Internet censorship

[player 01]

Just wanted to post a thread and ask what people's thoughts are on the issue of internet censorship.

I personally think that of course the internet should be an open place for free discourse and the free flow of information and ideas, as i feel people need an outlet to express themselves in whatever way they please.

 

[kopfhorer1]

I agree wholeheartedly. For more information, see http://eff.org .

 

[QueenBeeBeeMari]

I think people need to be nice at the very least.I don't mind opinions being expressed but hateful,rude and harassing comments or PMs isn't necessary to express yourself.

 

[Journia]

thell them you're a man. 😛 It always works for me!!!

 

[PurpleStyle]

Censorship of any form is bad. I don't care if you have children. Exposing them to the word fuck is about as harmful as exposing to them to the word dog.

The internet, like television and radio - is a large "place". If you don't like the way certain people are, then don't interact with them. It's that simple. You can't get beaten or raped through the internet - yet. However, those of us who enjoy free expression of one's self with no repercussions will continue to do so. Be thankful such a medium exists. 🙂

 

[MistressValerie1]

I oppose any form of governmental censorship, although I support voluntary efforts by websites to suppress rude postings, spam, and other problem content.

 

[kopfhorer1]

Censorship of any form is bad. I don't care if you have children. Exposing them to the word fuck is about as harmful as exposing to them to the word dog. ...

Unless you combine the two! 🙂

But seriously:

you shouldn't use the word obscenity as applied to the stuff that i do because there is no obscene content; i use beautiful, efficient English language words that get the point across in a hurry, i talk about things that other people ignore and sometimes that scares people, but it's not dirty, nor is there such a thing as a dirty word, and i believe this and i stress this all the time ...

...there is no word that you can say, nor is there any noise that will come out of your mouth that is so powerful that it is gonna send the listener to the lake of fire as soon as they hear it; that kinda stuff is total baloney, and the myth of obscenity is a myth that is perpetuated in order to keep a censorship mechanism in place, because as long as there can be censorship for one thing or another, as long as they can convince somebody that you need to have a watchdog to keep the dirty words off the air, then some watchdog agency will be able to keep political ideas that are undesirable or any other kind of social ideas that are undesirable off the airwaves and that's the real basis for perpetuating myths of obscenity and all that kind of stuff and i try to attack it as often as i can - Frank Zappa

 

[drew70]

I'm a big proponent of free speech. I don't like censorship. I do acknowledge that in certain instances it's required. My personal opinion is that children should not be exposed to smut, porn, or erotica. Parental control of internet sites that children are permitted to visit is a kind of censorship that I support.

I belong to a local community email list. A Yahoo group. They have rules about profanity and civility since there are no age requirements. I'm cool with that as well.

As for adult only Internet forums such as this one, I feel there is very little that ought to be censored. Spam advertising for certain, along with any post that infringes on somebody's copyrights.

When it comes to regulating civility, that's quite an ambitious venture in my opinion. But I have to admit this forum's administration seems to do quite well at minimizing conflict without overplaying the heavy hand. There's a lot to be said for leading by example as opposed to the "Do as I say, not as I do" approach.

 

[melanie2]

thell them you're a man. 😛 It always works for me!!!

lol...you are too much...

 

[PurpleStyle]

I'm a big proponent of free speech. I don't like censorship. I do acknowledge that in certain instances it's required. My personal opinion is that children should not be exposed to smut, porn, or erotica. Parental control of internet sites that children are permitted to visit is a kind of censorship that I support.

I belong to a local community email list. A Yahoo group. They have rules about profanity and civility since there are no age requirements. I'm cool with that as well.

As for adult only Internet forums such as this one, I feel there is very little that ought to be censored. Spam advertising for certain, along with any post that infringes on somebody's copyrights.

When it comes to regulating civility, that's quite an ambitious venture in my opinion. But I have to admit this forum's administration seems to do quite well at minimizing conflict without overplaying the heavy hand. There's a lot to be said for leading by example as opposed to the "Do as I say, not as I do" approach.

Isn't smut, porn and erotica the same thing? The problem with trying to censor children is that they'll do whatever they want regardless, especially with internet technology becoming easier to access/utilize. Pornography you think you're shielding your kids from is probably being viewed through a proxy.

Who here can honestly say that they were exposed to "adult material/situations/etc" until they were of the proper age? I am willing to bet the number of hands raised will be remarkably low. With that said, I blame the incredibly awful sex education in schools with being responsible for porn/sex being regarded a "big deal". Attempts to scare children and telling them to be abstinent only makes it seem more enticing. These things should be understood for what they are, not made a big deal.

 

[melanie2]

I found some playboy magazines in the hall closet when i was a kid..mom said they were for a speech at church..hmmm

 

[PurpleStyle]

Lol, nice save by your mom. :stickout

 

[Budweiserbob!]

I won't be happy until I see every other worded censored on the internet!

It ***** be ***** amusing ** read. *** noone ***** understand **** everyone **** was ******. 😛

 

[Dr. Bill Kobb]

I'm a big proponent of free speech. I don't like censorship. I do acknowledge that in certain instances it's required. My personal opinion is that children should not be exposed to smut, porn, or erotica. Parental control of internet sites that children are permitted to visit is a kind of censorship that I support.

I belong to a local community email list. A Yahoo group. They have rules about profanity and civility since there are no age requirements. I'm cool with that as well.

As for adult only Internet forums such as this one, I feel there is very little that ought to be censored. Spam advertising for certain, along with any post that infringes on somebody's copyrights.

When it comes to regulating civility, that's quite an ambitious venture in my opinion. But I have to admit this forum's administration seems to do quite well at minimizing conflict without overplaying the heavy hand. There's a lot to be said for leading by example as opposed to the "Do as I say, not as I do" approach.

Please share with us your feelings about users who create multiple accounts merely to reiterate their particular opinions. We're all ears. :bigear:

 

[Oblivion]

I won't be happy until I see every other worded censored on the internet!

It ***** be ***** amusing ** read. *** noone ***** understand **** everyone **** was ******. 😛

REEEEEEEEEEEEDACTED!

It would be highly amusing to read. Why no one would understand what everyone ???? was shitbun.

I think I was close.

 

[Budweiserbob!]

REEEEEEEEEEEEDACTED!

It would be highly amusing to read. Why no one would understand what everyone ???? was shitbun.

I think I was close.

Haha! See what I mean? You are close, I'll give you that. 😛

I'll let others try before giving out the true answer. 😛

 

[Janus4385]

It ***** be ***** amusing ** read. *** noone ***** understand **** everyone **** was ******.

It would be crazy amusing to read. And no one would understand what everyone else was saying.

Not sure about the "crazy" tough...

Now on a more serious note.

I don't think we should censor things as a whole, it is clear to me that if you own a forum(such as this one) meaning you created it and pay for it, then it is your right to censor things within that forum as you please, or not censor it at all if that is what you want. Users have no say in this as it is the owners "private" forum and is open to the people who will participate according to said owner's rules.

Having said that, I do not believe it is anybody's right to censor that owner, which means that if I have a page of any kind, nobody should force me to put advisories or blocks to my page. If you wish to do it on your own computer, that is your right, but my page and it's contents should be open to whoever I choose. And that is also my opinion about all other forms of communication, be it television, radio, newspapers, magazines, etc.

As PurpleStyle pointed out, education is what the focus should be on, is you teach someone to think things are bad, then they will be bad in their heads.

Just my two cents, maybe I'll elaborate later. 😉

 

[QueenBeeBeeMari]

I won't be happy until I see every other worded censored on the internet!

It ***** be ***** amusing ** read. *** noone ***** understand **** everyone **** was ******. 😛

It would be quite amusing to read. And noone would understand what everyone else was saying

 

[drew70]

Please share with us your feelings about users who create multiple accounts merely to reiterate their particular opinions. We're all ears. :bigear:

Why, I be delighted to do just that, Rick. By the way, I notice you said "we're all ears" as if to suggest you are speaking for many. This is not a criticism. On the contrary, I laud your subtle tactic to foster the illusion of plurality. 😉

Multiple identities to reiterate particular opinions?

I've done this on another forum but never here. Why not here? Very simple. There is a posted rule on this forum forbidding multiple accounts. The other forum not only had no such posted rule, but when I asked one of the head admins, I was told there was no such rule. I got a verbal green light. So I did it.

LOL. There are people over there who still to this day describe what I did as the most despicably dishonest thing one could do on a forum, creating "fake" identities. To them, it was as bad as identity theft or plagiarism. I pointed out to these people that virtually everybody on that forum logged in with a "fake" identity, unless they believed that people were born with the names TickleMaster or DarkFiend69. But they couldn't hear me over the sound of their self-righteous indignation.

I think what bothered these people the most was that I robbed them of an easy win via simple unanimity. Instead of being able to gleefully pile on one person, they were each faced with a different opponent. Suddenly they found themselves (some for the first time) in a situation that required them to actually make an effort to come up with logical debates and reasonable arguments rather than their preferred method of intimidation by numbers.

They looked at it as dishonesty. I looked at it as a creative and legal way to even the playing field in game of forum debate. In my opinion, a debate is either won or lost by the quality of the points offered, how effective the opposing points were countered, and how well the facts support one side or the other.

It is not a popularity contest that's decided by which opponent has more people in agreement.

Though this may seem like a departure from the topic, I believe that the intimidation-by-numbers tactic is a form of social censorship. Keep in line with the majority posture or suffer the consequences.