censorship

[LCM..LD..GOD]

did we rez this thread just for the fun of it or what???

[Mirnus]

You have to understand....josef (you might see me call him Garrett or Jesus) is one of the members from the old crew and me and him were very angry about the topic of censorship.

And...just to tell you, Garrett...and you probably won't like this....but the censorship has become more strenuous.

[josef13]

i [Censored Word] noticed that [Censored Word]

[cbieker]

Yes, we have started to moderate the site more. We have received private messages and reports from people who are offended because they were called offensive name and uncomfortable from inappropiately detailed sexual posts.

This site is designed for high school students to discuss the debate topic. Some school districts will restrict students from going to sites with bad language or certain topics on them. We can't let conversation on the boards that is not realted to debate interfere with our goal of providing resources to debaters!

Also, as I've mentioned before, we are funded by individuals and foundations who believe that we help debaters. If they visit the forums and find offensive posts, that could easily change their opinion of our website.

Warning to everyone: If you use profanity and try to get around the filters, I will have to ban you. There are plenty of other words you can use so be smart about it!

Christa

[DothNotWisdomCryOut]

My two-cents:
I was a foul-mouthed little high-schooler (you would not BELIEVE how much i swore at 14) but I think that since this is meant to be a resource for teenagers it should be appropriate. If this was a college board I would be irked by the censorship, but it's not.

[jhuseman]

Alright. I'm not going to go and like...delete stuff that ya'll have posted on this discussion. Because, that would take a lot of time and, really, I just don't care that much.

But I think that the arguments that you are making about how we moderators at debate-central are "oppressing" you are completely false for the following reasons:

1. Debate-Central is a private entity run by a non-profit organization. Therefore, if we choose to restrict what you say on the site, that is our right. Censorship by the government is unconstitutional, yes. But debate-central is NOT the government, so we do not have to follow the laws that dictate censorship.
2. Even if we WERE the government, if you cuss or say things that are completely inappropriate, we DO have a legal right to take them off your site. There is a difference between free speech and obscenities. Go ask the Supreme Court, obscenities are not protected by the constitution. so no, you do not have constitutional right to say whatever you like, whenever you like.
3. In registering for this site, you agreed to our policies. Our policies dictate what can and cannot be said. If you don't feel like you can abide by that, then please do not post on this site.

Thanks.

[lsurocks1]

Alright. I'm not going to go and like...delete stuff that ya'll have posted on this discussion. Because, that would take a lot of time and, really, I just don't care that much.

But I think that the arguments that you are making about how we moderators at debate-central are "oppressing" you are completely false for the following reasons:

1. Debate-Central is a private entity run by a non-profit organization. Therefore, if we choose to restrict what you say on the site, that is our right. Censorship by the government is unconstitutional, yes. But debate-central is NOT the government, so we do not have to follow the laws that dictate censorship.
2. Even if we WERE the government, if you cuss or say things that are completely inappropriate, we DO have a legal right to take them off your site. There is a difference between free speech and obscenities. Go ask the Supreme Court, obscenities are not protected by the constitution. so no, you do not have constitutional right to say whatever you like, whenever you like.
3. In registering for this site, you agreed to our policies. Our policies dictate what can and cannot be said. If you don't feel like you can abide by that, then please do not post on this site.

Thanks.

and that is why this website gets views from a single 20 people a day.

[BritainKennedy]

Lsu, that might have been your most asinine statement on this entire site. Sure, this site isn't incredibly popular, that's overwhelmingly obvious. However, it is a COMMUNITY, a small community. Where people are supposed to be friendly, and help out. Unlike certain people.

[Mirnus]

The website has about 20 active members with others that post from time to time. There were times over the last three years when we would have over 20 people online at one time, all involved in debate. We'd have debates, we'd discuss policy, we'd have social connections with each other. It's not popular now because people are 1) not doing debate at this moment and 2) the social cohesion has gone down the toilet because people have become incredibly closed minded on these boards and do not want to discuss anything to further political, social, and cultural knowledge and capacity.
Censorship cannot be changed because of the policies of those running this site. I don't particularly like that we cannot understand that no words have meaning unless we apply them across something and they are only offensive in one language. I could scream the f-word in a foreign country and people will never even bat an eyelash because it is meaningless to them...but that doesn't mean that the censorship of the site can be changed because of the general policies of those running this site. They are not held by constitutionality to uphold your first amendment rights, the same as applied to megasites like YouTube. (They are not obligated to because they have their own business guidelines, which explains why lately everything no suitable to be put on the Disney channel has been getting flagged lately, but that is besides the point)