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THE EDITOR of a popular gaelic games website and discussion forum, An Fear Rua, has decided to close the site after 12 years – saying he no longer believes anonymous online forums are a viable prospect.
Liam Cahill announced the immediate closure of the website with a post this morning, saying he had decided to end his “labour of love” due to financial and legal constraints.
“An anonymous internet forum is an anachronism. It has been overtaken by the arrival of ‘open identity’ forums such as Twitter and Facebook,” Cahill wrote.
“This model of internet comment is no longer viable, if the comment is to be within the law at all times as well as the bounds of good taste.”
He added that he was no longer prepared “to walk the tight rope between an open, anonymous forum like this and the libel laws” – commenting that the comments of some users had “sailed far too close to the wire” in recent times and this could not be continued.
He also criticised the attitude of a ‘growing minority’ of the site’s users, which he argued were unappreciative of the legal requirements placed on online publishers:
There is a sense that they can just register under a pseudonym, pay nothing towards the upkeep of the site or towards an insurance against libel matched by a total lack of any attempt to even understand – let alone accept – that I have a right, and a duty, to administer this site in accordance with the law and in the interests of everyone who used it.
Cahill also cited financial constraints in his decision to shut the site, saying it had made a loss every year since its inception and that sustained attempts to find advertising had been unsuccessful.
The site, founded in 2000, was a well-known online hangout for discussion of gaelic games at all levels, and content from the site’s columnists had become an occasional feature in official GAA match programmes over the last decade. The site was also a member of the Press Council of Ireland.
Cahill, a former journalist who now works as a communications and media consultant, was unavailable for additional comment this morning.
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He’s right we are witnessing the end of an era. He ran a great site but the craic is gone, all the best An fear Rua.
Too many keyboard warriors out there now.
Was a great forum but was ruined by a small number of trolls and the usual shite stirrers in recent years! Saying that it with will be sadly missed. Many of the posters had a great insight in Gaelic games.
Not-so-subtle lesson for The Journal here perhaps with regard to trolls.
It’s definitely become a major headache for forums – there are, after all, many examples of forums that should remain anonymous.
Maybe though, it’s time to reexamine the whole concept of defamation in Irish law, because right now it’s as broken as copyright law is after Sean Sherlock’s SI. If you have money, or can bluster and threaten without any scruples, then the law is perfectly suited to you; if you’re conservative about conflicts, or don’t have the money to have a legal team, then the law basicly lets others use the SLAPP approach to veto what you can and cannot say – whether or not you own the site.
I kinda see the difference between when a site starts up and a year or so after when the anonymous names start turning up and antagonising the forum. Early adopters are by and large decent people, but once a site gets popular, all multitude of people turn up either to push their worldview, have a rant, or deliberately try to “get a rise” out regular & new posters.
You see it on every comment section on every forum on the web. the prevalence of it is only controlled by the moderators & website proprietors
sorry to see this site go. Thanks An Fear Rua for all the news and insight over the past 12 years
I can understand what he means about earning revenue from the site, saying he never made more than €10,000 a year. I run a few sites one which is global, with american traffic I get an average ad click every 9 page views, for my Irish traffic I get an ad click about every 100 page views.
Do you not realise that if you click on an ad your identity and bank details are automatically stolen?!
cheers Brian, thanks for helping us publishers in the recession :-) not!
That was meant to be a joke making your point paddy!
The wider problem of the demise of online anonymity is exacerbated not so much by the presence of open identity forums but the rampant rise in usage of the internet.
When you go from 16 million users, to whom using some sort of handle was almost required, to 2 billion users in about 15 years then the understanding of self policing and responsibility vanishes.
If users can’t be responsible and self policing then they have to be made to be responsible and be policed and policing costs money. Small online fora can survive this without much expenditure, larger ones can’t unless people grow up.
On a wider scale this means that rather than bringing people together the Internet stratifies people, blowing some of the earlier ideals of the Web right out of the water.
A major pity that AFR is gone. Goes to show, the trolls always win. What began with informed, diverse discussion, was recently ending in acrimonious and often nonsensical arguments, much of it legally dubious. Good luck to Liam in his future ventures. Goes to show, the web is a dangerous platform, especially when people can post the most bizarre stuff anonymously. Some of the stuff in relation to the Limerick hurling scene was really out of order.
Doubt it has anything to do with anonymity. If this site was making say $10m a year instead of approx 10k I doubt it would have been closed. The real issue is creating web sites that only appeal to a very small niche audience (with apologies to GAA fans, it’s not a worldwide mass audience)
Bit of a whinger. The problem is the legal culture here. We need a free speech bit in constitution.
it’s his site. Free speech means you can set up a site of your own.
No such thiing as free peech on another person’s web forum.
Ever.
You enjoy your freedoms as the website owner allows you to.
Remember that. We are all guests.
But why should free speech extend to making outlandish allegations against people who aren’t going to be able to defend themselves, or shouldn’t have to? I’m not saying that’s what happened on the site, but it’s what does happen. ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ might apply in the courts, but it doesn’t apply in people’s minds — and a smear campaign, with little or no accountability, can do untold damage.
Free speech is precious and needs to be protected, but so too do innocent people.
Informed discussions ending in non sensical argumentative debates , I’m pretty sure I see that happening somewhere else lately , now where was it again…..
I think people should have to register with real name , photo and identity for online activity and when they are giving opinions , no matter how off the wall , they at least shouldnt be anonymous but I know that’s just personal opinion and not gonna happen any time soon.
I agree completely with his reasoning. Small online publishers are directly in competition with anybody who sets up a group on Facebook or other social media site on the same interest. They can tap into a huge membership whereas we have to struggle for every eyeball. Advertising / sponsorship for niche sites in practically impossible to find. I’ve been running Archiseek.com since 1996 and I reckon I’ve probably been approached half a dozen times in those years by a potential advertisers, and I’m proactive in trying to find them. In the same period, I’ve had lots of contact from lawyers about comments on the forums. It’s the main reason we turned off P45.net – it was costing money.
If I didn’t love it, I would have pulled the plug a decade ago.
As a regular reader and extremely rare poster I’m sorry to see this go. However, so many threads descended rapidly into name-calling. Any upcoming Limerick or Clare hurlers in particular should be glad to see it go – the amount of abuse directed at young amateur sportsmen was unreal at times. Real pity as there was some decent debate there too if you could find it. Some enjoyable random non-GAA stuff too – such as this thread about Limousin cattle
We were part of a very large site in the south east that was as big and had to shut down about 3 years ago for the same reason (Liam was a member).
To be honest, groups on Facebook kind of took over. Not worth the legal risk
Have to say the comments on Journal are a total dose lately. Almost like youtube. Seems a lot more relxed in the score section but still
It’s a pity the site has closed, I hope that an archive of the posts exists somewhere, there was a lot of funny stuff there. The trolls had begun to dominate on AFR of late, but the site itself was somewhat responsible for this, moderation wasn’t always consistent, lots of multiple aliases on the site, where trolls were banned they could re-register and post again in minutes.
Odd decision to just close it. With over 10,000 members he could have sold the site, it would be worth 5 to 10 grand at least.
Upgrade the site, improve the design and you could have a nice little earner for someone.
Good marketing Opportunity for Paddypower now. They should step in and save it :)
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