Sunday, September 5th, 2010 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does

By Ronnie Browne

Let me start by saying that I think Le Grove is probably the best formatted blog of it’s type there is, there are posts everyday and it’s clear and easy to view and contribute to the comments section.  I have been a reader for a long time, mainly because I like reading about Arsenal everyday and like keeping up to date with the latest news and hearing from Arsenal fans.

However I have some serious issues with the site. I do not mind constructive criticism of Arsenal and Arsene but the level of abuse our club gets and our most successful manager gets by some of the posters in my opinion is absolutely disgraceful, especially for a supposed Arsenal site.  The fact that changing Wenger to Wengker is not moderated and several offensive insults against ARSENAL players, staff, board members etc are allowed puts a big cloud upon the blog in my opinon….

Now they may preach free speech but this is actually a lie cause I have posted several posts that have no insults but were just my strong opinions which have been moderated and not posted, now these posts didn’t didn’t contain any name calling, just reasonable points but however these got moderated but the insults to Arsene and most things and people Arsenal didn’t.

Also the undertone of and sometimes the blatant racism allowed on the site is unacceptable in my opinion, I saw a post very recently where people were posting jokes about [phrase edited out – sorry, Tony] and French/African/Any non English players are often insulted where their race is brought up.

It disgusts me some of these people claim to be Arsenal fans, I feel sickened by it, I always thought our fans were amongst the best and nicest people until reading their site, though I do realise most of us aren’t like that, but I think their vile bile is infectious and there are more and more of these types cropping up now.

“Le-Grove is a site where people can exchange views on issues without fear of being abused by other fans, their own or others.

A site where they can feel safe in the knowledge that they are expressing their own opinion without fear of ridicule.

If anybody does get abusive, we immediately remove their comment and block them from returning.

We are a shelter for bloggers and a haven for Arsenal fans.”

This is on their “About” section and is simply not true, people often get insulted for their opinions there if they don’t agree with their negativity. I have seen this done to others and it has been done to me too.  And in terms of being abusive calling people [sorry, racist quote again edited out] and changing OUR players names to insult them is pretty abusive to me.  They are like a cult of evil that is growing, the reason I am speaking up about it is cause they are getting worse and worse, it truly sickens me, not only the hatred but also inciting assaults upon our manager.

Maybe the police need to be informed about some of the stuff allowed on the website, there is ample proof there of posts that shouldn’t be allowed on anywhere respectable and decent, when they start taking things beyond football and talk of violence and racism that’s going way to far.

“We are non religious and non political and do not tolerate extremists from any faction.”

This is also not true, as they have allowed anti muslim posts.

“Hours spent writing hate on blog sites: If your loved one gets so worked up by Arsene criticism that they start writing hate on fan sites that disagree with their mantra, you know they’ve been struck down big time. But hey, don’t worry, they would never have the guts to be that big time in real life… so don’t worry about the ‘Blog Tourettes’ rearing its ugly head in public… it’s a bedroom thing. Anonymity is a must for any budding AKB member.”

This is so hypocritical it is beyond a joke, they have a poster on the site who spends HOURS just putting pure hate on the site, infact they have a lot of posters like that, and nothing is done about them, and they use the propaganda of AKB and the threat of being labeled one in a manipulative manner, what they have done there really is describe A LOT of posters on the site but just changed the labels so it’s directed at others.

“Just in case you weren’t sure…

The views expressed on Le Grove are not representative of the views of Arsenal Football Club Plc.

Le Grove, is in no way affiliated with Arsenal Football Club Plc.

Le Grove is not authorised by Arsenal Football Club Plc.”

Then they post this, well we can see that, since most of the material on the site is so anti Arsenal no-one could ever make that mistake… it’s interesting they put NO way affiliated with Arsenal in bold, but make of that as you wish.

The sheer ignorance on the site is mind blowing, they insult players without seeing them play just because THEY don’t know them and they shock post on a regular basis to “give people something to talk about” you can do that by talking intelligently and debating issues, not making ridiculous outrageous statements, they are clearly a gimmick, they regularly contradict themselves, I could pull out 100’s of examples of this.  For one they berate project youth then call for us to play Wilshere and Chezney.

Overall they are just a vile site with vile views, there is a great amount to say about them, however unlike a lot of their posters I have things to do but I felt I had to just say something to defend Arsenal and speak out against the racism and hate permitted on their site.

“Till next time.”

Several footnotes from Editor

1. I have always accepted that football is associated with “the language of the street” and have no problem with that, but even when the quote is from another site, I really can’t bring myself to print racism here.  Hence the edits.

2.  It can well be argued that we should not be spending all our time worrying about supporters on other sites, but rather focus on Arsenal and our vision of football.  For this reason I have been feeling that we should lay off articles about other blogs.  But this one really did focus on something that worries me – the unfettered racism, which is not only abhorrent but, as the article says, illegal under UK law.  So I felt this was a good article to publish, but I am generally of the feeling that it should be just about the last word.  Whether any reader wants to have a discourse with the police on this matter, is of course a personal issue.

3.  Finally, I may well have got the author’s name wrong.  I am editing from outside England today, and if I have made an error, my sincere apologies.  I will of course change it as soon as I can check the original.

Tony

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