Free speech on message boards

[rainforests1]

A moderator recently warned me of trolling because I was slightly critical of a singer for having two children. I've never seen anything like that before. Are there any examples where your free speech has been blatantly violated on a message board?

 

[kibbleforlola]

That's not free speech.

 

[Blobbenstein]

rainforests, who will farm and bring you food when you are an old man?

 

[Mischief]

Freedom of speech has nothing to do with message boards, unless it's the government stepping in and editing or deleting what you're saying on the message board.

 

[beancounter]

Message boards are not deomocracies. A board owner and his or her representatives can make, and enforce any rules they want.

In my experience, this is a pretty easy going board. I've been on boards that are very draconian in what they allow to be discussed.

 

[Spang]

My posts have been deleted and/or edited on this message board and others. But to my knowledge, none of the mods/admins were members of Congress.

 

[Envy]

My posts have been deleted and/or edited on this message board and others. But to my knowledge, none of the mods/admins were members of Congress.

Well, that's what we want you to think. This forum is actually run and paid for by the government, in order to keep all you freedom hating vegematics from running around and doing terrorist things.

 

[flyingsnail]

Free speech is almost always violated on forums, that is because forums have owners and those owners try to promote some particular vision for the forum. Perhaps its to generate the most ad revenue, perhaps its to make it a fun place for some niche, etc.

But it would be nice if there were places, on the internet, where free speech reigned.

 

[kibbleforlola]

Um. That's still not free speech.

 

[Andy_T]

Perhaps its to generate the most ad revenue, perhaps its to make it a fun place for some niche, etc.

Did you ever consider that another possible reason might be that if all of us here are discussing nicely we will, by and large, have a better chance that most of us can be having a good time?

Moderating a forum is not easy, and very often it is required to exert a calming influence before some kinds of discussions turn nasty. There are very different kinds of people here on the board, and unlimited "free speech" can lead to unnecessary controversy that in turn can lead to hate without anybody really intending it.

I must also say that I have seen some quite asinine remarks here that would certainly - by the person uttering them - be considered "free speech".

 

[flyingsnail]

Did you ever consider that another possible reason might be that if all of us here are discussing nicely we will, by and large, have a better chance that most of us can be having a good time?

I wasn't intending to give an exhaustive list, but how does this differ from "to make it a fun place for some niche"? My point was that forum owners will censor based on their particular goals and since forums are privately owned, well, there isn't much sense in complaining about free speech. I wasn't suggesting that there is anything wrong, in itself, with censoring an internet forum but obviously such things can conflict with open discussion and debate.

But beyond free speech there is also issues of fairness, from my experience of a variety of forums moderators without significant bias are rare.

 

[Calliegirl]

For a very, very short time I was on a board with no rules and everyone was free to say whatever they wanted. It was a pretty quiet board, as any conversation would quickly turn into a free-for-all name calling fest, so the intelligent people would turn and leave as quickly as they came.

 

[AspireToExpire]

As a moderator on another board, a pet forum (sometimes emotion is high and they can be the worst) i've had to step on someones free speech if it got profane, threatening, advertised without permission from site owner or if they basically posted nonsense or a question that had recently been asked and addressed that took up valuable board space.

I try to be fair but "free speech" does not equal free for all. There is a structure set by the owner which every mod agrees to upon joining as well as common sense and etiquette (netiquette, if you will). I always encourage regulars to step back and cool down if it gets heated with someone who is fairly new and disagrees that ends up accused of being a troll (happens more often than not) or even long time members who just happen not to like each other to examine what about the post or argument is getting to them and come back with a later time presenting their response if they feel it hasn't been resolved or addressed rather than a post after post after post flame war resulting in getting a time out or have their post edited ot deleted. We don't like to have to step in and do that either, we'd rather you come to your senses and mod yourself. Attack the post not the poster, that's one motto.

 

[Blobbenstein]

public toilet walls.....that's perhaps close to free speech.

 

[Andy_T]

Please consider - if you are asking for totally free, unlimited speech, then you are, of course, also asking for people to be free to state that people of some colour or gender are inferior to others, or that "everything tastes better with bacon".

I guess most of us here would not be looking forward to that.