Fatclimber said:
M50, it appears you're confusing this discussion forum with some sort of legal proceeding. Nobody gets convicted by anything written here.
I know that but how you do anything is likely how you do everything. Look if you think it is OK to call someone a doper without a little more proof than has been offered here I suppose you would not mind being called a pervert of some sort? It does not offend you then I guess nothing I say matters.
I am concerned about how we act in public and this forum is public (to a rather narrow group) is open to your kids and is an example of the kind of behaviour I have read that some here are offended by. We are not talking about nameless cases but making accusations about peoples lives and their integrity. The simple greatest challenge I know is to get proof but that is the burden of proof. I think that some of these people are parents and would defend their kids against exactly the same behaviour they are participating in. Again I think it is wrong to do so and I believe it is the same message that I think some of the offenders here would say to their kids. that is hypocrisy,
Really what is the value to the sport and to the forum? it is lurid, there is no proof here and to date there is no investigation by anyone that understands this data well enough to offer an expert opinion.. I talk to doctors that cannot make a definitive statement and they would go to a blood doctor to talk about it so how do so many lay people have such confident opinions?
What group in society is only compromised of dishonest people? Apparently within this subset of bike racing followers the number is very high that all pro riders are cheating? Sorry but even prisons have convicts that are more honest than that.
Now discussing a doping positive or a Betsy Andreu story is open game as this subject is out there but this thread and several on the other Chris are the worst kind of speculation and I hate it. I think it is a failure of this forum to better police itself.
Now as for the legal part? more and more laws are aimed at internet chats and activities. Sure most are currently aimed at things like posting naked pictures of your ex girlfriend but kids are being convicted of distributing porn if the subject is or was underage. Making a printed accusation about someone that can bring them disrepute is subject to the law and eventually it will extend to a chat group for Libel or defamation as the legality applies. We may not be close to that yet but eventually someone will be hurt enough by some malicious accusation on some forum that the law will look at threads like this.
This forum has a very large following so in some ways it is the leading English language internet news site on the sport and I would love it if the forum was also the highest level of discussion and a lot less like a tabloid.
Perhaps it is because I chose to argue my point inside this thread but I am troubled that most of the comments generated by my distain are not supportive if any are? I also suppose that more than a few regulars here are in fact trolls or children and not just acting like them?