Open discussion: Where is the line?

[golferjohn]

six-and-a-half pages of what should be a 'common sense' topic definitely exhibits how 'personal' sense really is.
YVR's example of Channel4 (or whatever, I chose to use my 'personal filter' on that one) has always existed in society in one form or another...The Internet has just made it accessible. Furthermore, The WWW has given a 'voice' to those that used to be banished 'to the basement' and policed by actual human interaction and shamed them into behaving...now poor manners (at the very mild end of the spectrum) and actual violence (at the other end) are the 'new normal'. Censorship is a hammer dictated by the fearful, it's up to society to determine what's 'acceptable behavior', but that takes work/guts/effort and I have little confidence that The 'Common (sense)' people are willing to expend the energy.

Kudos to The Mods for raising this issue, (clearly by the responses it's salient) more props to every poster as well...perhaps it's time for the common-sense majority to rise-up and explain that 'being nice' doesn't equate to 'being weak'.

 

[felixthecat]

Shall we have a poll to vote on this or a similar proposition?

This is not a democracy lenny!

Also, Russian hackers will rig the results as usual.

 

[lenny]

I expect such postings here would result in the mod being alerted and permanent bans.

Evidently even in the hospital sanitized atmosphere we have now, things like requests for drug deals and a dead hooker joke have recently arisen.

Of course those with "thin skins" would probably have the good common sense to avoid a forum by a title of "Not For The Timid" that is known to allow more (not unlimited) liberty of speech, as desired by a large percentage of PERB members who posted in this thread. A sticky or announcement could be made in that regard.

Threads that got out of hand in the Lounge, instead of being nuked or locked, could be dumped there.

To discourage PERB newcomers from being exposed to it, the freedom of speech forum could be located "down under" the BDSM threads.

This seems to be a compromising solution to satisfy almost everyone. Those who don't wish to see such threads would not see them. Those who do, would. And required moderation would be minimal.

Shall we have a poll to vote on this or a similar proposition?

If this proposition is agreed upon by a large percentage, a majority, or the vast majority of PERB voters, and the "powers that be" agreed to it, then we might like to discuss if there would be a need for special rules applying to the 'freedom of speech' forum & what those rules should be. While this is by no means a complete list, a few commandments did cum to mind:

1. Thou shalt not kill.

2. Thou shalt not utter a kill threat.

3. Thou shalt not make a kill sex worker (or john) joke.

4. Thou shalt revere the name of thy lord, Fred Zed, & not take his name in vain.

 

[PerbMod]

Speaking as someone who voluntarily moderates a massive sports forum, you have to have a baseline of 'moderately insane and masochistic'.

This is accurate. Peyton, we should start a support group for mods! :thumb:

 

[FreeG]

(I forgot to quote felixthecat's post here)

I just checked in after a bit of break and look what this thread has turned into.

Regarding Badger, I could not agree more about his very subjective reviews. I sometimes got the sense that he was always trying to score points with SP's. Not to beat a dead horse, but he kind of implied that people, like me, hurt sp's business by pointing out something, that say, he might not mention.

Frankly, I did not care for him. Especially when he took his dog and pony show to another board and slowly lots of other members from here followed (including Dickson and many SP's). Clearly he was upset at what happened here and I guess he was trying to hurt PERB by asking people to join there.

Very soon, it got hostile there as well. Not coincidentally, PERB became a friendlier place and I quietly stopped going to the other board. PERB has been pretty good for last few months. There is very little yelling and screaming going on. People are very less hostile to newbies. But seems like a few (new) members are stirring it up again. Oh well, I will leave it to the mod to keep things under check.

By the way, I just started the sick joke thread, I did not post any of the D*** H***** jokes. Looking back at it, yea, I can see the tastelessness of such humor.

Anyway, time to move on.

My observations exactly. I thought that other forum existed SOLELY to bash Perb! It got boring pretty quickly, with the same 6 or so members posting. Likewise, I think the mods here have been on top of some forums that started going south.

 

[FreeG]

I support minimal censorship. I draw the line at anything supporting and/or condoning violence against women. But otherwise we're all adults here. And I think having a thick skin and having strong personal boundaries is an asset to anyone who works or participates in this lifestyle.

I get what you're saying but at the same time, didn't the last US election teach us anything? For me, it was:in order to learn, one has to listen. In order for the other person to listen, one cannot shout. When the comments start accelerating to "shouting speed", may as well shut down the tread cause there'll be no more learning. (Except for new ways to insult people!)

 

[BaconNeggs]

This board has helped me to find the right experiences and I am totally indebted to the members here who have the ability to write well regarding their experiences.

No, I don't post much. I'm probably that quiet guy at the table in the corner you see most places, just watching for the most part.
And how do I review a DNR?

I can't see the use of creating an "anything goes" section, since it will attract a growing "well, anything goes, so here goes, because it says I can" momentum.
It will be associated with PERB, and not in a good way. It will be avoided by the likes of myself, and attract a pool of members whose only contribution is the fine art of extreme tastelessness.
Keeping a consistent mod policy across all forums gets my vote.

I didn't see the "sick joke" thread, and wouldn't have bothered looking at it if I had.
I already find enough borderline insensitivity in the opinion threads to keep me from reading or participating in most of them.
My hometown is a small BC milltown, and racism, etc was the norm. I don't miss it.
I'm Caucasian, my wife is Asian, and when you live in that relationship, you become quite attuned to the insensitivity all around. Hell, even my uncle back home can't stop telling Chinaman jokes, even straight to my wife's face (she's not Chinese), and he expects her to laugh right along with it. He's an old fart who won't change, and everyone else just cringes. My wife's tough, and just dead-pan's him.

Anywho, Thanks to all the contributors who have made this a place that I visit regularly.

I'm probably one of the silent majority who just hopes we can all be civil and discuss the topic rather than insult the poster.

Very well said cktc9.
I am single and not married.
Grew up in a city not a small town.
But otherwise I could have almost written that myself.

Often i notice the most vulgar and overly opinionated ones on here, are the first to jump all over others who say barely anything and are not nearly as rude as they are.
I to like this place for the most part, but just log in occasionally.
For some they are here daily and post a lot.
I log in once or twice a week on average and read a few threads, miss most of them.
I post occasionally and try to avoid the extremely drama filled threads usually.
Missed the Sick joke thread completely and from the sounds of it am glad i did.

The mods do a good job for the most part from what i see.
Maybe to the few who just go on personal attacks against another board member give them a month suspension the first time.
If they don't learn from a month off make the next time 6 months.
If that doesn't work strike 3 permanently ban them.
But it is far from all who make personal attacks.
The ones who do are actually comical in their thinking.
I got called a KKK member and racist for saying I don't like obama lol.
Yet many trash talk trump nonstop.
I guess they are all racist against whites!