I've been asked to remove a link from my site

I'm in the middle of a fight between two sites

[eflouret]

Hello,

It situation goes like this: The original site is a community. An unhappy member leaves the community and builds a new site very similar to the original one in the layout (with a totally different visual design). A member (no the owner) of the original site emailed me asking to remove the new site from my links page (I have links to both).

Of course, as long as I don't receive a request from the owner of the original site, I won't do anything, but... what if that happens?

Should I remove the link or do I have to keep away from their fight?

Thanks

Enrique

[rj87uk]

If the owner asks I would remove the link - Its better not get in any fights on the web as there are some evil people (spammers, hackers, hijackers and so on).

[kevinpate]

Site A should have far better ways to spend its time. :) Were it me and Site A owner dinna want me linking to Site B, I suppose I'd simply thank them for their suggestion, and advise that all link decisions on my site were made, and would continue to be made, based solely on whether any given link was useful to the visitors of my site.

[rogerd]

If the new site is a legitimate site, then there's no reason to agree to remove a link to it... and if you do so, you'll likely incur the wrath of the new people. Removing BOTH links would be another approach, but will make everyone mad.

The cardinal rule of forum management is "avoid fights, particularly ones that involve lawyers". It doesn't sound like this dispute is at the legal phase yet, fortunately. I suggest you try to steer a neutral course between the warring parties. Watch for this spilling into your forum, too - that's where it could get really nasty. Keep your finger on the "nuke" button.

[eflouret]

I won't take any action unless I'm contacted by the original site's owner. That didn't happen yet.

I see no "rip off" as the user suggests. There are similarities I agree, like the navigation bar, which is clearly copied in its layout, and a couple of text areas and, of course, the topic of the site which is a photo retouching contest site (hope it is allowed to mention this here...). So I agree that the original site owners and members should be angry with this guy, but I see no illegal activity in the second site.

If anybody wants to see both sites, just PM me and I will give you the urls.

Thanks everybody for your replies.