hal said:Speaking of over-reaction... I'm rating this thread a code-orange.Oh, and by the way, did anyone actually email/PM the person who closed the thread - or was this the only way to handle it?
Well... talk about losing respect for the forums
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IMO the issue here should be quality. Should we really be allowing stuff like this of ANY kind? I don't really care if it's illegal or not.
We don't allow you to link to porn on this forum. Why is that? We want to maintain a standard. We keep this standard to keep this forum a nice enjoyable place to visit.
That is the reason threads such as that should be shot down. Recently we've been pretty loose. We let people get away with things we shouldn't. We allow threads that we shouldn't allow. We have let the quality of this forum degrade, and I know for a fact that many many people refuse to visit off topic because of this.
We don't allow you to link to porn on this forum. Why is that? We want to maintain a standard. We keep this standard to keep this forum a nice enjoyable place to visit.
That is the reason threads such as that should be shot down. Recently we've been pretty loose. We let people get away with things we shouldn't. We allow threads that we shouldn't allow. We have let the quality of this forum degrade, and I know for a fact that many many people refuse to visit off topic because of this.
TWD said:
Erm, no.
If, say, PMB didn't agree to the discussion of porn, would he have participated in a thread about it? He was personally recommended a movie as the original thread topic ffs. So no, we're not trying to maintain a standard. Just dodging the law.
Hence proof that our standards in quality have fallen. Nobody cares anymore, not even the admins, and our community suffers because of it. I'm not saying this is why the thread was locked, i'm saying this is why it SHOULD have been locked, and this is why in the future they should be locked, and this is why it's a good step in the right direction.
TWD said:
Ok, so what do you care about? Clearly there's some sort of guidelines to define what 'stuff like this' is, and it's not the law. You do know, TWD, that you have become notorious on this forum for swanning around telling everyone what this forum's standards should be?
If we allowed the posting of porn it would still be a nice enjoyable place to visit, just for a different type of person. Look at the Something Awful Forums. This forum doesn't allow porn because it is centred around a computer game played by all ages, and therefore this forum should be suitable for all ages, not because we think porn is really rather disgusting. Staying on this forum for any length of time should tell you that we are hardly puritans here.
Name 10.
hal said:
The policy on locking threads is a matter which affects all of us here at BuF. So no, the proper way to handle this is not to bloody well take the offending parties aside and have a quiet word with them.
At least TWD is honest.
There is no realistic legal threat to the owners of these forums from visitors discussing prior drug use.
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Oh, and I agree with this that seems to have been overlooked in all the stuff about free speech:
Zenny has made four posts in this particular forum (Off Topic). Half of them have been to lock the thread (though one was at the request of the user). Most of his other posts are news announcements. He is not listed as a moderator of this forum. While this doesn't necessarily make him wrong in closing the thread, it does make it a lot more difficult to trust him to make a decision that is in the best interests of the forum.
Of course, he could read Off Topic avidly every day and simply not have much to say on any subject (except the legality of talking about drugs). But I'm assuming what I think is more likely.
Oh, and I close with the description of this forum on the main listings page:
The place to discuss absolutely anything. Warning: Some material in this forum may offend.
(That last sentence used to be in red before the crash. I think it should be again.)
|pOt|fArMeRx said:
Zenny has made four posts in this particular forum (Off Topic). Half of them have been to lock the thread (though one was at the request of the user). Most of his other posts are news announcements. He is not listed as a moderator of this forum. While this doesn't necessarily make him wrong in closing the thread, it does make it a lot more difficult to trust him to make a decision that is in the best interests of the forum.
Of course, he could read Off Topic avidly every day and simply not have much to say on any subject (except the legality of talking about drugs). But I'm assuming what I think is more likely.
Oh, and I close with the description of this forum on the main listings page:
The place to discuss absolutely anything. Warning: Some material in this forum may offend.
(That last sentence used to be in red before the crash. I think it should be again.)
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phatcat
akward cat
- Dec 29, 2000
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Isn't the point of Off-Topic to discuss things that are important, and, yes controvertial? Frankly, the admins can run this forum however they want, but I think it quashes the point of it if posts with small bits of controversy like that pot post get closed/deleted. Frankly, there is no REAL risk of things happening to BuF or anyone on it. Anything said on this forum is useless without corroboration even if some overzealous police officer decided to make it his mission to patrol game boards and reporting illegal activity! Frankly, talking about smoking weed, or any other crime give no threat to BuF or the poster. If we were talking about Warez and giving links and methods of cracking or similar things that would certainly be illegal and bring trouble to BuF. But someone stating they did pot last weekend and discussing it is not only NOT illegal, it also bears not CHANCE of being used in a court of law to any effectiveness. Although a statement like "I SMOKED TEH F4T BLUNTS!" could be used in court, it couldn't be used to get an arrest. For they they would actually need evidence, and frankly if you have been arrested with something weed related they probably have all the evidence they need without getting unreliable testimony from a forum.
Just my $0.02. I can understand stopping illegal activity, but I don't think closing this particular thread was warrented even under forum rules.
Just my $0.02. I can understand stopping illegal activity, but I don't think closing this particular thread was warrented even under forum rules.
![[IsP]KaRnAgE](/data/avatars/s/24/24533.jpg?1424422824){kind=avatar}
Why is it so important that discussion of drugs and their usage take place here, on a gaming board that is visited by many minors? Why is it so important? It's illegal where the site is hosted, and the mods had it closed. Who cares?! Their have been plenty of threads about drugs before and I'm sure there will be many more. If the mods feel you shouldn't be talking about certain things on this board then you don't do it. No debating. They don't want you talking about drugs then just don't freaking do it. I'm sure there are plenty of places you can go discuss drugs. Why does this game forum have to be one of them?
TossMonkey said:
Fewer known side effects. The long term ones aren't properly documented yet, unlike beer.
But IMO if a mod decides to close a thread then it's not really our place to object. Because they're mods for a reason, not just some bloke picked off the street. Flame away.
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