Breakfast with Mel and no Bacon or Sausages!

[ariotofmyown]

9 hours ago, David said:

Great day this was. Triggered years of not being able to have an opinion, cries of where was my invite like we took thousands down and they were the only one to miss out. "You're all mates, in a clique, bought by a sausage"

Truth was, at the time I was suffering with crippling anxiety, those who were there would remember me walking outside for 5 minutes, taking several toilet breaks for some space to compose myself. I didn't eat a thing that day, nor did I when I was invited to the night at Pride Park served with plates of sausages.

Classic case of nobody really knowing what goes on behind a monitor. On the way down we stopped the car several times, almost turned back, made an excuse as to why I couldn't go, car broke down, sorry Mel. Was the missus who pushed me on, theres a lot of people relying on you back on the website.

She didn't know that it wasn't public knowledge at the time, like most things I kept them close to myself.

This isn't an X factor sob story, it's just how it was, and what followed was hard to deal with on top of everything else, to this day still irritates me and I won't take any crap despite being a lot better mentally having been on anxiety medication for the last year.

Do I regret going? Yeah a little, only because of what followed, there was and still us a lot of ungrateful fans on this forum who believe they should have gone and would have done a better job interrogating Mel.

The idea was pitched to me as a meet the owner, clear the air, let us know where they stand, was never intended to be an interrogation and I'm kinda glad nobody went that did turn it into one. 

Was good to put some faces to some names, met quite a few members be it in person or Zoom calls now, some decent people on here.

A lot has happened in the last 5 years, things were probably said at the time that has changed, went tits up, different directions. Not entirely sure what the purpose of this bump was, but then I don't really understand a lot of what has happened following this.  

Fan forums which have nothing to do with us have similar reactions to be fair, PR spin this and that, how come I didn't go, even Radio Derby phone ins get criticised. I would bet the louder voices are ones that never applied for tickets for the fan forums or pick up the phone to Radio Derby, much easier just to sit here and pick fault with others anonymously from behind a screen.

Anyhow, that's me done, off to find a topic can find some enjoyment in, what this forum was created for.

 

I understand your feelings on it looking back, but I hope you can still take pride in it.

I loved reading what happened that day and thought it was a real high point, not just for this forum, or even just football, but for forums/messageboards/social media in general.

That anyone found negatives in it says way more about them than you or the people who went. I despise that trait of people who snipe and criticise people who are prepared to get up and do something. Even more ridiculous when the event was such a positive thing for both this forum, and for all Rams.

I'm lucking not to suffer with anxiety or anything similar, but there is little chance I'd ever volunteer to go along to such event, let alone be the one who would organise it.

I know you aren't in it for the fame or the ego, but that's why it works. Like Plato's reluctant leader.

Keep up the great work. It's been a tough old year and this forum has helped keep us all going.

[Van der MoodHoover]

2 hours ago, Abu Derby said:

I wonder if this sort of meeting will resume once the Sheikh takes over. He will probably have sausage on offer, however it may be that Quorn stuff. 

You'd go to an "invitation only" meeting organised by a sheikh and his shadowy entourage? 

 

Braver than me mate....... ?

[Day]

25 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

I understand your feelings on it looking back, but I hope you can still take pride in it.

I loved reading what happened that day and thought it was a real high point, not just for this forum, or even just football, but for forums/messageboards/social media in general.

That anyone found negatives in it says way more about them than you or the people who went. I despise that trait of people who snipe and criticise people who are prepared to get up and do something. Even more ridiculous when the event was such a positive thing for both this forum, and for all Rams.

I'm lucking not to suffer with anxiety or anything similar, but there is little chance I'd ever volunteer to go along to such event, let alone be the one who would organise it.

I know you aren't in it for the fame or the ego, but that's why it works. Like Plato's reluctant leader.

Keep up the great work. It's been a tough old year and this forum has helped keep us all going.

Not something I think I would ever take personal pride from, said it a thousand times now that end of the day this forum isn't me, it's the members that make it, if you all left tomorrow, all I have is a bunch of PHP files, that's not me being overly humble for the likes, it's a fact.

It's all your content that put us on the clubs radar and seen, not me, not my opinions or anything. In the early days I'm not sure they even knew this place existed and it was a lapse in moderation that triggered the communication, which in itself is kind of embarrassing, would have preferred the club to reach out to us on better terms. 

It did change me I will admit, made me open my eyes to the legal responsibilities that came with running a website, some will see that as a bad thing, but I actually appreciated the way they went about it and I made a number of changes since with things like not fully copy and pasting articles from other outlets.

This, what you see now was never planned, I had no intentions of taking over the Derby County forum world, it just landed in my lap one night and in truth I wasn't prepared at all for what was to come.

Even small things that seem minor, but copy and pasting full articles from the DET, it's a copyright issue that could land us in hot water big time if say Trinity Mirror decided to pull us up. For all the crap Steve Nicholson has taken over the years on here, wouldn't have taken much to land me with even more legal issues if he so wished.

Theres also this Freedom of speech thing as well, what people don't realise is it doesn't give you freedom from consequence, sooner people realise that in social media the better really.

I welcome anyone to take on the forum ownership challenger and prove I'm talking rubbish with a forum on the scale of this one. 

Apologies for the rambling, I've had a couple of shandies ? 

 

[ariotofmyown]

2 hours ago, David said:

Theres also this Freedom of speech thing as well, what people don't realise is it doesn't give you freedom from consequence, sooner people realise that in social media the better really.

This times a million. I think your insights and experiences with this forum, combined with the free speech debate, are more valuable than people, and perhaps you, realise.

You've been at the coalface of these rapid changes and actually understand the practicalities and impacts of words on a public forum. And it's been managed much better than it has been by certain large companies with relatively infinite resource.

This forum has managed to stay in the sweet spot of bringing Rams fans together, often with heated debate, but rarely with the bile that is now associated with social media.

[Ram-Alf]

I was a poster on another forum when this story/news broke about "a breakfast with Mel", The understanding why an invite was given was that MM has all social media forums monitered, A few postings criticising MM or even "slandering" him was the word/s being posted on a rival forum.

Again I understand posters from here were invited to a meeting to talk about MM and co concerning the running of DCFC again I wasn't ITK so can only post what was posted back then, Those on here were lambasted by those others who didn't get to meet a multi millionaire, It's jealousy by those who didn't get an invite, Something to hang their ego on, Something to tell their Grandchildren or something to brag about as it bothered them, So insulting them by posting negative posts seems to have been a way to relieve their angst.

I certainly wouldn't have gone...not with my past adventures concerning DCFC

[ariotofmyown]

15 minutes ago, James Pond said:

The understanding why an invite was given was that MM has all social media forums monitered

Makes Mel sound like a KGB spymaster. Maybe he was just reading the forums as a fan!

[Tyler Durden]

15 minutes ago, James Pond said:

I was a poster on another forum when this story/news broke about "a breakfast with Mel", The understanding why an invite was given was that MM has all social media forums monitered, A few postings criticising MM or even "slandering" him was the word/s being posted on a rival forum.

Again I understand posters from here were invited to a meeting to talk about MM and co concerning the running of DCFC again I wasn't ITK so can only post what was posted back then, Those on here were lambasted by those others who didn't get to meet a multi millionaire, It's jealousy by those who didn't get an invite, Something to hang their ego on, Something to tell their Grandchildren or something to brag about as it bothered them, So insulting them by posting negative posts seems to have been a way to relieve their angst.

I certainly wouldn't have gone...not with my past adventures concerning DCFC

I don't believe all of the above was driven by petty personal jealousy, some of it maybe but not all.

I understand what Morris was attempting to do but the way he executed it was fatally flawed and always going to leave himself open for criticisms of either being stage managed, non inclusive or favouritism/bias. That's the way it is unfortunately. People just react to that accordingly. 

[RamNut]

Huge overreaction. Can’t really understand what all the fuss is about. It was 5 years ago. There have been loads of opportunities since to ask questions at open forums since then.

I’m just getting confused as to who had breakfast, who didn’t, and who stayed at the midland hotel. 

[Day]

20 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

I don't believe all of the above was driven by petty personal jealousy, some of it maybe but not all.

I understand what Morris was attempting to do but the way he executed it was fatally flawed and always going to leave himself open for criticisms of either being stage managed, non inclusive or favouritism/bias. That's the way it is unfortunately. People just react to that accordingly. 

Similar comments are made by the clubs own larger fan forum events.

I find the whole thing a little bizarre to be honest, club is open with fans, fans respond with meh PR stunt, club doesn’t communicate with fans for a few months, why are they silent now, come on show yourselves?

Mel’s own health and COVID are 2 fairly good reasons they haven’t been running recently to be fair.

Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Wouldn’t say any of it was flawed as such, just feel like we have fans out there (not you) that will find something to complain about regardless of what the club does.

[DarkFruitsRam7]

How people found a way to cry about this, I’ll never know.

[BIllyD]

I think most fans, like myself couldn't care either way about these "meet ups", there is not even 40 pages, even if every post was a dig it wouldn't really be a true representation of the fan base. What would be more interesting to the majority IMO is the output.

Looking at the first few pages of this thread, one would have to question if Mel ever had a plan or if he did it was was that changed throughout the years.

He talked about having managers with the same philosophy, yet I'm not sure he managed that throughout his tenure. The timing of the sacking of PC highlights this, set the club back only months after hauling him as his next AF ?‍♂️
 

He talks about backing managers no matter what, once again you'd have to question the methodology of this, you signed up to FFP, someone needs to control it. There is plenty more, but to be honest it's been discussed time and time again, fingers crossed he gets a real buyer with real money for the club soon.