UK Online Safety Laws - I, and therefore the site, are at risk

[Isaac]

That is the rub, if the watercooler is over regulated then fewer people participate, presumably less clicks. Less regulation and we run a foul of the safety act.

True point, however, I think the watercooler-type forums could still maintain a fairly good traffic if heavily moderated.
Now we'd just need to find more people willing to do the moderation.
And I for one, (and I say this 100 percent honestly), I'd be a bit confused about which posts needed to come down. Obviously some would be easy to determine, but I suspect many would not, with reasonable people on both sides of the opinion of 'does this violate the act or not'.

Defaming? Ok, I understand that, but would we delve into the legal (usa or uk) definitions of that? What if I just said "So-and-so is a nutcase".
Offending? Heck, that's an incredibly wide net. Any Democrat would hate most of what I say, and many Republicans would hate much of what I've said in the last few months. But it's not blanket statements that degrade a person based on race or gender etc., I don't think.

I can see moderating it being pretty confusing. NOT that I am voting for a complete shut down, that would ruin the fun and by the way, there is plenty of non-technical forum discussions that are not political or social issues - ranging from google voice to linux to plenty of random stuff, and I'd hate to get rid of the baby with the bathwater.

 

[Jon]

I have now removed the Politics section.

 

[Isaac]

Probably a safe bet, thanks Jon for working so hard to try to determine where to draw the line in a way that preserves as much freedom as possible - tough decision and just the time and effort it's taking you to use a scalpel rather than a hatchet is noticed and appreciated by us!

 

[NauticalGent]

What Isaac said...

 

[BlueSpruce]

Ditto