24-02-2013, 12:56 PM
Two points:
1. In removing the unmentionable blog-site reference in the seprate thread on Licensing Players, the moderator (I expect inadvertently) in effect censored the (wholly unobjectionable) letter from the Western European FIDE president, which was supported by a large number of international federations, that called on the FIDE presidential Board to drop the action. I wasn't pleased at that, not least because I wasn't consulted. It would have been easy to have, say cut and paste the letter into the thread even if the link to the unmentionable blog were removed. In effect a perfectly valid thread and debate were themselves (even if inadvertently) censored.
2. I am now of the view that CS should carry NO links to any external site. Delete them all. The job of trying to police the internet is clearly hopelessly impossible. I would still accept links to (appropriate) sources embedded in specific articles on the various CS pages and on the CS noticeboard, as these ARE ALL currently subject to scrutiny (links at CS pages) or active moderation (CS noticeboard posts) and because that job is not impossible. Interestingly this appears to be the way many websites are now going, including such new sites as ChessDom and ChessVibes and older established sites such as ChessBase. I trust that my link yesterday to ChessVibes, which brings the original (censored) letter of objection and the FIDE presidential Board's climbdown reply to it together, mending the (unfortunate) earlier scissors job done to the Licensing Players thread, offends no one.
1. In removing the unmentionable blog-site reference in the seprate thread on Licensing Players, the moderator (I expect inadvertently) in effect censored the (wholly unobjectionable) letter from the Western European FIDE president, which was supported by a large number of international federations, that called on the FIDE presidential Board to drop the action. I wasn't pleased at that, not least because I wasn't consulted. It would have been easy to have, say cut and paste the letter into the thread even if the link to the unmentionable blog were removed. In effect a perfectly valid thread and debate were themselves (even if inadvertently) censored.
2. I am now of the view that CS should carry NO links to any external site. Delete them all. The job of trying to police the internet is clearly hopelessly impossible. I would still accept links to (appropriate) sources embedded in specific articles on the various CS pages and on the CS noticeboard, as these ARE ALL currently subject to scrutiny (links at CS pages) or active moderation (CS noticeboard posts) and because that job is not impossible. Interestingly this appears to be the way many websites are now going, including such new sites as ChessDom and ChessVibes and older established sites such as ChessBase. I trust that my link yesterday to ChessVibes, which brings the original (censored) letter of objection and the FIDE presidential Board's climbdown reply to it together, mending the (unfortunate) earlier scissors job done to the Licensing Players thread, offends no one.