Should people be allowed to post whatever they want in this forum?

I'm just wondering where we draw the line and why we draw it.

Basically how far is too far ?

If you are FOR freedom of speech, you have to allow people say WHATEVER they want.
It's a cruel rule sometimes.

Otherwise, you are NOT FOR freedom of speech. And you need to specify and define what is allowed to be said and what not.

I'd say that nost anything goes. When someone crosses the line , to me, would be if they threatened another persons life.

I think we've already established that talking about one's genitalia or one's bowel habits are off limits. Let's thank the moderator who closed those threads. ;)

As to "how far is too far", I think it's when the posts are dominated by vitriol and insults while ignoring the thread topic. When one poster demands a physical confrontation to deal with a disagreement online. When one poster starts a thread with the sole intention of having the rest of the forum gang up on another poster.

Princess......
Why can't a person discuss their genitalia or bowel habits? as long as it's in the name of intelligent discussion of course.

Personally, i think freedom of speech makes people more likely to be vulgar, just because they have the opportunity.

e.g. if we passed a law tomorrow saying that people could eat their own flesh there would definately be some takers, anyone disagree?

Nebuchadnezzaar - Ask a moderator. Those two threads were padlocked within two days of their start. I offered to discuss my menstrual cycle in vivid detail but I didn't have any takers.

if we passed a law tomorrow saying that people could eat their own flesh there would definately be some takers, anyone disagree?
Yup, I do.

Anyone who enjoys human flesh is eating it already.
Cannibals tend not to have too much respect for the law IMHO
People would just be more inclined to come out of the closet.

Dee Cee

Nebuchadnezzaar - Ask a moderator. Those two threads were padlocked within two days of their start. I offered to discuss my menstrual cycle in vivid detail but I didn't have any takers.

Really? go for it, i'm all ears.........how does it affect you emotionally as well. Are you always angry and strung out at those times?

Yup, I do.

Anyone who enjoys human flesh is eating it already.
Cannibals tend not to have too much respect for the law IMHO
People would just be more inclined to come out of the closet.

Dee Cee

Anyone who enjoys eating human flesh is eating it already? That is an obvious statement. Nobody could ever know that they enjoyed eating human flesh unless they had already eaten it.

My point, which you could still address, is that people would TRY it for the first time if a law was passed.

Why support freedom of speech? We should limit profanity and things like that. Its ALMOST freedom of speech. Yeh, go to a speech on national Television and call the president a mother f***er... you wont get good ratings and you will probably not keep your job. No matter how hard America tries, there will never be full freedom of speech.

Proof that there is no freedom of speech:

Try posting something in the defense of Nazi Ideals

Ibid. Communism.

jadedflower;

I doubt that will get a thread closed. If you start posting around, with posts such as "Sieg Heil!" then yeah, it'll get closed. But if you keep it to an intelligent discussion, remarking which of the Nazi Party's traits weren't half bad, or the advantages of Communism, I doubt goofy'll close it ...

hm... if my beliefs are that the Nazi party was a truly great one, and the final solution is something that should have been carried out a long time ago... and find arguments to defend it all, perhaps even suggest a statue to glorify Hitler and then end my post with "Seig Heil" ... A LOT of people (understandably, especially if they found it offensive) would report the post.

Oh, and another thing... who would take an online death threat in this forum personally?

Disclaimer: Those are not my beliefs, I was only using the Nazi party to illustrate

We do have freedom of speech on these boards. The only things that aren't tolerated, as far as I can make out, are when posts become vulgar, or spiral into profane insults without debate, or are just generally offensive without any intelligent purpose behind them.

Most of us here are intelligent enough, to exercise our freedom of speech as we wish, without overstepping our self imposed boundaries. Occassionaly, some do overstep the mark, but ultimately, the decision to close a thread is the moderator's or Porfiry's and, depending on their own set of standards and general frame of mind on a particular day, they can either miss one, let one go, or close something that didn't deserve to be, but hey, c'est la vie.

Should people be allowed to post whatever they want in this forum?

I'm just wondering where we draw the line and why we draw it.

Basically how far is too far ?

Basically, I treat my posts like I'm having a conversation with a bunch of people; some that I'm acquainted with and some that I'm not. What I do know, is that it is an international intellectual crowd of varying ages and experiences and for that reason I am tempered and respectful in what I say and the way that I say it. Note: I do not always equate intellectual to intelligent.

I'm not in any way prudish with my language, if I think that I need to punctuate a point with a colourful word I will and if I want to dicuss the relationship between facial lips and vaginal lips I will (and the thread hasn't been closed; yet:D) but I hate it when posters start slinging profane personal insults at each other or start vendettas over simple disagreements in opinion or character clash, I wouldn't feel comfortable if it happened in a room of live people and neither would many of us here I suspect.

No thanks, your not my kind of fuckbunny.


( an illustration of a reply that is not bad, but not conducive to a good argument.)

And everyone knows that the cheap insult is the resource of he who has no logical framework to fall back upon

freedom of speech only goes so far, it isnt easy to draw the line where though, which is why we have experienced moderators doing it, not a computer

as a general rule, if a statement is designed to make people unhappy or unsafe, it should be removed