Leading Forum Shutdown
 

Did anyone notice that one of the biggest online (Australian) sporting and racing forums was closed down this week ????

Evidently they were unable to control litigious posts from their contributers.It was a fun forum with a lot of over-the-top jousting between posters.

It wasn't the ribald comments that bothered the owners,that was water off a frogs back.What did concern them was continual adverse references to individuals and other businesses.

At times in here I resent the jackboot type of censorship from the management,but I do enjoy this forum and would hate to see it closed down.

After seeing what "can" happen I am prepared to be a little more tolerant and a bit less critical of the owners of this site.

yes. and i am ****ed off

i was a constant poster on that site, and amongst the crap there was a lot of good stuff. *****

Another thing annoying about it was that it doesn't look like our World Cup will get back running due to the closure of the forums. It was a fantastic comp.

Its unfortunate that the forums like Cricket and Rugby Union/League had to be shut down as well, despite them doing nothing wrong

Still, at least the NRL Dream Team is still running. I'm coming 26th out of 30,000 in that - so at least the last good thing about the site is still there

I think there is a chance that the forums will be up and running soon....it mentions it on the website, so its a chance that they may be doing this just to tidy things up a bit, and possibly get rid of the bad posters forever.

Could you give me a clue as to the forum concerned thanks guys, without directly naming it of course?

www. the thing loved by all australians whether it be cricket, rugby, racing etc. followed by what paul simon wanted us to call him .com.au :D

Thanks chuck. Must admit it is not a forum I have ever looked at.

The racing section has been a bit dead for years hasn't it?

By comparison it was bursting with interest and vitality.

The forum members held a straw poll on the average age of contributers just recently.It ran to three full pages of replies,which gives a fair indication of the numbers involved.

Opinions were diverse and frequently heated,but not dominated by one or two individuals or would be entrepreneurs flogging their products.

This forum has been in a serious slump for quite a while with most of the entertaining and informed punters disappearing or losing interest.We can only hope that it picks up.

Don't hold your breath in anticipation of that happening mate. This place is so politically correct now you can't say much about anything. Pretty much a tipping or bragging rights forum now, regardless of which page your on :-)

The hits this forum receives have been increasing each year and are at record levels. The forum continues to grow and receive record levels of new internet traffic as can be seen by the number of "Guests" here.

Because of the increase in 'tips' [safe ground to post] I think Neil, not because the forum posts are interesting reading [unless you like watching paint dry]. They are few and far between now anyway on any subject.

agreed

the forum will nearly always grow from year to year despite its dwindling content quality as word gets around and more people find it etc.

....and it's a 'link' on many sites too now.

The hope initially for the internet was that it would allow varied opinions to be communicated by ordinary people free from censorship. The initial belief also was that an internet site was located in cyberspace, and so not bound by government rules and regulations.

These have proven to be pipedreams.

Government has got involved and legislated and continues to legislate.

The result is that "freedom of expression" on internet forums is now legally just as restrictive as anywhere else. Those who allow "anything goes" as used to happen open themselves up to major legal actions costing vast amounts of money.

Posters have also come onto the forum, some with good content, but with the aim of using this forum as a vehicle to promote for free their own internet businesses. The Forum Terms of Use prohibit this. These posters have been and will continue to be removed.

This aspect of the internet is still at the "cowboy stage", but just as the law has got involved with internet "freedom of expression" with regard to defamatory content and the like, so it is also only a matter of time before the law will deem using another company's internet site to promote your internet business for free, without permission, as being legally wrong, with the perpetrators liable for prosecution under the law.

Having a commercial internet site that cannot be found by others is like opening a business in the middle of the desert. This is a commercial internet site and not a hobby site.

But there are posters who do not understand this nor the commercial nature of the internet and internet forums.

The only ways that an internet site can be found are by:

1. High search engine rankings, like this site. But that takes professional skill, and if paid for costs large amounts of money.

2. Media advertising - again costly.

3. By being mentioned on other internet sites via links, forums and advertising promotions. Many posters do not understand when competitors of an internet site are mentioned on their forum that it is effectively a free ad. for them. In addition if the site has high search engine rankings, like us, the competitor business will also most likely be given further promotion via the search engines.