Celtic sites – KerrydaleStreet

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DetailsCeltic sites - KerrydaleStreet - Kerrydale Street

Started: 31st Aug 1994
Founder: Fitzpas
Link: www.kerrydalestreet.co.uk

History

Well it all began one fateful day on the 31st of August 2004. After a hectic summer of transfer frenzy, the www.etims.net website was constantly going down due to the number of forum users accessing the site. The E-Tims team could not afford to pay for an upgrade of the server in order to cope with the demand and made the decision to close the forum on what they hoped would be a temporary basis. The intention was to allow the etims team time to agree a way to finance the cost of a new server which could cope with both the forum and the original E-Tims site. No agreement was ever reached which was acceptable to all members of the E-Tims team.

Glen TimTim, famous for the Etims rumour mill, told the members of the site forum that the forum would be down for a duration of roughly four weeks leaving the members relatively homeless in the celtic forum world. Some chose to spend their time on www.thehuddleboard.com, while others opted to join UnrepentFenianBastard forum where Beachbhoy ( a member of this site ) made them feel more than welcome, and of course there was www.celtic-mad.co.uk (or www.comeonthehoops.com as a more popular later offshoot was known as) which latterly became www.celticminded.com.

One member of the Etims forum, Fitzpas, did not want to spend his days trawling the Huddleboard for the latest Celtic news and he was not the only one. After consulting various senior members/posters of the Etims forum, namely Daviebhoy and a few others he made a free forum named ‘eRefugees’ ( Etims Refugees ) and later purchased the domain name of www.erefugees.tk courtesy of Savio. From then things went up and more and more ex-members of the Etims forum joined.

Sean O Finn and Big Bobo Balde became moderators with solo forum jobs going to Yamsta and Daviebhoy.

With the forum growing in numbers each day and no sign of the return of Etims most knew that this would be their new home online.

Christmas 2004 and after a charity fund raiser and a night out Fitzpas decided to lose the tag of Erefugees, instead preferring to become detached from Etims and become a permanent online celtic community.

On 1st January 2005 the new forum name was announced and thus www.kerrydalestreet.co.uk was born and with it a selection of snazzy banners. For non-Celtic fans reference, Kerrydale Street is the address of the street where Celtic’s stadium is in Glasgow.

From there became a steady rise in the joining numbers and new forums were added, such as the Tv and Film forum and the Music forum which have proved to be very popular among the users (which was later merged into the Entertainment forum after squabbles with the Music clique).

Further moderators were recruited with the addition of Fatboab, Mikebhoy, Kevtic and Klubber Lang.

The Etims forum returned but there was always going to be one outcome and www.kerrydalestreet.co.uk is the home to more than thousands of Celtic fanatics who regularly visit the site every day. Notably, as a very welcoming forum there are non-Celts who are regular contributors.

In September 2007, after 3 years of hard work on the KDS forum, Fitzpas (founder of the forum) decided to take semi-retirement from the board in order to pursue other personal projects, a sad loss for the forum, however he was soon back again. Can’t keep a good man down, but again in April 2010 he had to once more retire from modding of the site due to personal reasons (work commitments etc), but as always couldn’t stay away. See Link.

Possibly, one of the highlights of the whole lifetime of the KDS forum was the originating of the whole Hun tax scandal with respect to EBT in the 2000’s. Exposed in Feb 2010, the media generally kept a low profile on the whole episode with some later claiming to have been the one to have exposed the whole sham. It was KDS where it began, and it escalated to reveal some very murky doings by the Huns (see link).

Link

Honours for the site

In August 2007, the founder of the forum, Fitzpas was deemed the second most influential Celtic man on the web by Celtic Underground, a great and deserved achievement, whilst the rest of the moderators on the forum were also given the welcome accolade of being at no.9. Link


The Celtic Underground website poll has become an annual event, and KDS admin, moderators and contributors have become regular entrants in the list, and very deserving they are of the recognition.

(from the Top Twenty Most Influential Online Tims 2007)
2. Fitzpas the admin from KDS just narrowly misses top spot.
When the ETims forum closed its doors Fitzpas stepped into the breach with the forum that became known as Kerrydalestreet.co.uk, a site now considered, despite it not being the largest online, by the old media to be the place to go to take the pulse of the Celtic fans. Why? Journos like its structure and the general level of debate to be found within the threads. Given that many tims in the media use this forum ahead of the others this is more often than not the forum which breaks the big stories. This level of structure and debate has led KDS to being unfairly caricatured as the middle class (or post McCann) fan forum. This doesn’t seem to bother the countless punters who access it every day.
(from the Top Twenty Most Influential Online Tims 2007)
9. The moderators on Kerrydalestreet.co.uk
Well there’s just too many to single one out. There’s hundreds of the buggers. I’ll speak more about KDS further down the line but regardless of whether you think they are a bunch of prawn sandwich munchers or some of the finest Celts around there is no denying they run a tight ship. Rarely in the field of human internet gubbings have so many threads been merged into so few by so many. Or something.
(from the Top Twenty Most Influential Online Tims 2008)
18. (NE) Paddysmum – KDS .
You’ve read this of course: “This comes from a well known lipreader, it is basically what they say GS said to the squad in his huddle at the end of the game and season giving the hoops another title.
‘right lads gather round till I tell you something…that lot with their pens and notepads, their exclusives, and their match reports saying we had no chance of retaining this title, we proved they know nothing about us, or fans or our club…that lot standing there singing, with their scarves up above their heads, chanting the name of a special man who everybody connected with this club loves, that’s who we won this title for… for our supporters, for ourselves, but most of all for Tommy, so be proud of yourselves, hold your heads high, look up to the heavens and shout loud and proud,,, look what we did Tommy, we did the 3 in a row’”
It can’t often be claimed that one person has changed the way a support perceive a football manager but Paddysmum is entitled to feel she has done her bit in making the Celtic fans tolerate (if not love) Gordon Strachan.
Following our title winning game at Tannadice KDS ran a thread entitled “What did WGS say?” Paddysmum’s contribution to that thread ended up being emailed around the world with a statement suggesting this was based on a lipreader’s interpretation of the manager’s post match huddle with the players. Anti Strachan fans from Houston Texas to Houston Renfrewshire were left dabbing their eyes and thinking, “Maybe the wee ginger tosspot isn’t so bad after all.” Pity it was all mince. “A well known lip reader”? How may do you know?
(from the Top Twenty Most Influential Online Tims 2008)
15. (NE) M1K3Y89 – KDS.
Ever since Celtic started to hunt down and kneecap any member of staff who leaked news of transfer targets good quality inside info has been hard to come by. In this close season in particular Celtic fans have pounced on any rumour that comes along like a police dog on an “innocent” hun. If in the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king then in the Celtic internet arena M1K3Y89 is whatever is higher than a king. An ace? (Why do I feel like I’ve walked onto the set of “Play your cards
right”?) The reason for this is quite simple. M1K3Y89 has a fantastic record when it comes to rumours. He very rarely if ever calls it wrong and his reputation has spread across forums as someone who should be listened to when the gossiping starts.
(from the Top Twenty Most Influential Online Tims 2008)
3. (2) Fitzpas – KDS.Despite “retiring” Fitz continues to be the main man on Kerrydalestreet. Every time he thinks he’s out, they pull him back in.

For rational debate KDS is the Celtic site of choice. The challenge KDS is faced with is that it’s extremely difficult to maintain the high standards that have been set. Even with a battalion of moderators ready to merge, lock or delete a thread at a moments notice there is a natural cycle to a forum that generates peaks and troughs. The problem for Fitz and KDS is how do they avoid the troughs – which mainly appear in the threads about whether WGS is up to the job as manager or no. Maybe it’s just me but there seems to be a lot of repeats on KDS recently. Almost as many as there are Maloney rumours on here to be honest.

Despite this Kerrydalestreet continues to be the first stop for fans looking to Celtic information and rumour. And of course, it continues to be the first stop for sports journos looking to fill their back page.
(from the Top Twenty Most Influential Online Tims 2009)

9. (NE) Cartuja/Arsene Parceile – KDS
Diplomacy dictates that we put both these guys in at the same point on the chart. Almost every funny Celtic graphic that has been emailed to you over the past year has been created by one of these two. Opinion is divided upon which of the two produces the better/funnier/more professional work. However it is enough to say that if it’s funny it probably came from one of these two. Actually if it’s not funny it still probably came from one of these two.

 
(from the Top Twenty Most Influential Online Tims 2009)

2. (3) Fitzpas – KDS
The rise of the forum over the past few years has been dramatic. The fact that Celtic regularly invites forum administrators to the club for “a chat” shows that they acknowledge the power the forums hold. Kerrydalestreet is a powerful voice which, despite some over enthusiastic moderation, continues to be a site which allows a variety of fan voices to be heard. It remains the go to site when the old media want to take the pulse of the more rationale aspect of the Celtic support. In the long term it would benefit from the moderators taking a more hands off approach to discussions.
(from the Top TwentyFive Most Influential Online Tims 2010)
12. Fitzpas (2) – KDS
Just when he thought he was out they pull him back in. Fitzpas handed over the keys to the kingdom this season and his ranking reflects his decision to step back for good out of the limelight. However, his influence can still be felt across a variety of sites. He may be out but he’s deserves a place for his work over the past year on sites such as the Celtic Wiki, Celtic Graves and of course KDS.
(from the Top TwentyFive Most Influential Online Tims 2010)
16. Bawman (NE) – KDS
Having always been a poster who had something interesting to say the recent changes in the coaching set up have made Bawman’s posts essential reading. Regulars on KDS have been scouring his posts for clues as to who will be coming and who will be going at Lennoxtown. Why? Well let’s just say that, despite his freakishly small head, he’s a guy who knows a guy. And those types of guys are always worth paying attention to.
(from the Top TwentyFive Most Influential Online Tims 2010)
9. Cartuja (9) – KDSand The Kano Foundation
If, following yet another embarrassing incident down Ibrox way, you receive a very funny image by email it’s probably been created by Cartuja. His ability with photoshop is legendary across the forums but it is the degree of humour he brings to his work which has previously marked him out. Anyone who creates as many memes as Cartuja does must be placed on a list such as this. And like many on this list he is involved in more than one website – in the coming year it will be interesting to follow his work with the Kano foundation.
(from the Top TwentyFive Most Influential Online Tims 2010)
1. Dianogah
(from the Top TwentyFive Most Influential Online Tims 2011)
6. Joe Bloggs City (NE) – The Celtic Wiki
The problem with truly brilliant ideas is that over the course of time we start to take them for granted and we forget just how outstanding they really are. The Celtic wiki is without doubt the best fan resource available for any club in Scotland and possibly any club in the UK. Have a look around the net – there isn’t another set of fans anywhere creating a database like this for future generations to enjoy. Maintained by JBC with the assistance of a few individuals whose names will be familiar to regular podcast listeners, the wiki is a site where you can lose yourself for hours. So much of the history of our club can be found there it’s astounding to think that the club haven’t brought it in house to ensure it can be preserved for future generations. No matter what you want to know about Celtic you’ll find it there. And if it’s not there today you can bet that JBC will have it up on the wiki tomorrow.