Yellow and Red cards

[amuir]

Andy B

You have seriously asked me to give up chess and then you will do the same ?

Chess is a large part of my life and I do not envisage retiral. Last night in the Poly quickplay, I saw Ken Stewart, who is older than me, achieve a won position against an Olympiad squad member. I hope to achieve some chess success in the next few years and play and officiate when I am over 60 too.

If you can find a specific incident that I should apologise for then I will do so. However I shall not apologise for myths.

Would you please, in the spirit of openness and honesty, disclose who your mystery backers are who colluded with you and provided you with privileged information from emails which led you to make over 30 posts about the Olympiad ?

[andyburnett]

Andy B

You have seriously asked me to give up chess and then you will do the same ?

Chess is a large part of my life and I do not envisage retiral. Last night in the Poly quickplay, I saw Ken Stewart, who is older than me, achieve a won position against an Olympiad squad member. I hope to achieve some chess success in the next few years and play and officiate when I am over 60 too.

If you can find a specific incident that I should apologise for then I will do so. However I shall not apologise for myths.

Would you please, in the spirit of openness and honesty, disclose who your mystery backers are who colluded with you and provided you with privileged information from emails which led you to make over 30 posts about the Olympiad ?

I didn't say either of us should give up chess, just that we would not inflict our disagreements, characters and poor judgement on CS territory any longer.

As for my 'mystery backers', just google 'Anonymous'.

I'll offer you a second deal (again serious)

I challenge you to a chess match (4 games at Richardson time limits, FIDE-rated, no draw offers) at a venue which will allow paying spectators, analysis room with commentary, etc. All proceeds go to the Glorney Cup appeal. The loser commits to the same proposal as my earlier one. Tie-break (if there is one) decided by the person who noticeboard posters vote as most worthy of choosing a tie-break system. (One default option allowed, mine is a no 'swimming contest' tiebreak )

[amuir]

Andy B

I think we should both give the NB a break. I agree to that.

I know who your mystery backers are as excerpts from a private email to one person were put in one of your posts.

I accept a challenge to raise money for CS. However I am not prepared to put my FIDE rating on the line. As you know I love representing Scotland and I dont want to risk my selection for Reykjavik 2015.
I don't want it Scottish rated either as being the higher rated player I have more to lose.
Why not play for money eg 20% of funds to winner, 80% of funds to CS, 0% of funds to loser ?

[andyburnett]

Andy B

I think we should both give the NB a break. I agree to that.

I know who your mystery backers are as excerpts from a private email to one person were put in one of your posts.

I accept a challenge to raise money for CS. However I am not prepared to put my FIDE rating on the line. As you know I love representing Scotland and I dont want to risk my selection for Reykjavik 2015.
I don't want it Scottish rated either as being the higher rated player I have more to lose.
Why not play for money eg 20% of funds to winner, 80% of funds to CS, 0% of funds to loser ?

That's not what was on offer, but I will be having a break from the noticeboard soon enough anyway. I have spent far too much energy here when it is obvious many people can't be bothered to read properly, assimilate information in a manner even close to logical, or post replies remotely connected to the issue at hand. Being slagged off by management board members in their discussions has also played a part in my decision, as has the apparent 'AGM censure' from my own former club.

This curious phrase 'mystery backers' is totally wrong. I have sources, who are highly unlikely to be the person(s) you are thinking of. To give a fictional example, if Hamish Olson told someone he planned to pay Jonathan Rowson to play for Bon Accord, and that person mentioned it to someone else in an e-mail, and that e-mail was forwarded to me, the person forwarding it would be my source of information. Obviously, the closer to the original person, the 'better' the source tends to be - too far removed and it becomes mere gossip or hearsay.
I have privately and publicly apologised to my sources for making certain information public which I shouldn't have. If you are telling me that what I posted was also untrue, I will apologise to you publicly, and privately.

I have no interest in such a match Andy - I don't care about money myself, and there are better ways to raise money for CS. Preserving your rating or grading by not playing anyone lower-rated is not something I agree with either. Both of my offers still stand if you change your mind.

[amuir]

ok Andy B , you have completely thrown me, let's leave it there just now

[PatCoffey]

Difficult to see a role for red and yellow cards.

The ChessScotland website is good for checking facts such as League fixtures, Results etc and those few that have built and maintained the site deserve great credit. The NoticeBoard...I rarely check these days but did so a few days ago and was struck by the apparent/overt bullying and sometimes sourness of some/many postings...actually across quite a few topics...unfortunate.

Maybe the board has always been like this and its just more noticeable to me as I don't check so often...so maybe some active posters really don't realise how it all looks?

Its one thing for a site to be a bit edgy but overall I don't think that the board well represents the views or personalities within the wider amateur chess community ....and to the extent that it matters at all I think it sometimes presents chess in Scotland in actually quite a bad light....unfairly so as for sure club and League chess is suitably very friendly.

Overall the moderation is well intentioned but clearly its a very difficult role to play.

[Jonathan Livingstone]

The ChessScotland website is good for checking facts such as League fixtures, Results etc and those few that have built and maintained the site deserve great credit. .

Absolutely, some fantastic work from the coding, to the general updates, historical stuff, and grading data. It is clear to me and I am sure to those involved that the site can be improved a lot. It is also clear to me from my experience of building up a small club website, that the CS site is a massive job, with few talented volunteers working on it there just isn't the time. I expect this is the same issue with the Commie site simply not enough time.

Its one thing for a site to be a bit edgy but overall I don't think that the board well represents the views or personalities within the wider amateur chess community ....and to the extent that it matters at all I think it sometimes presents chess in Scotland in actually quite a bad light....unfairly so as for sure club and League chess is suitably very friendly..

I assumed this is why the board went from a publicly available application, to requiring registration and logging in to view it? I think we should have remained public and should go back to the ECF notice board public format. There should be nothing to hide. If there is dirty washing we shouldn't be hiding the washing baskets in the cupboard. It should be put in the washing machine.

Overall the moderation is well intentioned but clearly its a very difficult role to play.

More football comparisons but being a moderator on here is a bit like being a referee. You can't please everyone, a lot of it is opinion and it is not always Black & White if you excuse the pun. Sometimes I think a comment is offside then I think it could be onside, its confusing. Impossible job for Hugh/Andy. They do frequently ask us for volunteering with moderation, but lets be honest, its a bargepole none of would even look at without binoculars.