Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Aberdeen - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - February 18, 2023 Celtic fans inside the stadium before the match REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
If you’re reading this, then I’ve decided to publish it. And if I’ve decided to publish it, it’s because I’m drunk and don’t care too much, so this is going up at 8:00 in the morning—if it goes up at all. And if anyone thinks I’m actually up at 8:00 in the morning writing and posting this, they’re mad. Sunday morning at that time, just back from Manchester after watching the Legends game? No chance.
No, this one’s being written in the boozer because I’ve got a few drinks in me, and a little time on my hands. It’s come to mind because of a conversation about social media and the comments that some of the articles here—and elsewhere—occasionally get. Someone asked me how I handle it. And I told them I don’t read most of it. You can’t read it all if you want to stay sane.
I am grateful for every single one of you who is out there, reading this stuff and commenting on it, good or bad. At the start, when I was fighting for every hit, every click, and every reader I could get, it was hugely important that people came, read the stuff, and commented, no matter what they had to say. When you’re doing this for the first time, it is all about building an audience and being relevant to that audience.
There have been so many people who have been incredibly supportive of me over the years, and I am more grateful for it than most of you will ever know. Every time I’ve tried something new, people have backed it. Every single time this blog has weathered a storm, people have stood by it. And to all those people, I owe more than I will ever be able to repay.
But there are also those who enjoy needling me, who come on just to spit bile about how much they hate my guts or the site in general. And some of those folks are Celtic fans themselves. I’m writing this piece with no expectation that it will do any good, change anyone’s mind, or alter anyone’s behaviour. I just want to state a couple of facts.
First, if you want to come on here to abuse me, leave poisonous comments, or indulge in personal attacks—whether directed at me or anyone else—please feel free to write as much as you like. Express yourself fully. Write hundreds, if not thousands, of words and post them for moderation. It will never see the light of day. So, knock yourself out.
The only person you’re talking to is you.
I’m lying when I say I don’t read most of it. Because on this site, anyway, I have to read almost all of it. There are different ways of reading. When you’ve done this long enough, you can skim a long email in two seconds because you’re only looking for certain words and phrases to know what you’re dealing with. The vicious ones never get fully read. They get skimmed and then binned.
And it’s even worse if you’re one of the several people whose emails and IPs are already on the blocked and banned list. Occasionally, I have to check the blocked and banned folders because some comments from people who aren’t blocked sometimes end up there.
But while I’m in there, I see familiar names—people who must know they will never again be published on this site, who don’t even get the consideration of moderation but go straight into the bin without me ever seeing what they’ve laboured to write. Yet they still come on here to vent and spew bitterness, knowing I’ll never read a word of it.
I genuinely marvel at that kind of behaviour.
I can’t understand what motivates someone to scream into the void like that. It’s like that old rhetorical question: if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? Does shouting to an audience of one really fill that emptiness in your soul? Do people banned from commenting believe they’ve been martyred somehow?
O’Brien tells Winston in 1984: “We have no martyrs here.” The Party don’t allow martyrs. They won’t permit martyrdom.
If you’re one of those people whose grotesque personal behaviour has gotten you banned from this site, every comment you ever made goes with you. No one will remember you were here. It will be as if you went down the memory hole, as if you never existed. There will be no trace left for anyone to find later and wonder, “Whatever happened to that guy?”
I’ve given this a lot of thought lately, which is why I’m sitting in a pub writing about it after I’ve had a few sherbets. There are sites that used to tower above anything across the city. They were places you could go for sensible conversation with genuinely awesome people, and they were filled with those awesome people. But over time, they allowed themselves to become filled with petty, pointless, vindictiveness, people pursuing agendas and snapping at anyone who disagreed with them.
My problem for many, many years has been that when someone goes low, I’ll go lower. I learned my political trade in the Glasgow Labour Party; they practically invented the idea that “you do better with a kind word and a gun than with just a kind word.” Debates in that sphere often got brutally personal, and if you couldn’t go low and aim for the belly you were a sitting duck.
I’ll debate anyone on anything if it’s reasonable and rational and they are willing to discuss the merits. But the moment something degenerates to personal insults, I’m still as bad as I ever was, my first instinct is to reach for the amputation knife, and I won’t hesitate to use it.
That is why I am taking a holiday from commenting on this site or anywhere else for a while. Sometimes, you need to step back for the good of your own sanity. But more than that, because these sites are filled with genuinely good people who want to talk about their team and have a laugh with like-minded fans, it does nobody any good—and it certainly does this site no good—if I am here arguing with people who can’t keep it civil.
The toxicity that’s taken root on other sites will never take root here. That’s why comments are moderated, and I’m sorry it sometimes takes forever to get them published. Workarounds are being considered, solutions are being looked at, but none of them so far are entirely satisfactory.
For example, I don’t want to make every person who uses the comments feature register a WordPress username and profile first. That’s one of the options under active consideration, but it’s something I’ve refused to do when most people find it easier to use the current system.
But the current system has its own issues. Anyone can attempt to post here using a fake name and email address, and the only thing standing in their way is that it has to get past me first.
I don’t like to moderate comments.
I’d prefer that you could have a free-flowing exchange of ideas and opinions and debate things without my interference, and without waiting for me to press “post.”
Believe me, that situation is not ideal, but I have a long memory. I remember when every single thread on this site, before moderation, quickly degenerated into venom and bile from Ibrox fans, or a tiny fraction of “Celtic fans” flinging the same at their fellow supporters.
I don’t have to look far to see other Celtic sites, once cathedrals of positive discussion, now more resembled hate-filled swamps where a handful of people have poisoned the atmosphere to such a degree that they are virtually uninhabitable.
I’m always looking for new ideas for this site, and some will be more successful than others. I haven’t ruled out, for example, putting a forum on here where people can discuss the articles or any other damn thing they want. But if I do, it won’t turn into a quagmire.
The good people who come here every day to talk Celtic and laugh at Ibrox deserve a place where they can do so without some loudmouth shouting down their opinion, or where the pro-Ibrox mob can come to abuse people and taunt them on their favourite, sick obsession.
I will forever be looking for ways to make this site run better, and I’ll always acknowledge that this site belongs to you more than it does to me, and that it wouldn’t exist without you.
In doing that, I have to make compromises sometimes, but the search for solutions to our handful of problems goes on, and maybe something good will come out of this piece, like finding an answer that is permanent and doesn’t compromise your ability to have a proper discussion here, without me having to approve every comment.
But I’ll be blunt: it’s been a week where I’ve had some ghastly reminders as to why the site is run this way, and why comments need to be moderated. I’ve seen what’s happened elsewhere, and this place is never going to go down that road—not while I’m the guy in the editor’s chair.
Solutions are coming though, and not in that “the Ranjurs are coming” way either; actual solutions, and positive changes. On this site will go.
Not bad for an article over a beer, right?
Like you I was schooled in local Labour party debates. Often unnecessary abusive rants between so called ‘ comrades.’ Only helped out opponents as we lost good people. The guy who called Lawwell an ‘. arsehole’ lost the argument immediately because he lacked the intelligence and social skills to mount an informed argument. Critical thinking is essential to maintain progress, abuse Fascist.
Good article James
It’s the bane of sites that have comments. Not just football related ones. There is a sickness out there that anonymity fuels.
Keep up the good work.
I think you maybe need a bit of a well earned “time out” I always read your stuff, but I see you as currently being just a few yards away from the downward slope of the “rabbit hole” Hopefully it’s just a “Sherbet” induced reaction to recent negativity, “Keep The Faith” comrade.
Hi James.
I have never commented on a article of yours up until now (although I avidly read them). I just wanted to say keep up the good work. It’s great to see a blogger keep hitting the nail on the head time and time again. Back in the bad ol days before social media we only had the likes of James Traynor to keep us up to speed (joke!) with Scottish football. It was great to discover fan websites who do not feed us pro ibrox pap and I despite coming late to the party I now consume loads of good podcasts etc. Your blog is the one I often turn to first and I must admit there is a certain schadenfreude in me which delights reading your articles on ‘The Rangers’. It’s a shame there are some nasty keyboard warriors out there but keep up the good fight!
Thanks
John
Enjoy yer beer James. Keep fighting the good fight. No need to change anything buddy. Keep your boot on their throat.
Stay safe mate Hail Hail.
Hope you’re not gone for long, I’m not one for debating myself. On the other hand I enjoy the mix of views from fellow Tims.
Read James.
I don’t normally comment on your articles. I’m commenting on this one because I thoroughly enjoy reading your thoughts whilst , obviously, not agreeing with them all.
Please keep posting and if you are having a break enjoy it.
Alex
Glad ya got time for a beer James – I like one too (and a whisky or three !!! ) but with the rancid international break no footy means no pub !
Aye the site is perfectly fine, the quality of the content and comments are pretty awesome…
I’m not the most technologically savvy lad and don’t understand what the comments for robots clear this box means but I’m happy enough to do it and ma posts get through…
I expect with me being ‘fairly’ opinionated that I receive a good few ‘complementary’ responses through your non publishing comments screen , if so then so what – it shows that I’ve got a ‘fan club’ although perhaps one that I might not be wanting but hey ho, what the hell that’s the way the cookie crumbles I guess…
I spied you getting ‘slagged’ by some contributors on CQN – For me most of the posters on there are chronically wedded to the word ‘Rangers’ – not of fans of course but just the constant use of the word of a clearly deceased entity that they are…
This just makes them seem not deceased but relevant and must be a Scummy Scottish Football Media’s dream on an industrial scale – If I could ever get on it I’d challenge them about their lack of awareness about what tool place in Scottish Football in June 2012 when The Excise finally killed ‘Rangers’ as they were rightfully known as up until that said date !
The massive silent Celtic majority who read and comment on the site back you 100% James.
You’re a big asset to Celtic FC.
Take the wee sabbatical from comments and come back stronger mi amigo!
Reasonable & rational ? Some people just don’t either understand or be able to spell those words and live their life filled with hate towards anyone not having their twisted view of the world. Do what you have to do James not only to secure your site but also for your own sanity having to read or listen to the hateful bile sent to you
Cheers mate. The last thing we want is for this place to end up like CQN, where the site owner is now reduced to calling people who disagree with him abusive names, supported by a number of sycophants in the cult of Lawwell.
I looked in yesterday and there were posters calling each other keyboard warriors and internet hard men; a level of pettiness you wouldn’t get in a Primary school playground, and these guys have one thing in common: they are all old men.
Pathetic.
Hi James,
Don’t let the buggers get you down! You do a great job keeping us up to date. Your opinions are great to hear and provoke thoughtful debate amongst most of us. I don’t want to or need to agree with everything you write to appreciate it. As to trolls, find a bridge or a big stone and dissappear. Without writers such as yourself the Celtic world would be barren.
Keep well.
My God… the beer was in full effect there! lol
James, many years ago I started searching the internet for Celtic content, among the few I returned to the one that stood out was On Fields Of Green. I’ve been reading ever since. I love your work mate, I read as much as I can.
All the best from Melbourne.
get in there James!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not bad at all, James. I make much less sense when sober.
I am not a regular enough reader to know the depths of the abuse aimed at you but I know it’s not always easy to shrug it off.
I said from the start that social media gave us some freedoms from the enforced banality of what the kids call legacy media, but it also gave a certain amount of anonymity that, like alcohol, loosens the tongue and makes you more abusive than you would be in a real social setting. Not so much In Vino Veritas as In Buckie Detractio.
I’ve never ran my own blog but any contributor can face a reaction too. the only advice I can give is to totally ignore the opinions of those whose opinions have proven untrustworthy in the past but, when someone whose views you respect, pulls you up, you should give it a bit longer in consideration before deciding your response to it.
But, you need to be in a good place to do that and, if you’re not, you must decide the approach that works best for you.
All the best with that
James,
I hope you find a solution to the ongoing problems from yobs etc.
i enjoy reading your articles, which occasionally put forward ideas with which i disagree, but i appreciate the thought you put into them and they often alter my opinion or perspective on matters.
More power to your elbow and i look forward to more insights from you.
Kind regards
Your site is brilliant James, take a break whenever you want and rest assured your audience will be there when you come back.
Another good article James you nearly always put up truthful and great posts. That’s why I like ? reading them . There is only about once or twice that I think your wrong as your only human after all your blog in the main is a excellent read
Keep up the good work mate
This was the first Celtic site I joined. I’ve joined many and left many.
The only way I’m leaving this one is a coffin.
Great article, James.
??
A forum is a great idea, James, that would be a tremendous addition to this quality site. Will never understand why any Celtic fan would attack another Celtic fan for sharing a different opinion, it’s madness.
I’ve read on another site some negative comments about you and claiming you’re constantly negative about our football club. There’s a difference between negativity and constructive criticism. It’s obvious from reading your blog regularly that your criticism comes from a place of passion and love! I have the same criticisms and concerns for our club, and no amount of money in the bank will prevent me being critical if it’s deserved. This blog is the first one I look at every day. Keep doing what you do James, it’s very much enjoyed and appreciated by me and thousands of others.
All I can say James is that you have a loyal audience for a reason.
Whatever course of action you take will be respected.
At the end of the day Celtic will always be there and keeping the faith is not just a throwaway line.
It signifies what we feel about the Club and the Celtic people.
The job that you do, is just like any other job in that when it starts to affect your own wellbeing then the job
has to be re-evaluated. Your own wellbeing is the most important priority. Your responsibility, at the end of the day,
is to yourself. If you can tweak the parameters of what you do and feel satisfied then that’s all well and good.
We will still be here to support you and the site with whatever changes you make.
Best wishes,
Jim
Well said James, and it badly needs saying. This is one of a very few sites I delve into to enjoy your articles and some of the comments. I admire your fortitude and stamina in sticking with this chore. A labour of love is still a chore.
Social media is awash with bigotry, racism, and hatred. Everybody and anybody is a target. Moderated sites like this, operated by a moderate moderator, (That’s not meant as a lefty insult, by the way.) are beacons of sanity (some of the time anyway) in a swamp riddled with all the worst characteristics of the anonymous morass.
I don’t envy you the task you have set yourself. Would I register a profile to be allowed to continue posting? Yes, if I was guaranteed posting in an environment where my, sometimes idiosyncratic views, were either ignored or critiqued with a degree of respect.
I have friends and ex-colleagues “across the divide.” (Now there’s a phrase.) Some of whom will not speak about football with me. The others will talk about football without it descending into the cess-pit we see online. If they cannot stick to the footie, I wouldn’t want to know them. A few are now coming around to admitting (very, very quietly) that they are new club. Yes, we deserve a safe place to discuss issues, including the thorny issues, without being ridiculed or demonised by morons whose minds (assuming they have one) are closed to reality.
You should go to the boozer more often.
Hi James,
Sorry to hear the extent of the ongoing abuse you are receiving.
No one should ever have to experience that in their workplace ever.
I have worked with many people who have been hounded out their occupations for various reasons and the toll it takes on them mentally is sad to the least.
This blog which you have dedicated so much time and effort to is not for surrendering to the trolls and idiots of this world.
I’m sure all your loyal readers who you have praised for their support will want you ,myself included, to take a break from it.
Burn out comes in many forms so take your break and concentrate on yourself.
Really hope to see you back giving them it tight. Stay strong comrade YNWA
Some very good comments from contributors old and new. Keep fighting the good fight on behalf of Celtic FC.
Hail Hail.
Lol Love your blog James drunk or not Always read them when I see them
Love your blog James. It’s a must read first thing every day. There can be no other football blog anywhere that gives you a lesson in politics, history ,aincent history mythology etc etc and a good ol laf at the huns all centered around our beloved club. Keep up the good work brother. HH
As I’ve previously said James, your blog is an essential read for most Celtic minded fans. It’s good to get things off your chest when you’ve had a small libation or two ! Never let the barstewards grind you down ! Keep up the excellent work !
I always read your posts James and enjoy most of your comments, i’m on many other Celtic site but i always look forward to reading your thoughts on our great club ???
I have a tendency to read your blog quite often, sometimes I agree, sometimes not. The church of celtic contains a plethora of different religions, ethnicities ages and politics, to be a Celtic supporter only requires one thing a love for good football. As for other sites I read quite a few, I smile when I come across one site in particular that seems to have a strong dislike of you but again I still read it as opinion is required to form a balanced version of my own opinion. I don’t run a blog I am not interested in trying to be liked/disliked or in my own mind leader of ideas I am just a Celtic supporter, so please keep posting, even from the pub, and don’t let the grumpies get you down Hail, Hail
I read a lot of your articles but I never comment or read anyone else’s comments, I’m sorry that you have had to take so much grief for having an opinion, when other Celtic supporters make vile comments it just makes me feel sad, don’t give up, 99% of us are not like that, we are inclusive and respectful of people’s opinions. Keep on scribbling away, drunk or sober!! I’ve never posted anything, anywhere but I felt so strongly about the way you were feeling, I felt I had to.