Public Cheating Accusations

So (as I just found out haha) it is against the site's rules to accuse somebody of cheating, besides using the report form. This makes sense to me in the game chat/analysis board/private messages, but I think that it shouldn't be against the rules in the forum: It deprives the Lichess community of any oversight on the cheating issue, which is one of the biggest issues of the site and which was at the center of the only bit of genuine controversy that Lichess ever got into (the Wesley So incident). If people could post their suspicions regarding games that they've also reported, it can cause additional pressure for those cases to be resolved. As it stands, nobody has any idea how responsive Lichess is actually being on this issue: It has been very inconsistent in my own, anecdotal experience, so I imagine it's the same for others who bother to report players. This is part of what allows the (in some people's minds) bad reputation of the site when it comes to this issue. It could be given its own subforum, and doing so would be a visible step toward improvement.

Also, I don't think that the potential negative impacts are really that likely. Any sort of 'harassment' that might have ensued because of this would already be against the rules; I think the maximal negative impact it could have on a falsely accused person would be that a few of the forum users unnecessarily blocked them, which the accused person would never even realize. If anything, I find that people are very reticent to make accusations of cheating except in truly flagrant cases, and would probably be subjecting themselves to more BS on the forums than the accused (unless it was totally blatant, in which case it would be the system working properly).

I know that it's a non-intuitive suggestion, but I think it should be considered seriously.

Users who are lacking the relevant data start a witch hunt. The admins got it.

Thanks but no thanks. Lichess is civilized.

There's already a team forum for publicly shaming people you've lost to. It's a cesspool

lichess.org/forum/team-cheater-investigation-associationcia/an-open-letter-about-the-cheater-investigation-association#1

In my opinion, moderators do their job very well most of the time. The only issue is that people tend to be too self assured when it comes to accusing others of cheating.
Public shaming is impractical and unjust. It leads to ignorant people agreeing with each other in things they know nothing about. As #3 points out the "CIA" is a prime example of that. Most accusations are completely unfounded.

Ok, so no on the whole oversight thing. "They will start a witch hunt" could've just said tl;dr, emphasis on dr. What an insufficient response. Obviously the admins don't got it; what they've gotten is a bad reputation for Lichess.

Yeah, these hobby cheater hunters produce false positives with their home-made Neanderthaler programs. Let the pros do the job!

@morozov Sorry, I started my response before I read yours. I can imagine that a lot of people would get heated and make silly accusations of cheating, but if they make spurious accusations then won't they just get checked on the forum? This dynamic will play out and disincentivize an atmosphere of lax accusations. There is no 'public shaming' if the person didn't cheat; they will only feel (well-deserved) shame if they did cheat. Otherwise, the person making the false accusation will be the one open to shame. Not to compare it to something so serious, but this argument is basically the same as for #metoo

Anyway, the entire premise of your response hinges on the notion that the admins *are* actually doing a good job with this. I can PM you quite a few obvious cheaters whom I've reported right this second; how many you need to change your mind? I'm asking sincerely.

Idgaf about #metoo or black lives matter and all other american nonsense.
But please PM me the list of guys who you think are cheaters. I speak from expierence( I have been on this site since 2011) when I tell you that most of these are either not cheaters, inactive or will be banned soon. It usually takes 2 minutes to 2 days for a moderator to respond to a report. I unterstand too well the frustration that one feels when you see a Mod online, and a blatant cheater is out and about. However sooner or later gods gonna cut them down. So please Pm me the names.

You know how witch hunts become dynamic? Slander or what the dictionary says, character assassination?

That ain't funny, so thanks to lichess that they usually stop this instantly.

Case closed.

@morozov I asked how many. You can't answer because you were just being disingenuous? 'idgaf about black lives matter' your opinions are just . . . the worst. What is the point of even saying this? It's completely off topic. You just wanted to make sure that everyone knows you're too much of an asshole to be convinced of anything? Save your breath.

@Sarg0n Um. What? You know what a dictionary is? Curious.