I know some of his articles are ok, backed up with some decent stats but he has gotten a bit big for his boots. He has just blocked me on twitter for making a comment about fans having to pay a subscription to his website. He has always come across as a guy that does what he does for the love of the club and for his fellow fans, well thats true, as long as they pay. His choice I guess, I wont be reading anything of his any more though, not that he will be bothered but just thought I would say my bit. Lots of people do free blogs and forums etc.. it just seems like he has built up popularity then decided to cash in.
Its a fair comment. Paying subscriptions is a bit lousy. The worst is Koptalk. Duncan Oldham is a bit of an arse too.If you disagree with him he gets the hump.He launched an attack on the Irish a while back,it was very insulting,some of us had friended him on facebook,and when we were annoyed,he got the hump and deleted us.Half of what the fat bollox says is pure ****.All we did was tell the fat bollox to cop himself on.
He's explained it (for free) elsewhere on his site. It's his living and he does a lot of research others don't because nobody's paying them to. Maybe if you'd written him privately using the email address on his site he might've taken you a bit more seriously, rather than lumping you in with all the others who want his good stuff for free that he's probably getting mightily sick of hearing from. He does give some of his articles away free and I've got no problem with him charging for others. It keeps the wums away and if I had the money I'd probably subscribe myself. I could "do a Swarbs" and go into the whole concept of supply, demand and building up a customer base like the club does - don't expect season ticket prices to drop once the silverware starts returning. So, you're not an arse, dude, but it's sadly my honest opinion that you're behaving a bit like one over this. You might want to read Charlie Brooker's article, "If the internet gave free back rubs, people would complain when it stopped because its thumbs were sore": http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/06/spotify-problem-getting-people-to-pay
I just think that he never set out to charge, he is cashing in on popularity. It doesn't sit right with me when someone does something for free and then decides to cash in. Fair play to him though, seems to be doing ok, he just went all defensive when I questioned it. Must of hit a nerve, I wasn't rude or anything. Oh well.
well i have to say i agree. 1. he makes up 90% of his stats to suit himself. most of his references are to mates he sells books with so linking to a site with rank trnasfer fees is a bit silly. 2. he wrote for the offical website at a time when optimisim was required but he was such a rafa love in merchant he didn't sound positive he sounded likean apologist for rafa. 3. he is after all just making money. 4. his stance on hodgson v rafa is hilarious. one he bashed and one he loves like a son. Both play negative football. so all in all, his "good stuff" is rare, his stats are poor but there you go. he does write some good histories though... i wish he'd drop the stats though.
I'm still convinced that Duncan Oldham on Koptalk is just as bad.It costs £10 a year to hear hearsay and you can get it for free by watching his videos on youtube.
Cheers, i'm getting some abuse for what I said now but I stand by it. If everyone charged for stuff they wrote on the web then it would be a grim place. Especially charging fellow fans. Maybe I am being an arse, but to me it is the same as, for example, if this site just suddenly started charging.
I don't think its right to charge.All most of it is opinion anyway.Do we charge for offering our opinion on these forums.Opinion and fact are two different things.Fact is fact,and Opinions counts for nothing as it can easily change.However nobody should ever charge for giving their opinion and thats what Tompkins and Koptalk do.
