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Quick Update

Hello all. I just wanted to write a quick update for you, because I imagine you are wondering why there has been nothing been posted for the last two days.

Somebody emailed me with the possibility of writing for the site. He wrote me a trial article, and I gave him a shot. I asked him to write a couple articles earlier on in the week, but he was unable to. He was supposed to write me an article for yesterday, and when he didn`t have one, I thought I`d give him another chance. He should have been sending me something for you lot to absorb today. He hasn`t, and he won`t be writing anything else for Vital.

I`m really sorry guys, and I`m pretty sure you know I could`ve done without this further damaging my reputation with you loyal readers. I have a bit more time on my hands, so I`m going to give it a shot solo for the meantime. If you want to submit a guest article though, please do. This is all of our site, and I want you all to feel that this is still the place to catch the most polarised opinions on the finest football club in the world.

Apologies again, and normal service will resume with a preview tomorrow morning. I`d write it now but I`m exhausted and angry!

Thanks, Al

Writer: AlParklar

Date:Friday March 8 2013

Time: 10:40PM

Your Comments

At least you can rely on me for the stats :)

JemmaM

I'm sure you won't be surprised to see a comment from me on this Al. Unfortunately I think it feels as though you do want to control all the content that is put out on the site, this is not I feel what it should be about. You have one of the most used Vital sites, if not on the entire network then certainly in the Championship. I regularly look at some of the others, particularly for the teams we are about to play or have just played, and most are lucky to have even 1 comment on their posts. Ours regularly have 20. Whilst we all have other things going on in our lives, if you take on the responsibility of running the site, you must then give it the time on a daily basis to ensure it is kept up to date and interesting. As I and many others have said before, it would be better to have some content daily rather than nothing at all. I for one have offered to write for you regularly but was rather rudely rejected. Therefore, the excuse that you have been let down again is unacceptable.

Boltongav

If JemmaM gets the stats up quickly and the polls change quickly that is a start. There is so much material available on BN and LOVS and via NewsNow just a sentence to stir controversy or stimulate a debate would be enough as long as it is done regularly and doesn't leave your loyal readers feeling that the site is running on autopilot!

Pedro1874

Boltongav, I am far from surprised to see you comment. However, I’m again surprised that you want to hang your laundry in public on this one. You state that I want to control the content that is put out on the site. As the site editor, I think I’m well within my rights to do so, bar the comments section; where unless something is overtly offensive or detracts from the attached piece, people can write whatever they want and I encourage people to do so. It’s my prerogative as the site editor to ensure that what it is written for this site is of a certain standard. You go on to state how this is one of the most used Vital sites (I feel very privileged to be able to write to such an audience daily), but this community was built on the quality of writing produced by my predecessor Quentin X. Yes, I’ve been subject to the odd sub-par article (as is any blogger who has a full time job, a life and times when something else really needs to be prioritised), but on the whole, I feel that I have continued to follow Quentin’s tradition of well-written analysis over the blurted-out, regurgitated fact clumps that many football fansites call articles. You say that you were rudely rejected, yet I feel like I was only extremely professional at the time. You have persistently shown that you are a little raw about the end result, which is why I’m now saying this here instead of in a private email, which I where I would prefer to do this. I didn’t think your article entertained, and it certainly didn’t flow like it should. I spent a good time (in your words ‘overly’) punctuating the article, because otherwise, I just couldn’t have put it on the site. I am happy that you invest so much time in writing comments for the site, and I hope that continues. But that is exactly what the comments box is for. It doesn’t have to be written to the same standard as an article on the site, it can just express how you feel. If you want to start conversation topics, then Vital Bolton has a forum that I advise you use for such an occasion. Finally, you state that you think my excuse is unacceptable. Well I’m sorry, but I found someone who wrote something good, and so I gave him an opportunity. He hasn’t shown the willingness and commitment I know you would have shown Gav, but if I was to trust someone to write on a regular basis, then both are required. Pedro- thanks for the positive feedback for Jemma and I will feed back to her. She’s often on hand at a computer just after fulltime, and so it’s great that loyal readers are able to get those post-match feelings straight onto the site.

AlParklar

I thought this small cluster of fans ( 10-12) who comment regularly would be insignificant compared with other vital blogs, obviously I am wrong. Sad that we appear to have lost Fredmadagasker, no doubt Fred has his reasons. I think Boltongav is considerate and diplomatic in everything he says, contrary to the cynical personal attacks I often use, I respect him for that and enjoy reading his comments as I do with all the others

aussie mike

I've messaged Fred on Twitter today telling him we all miss him! I loved reading his comments, as I do reading yours Mike. Don't you ever change!

AlParklar

Al. Firstly I'm not sure what "laundry" you are referring to. The only issue I had with you was that having offered to help you when you asked for assistance, I wrote an article and after a few days, when it had already become irrelevant due to a further match having been played, you put it on the site with a few extra punctuation marks. You did nothing in terms of rewriting to improve the flow so I am not sure what you mean by that. You then said "you could not offer me a position on the writing team as my grammar and spelling were so poor". I am afraid that is far from professional it is rude!! Further evidence of this can be seen today when you decide to further criticise my article. You too are entitled to your view on what is entertaining and I have to say that my article was supposed to be more thought provoking than entertaining, sorry you missed that!! Luckily the regulars who read and commented on it seemed to get the point I was making even though it was by then out of date. If I was applying for a paid position fine, but not when you are being offered free assistance. If you are going to set yourself up as having the highest standards you cannot then litter your own pieces with grammatical errors but that is the case. Secondly, as you say as site editor you do have a right to control the content, however there is a fine line you have to tread, and I think removing comments which you don't like as they disagree with you is unacceptable. You do however have to listen to your regulars and I'm afraid as can be seen in your rather arrogant reply above you do not do that. Many regulars told you weeks ago they would be happy with more content even if the odd punctuation mark was amiss. You chose to ignore that and continue with a sporadic offering including I have to say, match previews a couple of hours before the game and reports on some occasions missed altogether in favour of telling us how busy your life is! You mention your predecessor who indeed did run a very entertaining site for us all. Im sorry but I dont agree you have continued that, and I know I am not the only one to feel that way. Finally if had wished to deal with this matter vie e-mail you could have done so on many occasions as you do have my e-mail address. The reason I choose to use the comments section is that your lack of organisation affects the regular readers of the site on a regular basis. I think it is therefore justified to start a debate on this matter here where all can comment. If I am in the opinion of others wrong I will happily now keep my opinion to myself in future!

Boltongav

Sorry Gav, but what part of the below email is rude? ‘Hi Gavin, Thanks for the below. I've neatened it up and put it on the site. Unfortunately, I found the grammar a big problem, as I had to add several commas, colons and end sentences to make it flow. It's for that reason that I can't offer you a permanent writing position at Vital Bolton. I really hope you don't hold it against me; I really enjoy your comments, your enthusiasm and your optimism when it comes to the site. Kind regards, Alex’ Having looked back on your article, I certainly don’t think it was irrelevant when it was posted. Regarding the pay issue, a co-editor would be eligible for some pay for their regular articles, as long as the individual Vital site makes it’s quota for articles in a month. Hence the reason why I am looking for the right man. I have only removed one comment for anything other than swearing (yours), but at the time I did that due to it not being relevant to the article or BWFC. It was a direct challenge to the way this site is ran, as is this, but I feel this needs to be dealt with in this instance. You say that I don’t listen to regular readers, and that I post previews up a couple of hours before matches, but this is down to feedback I have received from regular readers. See here: http://www.bolton.vitalfootball.co.uk/sitepage.asp?a=309368 On the occasion where I am unable to commit to writing an article, I try to get something out on Twitter or on here to state why. If what you think in your above statement is mirrored by the rest of the Vital Bolton community, then maybe I should just leave you without an explanation. That, however, might actually be quite rude. I don’t want you to keep your opinions to yourself (at least your BWFC ones), but if you don’t feel this site provides you with what it once did, then why are you still here? I’m really upset that you have taken all this to heart Gav, but what I don’t want is someone making things difficult for me. I love my football club, and I enjoy writing about it. The increased amount of writing has been somewhat of a sharp learning curve, and I think that things should start to appear more settled from now on. I don’t want to lose a reader, but I did feel like I had to defend myself in the above comment, so if I appeared arrogant then I apologise.

AlParklar

You're not wrong Aussie, not one of the bigger sites but certainly the potential, as it only takes a small community to take off (ie 10-12 regulars) to entice others to join in. Some of the sites on Vital are monsters, hopefully one day this will be! Then again, we like all communities no matter how small, we are a proper independent run by footie fans and no big money backing etc!

Guys, as for articles, great way around this is to submit them to the editor, he can then do exactly that, edit and prepare it for publishing. Then over time, it is easy to see what is needed. Or if not, they can always be put through via the editor, it is, after all, his/her job. Peace out folks!

The Fear

I think you will find that al is the editor. It would appear that gav was trying to make the point that you are. That being the editor is a conduit for the views etc. of others rather than being the source of all content. Whilst clearly in this context the editor does write a large proportion of the articles it would be interesting to see other people's views as that is kind of the point of a site like this.It is however a shame to see our editor and one of our main contributors at odds like this and I hope you guys can sort it out.

Hallethewhite

I've considered writing an article or two in the past myself but thus far work and other commitments haven't allowed me to do so. I'll get around to it eventually but they'll be rare at best and not specific to a single match - more to do with the statistical side of football. I find it slightly surprising that Boltongav has decided to air his own dirty laundry in public but, having been an editor in the past myself, I will defend Al's right to defend himself, and I'll also defend Al. A lot of things are said online that wouldn't be said offline. The correct thing to do here is to prove Al wrong and write another article. One guy who ended up doing most of my writing for me on another (non-football) site I knocked back three times before he had something published.

robmoss2k

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