Just seen on FB, about The Shave Nook forum now closed. I hope It'll be not in here. Code: https://www.facebook.com/theshavenook/posts/pfbid0313D2wzucT52aRsVTHa5XWmpYRU4pqzvhhZDhJWf2knsAF3UGMoMkVYbYkf2CJ2E8l
The Shave Nook: Facebook This past Wednesday (4/12/23) I was served with a civil lawsuit seeking $25,000 in damages due to my website supposedly not being ADA Compliant. The current version of my website was launched merely six months ago and the developers emphasized that it would meet all ADA requirements so my spidey senses started tingling immediately. I'm fortunate to have a private investigator as a good friend as well as a few lawyer friends. In digging into this, we discovered that the plaintiff is a serial litigator who has 188 ADA lawsuits. It seemed odd that he was filing all of these lawsuits Pro-se (without a lawyer) so we dug a little deeper. The plaintiff is tied to a dis-barred lawyer (he embezzled client funds) who is acting as the puppet master. This dis-barred lawyer has a handful of disabled clients that he uses to file all of these lawsuits. The lawsuits are cookie cutter lawsuits and all are aimed at websites and not physical locations. They seek $25,000 in damages with a settlement of $4,000. For this client alone (and there are several other clients) the total settlement amount for the 188 cases would be $752,000. What's perhaps even more interesting is this particular plaintiff seems especially interested in shaving websites, barbershop websites and cigar shop websites that are based in Los Angeles County. The day after I was served, the Shaver Shop down the street from me was also served. Although they do have a physical store, the suit filed against them was also for their website and not the physical store. I have hired a specialty law firm and intend to fight this rather than settle. Someone needs to draw a line in the sand. Comment Share
@gorgo2 I don't understand it myself, one of our Mods on the SRP-Facebook page is a retired lawyer, if he can make sense of it I will post ...
The person bringing the lawsuits is, so he says, legally blind. His claim is that these websites do not provide "sightless" people access. There is software that can "read" webpages. Also, apparently, certain "colors" can trigger seizures.
Bringing back tarring and feathering would discourage lots of things. I wonder when the last time a politician was tarred and feathered?
This seemed wrong to me, so I surfed a little: https://www.accessiblemetrics.com/blog/do-all-websites-have-to-be-ada-compliant/ It looks like court decisions are all over the place on ADA applicability to websites. I wonder if that disbarred lawyer could be prosecuted for practicing law without a license? Good luck Shave Nook! - Bax
What I can't understand is, this rules in US is about the business websites. Is a forum a business website???
I don't think so. Maybe if he registered the URL in his business's name instead of his personal name. I don't know. We'll see, I guess. - Bax
My understanding is that this forum is hosted by Sparky for free, and in return he gets any ad revenue generated by the forum. No moderators or Admins here get paid for their work on the site. The occasional raffle profits also go towards maintaining the site. If the site was struggling financially, they would probably start adding advertising even for members. (If you sign out and view the site, there are ad pop-ups). It's why I upload pictures directly to the forum, rather than using an outside forum picture host like img.bb, which I would if server load and space were an issue. Perhaps @Queen of Blades can clarify further?
The Shave Nook is permanently closed, not temporarily closed. Unfortunate, but not unexpected. It was pretty much dead anyways from heavy moderation and was mostly just a vehicle for Bullgoose to push their own products, with savage repercussions for anyone who dared to mention competitor's products. At the same time, it was a valuable information resource for the wet shaving community and it's loss is unfortunate.
That's a bummer. TSN was the first wet shaving forum I found (or joined). It's like when a buddy moves and leaves the neighborhood. Now the sandlot is short one player. Waaaah! :-( - Bax
