CHOULO19

But you have to admit that we are "leaders" when it comes to this issue and not followers.

No, only one team was deleted before this season IIRC. But a few teams that were in the championship when we had 4 divisions stayed in the championship when we moved to 2 divisions. I think that team Skill comes into it as well

It actually might! I found this out this season when Nish, for example, who won the league 2 was chosen to be in the PL (i.e the top 12 teams).

HAHAHA I genuinely LOLed at this! The irony is just too much! HAHAHAHAHA

I like you Term, but you need to see a shrink...now!

That's an interesting point. I think the point behind "likes" or rep points is that they are kind of like "retweets" on twitter. One posts who represents the opinions of many people gets voted up instead of having people repeat the same opinion over and over again. But then again, many, if not most, forums don't have that feature and are doing just fine. So it's definitely an interesting idea. The problem is, usually what is "wrong" and who "deserves respect" is defined not by one man, but by the majority of the public. This is true not just for forum but for society as whole. The theory of people who only post GIFs and jokes winning it fails when you look at the names of the winners: http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/10101-member-of-the-month/ Tell me who there falls into that category? Skipper? Strike? Stingray posts a lot of GIFs, but go back to June when he won it and you can see that he was one of the most active members, especially in the players threads where he was constantly making debates and discussions. WHS? I've never seen him post a GIF. TOPTB certainly didn't win it for posting jokes. Same for Skipper (again) and Peace. Those are the winners of the last 7 MOTM awards. They just don't back your theory and I struggle to think why any one of them would not deserve the award.

You were naming people who do not deserve to win MOTM and making a "category", as you put it, of people who are stealing the award from the people who deserve to win it. You're assuming that just because you think someone deserves or does not deserve to win the award then that is a fact or at least objectively acceptable by everyone else. I'm sorry, but that is arrogant beyond belief!

So you basically want the people you like to win MOTM and place the people you don't like in a category that is eligible to win it even though most members don't agree with your judgement. The only way we can meet your 'demands' is that if we make a format where you simply unilaterally assign the winner of the MOTM every month. Shall I add that to the poll?!

This might be a little longer than you wanted, so I apologize for that, but it's a tricky subject that needs explaining if you're not from the region. I'll try to be as objective as possible. Hezboullah started back in 1982 during the (second) Israeli invasion of Lebanon. They started as a religious extremist group. Not quite as bad as Al Qaeda, but not that far off, tbh. They forced people in the area they had under control to do as they want. But then again 1982 was in the middle of the Lebanese civil war and each militia was doing the exact same thing to the areas they had under their control. It's that just for Hezboullah it had a religious spin on it. In the 90s, after the civil war ended (well the fighting ended, the civil has been ongoing since the 1840s), they were steadily becoming less "extreme". The Lebanese society is a very diverse one and everyone has to accept the other as no one can cancel anyone out. In fact, right now, if you take into account some of the religious extremist Qaeda-like groups we currently have, then Hezboullah is one of the more moderate religious groups. But they are an armed group, not just a political party. During the 90s, they also became the only major side fighting against Israel here in Lebanon with the diminishing role of the Palestinians here and the secular armed parties. They had a couple of wars with Israel during the 90s and many monthly-basis missions up until the year 2000 when they managed to force Israel out of most of the south of Lebanon which they were still occupying since 1982. Some say that the Israelis retreated by themselves, other say Hezboullah forced them. I honestly have no idea which is true. But that triumph (along with the death of Hafez Al Asad and being succeeded by Bachar) gave Hezboullah some real backing from Syria and Iran and they now had some serious weapons at their disposal. We're talking about more than 50,000 short and medium range missiles at the very least estimate along with advanced anti-tank weapons (and we even saw a glimpse of anti-ships weapons in 2006). This is where the US real issues with Hezboullah began. They were now a genuine threat to Israel and can change the 'equation' in the region. Before 2000, they would launch every month a few Katyusha missiles; half of them would miss and land inside Lebanon and the other half would cause panic and forest fires in Israel at worst. But this was no longer the case as became evident during the 2006 war. Hezboullah, with no more than 4-5 men in each village, managed to keep the Israelis out for more than 33 days while they fired thousands of missiles on Israel non-stop. This is when the US started really working on destroying the image of Hezboullah in Europe and in the Arab world. In the internal issues, I have many problems with Hezboullah. For starters they are a sectarian party (as are all 'effective' parties in Lebanon). I do not share their beliefs nor do I belong to their ideology. But I accept that they are a large of the Lebanese demography and they completely accept that there are people that don't belong in their demography as well. But when it comes fighting Israel, let's just say that we were Israel's play-toy until Hezboullah came along. I have no doubt that the moment they give up their weapons, the Israeli army will be on Lebanese soil again. The people who are with Hezboullah have a reputation of being religious, but they also have a reputation of being very polite, honest and incredibly organized (as a party and even a militia they are organized the extent that it's actually scary!). As for the terrorist part, whenever someone says that I remember something from the 2006 war. Like all of those who live in the southern suburb of Beirut, I was forced out of my home to a safer area. But we would still go home at times to get clothes and stuff from our house and so that Dad can check on his store (I think we went 3 or 4 time during the 33 days). One of those time, we had to park the car far from the house because there were literally buildings collapsed in the middle of the streets. Hezboullah had left some of their people in the area to keep an eye on everything and stop anyone from robbing the vacant houses. Two of those guys were helping us to get to our house and urging us to get done quickly because it was not safe. We passed by the entrance of a building where a stray dog has gotten him self locked in with the gate shut. The poor guy must have been starving. So the Hezboullah guys opened the gate for him and gave him a can of canned meat which was probably supposed to be part of their lunch that day ( I later learned that those two guys got killed after a building was brought down on them). And coincidentally, that same day happened to be the day that an Israeli plane had destroyed two Red Cross vehicles that were transporting over 20 women and children from a village in the south killing them all. Then Rice has the nerve to come out and say that Israel are fighting the terrorist Hezboullah. Lmao. PS: I'm too lazy to proof read this so sorry for any mistakes

The number one death cause for humans is, well, humans! Can we wipe those out, please

I don't think he's arrogant now. Last year a fan posted a picture of him where he stayed after training while it was snowing to sign some autographs for fans who had come to watch..with no shirt on!

Fair enough, but I think that he has grown and matured since and the fact that he admits that shows that.

There are some serious exaggerations going on around here. First, I've been a member here for over two years and since I have joined I've heard older members saying that the forum was better in the "old days". When I joined were complaining from the departure from CJ Revo (who is back now) and Aesthatic Relic and eldo(?). Then we moved to the crisis when Kilimanjaro (peace) left (before he came back). This happens before the start of every season. But in reality, this a forum and members will come and leave. Change is inevitable. Yes we lost some amazing members like LDN and Kostas who are both busy and can't post a lot anymore, but since I joined we've also gained some great posters as well like Skipper, Strike, TOPTB, Rmpr..and the list goes on. People are scared of change and like to talk about the "good ol' days" not just on here but in general, but the forum has grown and developed and I honestly believe that we have more quality members now than we did when I first joined. Not because those members were not great, but simply because we have more member now. As for the GIFs, I'm all for restricting them outside the General Chat area, but they are no where nearly as frequent or disturbing as some are making them out to be. I've never posted a GIF, and in most cases I frankly hate them because I have a slow internet connection and the page takes forever to load. But I just ignore them and stop the page loading before they completely load. I don't find it very annoying because in the football related sections, you generally get one every few pages, which isn't too bad. But this isn't just the forum, it is the whole internet. GIFs are the trend right now and there is nothing to do to stop it. I just can't understand how someone would say that the jokes are stopping the discussions. In fact, the days that everyone is talking about were not just "serious", they had just as much joking around as now if not more. Ask Kojo, he won the funniest member of the year award about a year and a half ago. If there is anything that is taking away the quality of the forum and stopping proper discussion it is all the fighting and insults aimed at people for having a different opinion. Funnily enough, when we tried to address that issue, some of the members who are now complaining about the quality stood against the Staff's efforts to stop the insults and fights. The staff are busting their asses trying to make the forum as enjoyable as possible for everyone, but you guys are making this near impossible at times.

That's going to take some explaining. Tomorrow. I really must sleep now

It's a store near my house where there has been sever car-bomb attacks recently. And the owner has put out a sign saying: "Please don't explode any cars next to the store because more than half the merchandise is still on debt. Thank you." #MiddleEasternProblems

@, this is near my house: Can't stop laughing!

LOL So you meant "Fucktartery" instead? Doesn't make much more sense

Of it has. You brought up the Suarez comparison and even if you did not compare their character, just their situations with opposition fans, I wanted to make a point about why even though they have similar position with fans they cannot be compared and so I quoted your post since it had the Suarez reference. If you believe it has nothing to do with you, then why are you being so defensive?

Minor note: wtf is "Fucktardery", @Stingray?!

Stick around, we always appreciate a different perspective to things around here

Peace gets some nominations almost every single month. He is probably one of the members to make it onto the poll the most times. He's one it twice: once before he 'left' for a few months and another after he returned. Only one of 5 members who managed to win it twice. Another member who has won it twice is SeB who has a very low post rate in comparison to other 'regulars'. The theory of "quantity over quality" fails when you look at the list of members who have won MOTM since it was made. And so does the theory about members who only post in the pub or funny memes. Not that there is anything wrong with either if that is what the community chooses.

There are also variables that have nothing to do with the player performance, like what club is buying him? How bad do they need him? How many teams are in for him? In which window is he being transferred? How much time is left of the window? How happy is he at his current club? How eager is he to join the other team? Does he want to force the move? How good are the negotiators of each team? What is the selling club policy about selling players? Are they Porto or are they Chelsea?...etc and tons of other factors that you just can't measure. But even if you put all that aside for a moment, this is football, not baseball, for example. Stats can help you show a certain point but they account for very little of the game. No stat can integrate player movement, mentality, decision making, leadership...etc So I disagree. I don't think that those numbers on the sight can be used to predict the fee that a certain player may be sold for nor is it a good way to measure and compare the skills of football players.

And, exactly, who put you in charge of quality control?! No, I do not think that there is anything wrong with the current format. The MOTM is a feature that adds a some banter and fun at the end of each month while giving some members who others think they contribute to the forum a little moral boost. There is no set of restrictions over who gets nominated and rightly so. Everyone should have the right to choose freely who they think should win it. How much a member is "worthy" of winning it is determined by how many votes and nominations they get; that is kind of the whole point behind democracy. So for this purpose of having some fun and democratically electing a member who most people think should get credit for their contribution to the forum this month, the current forum is just fine, imo. The problem we'e having, however, has nothing to do with the system itself, but rather with some people mistaking their opinions about who deserves to win MOTM for facts. You think someone deserves to win MOTM? Nominate him/her and if they make it to the poll then vote for them. If other people agree with you and nominate the member as well, he gets on the poll. Then if he gets enough votes, he wins. Simple as. Similarly as simple, if someone you nominate does not make the poll then that means most people don't agree with you. That does not make them wrong (or make the member unworthy of winning) it just means they have different opinions and think someone else is more worthy which they are perfectly entitled to. Just because someone moans about something, it does not make their opinion more important or worth more than other people. I personally think that BluesChick deserves to win MOTM this month and I just can't understand why someone else's opinion is more important than mine and can overrule my opinion by creating a format that makes her (or any other member) ineligible for winning member of the month when she is a member of this forum. (PS: I know you won't appreciate me dragging you again into this, Kerry, but I really believe you deserve to win it).

Unless the algorithm they use to "crunch" the statistics has somehow managed to solve for all the variables in the universe and predict the future then the number means next to nothing. Football transfers do not follow rules or even patters. Heck, often they don't even follow logic. That's why Bale goes for 90+m while Villa goes for under 5! Bottom line is, you're probably better off using FIFA ratings to compare players rather than what a site think they are worth.