To all those who decided to have a pop at me on the thread for Carla's game, perhaps you need to say nothing if you have nothing nice to say.

I've been with this forum for several years, but obviously there are an elitist bunch of you who feel that it is only for you and not for those who enjoy the programme or those appearing on it. That is a shame as there was a time that the forum was a great place to visit and converse on but now thanks to rude comments from some it has been spoilt as a place where I thought I had some friends and could be happy to contribute even if the contributions were worthless to some.

There have been plenty of contributors who, to me, haven't added anything to discussions or threads but I have always accepted that they have as much right to comment as anyone else so have never judged them. Perhaps those who chose to slag me off should look to their own habits, personas and comments before making such crass and effrontery remarks.

I assume one of those in question was myself. If not, I apologise for wasting your time.

If so then I apologise for anything I said which offended or upset you. I'm aware I commented in that thread and certainly put in my "two pence worth" to the comments you mention. I admit I was wrong to do that, as we all were.

However...I commented because - and I have to put this as frankly as possible - I found your comments about Carla quite irritating and slightly over-the-top; I viewed the thread for the purpose of reading about the game, and to be honest, in my ideal world there would only be commentary on the game itself and from one source alone.
But this is not an ideal world...I accept that.

This is a place where anyone can comment, saying anything within reason that they please; I accept that. You were entitled to say what you said, as I was to say what I did. I don't deny the right of everyone here to freedom of speech.

But I believe those of us who commented, did so out of a frustration; a juvenile frustration, true, and an unnecessary frustration, that being simply that we were annoyed at your persistent remarks about the player, in particular.

I don't believe any of us actually intended to offend you...because I'm not sure whether we ever thought about what we were saying, prior to pressing the "submit" button. It is common among members here to have a lack of ability to empathise (and I don't mind saying that out loud, it had to be said).

In that respect, I must assume that had we known you would take such offence to our comments, we would not have posted in the manner in which we did. Perhaps a subtle PM would have sufficed, but in the heat of the moment, we tend not to think of these things.

I don't agree regarding an "elitist" group here; out of curiosity, would you consider, for example, me to be a member of that group? (If so I would much rather know, and how I was behaving in such a way, so that I could alter my behaviour accordingly. I believe the same can be said of any other member who would fall into that category.)

I would like to finish as I began.

I personally, would like to place on record my apologies for anything I said in that thread, which offended, upset you in any way. Honestly, that was not my intention; I should have thought before typing.

We were irritated by your comments, there is no masking that, but that was no justification really for what happened.

I have thought about all this for a while...I mean, I pride myself on making my best attempt at gentlemanly conduct, that I can, and I'll readily admit my conduct in that thread was nothing of the sort. So, I apologise, for my part in that.

Thank you for your response and apology, daniel123. Your candid comments here are understood and appreciated.

I DO realise that my contributions in that commentary thread may have appeared crass and annoying to some but felt that the reaction was as over the top (if not more so) as the comments themselves.

I am happy to apologise if the comments offended, I was only attempting joviality - which obviously failed for some.

In some ways I was only playing a role which was stereotyped onto me by another member of the community on here and I can only see that there are many others who have characteristics for which they are known - pessimism, optimism, Wakeyism, and so on.


Yes, I like a pretty girl but I also admire the less able and enjoy the flamboyant, feel sad for the lower prize winners and plenty more and over the years I have commented on such at times which is why reading such damning criticism did upset me.

Once again my thanks, daniel123, for taking the time to read my post and reply.

No, I don't know if I should be thanked; I felt the least I could do was read what you had to say, given that I was one of the people involved, and was therefore partly responsible for this situation.

I think it's fair to say we misinterpreted your attempt at joviality...in fact, I daresay misinterpretation is the overriding narrative throughout all of this.

I think it's important....really, very important....to recognise that people have many aspects, many sides to their personalities, that we're not as one-sided as we might portray ourselves - inadvertently - to be.
A classic example would be the me of 2006 or 2007 - as simply as KP put it in another thread, "eminently mockable". But there was more to me than just an arrogant, cocky nature, a reckless "NO DEAL!" and an unhealthy obsession with the show.

We do tend to use stereotypes and labels here, perhaps more often than necessary.

Thank you in turn for reading my own comments; again, I thought, given my involvement in the events which led to this thread being created...I thought the least I could do was read your post and reply.

There's nothing wrong with posting comments during the game - it's what a lot of people do on Twitter anyway.

I actually think it would be nice if there was the option made available that for any given game thread, that it's possible for only posts made by the actual game commentator (whether that be h, kestral, hogwild94 or anyone else) to be visible and any other posts not visible. I don't get to see the weekday games live so I don't actually mind reading the game threads to know what's happened before I decide whether I want to spend 45 mins seeing it on 4OD or YouTube

That's not to single out Kaledmutant at all (I understand his frustration at others having digs) - some people say what's happened before the commentator puts in the box values and offers and such, and sometimes it would be nice to not be able to read see some of the post-amble arguments than can arise.

If you look at the bottom of each thread, there is such an option (although there are checkboxes for just H2005 and kestrel, you can type the name of the day's main commentator and it will filter out any other posts)

Hi Simon F and James1978, and thank you for your thoughts and ideas.

I didn't realise the thread could be shortened as you suggest Simon F and maybe that feature needs more signage.

Your point about the "out of order information", James1978, is so true, and I have been one of those who has posted a game happenstance before the commentator has been able to post their commentary. I shall endeavour not to do so in future as I can understand the frustration of information being revealed before it has been revealed (if you see what I mean).

Once again, daniel123, I really do appreciate you taking the time to respond.

This feature is actually already available. At the bottom of each thread, it says:

"For today's show commentaries:
Choose name of commentator and click Go: h2005 kestral
Other commentator: "

Doing this will show only the posts from the commentator.

I'll add in hogwild and others to the list, but for now, you can type the commentator's name in the "other commentator" box.