Exactly twelve years ago this month I set up An Fear Rua-The GAA Unplugged!  I have now decided to discontinue it. I have immediately closed the ‘Speak Out!’ forum but the Content Zone will continue for the moment.  Again, until I make a final decision, the forum content will continue to be readable - including the archive going back to 2004.

An anonymous internet forum is an anachronism.  It has been overtaken by the arrival of ‘open identity’ forums such as Twitter and Facebook.   This model of internet comment is no longer viable, if the comment is to be within the law at all times as well as the bounds of good taste.

This has been a labour of love.  In hard cash it has cost me more than €150,000 over the years.  If I costed the time I’ve spent managing it – at even the average industrial wage – the total cost or investment would be the best part of €500,000.  I have never made more than €10,000 a year on average in advertising revenue, despite trying the services of five or six ad selling agencies.   It is simply not possible to make this site a paying proposition.

In that context, my decision is also influenced by the unreasonable sense of entitlement displayed by a growing minority of Registered Users.  There is a sense that they can just register under a pseudonym, pay nothing towards the upkeep of the site or towards an insurance against libel matched by a total lack of any attempt to even understand – let alone accept – that I have a right, and a duty, to administer this site in accordance with the law and in the interests of everyone who used it.

I thank all the decent people who supported the site over the years.  I regret that it has come to this and I wish you well in the future.