The Craic Needs You
By AlecW
November 29 2021
Well, here we are again. The Craic website has gone down again. Which means that there is no Craic on an afternoon when Irish are playing a crucial game at the Stoop at 1500. All the pundits (well, The Times and Austin Healy [spit] in the Torygraph, anyway) are convinced that this could be one of the matches of the season and The Times reckoned tongue-in-cheek that a 70 – 70 scoreline was not beyond the bounds of possibility..
But no Craic. Which means that the only alternative for those who can’t watch the game, or who want to discuss it, is “View from the 22”, which is fine – the more the merrier, say I – but it has far less activity and far fewer LI supporters on its threads.
What to do? What to do? Well, Griff has nearly lost the will to live and has certainly lost the will to plead for Craic messageboarders to write a story – any story – for the site. You see, Sportnetwork finances itself through advertising, which is why it is free for all of us to use. The quid pro quo (for the lack of quid to pay!) is that there must be a new story put up every ten days or so, otherwise Sportnetwork takes us offline. Something to do with hits and numbers of people seeing the adverts, I guess.
So – the only way to stop this from happening is for Griff to have a story to put up regularly. Imagine if the site went offline the day before LI made an appearance in the Premiership Final at HQ against Bath or Quins? Mayhem…! The easiest story to put up is a match report. It doesn’t have to be worthy of David Walsh, Hugh McIlvanney, Mick Cleary or Bill McLaren (still less Stephen Jones!), Gawd knows some of my reports haven’t been great. All it needs is just a few hundred words on what happened, from an LI point of view. You don’t even have to have been at the match – just watch online, for instance. Or it could be an account of a trip to Hazlewood to watch the Geese, or the Academy, or when the LI Community Team visited your offspring’s school – anything will do.
The trouble is, too many people on the messageboard enjoy reading and posting but aren’t prepared to invest a few minutes to keep the damn thing up and running. Twenty Craic supporters writing one story each, every six months – and you’ve craic-ed it. Griff has a busy life and eventually got fed up having to do the stories himself – and now he is fed up asking for them from other people. I’ve obliged on a few occasions, most recently because I have been stewing away in the country recovering from a major operation and not in a position to socialise much, or go to the rugby in London. I had time on my hands and have been happy to help.
But…
Not anymore. I too am getting hacked off. It really is ‘use it or lose it’ time. Or ‘it’ll die if you don’t feed it’. The Craic keeps being brought back from the dead, Lazarus-like, but ultimately, it will just die, as a few years ago, the original LI supporters’ website, The Sunbury Centre (https://www.www.london-irish.co.uk/ which as you will see, has been taken offline by Martyn, due to stagnation - no-one posted for aeons). The same is liable to happen to The Craic, unless you guys and gals, its members, get your fingers out of your joint and several erses and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT…!!!
Rant over. This screed took me precisely 25 minutes to type and the mock-up poster another 10. It is roughly 700 words long. Griff might even be persuaded to put it up on the website before 1500 and the Quins game, if he is around and about, has the time, access to a PC / laptop and (quite frankly) the patience and inclination do it. I really wouldn’t much blame him if none of these was the case.
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I had a brief chat with the Sale supporter who spun-off ViewFromThe22 and he/she was very keen for us to move over there but he/she didn't make anything like a cogent argument as to why we would. As Alec says, it's there, if you don't want to put a bit of effort in then by all means move onto that.
For me, the stories are what makes The Craic different, it really pains me that we don't have a match report from every game like we did for a couple of decades in the beginning. No, they're not all literary genius but they're a flavour of how the support saw the game and that's different than ANY other sports website. Keeping the Craic alive keeps a space for all those reviews, poems, recipes and madness. I really don't think it's much to ask for the site but, as in many things, I seem to be in a minority.
I'll still turn in the odd report when I can but I can't keep this site alive on my own, it's up to you.
It's the 21st century. I post on dozens of message boards and Sports Network is the only one that shuts you down on a regular basis.
Happy to post on both, but honestly the only thing the Craic has going for it is the larger poster base (and your patience Griff)
I can't promise Woodward and Bernstein....or even Ant and Dec but can try to put up some content when I can.
Craig
Basically I need some words - either emailed to 'editors@londonirish.org' or PM to me. If you're thinking of doing a match report it might be worth an ask first as someone might have volunteered and, while I'm happy to put multiple match reports up, it seems a waste of effort and there'll always be another one needed later. If you just want to write something Irish related that isn't topical I might sit on it until we need it but that's more than welcome as I can have it up my sleeve if we hit the 14 day limit.
If anyone thinks they've been wronged then they're welcome to contact me and I'll do my best to help.
As I say I'm more than happy for folks to move - I'm also happy if someone else wants to do the editing/moderating or to help me out. I've been doing this for decades now and I'll happily admit I'm dialing it in these days. I've had people volunteer to help before which was very welcome but sadly life has got in the way for them all and they couldn't devote any time to it. It's not the glamorous 24/7 party I make it out to be.
Quote:Ajax Treesdown
A lot of snide comments towards other users and trolls on this message board - which don't get dealt with....are also reasons why people are moving over to View from the 22.
I didn't think there were that many folks who had moved over to V22? - I took a look ages ago but sort of then forgot as there were not many posts...
I guess many people have simply shifted to FB etc..
Snide/trolls etc all part and parcel of online messageboards. At least people here are generally informed and troll-like.
Quote:APigUnderEachArm
ViewFrom has the charm of an empty Costco.
Snide/trolls etc all part and parcel of online messageboards. At least people here are generally informed and troll-like.
...and we can have a "bit of a go" a times - yet still remain (mostly) friendly...
Quote:APigUnderEachArm
ViewFrom has the charm of an empty Costco.
Snide/trolls etc all part and parcel of online messageboards. At least people here are generally informed and troll-like.
An empty Costco but the doors are always open
Quote:Shawshank
We just need a few last minute losses to get the juices going again on here…
Misery do love company.
Quote:APigUnderEachArmQuote:Shawshank
We just need a few last minute losses to get the juices going again on here…
Misery do love company.
