I can see two sides here; so, admittedly, I'm conflicted. On the one hand, I certainly can see why those of us who aren't exactly sports fans would question why sports fans should be allowed to post in our forum. After all, the first webpage does say in big red letters "WELCOME SPORTS HATERS!" not "COME ONE AND ALL." There is the question of why one would want to go to a website that would be offensive to him. (Incidentally, i_like_1981 was confronted at the Sportingnews website by kenboldt, who questioned why a sports hater such as 1981 would want to visit a website where he had no business. Of course, kenboldt had no trouble with sportsmen and sports fans coming to
our website. He also didn't think there should even be a website such as ours, as if sports institutions should not be subjected to critical evaluation, as every other institution in our society. Double standard, perhaps?) And considering that sports are
dominant in our culture, I certainly can understand why those of us on our side would like to have a place where we can gripe about whatever it is we don't like about sports without having someone butt in to argue with us.
On the other hand, sports fans provide some life to the forum that would be lacking otherwise. This could range from having a civil dialogue or a principled debate to having an entertaining exchange of vicious insults and (yes, you know what I'm going to say)
big pictures . With regard to having a civil dialogue, there's the possibility that both sides could learn something from the other, or that there might even be an understanding.
Just some thoughts I thought I'd throw out. As I said, I have mixed feelings both ways.
Another observation I'd like to make is that we need to make a distinction between those such as Samdaman
and SpeedofLeight who obviously are driven by their own hatred (and perhaps insecurity) to viciously insult and abuse people who are strangers to them, and those (such as Polite24 and SportsGuy92) who are critical of our website but are civilized in the way they make their objections. They really don't object to people not liking sports; they simply object to negative stereotypes of athletes and other issues. They actually agree with us on some issues. For example, they do not favor mandatory P.E. for students who don't like sports. I don't agree with every single comment that Polite24 and SportsGuy92 have made, anymore than those on "my side." You may find some of their comments irritating, and occasionally they may even get testy. But they are still decent guys. They're a far cry from the likes of Samdaman
and his ilk.