Chatroom

Because we've had so many complaints in recent weeks, we that's me and the other mods have put together some guidelines about what we think is acceptable. We'd be very grateful if you could read them and think about them when you're posting.
Thanks guys (and gal if you're still here )

 

Whoo boy, if that needed to be laid down as a guideline, I must have been blissfully ignorant of a lot of things.

May I suggest an edit of 'privileges'?

 

Done.

 

Thanks Dev. Bloody illiterates!

 

If pedantry is allowed, may I point out that:

'Remember that your opinions may differ considerably from that of others'

should read

'Remember that your opinions may differ considerably from those of others'

 

As a dyslexic i find that qite offensive

 

Thanks Joe, I now know how AT feels

 

I like the style of which AT writes - the images and colours I see are quite a treat

 

it's a good start.

 

Typical Guardian reading PC slush. All opinions are not of equal validity. The values of libreral democracy are so valuable that they must be rigorously defended and on occasion other views must be suppressed.

 

What he said.

 

That sounds to me like an oxymoron. Liberal democracy is surely about the right of people to have and express an opinion, but to deal with issues if others encroach upon those rights

 

In practice it means certain views are allowed, and certain views are not. In some cases, it means certain views are OK if expressed by one group, but not OK if expressed by another.

Just look at the knots the government is tying itself into with its 'religious hatred' legislation. For example some religions express very 'forceful' views about certain matters; if one takes equally forceful issue with those views, to the extent of saying 'X is a hateful religion because it expresses hateful views' one will be skating on thin legal ice.

At what point is a person's right to have and express an opinion outweighed by what 'others' regard as offensive?

 

the point here is not about curbing peoples right to free speach. It's about endevouring not to resort to racism/homophobia/crass generalisations etc. None of this stuff tends to lend much to an argument, what ever one's view.

as far as the expression ''grauniad reading slush '' - try reading it , then comment.

 

I'm glad to see these guidelines up - although you wouldn't have had the recent run of complaints if they'd been up earlier.

I don't think these guidelines are here to curtail 'free speech'. It's just that if you are a race hater, for example, then you can have your ten lines of bigotry, and then shuffle off forever more.

You could of course continue to have your racist rants - but not on this website. Your right to 'free speech' hasn't in this way been curtailed. No one has stopped an individual from being a race hater, therefore 'free speech' isn't an issue here.

For those who aren't already aware of it, there are laws against incitement of racial hatred. You are responsible for what you post.

 

I'm against all forms of censorship, but I'm also opposed to stupidity. Bigotry, which the chat room has been all too full of lately, is a form of stupidity, something the bigot should be made to feel ashamed about. Racism is an unacceptable disease, racists should rightly be shunned by any civilised person, should be called on their racism, should expect to receive a stream of abuse and invective every time they open their dimwitted mouths, should be made to feel extremely uncomfortable about their racism.

I have no issue with right wingers who are capable of engaging in rational debate about politics, and their are plenty of them on hi-fi forums, it's the airheads who see the words "immigrant" or "single mother" or "woman" and immediately respond with the usual empty-headed knee-jerk drivel.

Plus, the bigots on this forum whine, endlessly, about how unfair the world is to them, about how single black lesbian mothers get to live a life of luxury, while they, the poor tax paying dears, have to sit in their hovels listening to their expensive hi-fi. Whining is a deeply unattractive personality trait, tedious in the extreme. If you want to waste your life whinging about how nasty the world is to white middle class 20 and 30-something men, do it somewhere else, please. Or do something positive about it, shoot yourself.

-- Ian

 

I must have missed a debate [I do have long periods away from the forum].

I thought the bitching was because 'we' said that [in my {etc} experience]:

women were from planet zonk, and generally a PITA?

whats the problem with that??

 

What's wrong is that it is a sweeping generalisation applied to all women when in fact it only applies to a few.

 

Guidelines for the Chatroom
Zerogain is a multicultural and international forum where the rights of any group or individual should not be threatened. Racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia are abhorrent and have no place on this forum. Before you post your opinion please consider the viewpoints of others. Remember that your opinions may differ considerably from those of others, and that they are as entitled to their opinion as you are to yours. Members who do not respect the rights of others will have their posting privileges withdrawn.

Not much point in having a chat room after all that censorship.

Maybe we could talk about the weather, but only if we all agree.

 

Of course, we run into the damned if we do, damned if we don't. We've had people complaining about what's been said on the forum of late. So, we try to do something to sort that and what happens? People complain...

Consider the guidelines as a request for people to apply a little self moderation with regard to what they post and then we won't have to. Does anyone here actually feel that this forum has ever been over-moderated? I think part of the problem that currently exists is due to the very deliberate hands-off approach to moderation that we have taken being confounded by our naive belief that people might actually behave like adults. Since that's been proven not to be the case, we have to be a little more hands-on until a happy medium is struck.

Bill Cosby once said that the sure route to failure is to try to please everyone. If we accept that, then we can only try to please most of the people. And that isn't going to include racists, homophobes, etc.