19-07-2013, 10:47 AM
Forum Moderation is a thankless and extremely difficult task. I haven’t always agreed with some of the decisions taken recently but I did in the case of Andy Muir’s recent ‘claims’.
I think we owe a vote of thanks to the Mods for the work they do.
To come up with a set of guidelines is also difficult. We don’t want unsubstantiated claims made, but neither do we want a toothless puppy. There must be scope to start debate and to introduce areas of concern.
The ECForum used to be part of the ECF but that Board in its wisdom decided to close it down. The result was that Carl Hibbard set up his own version over which the ECF Board has no greater say than any one individual. I believe this was realised as a mistake and there are now links to the forum from the ECF website.
Fora (or Forums) will always attract criticism but they can also be a force for good. They are a great way of passing news (eg Roddy’s potential world record). They can also be used to express concerns. It was the ECForum which revealed that the ECF Board had twice forgotten to tell its members that it was taking legal action against FIDE and that its President had not followed acceptable financial practices. One has to wonder if some of these things would ever have come to the knowledge of many chess players without Carl’s services. (Carl also hosts many of the live games broadcast in Britain, including much of the Scottish, for which much thanks.)
There is really only one rule that needs to be applied to a forum. “All posters should exhibit common sense.” Those that do not should be excluded.
Common sense is unfortunately not that common, so perhaps more prescriptive rules will need to be introduced.
I think we owe a vote of thanks to the Mods for the work they do.
To come up with a set of guidelines is also difficult. We don’t want unsubstantiated claims made, but neither do we want a toothless puppy. There must be scope to start debate and to introduce areas of concern.
The ECForum used to be part of the ECF but that Board in its wisdom decided to close it down. The result was that Carl Hibbard set up his own version over which the ECF Board has no greater say than any one individual. I believe this was realised as a mistake and there are now links to the forum from the ECF website.
Fora (or Forums) will always attract criticism but they can also be a force for good. They are a great way of passing news (eg Roddy’s potential world record). They can also be used to express concerns. It was the ECForum which revealed that the ECF Board had twice forgotten to tell its members that it was taking legal action against FIDE and that its President had not followed acceptable financial practices. One has to wonder if some of these things would ever have come to the knowledge of many chess players without Carl’s services. (Carl also hosts many of the live games broadcast in Britain, including much of the Scottish, for which much thanks.)
There is really only one rule that needs to be applied to a forum. “All posters should exhibit common sense.” Those that do not should be excluded.
Common sense is unfortunately not that common, so perhaps more prescriptive rules will need to be introduced.