Site Problems At Darlo

It’s A Dangerous Place The Internet!

If you remember correctly from the Gillingham story, Alan Liptrott was banned by Gillingham chairman, Paul Scally, over a domain names which Scally claims should belong to the club and are costing him money. Scott’s crime seems just as petty (possibly an appropriate word for this article) but nonetheless it has cost him the ability to watch the side that he loves play.

George Reynolds is a strange man. Chairman of Darlington football club and seemingly someone that was to rescue them from the doldrums. A brand new stadium (ego dictates it’s called the ‘Reynolds Arena’) and some money available to the club. However, all is not as it first seemed and I am sure that people reading this will remember things about Mr Reynolds wife causing the players to walk out of a meeting when she suggested that they were not trying as hard as they should.

From what I can see from the outside Mr Reynolds (or more likely his people) read the message board at Darlo Uncovered on a regular basis. They then get in touch with Scott when they read something that angers them. That’s not unusual, I have had phone calls from people who have disliked what is written about them on the message board. Tony Petty and Peter Nicholas are two examples of that.

However, Scott started to dig his heels in when he was being asked to remove messages from posters who simply did not like what is happening at the club. He refused on the basis, I assume, of freedom of speech. And quite rightly so. To me the message board is about opinion and if you disagree with something then why not say? As long as it is not defamatory to an individual or libellous then football fans have the right to an opinion. Things then started to get nasty.

Around two weeks ago, people called at the house of Scott and took it all out on his seven-and-a-half month pregnant wife. Darlo Uncovered was then taken off the air as it stood. The site now is back but the message board remains shut as do the Rivals boards at Hartlepool and Luton Town for similar instances of clubs not liking what they read. This wasn’t the first, but the fifth visit that Scott had received that year.

It seems that Mr Reynolds is not happy with things that he reads but it is acceptable for this to happen? (Visits etc) Then this week, Scott received (hand delivered) the following letter: –

And thus his days inside the Reynolds arena ended. All because of what was written on a message board – how pathetic can you get?

Yesterday was the first match, if you like, in the post-Scott Thornberry era and it resulted in his brother, Paul being removed from the stadium because of remonstrating with Mr Reynolds and police officers taking photos of people wearing shirts that were to have been part of the site (see the link to get the idea)

I can’t imagine how Scott Thornberry feels. I have been going down the Vetch to watch matches for 25 years and even through the bad times when you think ‘won’t bother’ you end up going because it is in your blood. I cannot picture getting a letter that says "Do not attend" or how I would feel.

What I do know is that the football league view club sites with disdain. The copyrighting of fixtures proves that and it’s all wrong. What they miss is the good that sites can do. We are lucky as I think our club realises that through the problems we had in the Petty and Lewis days. However, it seems that clubs like Darlington miss this point and believe that they can walk all over the fans.

It’s a sorry state of affairs.

Footnote: This is not the first such instance we have told you about freedom of speech at Darlington being banned – see the link for a story from February of this year

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