instead I will just say how grateful I am for how informed and entertained you have kept me (and now my son) over the years. Thank you. I still believe we will pull something big off this year. COYG.
“Play the ball, not the man”
Spot on. 👏🏼
This is thoughtful and well put. We need more integrity everywhere and it’s so encouraging to see it on Arseblog. I have visited Arseblog almost every day for 10 years and your basic decency is one reason why.
Here, here for basic decency. It’s nice to have a place to go to read what other people are thinking about Arsenal, even those that are over the top.
Well said, as always.
So you’re not adding Dana white to the board of directors then? That’s good news, the guy is a prick- and i can say more than allegedly here because he crashed a work event of mine in Vegas in 2011 completely wasted. I heard racial slurs that I thought went out of fashion in the 19th century come out of his mouth.
I have a question. Do you have fact-checkers? If not, I would like to ask your most objective columnist (Graham Dougan) to weigh in on this. Other than this, I would really love to comment more frequently but my writing IKTS duties at TSF eat up too much time and I have a full time job that commands 60 hours of work per week. I also love your Podcasts and rarely miss any.
I liked the rule of thumb advise from one of the previous reminders: just think if Bukayo Saka, the nicest young man on Earth, would post that.
What would Jesus post?
Perfectly said – thank you.
Finally, some common sense. It’s no wonder many of us have literally given up on social media, it’s toxicity is unbearable at times. Cheers to the Arseblog community
There is a major distinction between a disagreement and an argument. You and I may disagree about the quality of a given player or the application of VAR but these are merely differences of opinion. However, an argument is an escalation of a disagreement whereby people take a deeply entrenched position and struggle to find a way out of it. Sadly, we live in a polarised world but I believe I stand with everyone in recognising that Arseblog is a consistently excellent platform. I can’t say I read it every day but its quality and, moreover, its spirit always shine… Read more »
🙏🏻 thanks for all, my favourite arsenal blog!
Thank you, this is a brilliant site that I’d rather read than what often passes as professional journalism. Now in my 70th year as a Gooner I have, for the past six years, been mainly following the women’s team. There’s a wonderful little community there who comment on this site (shout-out to Tim Stillman who has done so much!)
The one gripe I have with the comment section is that while in moderation it removes the chance of having a quick back and forth, couldn’t the moderation be applied to known users who leave not so nice comments, kind of like a probation period for users who have previously left comments that go against the comments policy. Just a thought.
This is easily the best Arsenal site. Nuff said,
Spot on, blogs. Love this sentiment, shame it’s required to be articulated, but hey, you play the cards you’re dealt. Keep up the great work!