having now read it, it seems:
Somebody has published a tournament in which there are apparently some clone engines participating.
The CCC Charter, when written in 1997, made no comments about 'clones' because the issue was not real at that time. Since then the Charter has been interpreted/extended by previous mod teams to take action on posts which promote/provide links to clone engines. There is some justification for this denial of freedom to report (free speech issue) on the grounds of the illegal status of clones (the dubious legality clause in Charter) but it seems to me the real reason is fundamentally political (these forums are by and for engine people and programmers who justificably strongly resent clones being passed off as real work). Nothing wrong with being political - this is a special interest forum with interests to protect.
Since there is obvious political support from the membership for censorship of clone links, subsequent moderation teams (also this one) have continued with the policy of deletions of such posts. Balancing freedom of speech issues against all the other issues, it would seem the clone link censorship policy is accepted and sensible.
The current case however would extend the censorship from clone links (ability to 'illegally' acquire copyrighted material) to clone participating tournaments which is not the same thing.
The relevent thread is absolutely on the cusp, it's a very fine balance between freedom to report on one side and justifiable opposition to clones on the other. If asked to make a decision, it is this: ultimately it is not for the three moderators to extend the interpretation of the Charter although it is clear that a temporary decision needs to be made. Any action on this thread is fundamentally political (nothing wrong with that) and creates new policy. Creation of policy has to be put through the membership, so I would propose that, in the same way as the membership was polled a few months ago on use of profanity (result = substantial majority was highly offended by it and members decided themselves to respect that fact), membership should be polled for just how far censorship of clone relating reporting should go. I suggest that those elected as new moderators in just over a weeks time make a suitable poll to guage member opinion and in the meantime that the thread in question remains safely tucked away in the mod archives from where it can be restored if deemed sensible at a later date. Ideally a poll could happen right now, but mod elections are apon us, so I'ld suggest waiting until they're done and the new mods take over.
Chris Whittington
