Yesterday I decided to block our resident troll from commenting. It was not about their constant negativity, it was not about their rather irritating micro aggressions, it was not even about their unacceptable contempt for the young Chinese players for not being fluent in English or not feeling at ease being interviewed in English.

It was about a post that none of you saw hopefully. That post was, to their own admission hearsay … “my mate told me…”. But what it said could have had serious consequences for Ronnie’s reputation. As far as I’m concerned, it was libel. It could have had serious consequences for this site too: if you allow libel on your site, you help spreading it and you are complicit hence accountable.

Therefore I took the actions I saw fit.

This is just a reminder that there are limits to alleged “freedom of speech” and libel is definitely off-limits. I will not tolerate it.

Yesterday evening, for only the second time since I started this blog in the summer of 2015, I blocked someone from commenting. I hate doing that. My generation, the “flower power” one, fought for freedom, and freedom of speech. Altough this ended up in “political correctness nonsense” – which I hate – I still believe in, and value, freedom of speech.

The right to voice an opinion though, isn’t the right to be agressive, insulting, and a bully. I will not tolerate that.

That person has been all of this, and I have been very patient, maybe even for too long.

Yesterday, that person, in a comment that I have “unapproved” branded Jordan Brown a “lowlife”. That definitely crossed the line for me.

Jordan Brown is a young man, who dreamed to be a snooker player from a young age. He got on the tour in 2009/10. He didn’t succeed. He continued to work on his game, whilst finding day jobs to earn a living. Three years ago, he was working in a garage, on a low salary. He was also practicing hard. He got back on the tour. Last August he qualified for the Crucible, three weeks ago he reached a quarter-finals stage for the first time, two day ago, he became a ranking event winner, having beaten Mark Selby, Stephen Maguire and Ronnie on his way to the title. Far from being a “lowlife”, he’s an inspiration and someone many youngsters should look up to. 

Whilst there is no live snooker, I will once again try to scan this site for broken links and missing videos. A lot of those I added at the start of the season are gone again unfortunately and I never got news from my friend who traveled to Thailand and disappeared. I will focus on finding matches footages as a priority. If I happen to find punditry as well, great.

Meanwhile, sports events are about to resume in China, starting with the very popular basket-ball. This was shared on twitter. I’m afraid that in Europe, with some countries unable or unwilling to enforce the needed measures, we might be stuck in this crisis for much longer.