Albion fan site closed after legal threat (From The Argus)
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Albion fan site closed after legal threat
8:58am Thursday 1st July 2010 in
UPDATE: Brighton and Hove Albion fans' forum North Stand Chat was closed overnight and this morning after a threat of legal action.
The forum was taken down last night until about 12.30pm today.
When it reopened, forum manager Darren said that he received legal threats about once a week, but that this one was serious enough to merit taking down the boards.
A message on the site said: "NSC is temporarily closed in order to ensure people read, and take notice of, the following: "Today I received a threat of legal action relating to potentially libellous postings on NSC.
"Please be aware that NSC is not here to allow people to make libellous postings about individuals and oganisations. If you have a grievance with someone, please use another avenue to air it."
The message warned individual posters could be traced whether they logged on anonymously or not.
Site administrator Darren, or Bozza, said: "I'm simply not prepared to assume legal and/or financial risk for the reckless actions of others."
Shortly before 12.30pm, the forum was back up and running.
In a thread, Darren said: "The posts were not recent, and would have been buried many pages below the front page of The Big Board. However, search engines being what they are, the posts could easily be found and accessed directly."
He added: "On average I probably receive some form of legal threat about once a week. Most are ill-founded and without substance - no posts are deleted, no users banned and NSC remains available to all.
"I don't take the decision to take NSC down lightly, but the issue that was brought to my attention yesterday was more serious and, I think, merited the action I took."
Last year the site was closed temporarily after police raised concerns about racist remarks.
Comments(30)
Easy 10
says...
9:16am Thu 1 Jul 10
Giraffe1983
says...
9:20am Thu 1 Jul 10
Mhoc
says...
9:25am Thu 1 Jul 10
Haven't you better things to do with your life then slate a news paper artical? It's not the first time either i seem to recall.You sad individual.
Easy 10
says...
9:28am Thu 1 Jul 10
Mhoc wrote:Oooh, hark at her. I think somebodies tired.
Great input Easy 10. Haven't you better things to do with your life then slate a news paper artical? It's not the first time either i seem to recall.You sad individual.
Havn't you got better things to do with your life than having a pop at anonymous posters on a local rags comments section ?
Living in the real world
says...
9:30am Thu 1 Jul 10
Mhoc wrote:Freedom of speach?
Great input Easy 10. Haven't you better things to do with your life then slate a news paper artical? It's not the first time either i seem to recall.You sad individual.
Mhoc your comment is an example of how things start small and end up with people posting bigoted comments, here's an idea try to say two nice things for every put down you post...
ghonda
says...
9:38am Thu 1 Jul 10
Easy 10
says...
9:41am Thu 1 Jul 10
Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit
says...
9:47am Thu 1 Jul 10
Easy 10 wrote:Well I haven't got a clue! That's why I came on here and read this story, I hope they'd have got a quote from Bozza or something or maybe a bit of information from an unattribable 'source' ("A friend of NSC told the Argus that ...")
I think most of us can guess which was the offending thread. Glad I steered clear of posting on it !
Anyway, Sven's achievements as England manager don't look so bad now do they eh? eh? What have the likes of you and Marshy got to say now?
Easy 10
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9:57am Thu 1 Jul 10
Mhoc
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9:59am Thu 1 Jul 10
Is that the time,crickey must dash as some people have jobs to do.
GrumpyM
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10:07am Thu 1 Jul 10
Mhoc wrote:Technically, being a plonker isn't a "job" per se.
Ah that explains it dear boy.It took you an incredible three long excruciating minutes to reply to my comment.No wonder you enjoy being a mischievous little rogue.To much time on your hands? You are a classic case of another failed statistic in todays society claiming benefits at my expense.I rest my case.
Is that the time,crickey must dash as some people have jobs to do.
Charismatic Andrew
says...
10:11am Thu 1 Jul 10
Easy 10 wrote:Haven't you got better things to do than query if someone has better things to do when all they've done is ask if you've got better things to do?
Mhoc wrote: Great input Easy 10. Haven't you better things to do with your life then slate a news paper artical? It's not the first time either i seem to recall.You sad individual.Oooh, hark at her. I think somebodies tired. Havn't you got better things to do with your life than having a pop at anonymous posters on a local rags comments section ?
Security Word: ring-test - that reminds me I must make an appointment with the doctor for my piles.
Easy 10
says...
10:13am Thu 1 Jul 10
I take it you're a detective then Mhoc, being as you appear able to confidently deduce a complete strangers life history from a few posts on a newspaper wesbite. Sadly your skills of deduction are roughly on a par with your natural charm and charisma (if we're playing this little 'lets-make-assumptio
ns' game), being as I've never claimed benefits in my life.
Anyway, whatever. Don't forget to pack your Daily Mail in that case you are resting eh. And try to get an early nights, so you don't wake up in such a pissy mood tomorrow, there's a good chap.
You have not ben charged for this advice.
El Pres
says...
10:14am Thu 1 Jul 10
Easy 10 wrote:Personally I would never believe that he (and we all know who he is) would do that with three gallons of Bird's Custard. For a start, the goat's beard would get in the way shirley?
I think most of us can guess which was the offending thread. Glad I steered clear of posting on it !
Jo Wadsworth
says...
10:22am Thu 1 Jul 10
However, feel free to make up ridiculous ones. I do like the idea of a scandal involving Bird's Custard :)
Easy 10
says...
10:25am Thu 1 Jul 10
Jo Wadsworth wrote:Ready when you are then Jo. I'll bring the custard, you bring the cuffs.
This would probably be a good time to point out that I am going to be keeping an eye on this thread, and any comments including serious guesses at to which libellous statement might have been the one which led to the legal threat will be removed. However, feel free to make up ridiculous ones. I do like the idea of a scandal involving Bird's Custard :)
Christophe Hawtree
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11:03am Thu 1 Jul 10
Charismatic Andrew
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11:19am Thu 1 Jul 10
Easy 10 wrote:What are the cuffs for? Are you going to take Jo into custardy?
Jo Wadsworth wrote: This would probably be a good time to point out that I am going to be keeping an eye on this thread, and any comments including serious guesses at to which libellous statement might have been the one which led to the legal threat will be removed. However, feel free to make up ridiculous ones. I do like the idea of a scandal involving Bird's Custard :)Ready when you are then Jo. I'll bring the custard, you bring the cuffs.
Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit
says...
11:33am Thu 1 Jul 10
Easy 10 wrote:Just goes to prove though that providing the manager is above a certain level (Keegan, McClaren, etc) it doesn't really matter who it is: England don't do well at tournaments.
You can't re-write history on the Sven era just because we stank the place out at the latest tournament as well. Lets not forget, we put some utterly horrific World Cup performances in under Svens stewardship as well, except last time we had Equador in the 2nd round instead of Germany. Anyway, I think that particular debate is for another time, and another place...
Anyway, if you get some pics of Jo in handcuffs post them here ...
El Pres
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11:45am Thu 1 Jul 10
Edna has the cuffs I believe.
Acker79
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11:52am Thu 1 Jul 10
.
That's always funny. :-|
Eric Hitchmo
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11:59am Thu 1 Jul 10
Safeway
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12:02pm Thu 1 Jul 10
Mhoc wrote:It's true, the Argus does lift a lot of it's 'exclusives' from NSC.
Great input Easy 10. Haven't you better things to do with your life then slate a news paper artical? It's not the first time either i seem to recall.You sad individual.
Maybe it could try NSP for one or two in the meantime...
troubles
says...
12:05pm Thu 1 Jul 10
El Pres
says...
12:13pm Thu 1 Jul 10
Acker79 wrote:such as..............GUS OUT:
Y'know what I'm looking forward to when NSC is back up? Those jokers starting threads testing the mods' patience with thread titles suggesting scandal and salacious rumour only to be revealed as a prank.
.
That's always funny. :-|
Albion supremo Gus Poyet today was out for 15 caught by Dale Winton off the bowling of Tony Millard in the Albion's pre season pro-celebrity game of cricket.
Brett_
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12:16pm Thu 1 Jul 10
El Pres
says...
12:16pm Thu 1 Jul 10
Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit wrote:I wasn't aware that we mods had been at all nervous. We are sometimes right, sometimes wrong, but ALWAYS certain.
This is another example where the Law hasn't kept pace with 21st century reality. How on EARTH can the owner of a site be responsible for the individual posts? It's not the same as the editor of a magazine who approves what's published - anybody can post on a messageboard and their views are instantly available to the whole world. The law should recognise that well-run sites (which NSC is) have an efficient moderating policy where offending posts can be quickly removed. By all means sue the individual who made the post (and they can be easily tracked), but don't 'shoot the messenger'.
No doubt this means even more draconian moderating. Already after the last shut-down nervous NSC moderators have clamped down on all but the most anodyne of political debate. A pity because at its best NSC is so much more than just a football forum.
Hovesage
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2:24pm Thu 1 Jul 10
Security word: football - sucks
McKenzie
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7:08pm Thu 1 Jul 10
Hovesage wrote:Welcome to Hove. Where were you from originally?
Who cares, let them sue him, demolish the stadium, and outlaw football!!
Security word: football - sucks
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Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit says...
9:16am Thu 1 Jul 10
No doubt this means even more draconian moderating. Already after the last shut-down nervous NSC moderators have clamped down on all but the most anodyne of political debate. A pity because at its best NSC is so much more than just a football forum.