I think you will find there are some players that do view their club forums and some that quickly get informed to what is said about them.
If I recall one of the fans forums in League 2 were given a donation by a players for their appeal to raid funds to keep it going and that was back in the Colin Calderwood days.
Didn't really work out for Ash in the end but I have no ill feeling towards him, 11 players take to the field, you can't blame relegation and bad results on just 1 of them and there were times when only 3 of the 11 could leave the field knowing they had given their all.
Good luck to him wherever he goes next.
No doubt the club including some players read the forums - those that think otherwise, are quite simply wrong!
To what degree is open to question, but clearly when opinions are profered on here, it's only a short matter of time before the Chron and to a degree the club itself start reporting on the fans' feelings towards players, club etc.