We introduced these last season as we felt it would help stop the forum from getting too cluttered and prevent duplicate threads, which was reasonable enough. However, with hindsight I don't think it's really worked as intended.
We now have a situation whereby everything relating to a player is lumped into one topic. It's a bit prosaic and formulaic, and stifles debate. For instance, in the Toure thread recently (just as an example) we had three concurrent debates lumped together in one thread (his agent's comments about Guardiola, the African Player of the Year issue, and his current form), when they all merited separate discussion.
You also sometimes end up with certain posters using these threads just to slag players off, which can be a bit tedious.
We've decided to try and change things so will trial locking those huge threads (including the media bias thread), and people can just start new, more specific topics as and when appropriate.
I know some people think we keep changing things for the sake of it, but obviously we're not trying to piss people off. We're just constantly trying to find ways to improve the forum, and if it doesn't work then we'll happily reassess it.
Any feedback, as always, welcomed.
Cheers,
Ric