Question from Fanboy site

[bainsey]

I frequently read our state's fanboy site, typically to answer and clarify rules questions. (Every little bit of understanding helps.) Of course, there's the usual ref-bashing, but there's a recent exception from a fan who abhors idiotic behavior, and yet wonders even if less idiotic behavior can have an effect on our work. His initial question:

My question is does the "feedback" potentially do more harm than good if it's done in a civil way and more often than not is a matter of asking for fairness or equality in calls ???

My initial response was that I couldn't see how civility could do more harm than good. He offered an example from a game where he wasn't an biased fan (not a supporter of either team), and this clarification...

I'm just wondering how much of the poor officiating may be due to conscious or subconscious decisions on the ref's part based on crowd/fan behavior ...

What he considers to be "poor" officiating is certainly speculation. That said, we kick stuff sometimes, and fan critiques of officiating are often done in superlatives -- either great or poor (seldom fair or mediocre). If it isn't the fans (and I think we all agree that it's not), what is it? Bad positioning/mechanics? Being straightlined? Rules misapplications? What else?