An anchoring heads up.

I seem to have missed those discussions. Better or worse isn't relevant. Defamation is a thing - it has a definition in law and if we as posters make or impute truth claims which are both damaging and false then we may face litigation. The fact that this rarely happens doesn't alter the fact. Many Twitter users have recently found that simply re-tweeting defamatory tweets makes them liable. All were shocked and thought it couldn't happen.

I understand where you're coming from. It will be interesting to see what the Mods make of it.

Richard
 
Stop the speculation.

There’s a very simple rule applied to nearly all these cases.

We wait for the actual person who’s been defamed etc to complain and then we consider what to do (or Legal does)

Occasionally you may have noticed contentious threads disappearing. Now you know.

And as usual I’m not going to discuss moderation....
 
Stop the speculation.

There’s a very simple rule applied to nearly all these cases.

We wait for the actual person who’s been defamed etc to complain and then we consider what to do (or Legal does)

Occasionally you may have noticed contentious threads disappearing. Now you know.

And as usual I’m not going to discuss moderation....

Fine by me. Thank you for giving it your consideration.
 
To clarify, I am perfectly happy to accept confirmation that this unfortunate loss has no media element and have therefore deleted posts which raised this question. Not that there is anything in the slightest wrong with such business models on any level and they work well for many. (One post isn’t editable so perhaps jm might zap?)

Once again, I hope this sad loss has a happy solution somewhere, or at least silver lining. And most of all, thankfully all are safe.
 
I'm not looking to unduly extend this thread but I thought members might be interested in this guide from the BBC. The kind of self-monitoring it advocates may also take some pressure off our Mods in their no-doubt thankless task of protecting us from ourselves.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/webwise/get-connected/Social_media_and_libel.pdf

Indeed. Hence my #34.
Surely the first line of responsibility lies with the forumite who posted it?:confused:
 
Stop the speculation.

There’s a very simple rule applied to nearly all these cases.

We wait for the actual person who’s been defamed etc to complain and then we consider what to do (or Legal does)

Occasionally you may have noticed contentious threads disappearing. Now you know.

And as usual I’m not going to discuss moderation....

In the absence of any ongoing UK legal proceedings, that indeed does seem to be the historic and appropriate course of action. :)

Richard
 
In the absence of any ongoing UK legal proceedings, that indeed does seem to be the historic and appropriate course of action. :)

Richard

Yes, it seems a reasonable approach from the Mods since they can't be expected to continuously rule on the difference between forthright opinion and defamation. However, to pick up A1Sailor's point on individual responsibility, anyone who has been indulging in some light defamation may not be home clear. If, for example, said watch keeper has been refused a job because his reputation has been traduced including posts on this forum then the deletion of all threads may not be enough to protect individual contributors since the posts concerned will already have been read numerous times. As said, Twitter users deleting posts has not saved them from legal consequences since the damage had already been done. Writers beware!
 
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