The Scotsman reports
DAVID FERGUSON CHIEF RUGBY WRITER
THE Scottish Rugby Union was accused of censorship last night after it closed down the popular chatroom on its official website.

The SRU message board, formerly found on the union's official website, has attracted millions of postings since being launched a few years ago. It served as a forum for all kinds of discussions from debates over team selections, players and club rugby to requests for help and fixtures across the country, and its popularity was highlighted by messages swiftly being posted on alternative rugby websites, including Planet Rugby, Scrum V in Wales, rugby Scotland.net and a Scotland supporters forum site.


Jeff Scott, a Scottish rugby supporter who lives in Sussex, was a regular user of the chat room. He told The Scotsman: "I am simply astonished at the decision by the SRU to withdraw the message board from their official web site. This is a huge disappointment to many.

"There is a pretentious statement on the site that there are means of registering feedback or complaints, but this totally ignores the fact that this was the one part of the SRU which allowed the fans of the national team to discuss, comment, debate and disagree with each other - and with the SRU, which I suspect is the real reason for withdrawal of the facility.

"I believe this decision shows complete contempt for the supporters of Scottish rugby, particularly those like myself who are no longer based in Scotland and don't get the chance to discuss the national team. All the other major rugby-playing nations' web sites actually encourage their supporters to take part.

"Take a look at any sports club in any sort of professional league. A message board for supporters is such a simple thing to do, but obviously not for the ivory towers of Murrayfield. I believe this shabby act has taken the relationship between Scottish rugby and the supporters to a new low."

Dee McIntosh, the SRU's director of communications, said: "There are no petty reasons for this. We are looking at the big picture here. We are reviewing the whole of the IT system, including the website, and the view is that this is an inappropriate 'channel' for us to have on our website.

"There are lots of other websites which allow for rugby chatrooms, and they are good forums, but we don't feel this website is the place for that."

However, the SRU had only removed the link to the chatroom and the message board was still accessible, allowing people to post threads in protest. One comment read: "Absolutely disgraceful, these clowns at the SRU seem to think this forum was just for complaints. What idiots."

Another said: "Every other rugby nation has a chatroom, good for camaraderie, involvement, ideas, complaints and general contact. What's with the SRU? What a shame to close down the busiest and most popular part of the site. This should successfully drive visitor numbers to the site right down - good move."

There were suggestions the "personal details of an SRU employee" had been posted, though this was not substantiated. Scott insisted even that would not be a reason to close the board.

He added: "I and all other reasonable users would fully support barring the individual who posted such details, and, if necessary, the pursuit of legal action by the SRU as they have everyone's details through the registration process. But to scrap the message boards altogether for this seems just too convenient."

This article was posted on 17-Feb-2006, 08:25 by Hugh Barrow.