I note that my posting "Attn Ladies what two things......" has been deleted.

Is this an example of your defence of my right of free speech??

I thought it was you who wrote, "I may disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it."

Maybe not. maybe it was someone with the testicular fortitude to accept that we may differ in The Land of The Free and the Home of The Brave.

-- Vlad (Strelok60@yahoo.com), December 04, 1999

Answers

Vlad,

There are people who work hard running this forum and others who make it all possible to begin with. Why shouldn't they have the right to delete what they may find to be needlessly offensive, or for some other reason serves little purpose here? Their job is very difficult, and include many tough judgment calls.

And please look at the whole context, i.e., take into consideration your many posts that were not deleted.

Thanks,

-- eve (123@4567.com), December 04, 1999.

Sir or Madam as the case may be,

Be good enough to delete all my posts.

Either we have freedom of speech or we do not.

I will not darken your forum again.

Fare thee well.

Vlad

-- Vlad (Strelok60@yahoo.com), December 04, 1999.

You have freedom of speech, go out and speak. Asking somebody to spend time and money so that you can post what you want, isn't free speech, it's mooching. Establish your own forum.

If I start a string discussing the resonant characteristics of tonearms as cartridge compliance decreases, that would be off topic and should be deleted. The job of the forum monitor is to remove off topic and inflamatory posts and threads. It's a judgement call. If you want to be the judge, start your own forum. Or start your own BBS, I'll give you the software free!

P.S. Grow thicker skin, it will come in handy 4 weeks from now.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), December 04, 1999.

also- just as a sidebar:

"Freedom of Speech" as guaranteed in the First Amendment, does not apply to this forum, nor any other Forums on Greenspun.com.

It would only apply to this forum IF the forum was run by the Federal Government.

The job of a moderator (paid or volunteer) is to keep a forum ON TOPIC.

Bearing the torch for Freedom of Speech is not the primary goal of this forum.

I have had some posts of my own deleted. However, I understand why.

Please don't take it personally, because if you do, this forum will end up like the main TB2000 forum a few weeks ago. I don't care to wade through that mess again.

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), December 04, 1999.

It was a good question. A shocking question. A hard, rude question. We may be in for hard, rude times. It's good to think now about just what we might be willing to do. Where do we draw the line? My husband and I have talked about this a bit. We have hunting rifles. We have delayed and delayed getting pistols. Personally, I find a pistol just too seductive--boy are they handy to use. Too handy for my liking. A rifle is cumbersome in comparison. That's just fine with me. I want to be darn sure I really want to shoot. Not just whip out the pistol and live with what I've done forever.

-- Pamela (jpjgood@penn.com), December 04, 1999.

See ya, Vlad, you have to have a little thicker skin and some balls (or at least be a bit ballsy) to hang with this croud.

Maybe you didn't notice, but most of us are farmers, ranchers, homesteaders or are of that mind-set. When we come to a mountain we can't climb, we either go around it, under it or through it, because we have determined that whining never lowered it so far that we could walk right over it.

Maybe we're stupid, but that's the mind-set around here. Sorry we couldn't coddle your oh-so-delicate ego. One of those big city libraries or fashionable coffee-houses would probably have more supportive folks of your ilk than you're likely to find in this neighborhood. (Not only do we contemplate it, people here actually have animal shit on their boots and dirt under their fingernails.)

Best regards from the real world,

-- Roger (pecosrogX@earthlink.net), December 05, 1999.

Ya know, it strikes me really odd to see you guys telling Vlad to get a thicker skin. Seems like the sysop who removed the original post and the sniveling women who perceived his valid question - ("What 2 things would you refuse to do to feed your hungry children?") - as a "sick fantasy," are the ones who need a thicker skin.

And Vlad, I DO hope you'll reconsider. I have read your posts and consider them quite informative.

-- Tee (teefleur@yahoo.com), December 05, 1999.

Yes; Vlad. Come on....live up to the Impaler part of your name that your ancestor earned. Hang in there; contribute. Those of us who did NOT remove your posts still need your good advice.

-- alex (cognitiveone@yahoo.com), December 05, 1999.

In my opinion, the thread as a whole was not contributing positively to the purpose of this forum. You'll notice I emphasize the "thread", not Vlad's post in particular, which I had already commented on there.

As we get closer to rollover and beyond, it is going to be very important to maintain a cooperative atmosphere here. It's my job to determine whether or not that is occurring.

Don't compare this forum to the other TB2K forum.

Sometimes, I may delete a thread, sometimes specific posts within that thread.

Obviously, my judgment on when/whether to do so will almost always differ with someone else's.

Many of Vlad's posts have been extremely useful to me personally and I hope he will continue to post.

I won't comment on this subject again, except to say that I am not looking for either approval, support or opposition, per se. If this forum is useful to you, continue to come. If it isn't, don't.

May God be with you over the coming days, weeks and months.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), December 05, 1999.

[Applause!]

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), December 06, 1999.