CayPolitics Stalled

CayPolitics publisher
Ellio Solomon

Monday, March 29, 2004

The website of CayPolitics, Cayman's on-line political forum and news journal, has been off-line for almost a month now, but publisher Ellio Solomon says he hopes to have the site up and running within a couple of weeks.

Mr Solomon said he did not know exactly when the server would be up again. "I don't have a specific timeframe, but I'm hoping it's going to be very, very soon. Hopefully, around the first week of April."

Technical problems with the website's remote server in Kentucky was the source of the problem, according to Mr Solomon. "The site was frozen for a week where we could see it, but couldn't add any content. Then it completely disappeared."

Mr Solomon said that the latest difficulties are just something else to overcome. "We've faced many challenges over the years," he said, "We've had five lawsuit threats from the UDP (United Democratic Party) members alone."

CayPolitics first came on line in July of 2001.

In December 2002, Chief Justice Anthony Smellie ordered CayPolitics shut down as a result of a forum posting by an anonymous user concerning the Euro Bank trial after a gag order from the Grand Court had been issued. Mr Solomon was summoned to court in the matter and made to implement a computer programme that allowed forum posts to be scrutinised before they appeared on the website. He also had to pay a $1,000 fine.

With regard to the lawsuit threats, Mr Solomon said that he was hoping to incorporate CayPolitics in the United States. "That would help us against these lawsuits with some protection by the US Constitution until Cayman advances."

Mr Solomon said he knows the importance of getting the website back on-line. "I appreciate the full urgency of keeping CayPolitics running, especially in an election year," he said. "We'll probably have to spend a couple thousand dollars on another server, but where there's a will, there's a way. I'm a fighter. We'll be back."

In the meantime, the Cayman Net News reader forum at www.caymannetnews.com/forum/forum.shtml has helped fill the void for readers both here and overseas wishing to read about and discuss the issues affecting the Cayman Islands. Within the first two weeks of its existence, the Cayman Net Forum had nearly 1,500 visits from readers.

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