The spat in question was caused by PR agency the PR Office registering on Saints Forever under separate anonymous usernames to try and bolster the campaign with posts questionning Wilde's campaign.
Amusingly in an attempt to fit with the general ill-feeling in they even referred to Lowe as a 'tosser', not a comment likely to curry favour with their employer.
Suspicious of the content and timing of the posts, Keith and co. investigated the IP addresses of the posters and found that the three accounts all shared the IP of the PR Office and decided to out them on the site.
The press have now got wind of the saga with the Echo leading on this tomorrow forcing Andrew Cowan to issue a hurried statement on the club website trying to downplay the whole affair as 'not quite Watergate'.
I have to declare a personal interest in this as my day job is not only in PR, but in internet communications. And no, I don't work for Lowe or Wilde, although it would be an amusing brief to come through the door.
Anonymous postings are one of the weakest tactics available to the communicator. Not only do individual postings have little influence, but the chances of backfiring are far greater, as we have seen today. It only takes a little digging into IP addresses to end up with negatives that far outweight the positives.
Communicating on the web is all about transparency. Michael Wilde seems to understand this by issuing statements direct to club websites in his own name. Perhaps the current board don't feel they will get a fair hearing on fan websites, so feel the need to resort to these lame tactics.
I do have to take issue with a couple of the points made in Andrew Cowan's statement:
1) Using an 'undisguised IP address' is not attempting to deceive anyone. Sorry, posting as a representative is not attempting to deceive anyone. Only the moderators can see IP addresses and have to keep a sharp eye for weird goings on to even investigate. Other users don't have that luxury.
2) 'Neither Rupert of myself had sanctioned this activity'. Well, you're the client, why don't you know what your own PR agency is doing?
Yes, this is a storm in a teacup, but it really hasn't done much in my eyes to enhance the credibility of the Lowe campaign. Tomorrow's papers will make interesting reading.