CFC Facebook

[Christopher Mallon]

Hello,

I would like to know who exactly manages the CFC Facebook account, as there are illegitimate warnings being handed out against some longtime CFC members on a controversial post made today. Specifically for violating some sort of "community standards" which were a) not actually violated as stated, and b) don't seem to actually exist, at least as far as I can find on the CFC Facebook page.

I particularly take exception to a warning being given to Hal Bond, who spent decades as one of Canadian chess's greatest assets. He's definitely earned the right to state his opinion!

[Fred McKim]

I could be wrong, but I don't think the CFC Facebook page is the CFC Board of Directors Facebook page or the CFC Voting members Facebook page. It is the Facebook page of the organization including all of it's members. In this case I agree with the post (presumably written by our Executive Director, Bob Gillanders) who applauded the efforts of Vlad and Patricia. I saw all of the work they were doing, and feel we would have lost this event without their efforts in a very narrow window of time. Above and beyond the call of duty.

As for the warning(s), that is another matter. I hope those who made "inflammatory" comments would withdraw them once they knew all of the facts.

Fred

[Olga Mushtaler]

I manage CFC Facebook and I gave you a warning. I am not sure what you are doing on CFC page if you publicly slander CFC. To say they are 'patting themselves'???? Do you think Vlad wrote a congratulation message to himself? Have you seen the amount of work everyone on the board has done to make the Candidates happen???????
Vlad did a tremendous amount of work and so did Patricia and so did I and so did others on CFC board. Instead of a THANK YOU, you blame CFC we pat ourselves???
If you have nothing good to say, don't say anything at all.

Olga

[Olga Mushtaler]

I am a firm believer that being part of any group is a privilege. If you wish to remain in the group, you must treat others with respect and kindness, whether they are your employers, volunteers on the board of CFC, or others.

[Christopher Mallon]

I manage CFC Facebook and I gave you a warning. I am not sure what you are doing on CFC page if you publicly slander CFC. To say they are 'patting themselves'???? Do you think Vlad wrote a congratulation message to himself? Have you seen the amount of work everyone on the board has done to make the Candidates happen???????
Vlad did a tremendous amount of work and so did Patricia and so did I and so did others on CFC board. Instead of a THANK YOU, you blame CFC we pat ourselves???
If you have nothing good to say, don't say anything at all.

Olga

First of all, you might want to look up what the definition of slander is. Because, "You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means."
Second, I stated how the post made me feel. Are you saying that I was somehow lying about my own feelings, and thus somehow deserved a warning for breaking a rule that's not actually a rule?

When there is a post saying it is by the "Chess Federation of Canada" (and otherwise anonymous) congratulating the leader of the federation, then yes, that is exactly how it comes across. If you posted it under your own name in the group, I wouldn't have had a problem with it.

Telling someone who doesn't agree with you to effectively shut up is very unbecoming of an executive board member.

I am a firm believer that being part of any group is a privilege. If you wish to remain in the group, you must treat others with respect and kindness, whether they are your employers, volunteers on the board of CFC, or others.

If you want my respect, you will have to earn it. You are off to a bad start.

You are entitled to your opinion, as am I by the way, as is Hal, and as is Heidi, and as is everyone else. But at least the three of us weren't hiding behind the CFC name, making up rules on the fly to suit our own purposes. And none of us slandered anyone in that post.

And finally, treating others with respect and kindness is something you might want to reflect on as well.

[Christopher Mallon]

As for the warning(s), that is another matter. I hope those who made "inflammatory" comments would withdraw them once they knew all of the facts.

I don't see my comment as at all inflammatory. The post still doesn't sit well with me and it has nothing to do specifically with the content or the reason for the post, but the way it was handled. The fact that it turns out to not have been Vlad posting it doesn't change the fact that it comes across as if he had, or had requested/ordered that it be posted. The fact that me pointing that out was somehow deserving of a warning for violating some kind of community standards which are not actually in existence just took the whole situation to a new level of ridiculousness. I would have made my post and moved on and forgotten all about it.

[Olga Mushtaler]

Slandering involves making false statements about someone with the intention to harm their reputation.

Your comment was slanderous because you said, 'Like they are patting themselves on the back and waiting for everyone to applaud,' thereby diminishing the efforts of CFC in obtaining the visas. You made a false statement that undermined the efforts of CFC, while in reality, it was quite the opposite, and CFC invested a lot of efforts in getting those visas.

[Olga Mushtaler]

I'm also not making up the rules of Facebook pages or groups. If you read the Community Standards, it states "We expect that people will respect the dignity of others and not harass or degrade others."

[Christopher Mallon]

Slandering involves making false statements about someone with the intention to harm their reputation.

Your comment was slanderous because you said, 'Like they are patting themselves on the back and waiting for everyone to applaud,' thereby diminishing the efforts of CFC in obtaining the visas. You made a false statement that undermined the efforts of CFC, while in reality, it was quite the opposite, and CFC invested a lot of efforts in getting those visas.

I made no comment whatsoever about the efforts of the CFC in regards to the visas. I made a comment about how the Facebook post felt to me. You can't just quote the second half of my statement and ignore the context of the first half.

I'll help you out, though. Slander is only possible through spoken word. The term you are looking for is libel - a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation.

I have not slandered anyone, as I have spoken no false statements. I have also not libelled anyone, as I have not written (much less published) any false statements. You, on the other hand, by accusing me (in writing) of committing both slander and harassment, in fact HAVE committed libel, since both of those actually are false statements.

[Olga Mushtaler]

Christopher,
Do you go to a birthday party and say out loud "this cake is disgusting"?
Do you go to a wedding and say "this couple doesn't match"?
Do you come up to a person and say "you look so fat"?
Yet, you, Heidi, and Hal find it acceptable to go to a CFC Facebook page and make rude comments on a congratulatory message I wrote, even if it may make you feel a certain way.

If your ego is too big to apologize, so be it. I'm not going to continue this any longer as I'm busy with other things.