To answer the original question, legally responsibility can be any or all of: the author who made the post, us (the site) and our internet service providers depending on how the material was posted, what steps were in place to try to reasonably prevent libellous content, the motives behind the post etc.
We moderate the site to the best of our ability and when we get complaints about potential libel we always follow them up. On average we probably get a "you'll be hearing from my solicitor" email every couple of months or so. In such an instance we will contact the author of the post in question and ask them whether they will stand behind their remarks and provide contact details, name, address etc. to the complainant.
If they are unwilling to do so and we have no other way of verifying what has been posted (e.g. we will look for other witnesses etc) then we will either remove the post, or edit out the contentious content or otherwise come to a mutual agreement about what remains on the site.
However, if they ARE willing to stand behind their comments then we go back to the complainant and inform them. If we can be confident the post is genuine then we will do our best to uphold it and not remove it as we believe that the value of this site comes from the ability to give fair and accurate feedback about businesses and services.
Not once has anyone gone on to attempt legal action because after working through this process in each case a) there is no substantive case for libel and b) they know it.
Also, please be aware that just because someone posts a bad review or even just says "I don't like XYZ Ltd and wouldn't recommend them because..." this does not make it libellous and often the privilege of "honest comment" will apply. Put simply, you are allowed, without malice, to say you don't like a company or a product and give your reasons for it, even if others don't agree with those reasons.
We try our best to keep a balance on this site and we moderate it as carefully as reasonably possible (too much for some maybe) but the aim is to try to keep the site open for honest feedback whilst stopping those who are doing so for personal or malicious reasons. It's not an easy thing to do, but the alternative would be to simply ban all negative feedback and I am sure this would be less desirable for the majority of our members and would devalue our whole purpose.
Alex
I would be interested to know if the IP addresses of these posters match that of their location.
Maybe the Admins could confirm this?
It comes across as a bit strange to me that 2 people would sign up and start these threads 2 days apart.
I checked it the moment I saw the posts, in the case of the Jelen post the IP was from Belgium and in the case of the Mallard Bard post the IP was British, but this was consistent with what the poster had said about his current location.