Quote:In a pluralistic society it would be impossible for all people at all times to agree on the value of all ideas; and fatal to moral, artistic and intellectual growth if they did.
National Coalition Against Censorship (an organization in the USA)
Susan wrote:
Quote:You'll notice this topic is considerably shorter as I deleted off-topic comments.
A post that by Still Savage that was left intact:
Quote:LOL i my pipe ends past my jeans no worries there.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!.........Bet the Ladies are like.....
Susan,
I thought about what to write for a while before responding. Plenty of people come to the internet without common courtesy or respect for the other people who are affected by their conduct. This is a price that we pay. I don't think it necessarily justified the censorship placed on the forum. I think your reminder thread about forum conduct would have served to get the people who were sucked into the vortex to go back to their normal posts, and people who are just trying to annoy other members tend to go away when they are rightly ignored or requested to produce something substantial not just inflamatory retoric. No one was crying fire in a crowded theatre, and I don't think the forum was in danger of collapse, so I think the removal of the posts was pretty heavy handed. The post I chose above was from the thread that you cleaned up and is very obviously way off topic and could be considered offensive to a large part of the population, but it wasn't removed. I'm sure there are hundreds of other posts that are also off topic in this forum. I appreciate your attempt to restore order to the forum, and acknowledge your right to do so as an moderator, but I still question the means.
I'm not sure that he was referring to censorship (First ammendment of the US constitution) here, but Benjamin Franklin said:
Quote:They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
which also seems a little harsh. The internet is a rough place, but also a place of great freedom and a powerful tool.
Kevin