imported post
CA_Libertarian wrote:
HankT wrote:
CA_Libertarian wrote:
Ah, so that's what happened to our nice little debate about limits on 2nd Amendment rights...
Sad, that was a good discussion too, and now it's gone.
Question: how is a 2A debate considered OT on these forums?
Stop the censorship!
I once asked BobCav why he deleted someone's postt about something or other. He said: "Rule 5."
Rule 5, btw, reads:
"5) We reserve the right to remove posting for any reason, at our sole discretion."
Well, here's what I think of 'rule #5'...
This forum is someone's private property, and like any other property, the owner has the right to have it moderated in whatever way they want. However, if rule #5 is going to be thrown around like that, then why even have rules 1-4?
The solution is simple; if things keep going down this path, I'll simply stop wasting my time on these boards. Maybe we'll have to create a new place where we don't have to worry about the moderators power tripping.
**waits for this thread to disappear (see rule #5)**
Yes, it is a private property context. There is no 'freedom of speech' or 1A concerns here. That's the way forums work. He who owns the site gets to dictate the parameters of behavior and speech.
Although Rule 5 is pretty stark and impersonal if just read literally, it's pretty standard language. And it doesn't necessarily mean that the owner is going to be a dictatorial tyrant about what he wants in the way of speech on his site.
Don't forget, and this is probably a new concept for some ideologues here, a good discussion forum has, well, good discussion. Different points of view generate counterpoints to the received view. Arguments and debates about important issues spring up. Positions, advocate or otherwise, get developed, refined and strenthened through a free discourse of ideas.
Most people here are newbies to the Net. They don't really understand that that is exactly what the promise of the Net was--free discourse of ideas.
It's about learning.
I think now is a time for me to insert a pitch for the founders of this site: John and Mike. I think they realize that some differening points of view are, on the whole, beneficial to the discussion of human or gun rights issues--or any halfway relevent side issues. So they've been pretty laid back about how they handle the censorship levers at this forum. And I thank them for that. Their attitudes are quite generative of a viable advocate discussion forum site, I think. They know that.
BobCav, on the other hand has been a disaster. He personally deleted 40-50 of my posts in the early morning hours of June 22nd. When I asked him whether he had done the deleting and why, he did not reply. However, he later publicly posted that he was going to personally delete every post I made.
Bob is an excitable guy. He claims to be passionate and he is. But he likes to get his way.And healso succumbed to his censorious impulses--simply because he didn't agree with the content of many of my posts.
Bob is a Rule 5 kind of guy. But he never was able to back it up with any substantive reason for removing those 40-50 posts. Ironically, Bob railed against the censorship he saw on the High Road gun site and he left in a huff-after slamming the moderators over there in his final post.
So, CA_Libertarian, I don't think this thread will disappear. The posts contained herein may not be PC but John and Mike have shown they are not inclined to be heavy-handed censors. Certainly nothing like Bob has been. I wish Bob well in his new business thang. Maybe it'll be good for him and he'll make lots of $$$$$.
I tend to doubt that longwatch will delete any part of this thread. There simply isn't any reason to do so.
Now, BobCav.....:quirky