TWO Wanderers' directors have quit an internet chat group after receiving abuse from fans on the information super highway.
Local businessman David Speakman - a long-time subscriber to the chatline - posted his last message saying he no longer wished to contribute to the site because it had become "boring and laddish".
Club chairman, Phil Gartside, has also quit in support of his boardroom colleague.
"It had been useful as a debating chamber," Mr Gartside said of the 160-strong "bwfc@egroups.com". "But it has served its purpose. It was a bit of an experiment but what they had to contribute is now covered by other communication groups, such as the fans' forums we have set up. It lost its value when it became dominated by three or four individuals and there wasn't proper debate which we'd seen before."
Mr Speakman, who joined the Wanderers' board in November last year, had been an active participant, posting messages which ranged from information on club affairs to opinion on how the team and players were performing. But he recently became the target of personal abuse and decided he no longer wished to be associated with the group.
"The internet allows people like me to debate with people who have diverse opinions about a particular subject," he explained. "What that has got to do with personal abuse, I don't know."
He claims the list, to which he previously enjoyed contributing, had deteriorated into "irrelevance" and "laddish nonsense".
"We have seen some indulge themselves with unnecessary language that I don't want to be associated with," he adds. "As a fan, I want the security of not being abused but the freedom to be disagreed with. There is a difference and it is sad that some can't recognise that.
"Someone even wrote that company directors (not necessarily BWFC ones) should be used to putting up with abuse as they do so at work. Maybe this is the view of others, if so I don't only disagree but I can't even relate to these people.
"When I can't relate in any way, shape or form to some who are now on the list and who are now the most proactive then it becomes a waste of time and a labour rather than a joy."
Reaction to the directors' resignations has been split with some members of the group maintaining their right to free speech while others, who do not want to lose the link with the board, are in the throes of setting up a second chat group with ground rules in the hope of enticing them back.
Mr Speakman says he may be prepared to subscribe to a new list, provided standards and integrity can be guaranteed, and adds: "I sincerely believe decent BWFC fans should have a forum for constructive, witty debate without any personal abuse or continual bad language."
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