Whining about a post being (re)moved, Moderators or Censorship? DON'T!

[Doug]

I am sick and tired of listening to people bitch, moan and piss about how things are done here at Hogville.net.  When you run a site that has more than 11,000 members, averages more than 5 million page views a month, and adds more than 50,000 posts a month, THEN you can come back and bitch at me.

I own one site that has more than 750,000 posts by 350 wonderful members.  I'm a tech admin here.  I've got the experience, savviness and knowledge on how to run a large site.  Evidently we're doing SOMETHING right, the site's still growing every month.

Having said that, I just want to make it crystal clear that the mod team, when it has to remove posts or ban people, does it without regard for someone that's a "hugger" or a "darksider".

We will ban people, no matter what side of the fence they're on, if they insist on continually breaking the rules.  Nothing more, nothing less.  It goes down like this:  If you post something that breaks the rules, it gets yanked.

You want to scream and bitch and moan about censorship and infringement of Freedom of Speech?  Read on.  This is getting totally out of hand.  Mike's already posted a few times on this issue, and now I'm going to expand on it.

The Mods and Admins are fielding a LOT of complaints from people launching personal attacks or challenging the Mods/Admins on when/why we move posts.  Enough is enough.  It stops NOW.

ALL of our moderators are very educated when it comes to their moderation abilities.  We grant them carte blanche to exercise their judgement on when a post gets moved.  I've said it before, I'll say it again:  We remove very few posts.  We move posts when they don't fall into the criteria for the forum they're posted in, or in the case of the Trash Can, they've degraded to the point of no sensibility.

Some of you have cried foul and are screaming censorship or trampling on Freedom of Speech.  I'll address that in the quote below.

Let's spell this out VERY clearly for you to understand.

You launch into a personal attack, you're done.
You question a Mod/Admin's judgement on a (re)moved thread, you're done.
You bash a person's family, you're done.
You publicly whine about one of your posts being (re)moved, you're done.

This is not up for debate, this is not up for arguments.  With as many people posting here, the LEGITIMATE posters are having to suffer through your diatribes and useless spiel.

Hogville.net encourages the free exchange of ideas and opinions.  You can make a point of criticizing Nutt's coaching ability without dropping your language down to the elementary level.  Obviously you show some signs of intelligence, you're posting here, after all.  Use that God-given ability in your posts.

We're operating on a two strike policy.  First strike (in most cases) result in a no post ban for an unspecified amount of time.  You come back up and start stuff up again, you're banned permanently.  If you create a second account to get around any bans we put in place, we'll delete all related accounts and may prevent you from even accessing the site, period.

Zero Tolerance.

Use common sense, for crying out loud.  The rest of us deserve better.

UNEDUCATED interpretations of the US Constitution like the above response royally get under my skin.  First off, it's the Bill of Rights, not necessarily the US Constitution.  A wee (okay, a huge) bit of difference.  It was an amendment to the US Constitution.  Freedom of speech was not in the US Constitution, in it's original form.

Second, let's break this down a bit more.

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

I quoted the specific preamble that you're thinking of.  Here's the kicker.  It doesn't apply to privately owned property. 

Think I'm wrong?  Use this for an example.

I walk into McDonald's and start saying (whispering, normal tone, shouting; take your choice, they're all one and the same in this scenario.) that McDonald's sucks and that people should go to Burger King.  McDonald's got every right to ask me to vacate the premise.  Stifling my freedom of speech?  While I may think so, I was doing this diatribe on someone else's private property.  They are well within their rights to have me escorted off their property, by any reasonable legal means.

McDonald's property is not a public park, it's not a sidewalk, it's not even a roadway.  No public funds were used to build or maintain their property.

Would you allow me into your house and scream at you, insult your wife, friends, family?  Hell no, you'd ask me to leave, or you'd have me escorted out.  Now, I could do this on your sidewalk, as long as I wasn't touching your property, but then I could possibly be arrested for public nuisance laws.  Freedom of Speech does not apply everywhere you think it does.

The same is applicable here at Hogville.  We're a privately owned site, no public funds are used here.

Simply put:  Freedom of Speech does not exist here, at least not in the form that you're attempting to use.    You might want to be a bit more careful about where you throw out the various amendments in the future.

By the way, I am one of the biggest supporters of Freedom of Speech, when used in it's proper applicable form. 

Whine away, prima donas!