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A reminder of the forum rules relating to defamation


Ulysses

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On Friday morning, a rumour broke on the forum to the effect that a specific individual was responsible for what I will describe as "nefarious efforts" to undermine and derail the Hearts CVA. A number of posters either directly named, or gave strong clues as to the name of, a particular person. Several posters also referred to the individual's employer, and either stated or suggested that this company knew about these efforts or may have been complicit in them. It would also appear that the remarks being made on Jambos Kickback reflected comments doing the rounds on various social media platforms.

 

A representative of the individual and the company contacted JKB management on Friday to say that the rumours were untrue, were a cause of professional embarrassment and upset to the individual, and were potentially commercially damaging to the company. Accordingly, we were asked to ensure that the comments were removed and not repeated. I should stress that this contact was informal and well-mannered on both sides, and we were asked in a reasonable manner to review what was being posted in a fair and objective way.

 

Since then, the moderators and admins here have put about 20 person-hours into moderating this issue (post deletions and edits) and also looking into the matter to ensure that we are doing the right thing. And to the best of our knowledge and belief we are doing the right thing. There is no independent or objective evidence to support the rumours, or to back up any claim that this individual or company had any hand, act or part in any "nefarious efforts" to undermine the Hearts CVA.

 

In short, it is being claimed by some people that a particular person and their employer have behaved in a way that is unprofessional and possibly worse - yet there is no evidence to support that claim. Leaving aside any precise legal definitions that might apply in the various jurisdictions that cover JKB's operations, it is our view as forum management that people are entitled to their good name and their professional reputation - and bluntly, we consider any posting that attacks someone's good name and professional reputation without concrete evidence as potentially defamatory. Likewise, while it is perfectly acceptable to criticise a company for what it does or the quality of its service, it is not acceptable to damn the business for things it hasn't done on the basis of gossip and rumour.

 

And for the avoidance of doubt, the fact that you read something on some social media site does not constitute concrete evidence. Twitter and Facebook undoubtedly have their benefits, but let's face it some of the time they are nothing better than telly with added-in typing for the hard of thinking. So don't feel it's OK to post some nasty rumour just because you saw it elsewhere; please think for a minute before you post.

 

Up to now, we have been careful to remove rule-breaking posts without taking action against the posters, but we can't continue that. So this is to advise members that we will be taking a zero-tolerance approach to this issue from now on. If anyone says anything whatsoever that says, suggests or hints at the involvement of this person or company in the Hearts CVA or hibs.net, they run the risk of being banned. Even posting a negation or denial will get you into trouble. Some of you may be tempted to crack a joke about this - don't, please.

 

Our policy on matters like this is there for a good reason. It defends and vindicates high standards of comment on the board, and ultimately it protects the forum itself and the members from the potentially nasty fallout from malicious rumour and gossip. This is a reminder to all members of the need to buy into our policy and comply with the forum rules. None of us would want our good name to be attacked by others without good reason; it's only fair that we accept that others are entitled to the same standard of treatment as we are.

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King Of The Cat Cafe

"None of us would want our good name to be attacked by others without good reason; it's only fair that we accept that others are entitled to the same standard of treatment as we are."

 

Well said.

 

In general terms, and not referring to this instance in particular, a lot of people on the internet seem to forget about defamation and libel.

 

(BTW, loved "the moderators and admins here have put about 20 person-hours into moderating this issue" line. Very PC!)

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cashgenerator

"

 

(BTW, loved "the moderators and admins here have put about 20 person-hours into moderating this issue" line. Very PC!)

 

Always suspected Dex was a burd... :)

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tartofmidlothian

Online witch hunts are the bane of the modern age. One of them anyway.

 

Good post.

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Very well put and dealt with.

 

Thanks to you and the team for your on-going efforts.

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Andrew Gilbert Wauchope

It's also worth saying that we should be grateful to Ully, Dex et al (whether male, female or haermafa hermaphroea bit o' baith) for the the high standards here, only maintained by their efforts. This ranges from relatively minor things like the pretty much zero tolerance policy for swearing upwards to topics such as the present one.

 

If you want to see what JKB would be like without this, try having a wee look at the major Glasgow clubs forums.

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Might be useful to pin this for a few days.

 

I think I probably posted something earlier today that fell into the not allowed category. Didn't realise at the time I was doing anything wrong - apologies for that.

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The Real Maroonblood

 

It's also worth saying that we should be grateful to Ully, Dex et al (whether male, female or haermafa hermaphroea bit o' baith) for the the high standards here, only maintained by their efforts. This ranges from relatively minor things like the pretty much zero tolerance policy for swearing upwards to topics such as the present one.

 

If you want to see what JKB would be like without this, try having a wee look at the major Glasgow clubs forums.

Anything goes on these forums.

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Jambof3tornado

I misread the title and thought the warning was about sh###ing!

 

Content noted mods.

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tartofmidlothian

It's also worth saying that we should be grateful to Ully, Dex et al (whether male, female or haermafa hermaphroea bit o' baith) for the the high standards here, only maintained by their efforts. This ranges from relatively minor things like the pretty much zero tolerance policy for swearing upwards to topics such as the present one.

 

If you want to see what JKB would be like without this, try having a wee look at the major Glasgow clubs forums.

 

:spoton:

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On Friday morning, a rumour broke on the forum to the effect that a specific individual was responsible for what I will describe as "nefarious efforts" to undermine and derail the Hearts CVA. A number of posters either directly named, or gave strong clues as to the name of, a particular person. Several posters also referred to the individual's employer, and either stated or suggested that this company knew about these efforts or may have been complicit in them. It would also appear that the remarks being made on Jambos Kickback reflected comments doing the rounds on various social media platforms.

 

A representative of the individual and the company contacted JKB management on Friday to say that the rumours were untrue, were a cause of professional embarrassment and upset to the individual, and were potentially commercially damaging to the company. Accordingly, we were asked to ensure that the comments were removed and not repeated. I should stress that this contact was informal and well-mannered on both sides, and we were asked in a reasonable manner to review what was being posted in a fair and objective way.

 

Since then, the moderators and admins here have put about 20 person-hours into moderating this issue (post deletions and edits) and also looking into the matter to ensure that we are doing the right thing. And to the best of our knowledge and belief we are doing the right thing. There is no independent or objective evidence to support the rumours, or to back up any claim that this individual or company had any hand, act or part in any "nefarious efforts" to undermine the Hearts CVA.

 

In short, it is being claimed by some people that a particular person and their employer have behaved in a way that is unprofessional and possibly worse - yet there is no evidence to support that claim. Leaving aside any precise legal definitions that might apply in the various jurisdictions that cover JKB's operations, it is our view as forum management that people are entitled to their good name and their professional reputation - and bluntly, we consider any posting that attacks someone's good name and professional reputation without concrete evidence as potentially defamatory. Likewise, while it is perfectly acceptable to criticise a company for what it does or the quality of its service, it is not acceptable to damn the business for things it hasn't done on the basis of gossip and rumour.

 

And for the avoidance of doubt, the fact that you read something on some social media site does not constitute concrete evidence. Twitter and Facebook undoubtedly have their benefits, but let's face it some of the time they are nothing better than telly with added-in typing for the hard of thinking. So don't feel it's OK to post some nasty rumour just because you saw it elsewhere; please think for a minute before you post.

 

Up to now, we have been careful to remove rule-breaking posts without taking action against the posters, but we can't continue that. So this is to advise members that we will be taking a zero-tolerance approach to this issue from now on. If anyone says anything whatsoever that says, suggests or hints at the involvement of this person or company in the Hearts CVA or hibs.net, they run the risk of being banned. Even posting a negation or denial will get you into trouble. Some of you may be tempted to crack a joke about this - don't, please.

 

Our policy on matters like this is there for a good reason. It defends and vindicates high standards of comment on the board, and ultimately it protects the forum itself and the members from the potentially nasty fallout from malicious rumour and gossip. This is a reminder to all members of the need to buy into our policy and comply with the forum rules. None of us would want our good name to be attacked by others without good reason; it's only fair that we accept that others are entitled to the same standard of treatment as we are.

 

BTTT so people continue to be aware of this.

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Good post. Doesn't hurt to be reminded right about now as I think we're all potentially capable of letting out hearts over rule our head and perhaps say something we might later regret

 

We're all sitting on a knife edge

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Good post. Doesn't hurt to be reminded right about now as I think we're all potentially capable of letting out hearts over rule our head and perhaps say something we might later regret

 

We're all sitting on a knife edge

. This 100%. Emotions are running very high just now.
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itsnomarooned

Excellent advice.

 

The internet and social media etc. are hardly anything new but there continues to be the perception that if you're in the privacy of your own home and no-one can see you then you can say what you want with impunity. This quite clearly isn't the case and reminders (and kicks up the erse) of this nature are entirely welcome.

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Chris Benoit

Should this be a sticky for now...

 

 

It's better to bump it. Some folk skim the stickies so it'd get missed

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Son Of Anarchy

Good advice and duly heeded even for those of us without a scooby what its reffering too.

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