Author: Bruce Moreland
Date: 08:38:17 03/24/99
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On March 23, 1999 at 14:14:03, KarinsDad wrote: >The point is not whether he cheated or not. The point is "Why is it important to >post the handle of the suspected cheater in a public forum such as this?". > >To post the games and look for confirmation is fine. This allows others to >confirm or deny your suspicions and share information. To post the handle is not >fine. Regardless of what mechanisms you use to determine guilt or innocence, >your findings may not be conclusive, could be considered slanderous by some, and >are therefore inappropriate on this forum. > >Suspected cheaters should be a matter for the chess servers and not for this >forum (with regard to their handles). The chess servers have mechanisms to >inform the members of their forum of suspected cheaters. > >By naming them here, it's a way of casting aspersions on another where they may >not be able to defend themself. On the other hand, for all you know, this person >could be a member of this forum and by naming him as a cheater, you could be >violating rule #3 of this forum (Do not contain personal and/or libelous attacks >on others) and not even know it. I think you are making too much of this. You go on the chess server and you play your games in public, and there they are for the public to inspect, and your name is attached. If you make a dumb move in a game, and it is an important game, you can expect to see people comment on the game, and include your name along with the comments. I don't think it is a particularly violent attack to ask if others think that someone is receiving outside assistance, especially if you have looked into it carefully beforehand, and are responsible about how you write the post. Posting the game with attached headers, including the names, allows people to check the situation out for themselves, and avoids this nonsensical multi-phase identity revelation process. There are rules here against personal attacks, but I think that if we are going to maintain these rules we need to be careful about how they are enforced, so they aren't used to quash legitimate and honest expression. It's like this recent thing with the German player who apparently used Fritz in a human tournament. This can be discussed responsibly without making it a crime to mention the guy's name. These are chess players, not rape victims. The way you guys talk about slander and suing people and such, if the world really worked like that a newspaper would not be able to name someone who had been indicted for committing a crime. I don't want to see hate campaigns in here, but let's prevent them without creating a completely suffocating atmosphere where people are afraid to disagree and afraid to criticize. bruce
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