Tuesday 9 February 2010

What am I doing?

Via a link from English chess organiser Adam Raoof, I came across the English Chess Forum. It has a comprehensive set of topics related to the English chess scene, including a section on the English Chess Federation itself. One of the sub topics in this section is titled "What am I doing?" It is for ECF office holders to fill everyone else in on what tasks they are working on, such as pursuing media coverage, sponsorship opportunities or government lobbying. From the look of it, it is a very active section with the ECF President CJ de Mooi (of TV's "Eggheads" fame) being a regular poster.
Interestingly, the English Forum seems to operate in a similar manner to Chess Chat in Australia, at least in regards to its relationship with the English Chess Federation. It isn't the official forum of the Federation, and it appears that the ECF doesn't even provide a link to it from its own home page. I suspect in part this may be due to the fact that ECF office bearers don't do double duty as admins on the English Forum, resulting in a more robust debate on topics concerning English chess politics.

3 comments:

Kevin Bonham said...

Can't comment in detail on the English forum since my attempts to access it, whether from my normal IP or via proxy, all encountered 403s and 404s, which was disappointing as I enjoy having a look at how other forums run. I can gather a few things via Google cache but this is a lot of effort.

But there is an insinuation in Shaun's post that debate about topics concerning Australian chess politics is less robust than it otherwise would be as a result of some of the Chesschat admins/mods being also ACF officebearers.

As the insinuation is unsubstantiated there is no real reason to bother debunking it since only the most gullible reader will take it seriously. But I will point out that robust discussion of the ACF has always been welcome on Chesschat and there has been plenty of it on there over time. What has happened is that some of the wannabe critics have got themselves banned through persistent vulgar abuse or defamation (also prohibited on the English forum) while some others have left after getting silly about some point of supposed principle or getting sooky about their interactions with other posters.

Their half-hearted attempts at criticism on other forums are hardly any loss, being composed more of personal bile and trolling than substance. Excepting the handful who have already got themselves permanently banned, anyone wanting to make robust criticisms of the ACF on Chesschat and able to make some attempt to behave themselves is always welcome to do so.

Anonymous said...

wtf?! :-$

Kevin Bonham said...

The 403s and 404s have gone away so I can access it now. So, where there do I find evidence of this supposedly superior degree of robustness, or was that just an ambit claim by Shaun?