@runnerbean was an exception rather than a rule, his level of cheating really was very clear. i don't recall us doing the same with others we suspected of cheating
That's good to know.
If that single exception occurred a few years ago as you say, and the evidence really was overwhelming long before the site took action, perhaps it can be explained by the fact that great advances have been made in the field in the last few years.
I apologize for discussing cheating and its detection somewhere other than the Cheating Forum. I know we're not supposed to. But given that this controversial thread has been posted here, I do think a push-back is needed. We don't want club admins en masse to start taking over the very difficult task of detecting cheating which really needs to be left to experts. I am also well aware, @gambit-man, that you yourself are extremely knowledgeable in the field. I am not, and I don't believe many club admins are.
Don't worry none Brian we know how much you love the site and the hard work that you put in on cheat detection. Keep up the great work!
If you wish to vet members who apply to your club they are obviously live and have not (yet) been caught by chess.com for cheating. Also note that chess.com has a very high bar for banning members for cheating and only do so when they have 99.99+ % certainty.
Are you recommending just to let anybody into your club (including 1 day old new members) and wait and see if they later should be closed by chess.com for fair play violations?
This wasn't addressed to me, but I'd like to come back here.
I think it is never appropriate for club admins to refuse a member or remove them simply on the basis that we suspect cheating. As others also indicate above, that is not our role. Waiting until the applicant has a proven record of playing here on the site is reasonable (so that, among other considerations, the site's cheating detection team has had the chance to weed out cheating players who have just joined the site), but active suspicions of cheating should be handled only by the site's detection team. Report suspicious cases to the site, but then leave the site to handle them, and while the account is still open the player should be treated exactly like any other.
Right, it was addressed to me, but your answer pretty much nails it. Admins should stay in their own lane. The site has a team of people who are trained. I say, let them do their job.