"Pr!ck" it's hard to interpret and "shut the hell up" are kind of hard to interpret as anything other than insulting. Not too much room for interpretation there...
No doubt, the dude could have avoided the firestorm if he had chosen his words differently.

When we use--even inadvertantly use charged terms-there is going to be some pushback. Part of putting something out is trying to anticpate how it will be received.

Sometimes, I just don't undertand what psbf is thinking... I try to.

What (else) is wrong with this picture?

psbf: What I also don't understand is how you can coz such a firestorm and appear to walk away from it.

If you want to be taken seriously then you have to step up. You could have tried to choose your words differently if you were being misunderstood.
And if you were NOT misunderstood and there really was an intentional meanspirited angle to your post then you have to try and understand why some people got bitter so qucikly.

You started the thread and then you didn't do very much to clean up the mess (even if it was unintentional).

If you don't show people a reason to take your seriously-that you are trying to contribute then you are going to continue to have a very, very hard time in the community here.

I've told you this privately and I've told you the same thing publicy.

Sometimes changing more than a username is necessary if you want to be taken more seriously, sometimes we have to look at our approach.

If you want to be taken more seriously then you will need give people here or on any message board more reasons through your a change in your attitude and your behavior that you want to really contribute.

If you want to be "understood", then some more understanding on your part would help a awful lot. At least it would be a start...

Unfortunately I know some people who are proud to be called that. I'm just referring to the ***** part.
Even more unfortunately there are some people that exist that are proud to be a racist. Thankfully I don't personally know any of them

But I do agree that in this case, there was a very good chance that it was meant as an insult. Whether it was warranted is where we will probably always disagree.

As far as the "shut the hell up" part goes, now to me there IS some room for interpretation. I've been told that before and have never been insulted by it. Maybe it's the same for the person that originally stated it and they didn't intend it as an insult. Maybe they did but again, was just responding in the tone already set.

Yankiboy I think you miss my point, my point was if he is gunning for people because of nationality and talking about being a true American then I am sorry the only true American is a Native American the rest of you are nothing more than descendants of immigrants.

So sorry he does need to shut up about those type of issues period, if he wants to talk soccer then lets do it.

I am also well aware of how a forum works...

I got your point. I didn't miss it.

We can just agree to disagree about whether it is appropriate to tell someone to "shut up" in a forum, town hall, open forum, etc.

I understood your point. We all are coming from somewhere else or the children of people who came from somewhere else. I got that part.

I have never been big on the "true (fill in the blank)" litmus tests. Even if it is a who is a "true soccer fan" a "real whatever".

Like I said, I avoid these types of discussions like the plague at all costs. Coz communication in person is sometimes tricky as all get out. Relayed over servers with less vibe makes tricky things even trickier.


If you thought that I was trying to be condescending about my impression of what a message board type forum is for, like I was trying to give you a "lesson" then that was not my intent.

I sincerely beg your pardon. Please forgive me.

That was most definitely not my intent. I was just trying to explain why I thought it was over the top. I was not trying to be patronizing. I really wasn't.

I'm really glad that you started posting here last year. I enjoy your posts and the flava that you bring.

Peace & Maximum Respect!

If there is anyone that I have offended in this thread or at anytime please let me know.
You can private message me or you can do it here.

I would also like to make it clear that I apologize to Doc.

Maybe next time, I will use the pm function to deal with any concerns that I have. That might have been a better move.

I will definitely reflect on it...

I accept the apology, although none was needed Sir.

Cheers, Mate.

Saves us dueling with fish at 20 paces a la Monty Python.

I'm not trying to start anything back up with anyone, I promise. I'm genuinely curious about this....

Am I the only one that doesn't even see this as being a problem?
To me, it's just a game. If people want to come out, fine. If they don't, well that's fine too.

I guess I am somewhat relating this to the Kickers exhibition game this past Saturday against Comunicaciones. I do admit at first I felt kind of embarrassed how outnumbered the Kickers fans were on their own home turf. But then I began to think about it and realized that among the missing were a lot of my friends. And they all had pretty legit (and varied) reasons for missing the game. And if I am going to give them a pass, shouldn't I also give a pass to everyone else who also had a pretty legit reason?


(I also have to admit that I really have no vested interest in games like this. Which is NOT to say that I don't root for the USA, and don't want to see them win. It just means that I have very, very limited access to seeing any of their games so it's hard for me to get really excited about them. So maybe that clouds my opinion on this whole subject)