Barton Debate - Rules of Engagement

Many posters have come to us concerned that the forum is becoming very “Barton heavy”. We understand that some forum members wish to discuss his current behaviour and the merits of his term as manager. We respect this fact and would not discourage healthy and respectful debate on this matter.

However we also understand that many posters are concerned at the spread of these debates which are working their way into seemingly unrelated threads. For instance, a great example is the thread on new manager bounces. Joe Barton was a manager of our club for a number of years and it is difficult on occasions not to discuss his relative performance, but please can we work to the following principles here on in:

• If a pending new thread relates to behaviour by JB now he is no longer manager of our club please post it in the existing thread instead - to be renamed “Barton Post Rovers”
  
• when discussing the merits of his Rovers career please stick to relevant threads, and avoid personal attacks against other posters.

At our teams discretion:

• Threads discussing Barton’s behaviour post his term at rovers will be merged into the singular thread.
• Posts which are heavily debating the merits of Barton’s term may be moved if they progress heavily off topic from the original thread
  
• Posts which get extremely personal will warrant deletion and possible moderator actions against individuals including warnings, time outs or bans.