Important News!!

The rule around issues being before the courts seems to be a serious issue for this site.

Any time an incident occurs discussion is immediately shut down as if comments made on boards could be cited in an ongoing case as influencing the outcome.

I understand boards had an issue with a concert promoter back in the early 2000's which may have influenced this but boards competitors, such as reddit Ireland or X/Twitter enforce no such rules and conversation flows as per standard house rules.

Has there been another situation other than the one cited above where the name boards.ie has even been muttered in an Irish Court room?

Surely a site in the type of situation boards finds itself in should be facilitating lively discussion not stifling it. Just a thought.

You're absolutely correct, in a situation where authorities ask a case not be discussed the "before the courts" rule would be a reasonable thing to implement.

Currently it's wheeled out as soon as something happens that would result in perhaps a heated debate on this site.

If the rationale is that mods don't want the hassle of dealing with a busy thread then just say so. This notion that boards has to keep a lid on commentary in case a murderer gets to walk free on a technicality because of something posted on a site with ever decreasing traffic and relevance influenced the outcome is a joke.

No other discussion platform implements this type of draconian nonsense, and it's not helping the health of a site that relies on engaging people in a meaningful manner.

Essentially if something happens in Ireland boards.ie is NOT the place to discuss it. Is that the mission statement we should be pursuing?

Grand.

I'm guessing this is the place to get their attention then? That was my intent.

Also, do you believe that the intent of that rule was for mods to close down discussions of issues before the courts in other jurisdictions? Or is that defined?

Also this line of "I was just following orders" stuff isn't particularly convincing tbh.

Have you or any of your cohorts ever thought to have that rule rationalised properly at any point?

Like I mentioned earlier in this thread, you're not just dealing members anymore, a number of us are paying customers and we have a vested interest in the continuation of this site going forward, this issue seems to be doing great damage to that, perhaps something beyond a dull jobsworth type response to an issue that stops this site being relevant would be useful?

Was there a blanket ban on boards during the many court proceedings against Trump?

I can't remember and don't wish to click on the thread to be honest because it's gick!

I think the bit about 'before the courts' in the terms of use is definitely unspecific but was unnecessarily applied (various UK cases) and a smell of bias to be honest (eg Trump's active court cases from memory)

Note: I have no problem with an active court case being discussed especially from outside this country. I don't know the intricacies of Irish law in relation to what is and isn't allowed re-Irish cases although I have heard judges issue instructions to not report/discuss on certain cases.

I think it needs to be looked at by the owner @Boards.ie: Odhran

Banning talk of cases before the courts makes as little sense as a country making it illegal to talk about it in person. It was always a stupid rule and boards.ie is the only place on the entire internet that has that rule. Not even newspapers follow it. No one does.