Then again, maybe he's just burnt out from running these sites and this was the final straw. I can understand if he wants to pack it in after so long, and this is as good reason as any to call it a day.
Though, has no-one in that community offered to take over? Forums do change hands now and then.
As i have read it, no, it's worth a read to see for yourself though.
> it doesn't put that much of an onerous demand on forum operators.
It doesn't until it does, the issue is the massive amount of work needed to cover the "what if?".
It's not clear that it doesn't apply and so it will be abused, that's how the internet works, DMCA, youtube strikes, domain strikes etc.
> Then again, maybe he's just burnt out from running these sites and this was the final straw. I can understand if he wants to pack it in after so long, and this is as good reason as any to call it a day.
Possibly, worth asking.
> Though, has no-one in that community offered to take over? Forums do change hands now and then.
Someone else taking over doesn't remove the problem, though there might be someone willing to assume the risk.
Honestly, same could be said for this one, it reads less like an attempt at making the internet better and more like a technical sounding PR stunt with sneaky power encroachment thrown in.
"We just need you to uses your government ID to sign in because of the children, we have a long track record of competent execution, maintenance and accountability, we are 100% not going to use this for other ...reasons"
It's the same governmental "Trust me bro, think of the children" they always throw out.
Outside of the intelligence agencies the UK government is absolutely diabolical at anything technical, chronically overbudget (because their original budget was decided by someone in an office with no actual experience managing an IT project) on projects they outsourced to corrupt friends who siphon the money away, not just IT, all projects.
They pay atrociously for the level of skill required for the positions advertised, so they get middle of the road staff, which isn't a problem normally, middle of the road is the backbone of IT projects.
The problem arises when you get actively bad project management, either incompetence or outright maliciousness, throw in some glacial bureaucracy laden processes that didn't work when they were drafted 40 years ago, let alone now.
and you get an entire industry of corruption and mediocrity.
/rant
anyway, i mean, sure you can take the lacklustre GDPR enforcement and use that to make decisions going forward, i wouldn't personally, because i don't think a single data point is a good basis for risk assessment.
DMCA, youtube copyright strikes, domain strikes, bank transaction complaints/chargebacks, all are mechanisms used to attack internet based businesses.
Do they serve a purpose, debatable, are they misused on a regular basis, absolutely.
This isn't a "the sky is falling" this is a "They have put into law the ability to drop the sky on me just because they (the government, or disgruntled internet denizens) feel like it"
It's up to you to decide how likely you think that is and plan accordingly.
There was a story very recently about the whole of itch.io going down because of some overzealous rent-seeking bullshit middleman (hired by rent-seeking bullshit artist FunkoPop)
How much money should he spend on a lawyer to figure this out for him?
Would you be willing to risk personal liability for your interpretation of this law? Obviously I would not.
As the manager of a community where people meet in person, I understand where he is coming from. Acting like law enforcement puts one in a position to confront dangerous individuals without authority or weapons. It is literally life-endangering.