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Supporters Charter Group Apology


David

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20 hours ago, David said:

I just want to apologise for the delay, my absence, my handling of the situation and try to explain what has happened.

The meeting on Wednesday was scheduled to end at 8.45pm, my last train home was 9.33pm, I slipped out just after 9pm as I didn’t have clothes, medication, toiletries with me as I wasn’t planning on staying overnight.

When the meeting had finished, an agreement was made where one statement would be written and signed off by all groups, this is the first time anything like this had been agreed, I was under the impression we would be allowed to report back as normal.

Being completely unaware of this, whilst waiting for my train I saw a conversation take place on my Twitter timeline discussing the meeting minutes, when would they be out.

I replied, that the meeting minutes were not taken and we would be sharing the information ourselves, which as I say I was under the impression would be allowed, why else attend? I thought I was being helpful.

Now I can see on reflection I was clearly naive in not appreciating the number of fans waiting online for what was said at the meeting, would see the tweet whilst was part of a conversation, which was also public and could be seen and shared by others. The tweet blew up online having been retweeted, I’m not exaggerating when I say maybe hundred or more replies, some abusive to the point where I had to turn notifications off as my phone was freezing with as I came back into an area with phone signal.

On the forum I did pre warn members not to expect anything Wednesday evening, the minutes can sometimes take a few days to a couple of weeks before being released. I was going with the intention of asking the club if the minutes could be released within 24 hours or that we could release the information immediately. Obviously once we was told the minutes would not be taken all that went out the window and believed we was free to report back immediately, and that was the plan.

Again, I was clearly naive to the fact fans on Twitter would not be aware of this, so when I wasn’t replying to all the tweets with thumbs up or down if it’s good news, or are we going to have a club next week the levels of abuse increased, despite my plea for being understanding I wasn’t in the position to do so.

With my write up, I had no intention of adding any personal opinion, it would be just what was said and allow you all to read and take it as you will.

As you will be well aware, all fans see things differently and I didn’t want to raise any expectations or disappoint fans, then receive more abuse as it wasn’t what they were expecting.

I put myself in this situation through naivety, but I don’t accept that the abuse was warranted at all, I have removed the twitter account from my devices and will no longer be active on that account, opting now for a private account as I have no interest in twitter fame.

I would seriously urge anyone that did send me abusive tweets to have a think how they talk to people online and their demands, if this is this what celebrities have to deal with on a daily basis, I’m glad I’m just a nobody!

Punjabi Rams, who I honestly can’t thank enough stepped in and put some tweets out from their account to give some information in my defence. You guys are awesome, didn’t need to do that but again, I honestly can’t thank you enough. Quick plug www.punjabirams.co.uk, @PunjabiRams on Twitter, go give them a follow if you are on there.

On the train home I started to do the write up on my notes app, realising I need to get this out asap, first thing to defuse the situation I felt I had created.

Thursday morning, as I was consulting my notes and finishing off the write up, there was a few things I wanted to fact check with the club were totally accurate, there has been times where things have been misheard in the past (Boycie ahem) and needed correcting, I didn’t want this to happen. We’re human, mistakes can happen, I believed I had time to ensure there were none.

I decided, and this was not requested by the club but to send my write up to them, asking if they could read it over and everything I had written was totally accurate, leaving ??? <—— fact checks where I was a little cautious over.

They agreed and I again naively yet again assumed that this would be back with me in a few hours……despite the previous night listening to just how busy they have been.

Now whilst I understand and totally agree that this meeting is important, the club staff are as I’m sure you can imagine really busy, now I need to really stress here that this is in no way the fault of the club, this is on me 100%.

No tweet, no forum post, none of this situation exists.

Meanwhile The Supporters Charter Group are scratching their heads as to why I’ve gone it alone, I can only apologise to them also, as I say I was under the impression that we would all be reporting back ourselves which I have explained privately with them.

A single statement isn’t something I would have been personally happy with but that is what was agreed in my absence.

I haven’t felt comfortable coming back on the forum if I'm honest, ignoring the fact I insinuated what was said at the meeting would be out Thursday on the forum, I feel like I have let you all down and for that I’m sorry.

Just to add, this apology wasn’t asked for, it's something I feel is owed to you all.

Should someone have gone that could have stayed all evening? Ideally yes, although Paul (Boycie) was unavailable to attend. Since the formation of 2017 it has only been either myself or Paul that has attended, I didn’t feel it would be right to send someone new which in hindsight was the correct call, they may have also not been able to attend until the end of what I’m led to believe turned out to be almost a 4 hour long meeting, putting themselves unwittingly into a similar situation I have.

I know you are all frustrated, the accusations of attention seeking, sitting on information, teasing, trying to get more views, followers etc. and even censorship on the forum are simply not true, they come from people that do not know me or how the forum is run at all, which is disappointing hearing it said by members that have been on the forum for a number of years now.

Finally, I do want to say thank you to those who have sent supportive texts, PM’s, DM’s, tweets you name it over the last few days, despite asking to be given time, it’s you who I put the hours in for, I will learn from this and work on handling things better in the future.

I would also like to thank the moderators who have been trying their best to keep on top of the situation, without them this forum would have crashed and burned over the last few days so please be respectful to them, even if at times you do not agree with decisions they have made. 

David

 

No apology needed. 

You attended, things happened after you left, not your fault.

Let's all get on with supporting the team.

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On 10/08/2021 at 08:48, cheron85 said:

I appreciate this doesn't mean much - But as a minor show of solidarity I've decided to retire my traditional Batman icon in 'favour' of my own stupid ugly mug

Now people will have a better idea who is spouting such stupid opinions - Feel free to say hello if you see me at the football (although I am a fairly generic fat, beardy, glasses wearer so you may get someone else) 

Not going to claim my name (Chris) as my username though - As I feel that @David is the only forum resident who can pull off the Beyonce-esque single name thing

Hello from another non-anonymous member!

In all seriousness, nameless and faceless online abusers do hide behind that anonymity unfortunately. I don't browse Twitter so didn't see directly, but am sorry to hear what happened to you @David

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On 10/08/2021 at 19:29, David said:

Needs a touch up still

5452FC81-CC28-4AE5-9E38-5D8659187029.jpeg

18C3F740-4762-41D4-917C-CB191EBEB0B9.jpeg

Oh he is so cute .... now off to find the pets thread 

I'm new on here too and also just want to add my voice to the rest to say you have nothing to apologise for and appreciate you trying to add our voices to the meeting.  I have really enjoyed this forum since joining as well so thanks for running it and to all the moderators you do a cracking job! 

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On 09/08/2021 at 23:25, David said:

I just want to apologise for the delay, my absence, my handling of the situation and try to explain what has happened.

The meeting on Wednesday was scheduled to end at 8.45pm, my last train home was 9.33pm, I slipped out just after 9pm as I didn’t have clothes, medication, toiletries with me as I wasn’t planning on staying overnight.

When the meeting had finished, an agreement was made where one statement would be written and signed off by all groups, this is the first time anything like this had been agreed, I was under the impression we would be allowed to report back as normal.

Being completely unaware of this, whilst waiting for my train I saw a conversation take place on my Twitter timeline discussing the meeting minutes, when would they be out.

I replied, that the meeting minutes were not taken and we would be sharing the information ourselves, which as I say I was under the impression would be allowed, why else attend? I thought I was being helpful.

Now I can see on reflection I was clearly naive in not appreciating the number of fans waiting online for what was said at the meeting, would see the tweet whilst was part of a conversation, which was also public and could be seen and shared by others. The tweet blew up online having been retweeted, I’m not exaggerating when I say maybe hundred or more replies, some abusive to the point where I had to turn notifications off as my phone was freezing with as I came back into an area with phone signal.

On the forum I did pre warn members not to expect anything Wednesday evening, the minutes can sometimes take a few days to a couple of weeks before being released. I was going with the intention of asking the club if the minutes could be released within 24 hours or that we could release the information immediately. Obviously once we was told the minutes would not be taken all that went out the window and believed we was free to report back immediately, and that was the plan.

Again, I was clearly naive to the fact fans on Twitter would not be aware of this, so when I wasn’t replying to all the tweets with thumbs up or down if it’s good news, or are we going to have a club next week the levels of abuse increased, despite my plea for being understanding I wasn’t in the position to do so.

With my write up, I had no intention of adding any personal opinion, it would be just what was said and allow you all to read and take it as you will.

As you will be well aware, all fans see things differently and I didn’t want to raise any expectations or disappoint fans, then receive more abuse as it wasn’t what they were expecting.

I put myself in this situation through naivety, but I don’t accept that the abuse was warranted at all, I have removed the twitter account from my devices and will no longer be active on that account, opting now for a private account as I have no interest in twitter fame.

I would seriously urge anyone that did send me abusive tweets to have a think how they talk to people online and their demands, if this is this what celebrities have to deal with on a daily basis, I’m glad I’m just a nobody!

Punjabi Rams, who I honestly can’t thank enough stepped in and put some tweets out from their account to give some information in my defence. You guys are awesome, didn’t need to do that but again, I honestly can’t thank you enough. Quick plug www.punjabirams.co.uk, @PunjabiRams on Twitter, go give them a follow if you are on there.

On the train home I started to do the write up on my notes app, realising I need to get this out asap, first thing to defuse the situation I felt I had created.

Thursday morning, as I was consulting my notes and finishing off the write up, there was a few things I wanted to fact check with the club were totally accurate, there has been times where things have been misheard in the past (Boycie ahem) and needed correcting, I didn’t want this to happen. We’re human, mistakes can happen, I believed I had time to ensure there were none.

I decided, and this was not requested by the club but to send my write up to them, asking if they could read it over and everything I had written was totally accurate, leaving ??? <—— fact checks where I was a little cautious over.

They agreed and I again naively yet again assumed that this would be back with me in a few hours……despite the previous night listening to just how busy they have been.

Now whilst I understand and totally agree that this meeting is important, the club staff are as I’m sure you can imagine really busy, now I need to really stress here that this is in no way the fault of the club, this is on me 100%.

No tweet, no forum post, none of this situation exists.

Meanwhile The Supporters Charter Group are scratching their heads as to why I’ve gone it alone, I can only apologise to them also, as I say I was under the impression that we would all be reporting back ourselves which I have explained privately with them.

A single statement isn’t something I would have been personally happy with but that is what was agreed in my absence.

I haven’t felt comfortable coming back on the forum if I'm honest, ignoring the fact I insinuated what was said at the meeting would be out Thursday on the forum, I feel like I have let you all down and for that I’m sorry.

Just to add, this apology wasn’t asked for, it's something I feel is owed to you all.

Should someone have gone that could have stayed all evening? Ideally yes, although Paul (Boycie) was unavailable to attend. Since the formation of 2017 it has only been either myself or Paul that has attended, I didn’t feel it would be right to send someone new which in hindsight was the correct call, they may have also not been able to attend until the end of what I’m led to believe turned out to be almost a 4 hour long meeting, putting themselves unwittingly into a similar situation I have.

I know you are all frustrated, the accusations of attention seeking, sitting on information, teasing, trying to get more views, followers etc. and even censorship on the forum are simply not true, they come from people that do not know me or how the forum is run at all, which is disappointing hearing it said by members that have been on the forum for a number of years now.

Finally, I do want to say thank you to those who have sent supportive texts, PM’s, DM’s, tweets you name it over the last few days, despite asking to be given time, it’s you who I put the hours in for, I will learn from this and work on handling things better in the future.

I would also like to thank the moderators who have been trying their best to keep on top of the situation, without them this forum would have crashed and burned over the last few days so please be respectful to them, even if at times you do not agree with decisions they have made. 

David

 

Anybody who thinks you have let them down is a dick.

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7 hours ago, Bob The Badger said:

Anybody who thinks you have let them down is a dick.

Indeed, I couldn't have put it better myself. 

I suspect that I'm not the only one who feels a debt of gratitude to @David . He's created this wonderful place which is the defacto home of Derby County on the internet. Even though it's somewhat bitter sweet at present, my life is enhanced by his efforts.

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