This is the second 40% + increase from ring in 2 years for the basic product.
June 2022 they increased from £2.49pm to £3.49pm (40.16%)
March 2024 increased from £3.49pm to £4.99pm (42.97%)
It isn't a chess club's responsibility to investigate crime.
I would disagree. It is absolutely the responsibility of the chess club to investigate crime/potential crime that is committed by someone operating under the auspices of that chess club. Same with any other organization, no matter how far removed from law enforcement. At the least, there is an obligation to contact the appropriate authorities who do investigate crime.
In this particular case, the potential criminal may have access to more victims of abuse because the victims sign up for events due to endorsement by the chess club.
In a similar vein, it would be as silly to say, "Our church doesn't have the resposibility to investigate whether our priests are abusing minors, because it is not the place of a church to investigate crime."
The point of this protest action and the news story is that no action was taken. Even if "a bunch of autists, people with underdeveloped social skills, and emotional growth delays.... are having trouble with social behavior and personal boundaries", their actions need to be looked into, and this wasn't done. If being socially underdeveloped gives a free pass to unquestioned sexual assault, people would live in fear of the socially underdeveloped.
In this case, victims came forward in private to accuse chess grandmasters, and nothing happened. They made public their allegations, and there was a slap on the wrist, and then things went back to the way they were.
By contrast, imagine if someone privately accused some company of making insecure software, and nothing happened. Then they made public the software vulnerability. The company said, "Oh, okay, well it's fixed now. That vulnerability won't be a problem any more." (And also hinted that the fault was the accuser's in making public the vulnerability.) We would be tearing that company to bits in forums like Slashdot. We'd support the accuser even if the accuser didn't have to make sacrifices to his reputation or withdraw from the tech field because of the vulnerability he brought to light.
I'd say alleged victims of sexual assault deserve at least that much, if not more. (Yes, even just "alleged" victims -- they at least deserve a chance to be considered "victims" and not just "alleged victims".)
I think the main thing seems to be that no one did investigating; e.g. the STLCC said "This is not our concern."
It would be one thing to have several people claim to be victims, and then the alleged perpetrator is immediately castigated. I don't think anyone is suggesting that.
It would be an entirely different thing to have several people claim to be victims, and then people say, "Well, there was this case where the accusations were false. So every such case must be due to false accusations," and not investigate anything.
The fact that people are willing to come forward despite having to go through the distress and shame of making their ordeal public lends weight to the fact that they must have a strong motivation to do so. The fact that Jennifer Shahade was a public chess figure, but no longer, does not seem to be because she chose to malign someone else in cooperation with other chess players.
Here on Slashdot, we support people who go through as simple ordeals as losing an YouTube account without adequate explanation. I would say that people who admit details of being victim of a sexual assault, supported by a WSJ article, are more credible than this.
Two people disagreed on the internet. This is NEWS WORTHY!!!!!
Well, I don't agree with you!
It's not an optical illusion, it just looks like one. -- Phil White