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This is definitely the best start we've ever had to an SPL season. Our all-time record in the SPL after 14 games is: 2004/05 Points 12, GD -9; 2005/06 Points 17, GD -2; 2006/07 Points 19, GD 0; 2007/08 Points 13, GD -12; 2008/09 Points 14, GD -6; 2010/11 Points 24, GD +8; In the past 6 seasons the teams who were in 6th place after the 33-game split were: 2004/05 Motherwell, 43 points; 2005/06 Aberdeen, 48 points; 2006/07 Hibs, 44 points; 2007/08 Aberdeen, 44 points; 2008/09 Hibs, 42 points; 2009/10 Hearts, 44 points; So 44 points seems to be the target to aim for. 1 win in 3 between now and the split would give us about 42 points and if you toss in a few draws then a top 6 finish is very achievable this season. I think we'll do it. Any doubters?

What's so childish about it? He's been offered the chance to prove his theory....should we be expected to foot the bill for that when we believe he is wrong? I thought the offer to refund his money should he prove the lower end of his theory correct a very generous one...and double his money for thousands of new fans would, IMO, be money well spent and I'd happily part with it if proved wrong.

Your words not mine. It's hardly rocket science!!!! I'm not saying thousands would necessary join up to P&B but that site certainly seems more welcoming than CTO P&B and all other SPL clubs forums gives the lurker the option to read on while CTO doesn't unless they register which IMO puts the majority off It certainly doesn't help enticing new fans dougal So now you are not saying thousands, perhaps your hyperbole was lost on me. P&B is more welcoming than CTO? Personally I think if you are going to be getting worked up about ICT websites you are focussing on the wrong one.

Having now recovered from the shock of the revelation that you appear to have been in a bookshop no less than twice in something like a week, I do appreciate your update. However I am not unduly concerned since the half dozen or so still on the shelf in Waterstones are the very final copies of the sixth print run which this book has enjoyed since it was first published 15 years ago. Preumably your next episode of crass and naive stupidity will be to start a thread suggesting that I should instead have written it about the High School or Millburn rather than the Royal Academy.

Who put the O and the Y in County?

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. Buddha

I use a number of forums for professional and hobby purposes, and this site ranks up there as one that is well moderated, easy to operate and has a decent membership which provides some excellent banter as well as thought-provoking discussions. Registering for me was no inconvenience, in fact I would expect a reasonable site to request it to ensure that those wishing to get involved were there for the right reasons. Not just an internet security measure but one to screen out the really troublesome trolls, although it doesn't deter the really cheeky troublemakers (remember the sheep fan who made a brief appearance earlier in the year and then dropped out again having been well and truly flamed?? ) I regard this site very highly and because of these measures, I would recommend it without hesitation to any ICT fans not currently using it. Fact is, while some of us use forums to a greater or lesser extent the majority of people don't. Making it open access would not improve numbers and indeed, would only damage it for all the reasons already posted.

I too gave you a red dot. You don't go to referee a game and expect to be showered with obscenities and threats of physical violence, or threats of and / or having your car vandalised, your family threatened, your windows smashed or hit with coins. This issue is about respect. Comparing it to someone joining the armed forces seems a bit abstract to me. People sign up to the armed forces in the knowledge that you might get injured. People sitting the 30 hour referee course, taking the exam and then going out to referee games on public parks is a completely different scenario entirely. The vast majority of people who are referees (not your ?800 a match ones) do it to help young players improve and help the club, youth development or school which they work with. The actions of certain people in the SPL does have an effect on youngsters playing the game. Pushy parents who think that their child is a great prospect act like a school / youth game is the champions league final. There's an inherent lack of respect which must be addressed here. Players don't barrage other players with criticism like this. Mangers don't do it to other managers. Chairmen don't do it to other chairmen. But it's ok for everyone to have a go at the referees? This is far bigger than what is happening at present and I support the cat 1s who are taking this action.

Caley Stan/Kirishima, As I pointed out in my last post, you are of course entitled to your opinion and to express it by posting little red dots if you so wish. In my defence, I do believe it is relevent in that I was merely pointing out that there are more high pressure jobs than reffing. Jobs that cause people to be abused by others verbally and physically. For the most, these people get on with it and don't strike. So IN MY OPINION the refs should just get on with it. Yes, put in a complaint to the SFA but why cause so much inconvenience to others by causing games to be postponed? The defence rests. PS: Red dots do not bother one bit, I just like to have the chance to debate the subject instead of just having people hide behind a keyboard, so thank you for having the decency to reveal yourselves.

I gave you a red dot as well. Krishima pretty much nailed the reason why i didn't reply in a more eloquent manner than i could mange so we'll just leave it at that. The post in question currently has a rating of +2 though, so i wouldn't get too upset about it.

It was me. My defence counsel has made this statement below: "The post used a comparison that bore no relation to the topic in question, and my client felt that any point discussed on ICT, when compared to such serious matters as death, would naturally pale in comparison, thus making it a moot point." You have 28 days to appeal. :)

I think technology would help refs but as Caley D states its how to limit its use. My solution to this is use tennis' idea. The captain, and only the captain, of the team is allowed to ask for video replays. Each team gets three uses of the video technology. If the decision is wrong it does not count as a use. This way captains wouldnt moan about calls just to get in ref's faces and at the end of the game managers know they had the chance to check the decision. Okay it doesnt solve the problem of where to stop the game but hey thats me idea ...

Is this actually likely to bother anyone?

I'd rather play them on Saturday tbh. Highlights are now up on BBC Sport.

Scotty has already answered this part in regards the costs. I fail to see how a free to join forum excludes anyone? If someone has a genuine interest in ICT then they will register, if they are just digging for dirt and/or looking for gossip then registering may put them off. From experience, this stops a lot of selective picking of things from this forum turning up on in places and being used in ways we'd rather not see. I do take a little bit of an exception to this statement, but will put it down to your claims that you're new to the forums and as such are not aware of just how much CaleyThistleOnline and it's members have done since day one, and continue to do now, to promote ICT and help anyone with an interest in the club. Then maybe it would have been best that you stopped after the opening question!!! I've seen nothing to suggest this would be the case. At last count we were sitting at a figure of around 8 Million Page Views per annum (and climbing). I don't know the figures for all the other forums, but from the ones I am familiar with we are doing very nicely in that regard and the figures would suggest that we are doing more right than they are. We could do lots of things to increase our site statistics, but we value quality over quantity. We believe that people see enough of the site as a "guest" viewer so that if they are genuinely interested they will register. If visitors are going to be influenced by anything, then it will be the content and quality of discussion...and that's something we can't do by ourselves. In that regard, it's up to the site members to ensure they are doing their bit to "promote" ICT. Unfortunately we've not yet come up with a system that prevents people from posting whilst under the influence.

What some people perhaps lose sight of is that this is voluntary site. Become a sponsor Dougal?

Found this funny clip from PROBABLY....1998ish...starring our beloved Manager. Its actually quite good! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIkviNV8yGo&feature=related

Nice one but not the worst miss I've ever seen. I've seen Barrowman play.

Why do certain moderators waste their time using virtual bullying tactics on Dougal. If you don't want to answer his questions or think he is taking the mickey just ignore him! Every thread that he has posted on pretty much has certain moderators trying to stir things up and this encourages others to have a go at him. It's this kind of mob mentality that makes me not want to post on here most of the time. If he is genuine he doesnt need some halfwits with thousands of posts under their name and who also hold moderator status belittling him for coming onto a forum where discussion is meant to be encouraged. Just because you have heard it all before and you have time to go rummaging through archive folders that you probably helped create doesnt mean the rest of us do!

Add black ops to my list ;-)

Excellent point, advertising could make this site a tidy sum certainly a lot more than any donation i personally could make and you base this assumption on what exactly ? I dont think we actually complained about running costs? You started this thread not us. We have simply answered your actual question which was why we didnt leave all threads open to guests. The fact that one of the reasons we choose to display the site the way we do is to do with the cost of bandwidth is immaterial. We are not out with the begging bowl to users, we do not ram our 'sponsor member' option down people's throats and we do not routinely moan that the site is expensive to run ... it may be mentioned from time to time in response to a question as to why we may or may not be able to do something, but its not a constant whine. Advertising is an option but its a little difficult for me to get round local businesses in Inverness to try and source it and the simple fact is that online advertising budgets for most smaller companies are not huge. We chose to use Google ads because we can have some adverts that - as mentioned before - cover a decent portion of our operating costs, and we can keep them less obtrusive than advertising on other sites. Dont get me wrong, if some big company came along and offered us cash to sponsor the site we would definitely consider it ...we are not totally philanthropic ! I kind of take a little umbrage to the "Profits could be re-invested in improving the site or donations made directly to ICT" comment ..... We constantly improve this site .... read the post further up the page where I have described some of our evolution .... the site now compared to 15, 10, 5 or even 2 years ago is far different and IMHO far better than it was before because we invest in the site. We have moved from free hosting to shared hosting and now to VPS hosting, we have evolved from a guestbook to a rudimentary forum, to free forum software to a commercial grade forum, we have moved from static pages to basic content systems to a full content management system, we have moved from one person running and writing everything to having a team of individuals running, moderating, and writing articles (and I have to say that the quality of preview/report articles has increased vastly this season from when I might throw something together). We also respond to 'bug' reports from our members faster than most commercial sites I am a member of. As for donations .... the Internutters sponsorship started as a CTO sponsorship. I personally sponsored Grant Munro for a few years before turning it over to the group effort that Guzz now runs, and we underwrite it, vowing to make up any shortfall when we are in between one sponsorship goal and the next one. Even now whilst perhaps not making a monetary donation to ICT both myself and CaleyD have and continue to donate resources and time to help the club with various projects. For example, the bandwidth we are all talking about at the moment hosts the videos of all the matches that are shown on the club website and we process all the footage for the club so it can be streamed online. Thats just one thing, there are plenty of others.

Childish response to an innocent question .

I now see why people don't like the red/green dot system. Could who ever red dotted me please explain which part of my post was to your dislike and why. Don't get me wrong. You are perfectly entitled to dis-agree with what I've posted but if you could be man enough to post your reasons then at least it would give me the same opportunity to agree or not with you. I might also be able to explain what ever it was so that you understand where I'm coming from. Thank you

Having now recovered from the shock of the revelation that you appear to have been in a bookshop no less than twice in something like a week, I do appreciate your update. However I am not unduly concerned since the half dozen or so still on the shelf in Waterstones are the very final copies of the sixth print run which this book has enjoyed since it was first published 15 years ago. Musta used up hoora lot of staples over the years.

I'll be honest it was quite quiet when i was in but i was in a rush so never hung about for long I did notice that no further copies of "Up Stephen's Brae" had been sold though

Was it ever gonna be v county? Should be a good night for Roy's sake anyway. Well hoping it is since we won't be playing our first team and only 1500 will turn up

I'm just gonna shut up now..And I wonder why I have soo many red dots

I have absolutely no problem with Duncan Shearer - Legend? Not so sure. We had a football forum with Duncan and Brian Irvine and they shared some really good stories. I remember the announcement about leaving to join Aberdeen and it wasn't well handled, but I don't bear any grudges about that. I have only 1 issue with the book and that is that he promoted it on the back of Pele's problems. It was on the radio all the time and all it went on about was how difficult life was working with a guy with so many problems - nothing about Duncan's career. I felt really sorry for Pele who has already opened his heart in his own book (which I loved, by the way) and opening these wounds when Pele is still doing really well wasn't IMHO necessary

you dancer!!

I'm probably going to get some abuse for this but hey ho, I'll just go on strike. Referees get paid (anyone know how much for a top flight ref?) to do a job.If they do that job well they get promoted up to European, world cup games. If they do that job badly (Dougie) then they will get slated. They will get called all sorts of things, they will have their parentage questioned and even possibly get the odd hollow death threat. As far as I'm concerned, if that is as far as it goes so what, it's part of the job and at the end of the day sticks and stones etc. Try going to Afghanistan and doing your job badly, it won't be sticks and stones coming at you and you won't be able to go on strike either. I think that too many people in this day and age are too quick to start moaning and complaining about the way thay are treated. In the old days if a ref got some abuse off a player, manager, fan he would have given as good as he got. Unfortunately there are too many spoilt brats in the game (on all sides of the whistle) that can't take it. All this strike will do is alienate refs even more because it will inconvenience so many people that have booked trains, planes, buses, hotels etc. Man up and get on with it. PS: If the player, manager etc does go a bit over the top (Celtic) Then the SFA should be man enough to do something about it.

While you are absolutely right about our service men and women and what must be unbelievable pressure, football shouldn't be compared to a war zone. It's a sport for goodness sake and there must be something far wrong with society when referees and their families can be terrorised in their own homes. For what? Having the audacity to make a mistake that some paranoid a*****le sees as part of a hidden agenda. The clowns at parkhead should hang their heads in shame. All they are doing is helping the morons feel justified in their paranoia. I wish they would all grow up. Shankly was wrong.... football is not more important than live and death. Oz , i take my hat off to you sir . Perhaps you could round up some of these morons and teach them what really is important in life and it sure as **** ain't football. Robbylad, Sorry if I came across wrong in the way I wrote my rant. I'm not comparing Football with a war zone merely pointing out that there are more high pressure jobs than reffing. It seems that people are all too quick in striking when something happens that they don't like. If we all did that the world would come to a stand still. Now don't get me wrong, the refs shouldn't be subjected to the **** they are and the morons that are guilty of the abuse should be taken care of by the FA or if need be the police. Having said that I've stood on the streets of Belfast and had people question my parentage, thrown rocks and petrol bombs at me and eventually been shot at. Unfortunately I couldn't go on strike and no I'm not looking for sympathy. You just get on with it. I think the problem is the mentallity of today, the compo culture. The way we think that if someone upsets you, you should be due something in return. On the flip side, if someone is found to be breaking the rules/law then they should be dealt with. Unfortunately because of the softly softly culture that has been adapted in Britain, nothing will happen because if it did the scroats would complain about their human rights being restricted. I have to stop now, I'm building up to going out and smacking some poor innocent person just for the hell of it.

Excellent point, advertising could make this site a tidy sum certainly a lot more than any donation i personally could make Fair enough you claim you are not running CTO as a profit making exercise and thats entirely up to you but to say the lack of advertising doesn't bother you shows short sightedness IMO There is no point complaining about the running costs while on the other hand advertising doesn't seem to be considered an option Profits could be re-invested in improving the site or donations made directly to ICT dougal

My question is simple; Why do i have to be logged in to read the follow up posts to each thread?? I feel we are excluding hundreds if not thousands of potential fans worldwide by not enabling them to view each thread and see what we are all about In my opinion we should be promoting the ICT brand to a world wide audience not restricting it to its members I would like to point it out that this is NOT a dig at the mods as i'm sure they have their reasons why they have set the forum out like this After the result today ICT find themselves in the strongest position they have ever been in so could we somehow be stunting the growth? P.s i'm on the kopparberg tonight so i hope the above makes sense Thoughts dougal

It's hardly rocket science!!!! I'm not saying thousands would necessary join up to P&B but that site certainly seems more welcoming than CTO P&B and all other SPL clubs forums gives the lurker the option to read on while CTO doesn't unless they register which IMO puts the majority off It certainly doesn't help enticing new fans dougal