Not everything's black and white

A great post about the expression of tribal loyalties in football (particularly online) over on The Two Unfortunates, though prompted by the sad demise of excellent Doncaster blog Viva Rovers. Insightful, thoughtful, clear-headed, well-written - Glen's site was the sort of thing we at Black & White & Read All Over and other bloggers aspire to. As Glen explains in the site's final post, it was abuse from fans of his own club that forced him into the decision to shut it down.

On occasion we've taken stick for the stances we've adopted (on ASBO in particular), though nothing of the same degree as Glen. In the light of Viva Rovers' fate, it's worth reiterating a few things:

* We do this for pleasure, in our spare time.

* We don't claim to speak for all Newcastle fans, or even some of them. (How can we when the two of us don't always agree?!)

* We believe in the distinction between being partisan and being one-eyed. If we think criticism of the club or players is merited, we'll give it. We're not afraid of being dissenting voices, however unpopular. Being supporters does not simply mean mindlessly and endlessly toeing the party line, or parroting the prevailing populist wisdom. We're more than happy for you to disagree with us - in fact, it's comments box debate that really livens the site - but if you do so, all we ask is that you engage with our reasoning and argue your case without resorting to blunt abuse.