GM Nigel Davies threatens S&BCC Blog with legal action

[Tryfon Gavriel]

Hi Nigel

I sometimes look at the Streatham and Brixton blog, and was just wondering if you are aware that on a blog at blogger.com (which the Streatham and Brixton blog is basically making use of), there can be comments from the wider public - which would need to later be removed, if there was a complaint. I think it is difficult for any blog site to have too strict a control over comments made, on a comments allowed blog.

For example, barnetchessclub.com which is my site, has a blog section - and I would hope that if it does come popular one day, and people comment, that there will not be any negative comments.

Perhaps this can have a happy ending, if they agreed to put a link to your book on Amazon or something to give your book more publicity?! Other than that, i think they did personally remove the offensive comments in a timely manner which is all a blog site can do. Especially a very popular one like their one.

More broadly speaking, I think if more chess club sites and other chess sites had an inbuilt blog (also for example John Saunders has a blog on bcmchess.co.uk), then the chess club sites could become more lively, which leads to the following circle of promoting chess generally in the UK :-

Chess club sites become more visited -> More members for chess clubs -> More finances potentially for ECF -> More money for ECF to sponsor our International team + help GM's like yourself.

Blog technology is a little bit controversial, in that comments need to be moderated, but without such a technology, it is very difficult to keep websites up to date.

Best wishes
Tryfon

[Nigel_Davies]

Hi Tryfon,

Well their blog does seem to be moderated so the libelous posts would have needed approving. It's also pretty clear that the comparison between my notes and Ray Keene's was designed to elicit this kind of comment. They never approached me for an explanation and it was only recently that I found out about this.

I would have been happy for them just to take it down and for that to be an end of it, but they immediately published my email without asking me. Since then at least one other site has attacked me (and published some name calling) and then they publicised the whole thing both here and on the ChessPub forum. It looks like they wish to escalate the situation and I see little alternative but to answer them.

Best wishes, Nigel

[Tryfon Gavriel]

Hi Tryfon,

Well their blog does seem to be moderated so the libelous posts would have needed approving. It's also pretty clear that the comparison between my notes and Ray Keene's was designed to elicit this kind of comment. They never approached me for an explanation and it was only recently that I found out about this...

In general I think the default for "comment walls" - which are seen for example on Amazon, Youtube, and blogger.com, Wiki encyclopaedia, is the following:

1. A blog post is made by the official blog editorial team of that blog (or usually an individual)
2. Comments may be made by people viewing the blog later in response to the blog item. The blog can be set up to allow anonymous comments, or only comments from existing members of blogger.com. I am not sure how their blog is set up in this regard.
3. They might later remove comments that are offensive. Actually on youtube, you can also block the commentator in general.

I am unsure of what you have implied - that each and every comment to an official blog item, needs to be "approved" before it is published. I am not sure this is the way any blogs at blogger.com are set up. But maybe it is an option - I need to check this out. Certainly on Wiki, there have been numerous libel cases, because of bad information being published by Wiki and its contributors. However usually the self-moderation system means that these are quickly removed - for example bad information about celebrities, etc.

The other thing I am not sure of, is that : Where does the responsibility of a commentator to an "official" blog post lie - does it lie with blogger.com - or the owners of the particular blog at blogger.com - or the commentator themselves - which if they were not anonymous: their comment would link to their own blogger profile.

Actually I don't really know the details of this case too well - all I know is how my blog at barnetchessclub.com works (which is a blogger.com blog), and also how youtube works - which is generally that comments can be made by anyone on my videos, or my blog posts, and later I can choose to remove them. This would seem to be the default of the comment allowing systems.

I am sorry you have been upset by the whole thing. Maybe Web 2.0 is not all it has been cracked up to be.

Best wishes
Tryfon