[thelist] Angora socks comment on DJC article

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Wed Aug 2 13:17:47 CDT 2000


> 1) This sort of posting, while irritating in it's pointlessness, is
> indicative of what can happen if "easy" access is allowed to posters. 

with freedoms come responsibilities - on the part of those with the 
freedoms...

> 2) Most people say "It's funny. It's harmless." He slammed the
> Christian Right in the first paragraph. What if he had slammed
> african-americans using the n-epithet? Is is still harmless? Howabout
> if he had posted a dirty joke, which while still funny had absolutely
> no relationship to the subject, not even with bad puns? What if he had
> posted a spammish message to promote some pronography? Or even to
> promote his new web service/site/application? At what point, if at all
> is it okay to censor?

if it goes against our guidelines, then yes, it gets cut... shameless 
self-promotion with no value gets whacked, things that are 
*completely* off-topic are questionable... insults (you n-word) and 
such are hard to police... if an african-american posts it, it's part of 
the slang that white folk like i can't use without getting a thorough 
beating... is it offensive?  to some... if it's specifically defamatory, 
then it could go away...

but ultimately, i'm a free-speech advocate... i say let people post 
whatever, and we cut the ones that *clearly* violate the rules, even 
with some bizarre interpretations...

it's a bitch, ain't it?

> 3) I can't remember back to when I got my account, but if this person
> could post without a valid email, that's could be considered a
> problem. Requiring a valid email and a confirmation response from that
> email account would cut down on graffiti and would allow us to at
> least attempt to communicate with someone whose postings were found to
> be offensive or inappropriate in some way.

email is/was required, but with the transition, it might have fallen off 
a code block somewhere and could be sitting in the server case 
gathering dust...




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