Censorship on the board

[Surrealist]

I have just had a post deleted from another topic and am opening this thread in order to discuss censorship on the forum whilst remaining on-topic.

It's a shame that I'm having to do this, especially as the administrator deleted one of my posts in a thread where he stated that he believed in free speech!

In order for this to be a community forum, all must be treated equally. This poses the questions -

1) Who is to judge whether a forum administrator has misinterpreted the rules or indeed abused them ?

2) Who is to delete offensive or off-topic posts by the forum administrator him/herself ?

[administrator]

As I have explained to you, your last two messages on the 'Flyposting' thread have been deleted as they are off-topic. I would like to add that if you had directed this level of personal attack against any other forum member I would have banned you by now. You were skating on very thin ice on the 'John Street' topic for a while before you backed down.

Banning you, of course, would be playing into your hands so I shall resist that temptation for the time being but, having encountered your type before, I'm quite sure that you will continue to act in a manner that will make that inevitable in the near future. A pity, since when you are not being thoroughly unpleasant you are often quite amusing.

[Guest]

I am not voting as I did't see the posts -- but I thought your earlier posts were a little personal, Sir.

Just my 2 cents.

[Surrealist]

Yeah, well, I spoke to my wife and guess what.....

.......*she* thinks I was wrong too!!!


(takes sleeping bag, pipe and slippers down to dog house)

[Guest]

Then let us give thanks for the wisdom of wives. Hallelujah, and amen I hope!

[Surrealist]

Bah and humbug more like !!!!

[Epykat]

You're wife's quite a rational person then?................ (and somehow, I just can't envisage you with a pipe and slippers)

[Surrealist]

Ahh, the lovely Mrs Surrealist. Ying to my yang, she is.

Ask her the time, and she'll tell you.

Ask me the time and I'll tell you how to build a watch.

--------------------------

[Beach Babe]

well all I can say Surrealist is that your wife must be one tolerant lady

[Cynthia]

what happened to the Poll was that censored too? or just embarrassing to one side or t'other? more importantly, when something gets censored, don't you just want to know what it was??! I don't mind censorship of sexist, racist,or personal insults! etc , as they should be, but I hope it wasn't political....(because I don't think people's political views, providing not 'personally' prejudiced, should be censored)

I am going to put a political forum on soon unless the Administrator manages to put other political parties on his list of groups....but see Surrealist has done us proud in bringing up some of David Blunkett's worst thoughts - marginally better than others DB's had, .....

[Guest]

[Brian McCrow]

[Surrealist]

[Guest]

Err... Just to make clear. I'm being ironic.

[Surrealist]

[Surrealist]

[Surrealist]

[wangi]

[administrator]

[Porty]

[Surrealist]

[wangi]

Ok, an attempt to move this forward in a more constructive manner... First off I'd like to say I'm sure we all appreciate Bob's time and effort put into this site. Also I’d just like to point out that I couldn’t care less about the original post (Any libel is the councillor in questions problem, nobody else), it the later censorship that’s got me worked up.

Word Filter
Yes, I get the jist of not allowing profanities, but are you seriously arguing that getifu (g-e-t-i-f-u) is such. It's not.

Moderation
Next time round can you follow a more even handed approach? Censor individual portions of messages if need be, but don’t just delete them wholesale. Likewise "lock" a thread rather than deleting it (especially when it contained an ongoing, interesting discussion).

Both of these are standard practice on internet message boards and are less reminiscent of the "Chinese approach" currently in use!

Start You own…
I’m sure you want to see this site prosper and become an important resource to the local community, in order to allow that you’re going to have to be bigger than yourself. Lively, and often against your point-of-view, discussion is key to that. Additionally I don’t think that the posts in these threads by Surrealist, Alex, Porty, Gemini, and I (reads like the top posters list) have been abusive and unpleasant in any way.

L.

[Guest]