The majority of people who have access to the internet and are a football fan have at some stage posted on a football message board, maybe just to read people’s views, find out what’s going on at their club or perhaps just to interact with other people.

So let’s try to understand some of the characters who appear on these message boards

First we have the more submissive posters; they like to get involved but tend to agree with everyone else to keep the peace and want to stay popular with everyone because they want to be liked and deep down are maybe a bit sensitive

We have the wind-up posters; they merely post to get a reaction so they start a controversial thread, then sit back and as people reply, they smile to themselves that they has achieved their goal. The more people that view their thread and reply, the happier that makes them and the more satisfaction they get.

Then there’s the keyboard warriors; they are according to the dictionary, people who are unable to express their anger (owning to their physical weakness, lack of bravery and/or conviction in real life), and who instead manifest their emotions through the text-based medium of the internet, usually in the form of aggressive writing that they would not be able to give form to in real life. You find that these people will argue until they are blue in the face and most of the insults they post they just wouldn’t have the courage to say to anyone’s face.

What about the ‘I must have the last word’ posters? We all know one of them, whatever the discussion or argument is you know that they will come back and want to have the last word, makes them feel good and important maybe?

Then there’s the ‘little cliques’ of the message boards. Something is posted that they don’t like so they collaborate behind the scenes to discuss it and decide who is going to post what to put the culprit in their place. Some would call it a ‘love in’ others may say it’s ‘bully boy tactics’, who knows?

What about the posters who think they are far superior to others? They like to correct people if they have got their facts wrong, they think they know all the ins and out’s of their club and often make out that they know more about what’s going on than anyone else. They tend to be the more pompous and over bearing sort of person who feels they have been there and done that, when really in reality they have far too much time on their hands and need a hobby.

Rumour mongers must have their own category; they wake up and come alive in the transfer window and tell us who their friends have seen at the training grounds, who they have spotted in Asda, who their insider at the club have told them is going to sign and they go car spotting and google registration numbers in case it belongs to a new arrival.

Then there are the star struck posters, they are harmless and usually female. They tend to have an idol at their club, someone far beyond their reach but it’s a love affair in their heads and it makes them happy. They defend them to the hilt, won’t hear a bad word against them and often follow them on twitter to find out what they are up to.

Finally we have the decent posters who always post from the heart and say what they truly think. These posters will listen and evaluate other people’s opinions before they post and interact really well with everyone else. They will always be eager to attend social gatherings to put faces to user names, don’t care about remaining anonymous and will be as happy to say on a one to one basis what they say to people on a message board.

So which category, if any, do you fit into?