Heteros, homosexuals and pedophiles part deux

[Halo_n_horns]

Some time back I reported on battle of the minds that my wife was having with some assholes at another website. They had started a thread called "Homosexuals are more likely to be pedophiles (or worse)." I'm sure some of you remember the thread I had started here about it.

Well, my wife bulldogged that thread with a few others for some time, and eventually they had it whittled to only one of the people that supported the thread who was still engaging in defending the original idea of the thread. The rest had apparently quit.

Yesterday my wife was banned from posting at the site until Feb. of 2008. As were a number of other people, some of whom were only banned for a few days, others were banned for the same length of time as my wife.

As it turns out, one of the mods over there was protecting the threads that propagated and maintained ideas that were antigay and/or pro-Prez. Bush. The funny thing about them being so pro-Bush is that I believe the site is Canadian in origin.

Anyway, I thought what my wife did next was a bit obsessive, but we're both very big on free speech and we both had a hunch about what was going to happen next, especially since she had sent e-mails to the founders of the site about the mod and the threads. Sure enough, they deleted the threads that he was protecting, But not before my wife went and copied and pasted 50+ pages of the thread that got her banned. Now that Word doc is sitting on my desktop gathering virtual dust.

So, the question that came up next was; Who can I complain to about the bashing that was happening on that site? My answer was; I'm really not sure, dear. Let me ask some folks that are probably far smarter about this than I am.

So here I am...

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Some time back I reported on battle of the minds that my wife was having with some assholes at another website. They had started a thread called "Homosexuals are more likely to be pedophiles (or worse)." I'm sure some of you remember the thread I had started here about it.

Well, my wife bulldogged that thread with a few others for some time, and eventually they had it whittled to only one of the people that supported the thread who was still engaging in defending the original idea of the thread. The rest had apparently quit.

Yesterday my wife was banned from posting at the site until Feb. of 2008. As were a number of other people, some of whom were only banned for a few days, others were banned for the same length of time as my wife.

As it turns out, one of the mods over there was protecting the threads that propagated and maintained ideas that were antigay and/or pro-Prez. Bush. The funny thing about them being so pro-Bush is that I believe the site is Canadian in origin.

Anyway, I thought what my wife did next was a bit obsessive, but we're both very big on free speech and we both had a hunch about what was going to happen next, especially since she had sent e-mails to the founders of the site about the mod and the threads. Sure enough, they deleted the threads that he was protecting, But not before my wife went and copied and pasted 50+ pages of the thread that got her banned. Now that Word doc is sitting on my desktop gathering virtual dust.

So, the question that came up next was; Who can I complain to about the bashing that was happening on that site? My answer was; I'm really not sure, dear. Let me ask some folks that are probably far smarter about this than I am.

So here I am...

In general, the right to free speech protects the right of the posters there to state their views. That being a given, hate speech is more and more often being ruled to be outside the bounds of good taste, if not actually outside the bounds of legality.

I would say you should complain to the site founders first, asking that the bans be removed and the Mod disciplined. SHould you get no satisfaction there, if the contents are very objectionable, you could try sending a copy to the ISP hosting the site. In general, those who run the ISP's are not so much concerned with what is tasteful, but with what might be litigateable or regulated by a government agency. In most cases, ISPs seem to operate on the corporate modle and the squeaky wheel will get the grease.

 

[Halo_n_horns]

That is where I become horribly ignorant. How do I find out who the ISP is?

 

[silverwhisper]

H&H: i should point out that your right to free speech provides protections which are based upon government action, not the action of a private website. w/out knowing more about the site to which you refer, i can only observe that IMX, mod activity and biases generally reflect those of the admin(s) and/or site owner/operator.

that said, if the site is a conservative one, you might have been deemed trolls who are just there to post flamebait by challenging some deeply-entrenched conservative notions.

frankly, i'd look for another site, as on that supports such capricious moderation is not one that i would like to frequent myself.

ed

 

[OhMissScarlett]

Hey Halo, perhaps you should write an essay about it for the free speech essay contest. I know that's not the advice you're looking for, but I think it would be interesting to read something about free speech and the internet.

 

[Halo_n_horns]

Silver, thanks for the info. I've wandered through the site a few times and there really seems to be pretty diverse crowd in there. My wife was deemed trollish and she's been getting correspondence from some of the other members who are asking what it was she did to be deemed as such. The only answer she has is that one of the mods power-tripped because he liked bashing gays.

If I were the one dealing with this directly rather than hearing about it and seeing it through my wife's point of view of view, I would probably be happy to hand over the name of the site and the name of the person who did the banning. As it is, though, I'm sure there are details or considerations that I just don't know about, so I don't want to post anything that could be defamatory to anyone else at the site.

MissScarlett, though I do give a damn, it's more her situation than mine. I'm not actually dealing with it first hand, and I'm only trying to support her in this. I do agree that the situation would probably make for some good fodder for the Free Speech competition. I've been considering writing for that, and maybe I will use this situation as a reference, but ultimately it's her situation and I can only stand in the background with pompoms and pleated skirt and cheer her on ... topless of course.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

I can only stand in the background with pompoms and pleated skirt and cheer her on ... topless of course.

Well, I wish her luck, it's a complicated issue.
oh, and I'd pay good money to see you cheer.
I just hope you don't live in Texas

 

[silverwhisper]

H&H: i respect that you don't necessarily want to tell us the site. besides, it could lead to a literotica incursion. i've seen that happen. it ain't pretty. :>

ed

 

[Halo_n_horns]

Well, I wish her luck, it's a complicated issue.
oh, and I'd pay good money to see you cheer.
I just hope you don't live in Texas

LOL!!! I don't live in Texas. You're a rare one, I wouldn't want to see me cheer!!! LOL

 

[Halo_n_horns]

H&H: i respect that you don't necessarily want to tell us the site. besides, it could lead to a literotica incursion. i've seen that happen. it ain't pretty. :>

ed

Are we talking a space/time continuum type thing?

 

[silverwhisper]

um...no.

i've seen an example of when people at one forum band together to go look at another forum where one of their number is maltreated. it's just stupid.

ed

 

[Halo_n_horns]

um...no.

i've seen an example of when people at one forum band together to go look at another forum where one of their number is maltreated. it's just stupid.

ed

Oh! So it would be a witch-hunt thing. Those were never a good idea to begin with.

What's ended up happening since I started this thread is that she's commandeered my "Halo_n_Horns" name and has started posting under that name at the other site. I already let her have the original name I was using in here (see the link in my sig line), but I don't believe I'll be creating another alt to accommodate her latest theft of my user name.

We'll see how long that lasts for. Maybe I'll be back for a part three...

 

[silverwhisper]

[scratches head]

OK, this may sound stupid, but why doesn't she just create a new user ID rather than nab yours?

ed

 

[Halo_n_horns]

[scratches head]

OK, this may sound stupid, but why doesn't she just create a new user ID rather than nab yours?

ed

A slight lack of imagination, and she's always thought this old nickname of mine was really cute. I think she was jealous of it for a while and any excuse to use it was going to be a good excuse for her. But it's all good. She's my wife, I love her. No harm, no foul.

 

[rgraham666]

I had something similar happen at a forum I used to hang at.

The moderation went extremely odd.

Usually I would point out in my mild manner that maybe things weren't quite the way they seemed. I would then receive several flamings, one that would consist simply of 'Fuck off you liberal commie cunt' and several longer ones that when analysed said basically the same thing. One of these flamers was congenitally incapable of making posts of less than a thousand words.

Soon even a post as simple as 'Good morning' triggered the flames.

I would sometimes try to complain to the mods. The usual result was that my posts would be deleted and the flames remain.

For some odd reason, I no longer post there.

Shrug. A lot of people believe in free speech. Unfortunately only for themselves.

 

[Halo_n_horns]

For some odd reason, I no longer post there.

Shrug. A lot of people believe in free speech. Unfortunately only for themselves.

I tried suggesting that she no longer posts there. She's stubborn, like me. Go figure.

You're right about the free speech thing, that's for sure.

 

[rgraham666]

If something stops being fun, or it's not important, I don't do it anymore.

The place I mentioned was no longer fun and wasn't important.

Sigh, it had been both once upon a time.

 

[Halo_n_horns]

If something stops being fun, or it's not important, I don't do it anymore.

The place I mentioned was no longer fun and wasn't important.

Sigh, it had been both once upon a time.

I like the way you put that. Since I can't always be a prophet in my own land, I'll have her read your comment a bit later today.

 

[Halo_n_horns]

Well, I just got an earfull! She can be such a smart ass. She deleted her account there and then re registered. Now she's able to post just like the ban never existed.

We'll see how long that lasts.

 

[silverwhisper]

further, you should warn her that the mods will check the IP addresses to ensure that no user IDs can ever be established from there.

ed

 

[Halo_n_horns]

further, you should warn her that the mods will check the IP addresses to ensure that no user IDs can ever be established from there.

ed

I warned her that something like that would happen. I think she's going to just sit on it for a while and see what happens before she starts posting again. Maybe in the interim she'll realize that it's not worth it in the long run to keep pushing their buttons.

 

[silverwhisper]

when the people running a site say "take a flying leap", i am invariably surprised at the lengths people will go to not to hear the underlying message "you're not welcome here. please go away."

ed

 

[Halo_n_horns]

when the people running a site say "take a flying leap", i am invariably surprised at the lengths people will go to not to hear the underlying message "you're not welcome here. please go away."

ed

That's how I would take it also. But under this circumstance, being that she was banned because of reasons of sexual bigotry rather than actually being a bad poster, I can see why she's hesitant to let it go.

 

[shereads]

Pet-O-File would be a good name for a company that does filing for dogs. Or maybe the dogs work there, dragging files from room to room on little teflon-coated sleds.

 

[cantdog]

Ooh, I want some of what she's been having.