REGISTERED ONLY AREA - Your thoughts

[Cheeser]

Leave as is.

[mk1]

Thanks for the input folks. As I hoped, the consensus seems to be leave it as it is. This is my current plan.

Regarding the suggestion of some sort of "indemnity", sadly, this won't work. It would have no legal basis & me, as the admin / owner, simply claiming to be the sewer not the sewerage no longer holds water. There is plenty of precedent to indicate that the owner of a forum is legally liable for all comments made on that forum.

Sadly, I had to investigate this issue recently, when I was threatened with legal action over posts made on this very site. Although the majority of the comments in question were either fair comment, factually accurate or correct to the best reasonable knowledge of the person posting them, some weren't. This made me potentially open to civil proceedings. After taking (real) legal advice, I was told that the only way to comply with my obligations at little or no cost, was to delete ALL posts concerning any cars owned / being offered by the individual in question.

To avoid any such legal action, this is what I had to do & in the case of this individual, I will continue to delete any content relating to vehicles claimed by him. In this age of hair trigger litigation where one party could stand to benefit greatly from the action and the other party benefits in no way whatsoever, being "right" is no defence against high legal costs, even if you think you have a good case.

I would like to make it VERY clear that although I am happy to run the forum as a free site for members, I am NOT prepared to put myself or my family in legal jeopardy to do so. Please make sure that any posts made are to the best of your ability, legal, decent, truthful & honest. If all members do this, then we have nothing to worry about.

Sorry about the long post.

Mark F

[Stewartp]

Don't apologise for the long post
I personally like the forum as it is, an entertaining and valuable source of information.
Anyone that is selfish enough to put you and your family in potentially legal strife doesn't deserve to be a member, but it's probably impossible to weed them out.
Just keep moderating unsavoury posts out and protect yourself, we probably wouldn't want to read them anyway.
Thanks for your time and effort in moderating the forum for us.

[sugarhiccup]

Mark,

This forum has been a mainstay in my life since my teens, and I could not be more grateful for the time and energy that you sacrifice in running it, as well as the genuine passion that you breathe into the space.

Above all the MK1 performance Conversions forum is a friendly international forum where all views are welcomed in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

In line with Mark’s quote, it is quite clear that it is our shared responsibility to understand that this is a friendly forum, first and foremost. Registration, in itself, is an acknowledgement and agreement of this statement in my view.

Nobody should be finding themselves feeling uncomfortable here at any time, let alone having to deal with the prospect of anything more unsightly.

My promise, and I hope it reflects the views of all other members, is to keep our house tidy and to continue to treat others with the same respect I wish to receive.

With thanks to all,

Thomas

[richardACS]

Don't apologise for the long post
I personally like the forum as it is, an entertaining and valuable source of information.
Anyone that is selfish enough to put you and your family in potentially legal strife doesn't deserve to be a member, but it's probably impossible to weed them out.
Just keep moderating unsavoury posts out and protect yourself, we probably wouldn't want to read them anyway.
Thanks for your time and effort in moderating the forum for us.

Couldn't put it better myself - why let (what is probably) such a small percentage of odd people mess up what the majority of decent people find is both helpful and amusing.... Thank you for the time and effort you dedicate to this forum.

[mk1coopers]

Not good if people are threatening Mark F, who now has to effectively censor content on certain vehicles, if people have a valid case for X Y or Z car being legitimate then they should get involved in a discussion about it and offer evidence that counters anything factual that has been posted.

Unfortunately this type of 'entitled' behaviour is becoming more and more common in society, especially when there is money involved, why should anyone be able to create a story about a car, or a whole car, then sell it as something it is, allegedly, not.

Try doing that with an old piece of artwork and see what happens, if there is robust evidence that what is being sold is not as described the outcome would not be good if you were caught.

[Pandora]

Given those choices, Mark, no one would for a second question that your decision is the right one.

That it is necessary speaks volumes about certain aspects of our increasingly litigious society, but if that is what is necessary, then so be it. Let the buyer beware and do their due diligence, but that is a matter for them, and cpnsequences of someone else's risk should not fall at your door, however honest and social this site is.

Hope all is returned to normal now,

Al

[bryan]

I think mk1coopers expresses my thoughts precisely.
I am truly sorry my reference to the existence of a clone of my car has caused Mark such difficulty.
My post was legal decent honest and truthful, backed up by documentation and multiple third party evidence.
This forum with its impossibly detailed collective knowledge is of huge value to all those in the Mk 1 Cooper S market minefield and hopefully it can continue to perform that function without risk to Mark.

[Pete]

I think mk1coopers expresses my thoughts precisely.
I am truly sorry my reference to the existence of a clone of my car has caused Mark such difficulty.
My post was legal decent honest and truthful, backed up by documentation and multiple third party evidence.
This forum with its impossibly detailed collective knowledge is of huge value to all those in the Mk 1 Cooper S market minefield and hopefully it can continue to perform that function without risk to Mark.

It’s a sad day indeed when a non forum member can get Bryan’s own comments about Bryan’s own actual car he owned, a really exceptional and rare car with 100% documented provenance from new wiped from the forum because he doesn’t like the comments but that’s where we are today. The current owner is also very supportive. Hope it’s not the top of a slippery slope because I’m not quite sure where that ends or where the margins are.

[63monte]

I think mk1coopers expresses my thoughts precisely.
I am truly sorry my reference to the existence of a clone of my car has caused Mark such difficulty.
My post was legal decent honest and truthful, backed up by documentation and multiple third party evidence.
This forum with its impossibly detailed collective knowledge is of huge value to all those in the Mk 1 Cooper S market minefield and hopefully it can continue to perform that function without risk to Mark.

It’s a sad day indeed when a non forum member can get Bryan’s own comments about Bryan’s own actual car he owned, a really exceptional and rare car with 100% documented provenance from new wiped from the forum because he doesn’t like the comments but that’s where we are today. The current owner is also very supportive. Hope it’s not the top of a slippery slope because I’m not quite sure where that ends or where the margins are.

Exactly the reason why I have never made any on-line comments about the issues I have had with my car on any forum. Hopefully I will be able to take it to Blyton for the first time next year.
Mark does a great job managing this forum and I agree that it it fine as it is. There are already plenty of closed areas for anything that needs to said amongst those who are registered.

[tweedy998]

I'm a little late to this, and am not a seasoned member, but would just like to say the welcome and kindness alongside the wealth of information here has been for me a great experience. My sentiments would echo the many here it would seem, in as to keep it as is.

I've not been aware of any of the events alluded to above, and have to say I'm saddened that Mark has had to field this and delete things from the forum. Let's hope there'll be no more instances of that kind of thing to spoil the experience here on the forum.

[gazza82]

Many of the popular FB groups are private - I dont know if they have the option to just make certain areas private though...

No, once you have joined a private group on FB you have access to it all .. but then it's not built like a forum and so very hard to divide up posts into different topics or subject areas.

Another downside to FB is if you reply to a reply you can get separate conversations going in parallel and often people miss the earlier replies and so duplication is a massive issue. In a forum like this it just tags onto the end ...

[Pete]

Many of the popular FB groups are private - I dont know if they have the option to just make certain areas private though...

No, once you have joined a private group on FB you have access to it all .. but then it's not built like a forum and so very hard to divide up posts into different topics or subject areas.

Another downside to FB is if you reply to a reply you can get separate conversations going in parallel and often people miss the earlier replies and so duplication is a massive issue. In a forum like this it just tags onto the end ...

It’s quite interesting to see crooks trying to shut down perfectly justified first hand conversations online in order to cover up fraud and deception (which is what we’re talking about here). It’s even happening to Mike Cooper himself (as it has in the past) for merely talking about a car he used to own this week on Facebook (which challenges the false claims being made about it).There’s lots of cash riding on these claims. And that’s not the first time. So it’s not just people on forums under attack.

[richardACS]

There could be such a simple way to deal with all these issues of fraud, trolls, unsubstantiated claims and down right misleading statements etc etc - make everyone post from a real name - it's called accountability/responsibility, talk about making life difficult for no good reason....

[mk1]

There could be such a simple way to deal with all these issues of fraud, trolls, unsubstantiated claims and down right misleading statements etc etc - make everyone post from a real name - it's called accountability/responsibility, talk about making life difficult for no good reason....

Absolutely IMPOSSIBLE.

If someone chooses to register as Boris Johnson, how am I supposed to know if it's the real one or not?

[richardACS]

I'm not focusing this to the forum Mark but on social media in general and all forms of electronic messaging.

It would be very simple electronically to do this across the board, it already does this anyway, if you have an account on Ebay for example if your not recognised (from incorrect data) you can't proceed.

[MiNiKiN]

Absolutely IMPOSSIBLE.

If someone chooses to register as Boris Johnson, how am I supposed to know if it's the real one or not?

This is Boris Johnson, I'd rather continue with my nickname "Minikin", or I might not be taken serious on here. Thank you.

[Exminiman]

Liz Truss, wouldn’t work either , unless you wanted to be a short term member