censorship on dissensus: the disappearance of the confessions thread

polz

Member
i'm quite sure there was a thread over here with confessions. People talked about Paris stinking, New York stinking, swears posted a nice picture, for which mistersloane offered him a nice service. Zhao said some ill-advised stuff. Then Nomos said it was the worst thread he ever saw, and now the whole thread is gone. What happened? Am i delusional or is there some kind of censorship going on around here?
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Basically you have to realise that this a privately owned and financed service. You might disagree with a decision but it's not yours to make. If someone has something to say there's no shortage of places they can say it.
 

swears

preppy-kei
Think that thread got deleted because it was a bit dumb and childish, rather than because it contained insightful, challenging opinions that threatened the dissensus status quo or anything like that. I like to arse around and bust lols as much as anyone, but I think the board was better when the general tone was uh... weightier.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
i'm quite sure there was a thread over here with confessions. People talked about Paris stinking, New York stinking, swears posted a nice picture, for which mistersloane offered him a nice service. Zhao said some ill-advised stuff. Then Nomos said it was the worst thread he ever saw, and now the whole thread is gone. What happened? Am i delusional or is there some kind of censorship going on around here?

A number of threads were deleted last night, including that one and one which had half a dozen quite graphic links to porn videos.

Mods also routinely delete emails offering cheap viagra and amazing offers to win ipods.

So, no, you are not delusional. There is no complete freedom of speech on Dissensus and never has been.

The thread in question was the subject of a number of concerned pms by posters here. At least 2 moderators agreed with those concerns.

Our main issue was with some comments being borderline racist, but also the distinct possiblity that that level of "confessional" content would escalate given the OP's "post anything, everything will be forgiven" tone.

I can understand that people might not agree with our decision but I have seen threads of a similar nature (on other boards) which have become most unpleasant very quickly.
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
No-one's censoring the internet. Nearly anyone can start a blog or whatever.

Not 100% sure but I think the legal would be that board operators can be held responsible for what's published on their server, so if it's felt that something is unacceptable that's the operators call to make.

I do understand it can be infuriating sometimes if you are used to the idea that you can say what you like. For the most part this board is moderated with exemplary moderation compared to other places.
 
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noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
'I' don't monitor it. I do see why that thread was problematic, but that's beside the point. Anyway I'll butt out now, not really my concern.
 

bassnation

the abyss
have seen threads of a similar nature (on other boards) which have become most unpleasant very quickly.

spill the beans then eden! bugger, wish i'd caught this one before it was swept away. when someone tells me i can't read something i will go to inordinate lengths to do so. but i understand this place is moderated, and thats the koo with such set ups.
 
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nomos

Administrator
this reeks of pre-emptive censorhip. i think you always have to be careful with that
It wasn't pre-emptive. The first post expressed distaste toward a host of ethnic groups and encouraged others to follow suit. By the fifth post, the population of an entire continent were being called liars. Any pretensions to that being legitimate, insightful discourse or just harmless fun are completely hollow. Likewise, the charge of PC beard strokers getting worked up over nothing.

swears said:
but I think the board was better when the general tone was uh... weightier.
Agreed, and I know that threads like that one have deterred a number of other people from posting here.
 

vimothy

yurp
spill the beans then eden! bugger, wish i'd caught this one before it was swept away. one someone tells me i can't read something i will go to inordinate lengths to do so.

It's really not worth the fuss -- it was pretty pointless & along the lines of "confess to thinking something naughty":

"I don't care what the Arsenal vs Liverpool score was".

"London smells".

"I don't like Iraqis".

Etc....
 

Sick Boy

All about pride and egos
I will admit, it was a heinous abuse of my freedom of speech to confess I once had a moustache. It took a lot of inner strength to admit that, and some things are better left unsaid.

I have noticed recently a surge of anti-intellectualism here at Dissensus though, and not just in this thread. I don't think it is without value at times, however.
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Agreed, and I know that threads like that one have deterred a number of other people from posting here.
Well indeed. Awful as it is to have one's insightful and unique genius sullied by proximity to such inanity some of us just have to get on with it.

Seriously that does sound incredibly snooty.

Gah, never mind. Amazing how bad threads / moderation issues always have this knock-on effect where everyone vents.

I'm sure things will correct themselves. If there's something interesting to be brought up and discussed it will be, there's nothing stopping that really. At times there's going to be periods of idle chatter and jokes. Who's to say it isn't all idle chatter and jokes.
 
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zhao

there are no accidents
i guess it was easy to misread and mis interpret my comments. just as well it's all gone.
 

nomos

Administrator
Seriously that does sound incredibly snooty.
Alright, more directly then: the casual racism, sexism, and homophobia that some people here get off on pisses people off and makes them not want to bother with the forum. Moreover, if you call people on it you get jumped on for not being a good sport, too "PC." It's fucking tedious.

or maybe stelfox said it better in the deleted thread..
i actually really think it should be locked off or binned. the board wasn't started for this.
it was started in order to talk about music and general cultural stuff.
this kind of thing makes me not want to post here or even read the board.
the only confessions that should be made here are of the me not giving a shit about on-u sound productions variety.

no, this sort of shit pisses me off. conspiracy theories, personal revelations, revealing too much about your own life/hang-ups/problems, the kind of stupid stuff that's happened here. it just doesn't belong here. if i had my way, i'd ban people for it. i can think of at least 10 so far who deserve to be banned equally as much as padrag.
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
the casual racism, sexism, and homophobia that some people here get off on pisses people off
Well I don't see that much of that sort of thing, maybe I just let it go for the most part, but yes of course, crushingly tedious indeed.

You're going to say I'm main culprit now. Must watch myself when throwing around casual remarks about Mick Huckn4ll. Sorry Mick.
 
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vimothy

yurp
so you as a moderator quote and agree with somebody who wants to ban people for revealing too much about their own lifes/hang-ups/problems. should this be considered an official warning?

Just let it go mate -- it was a daft thread and there will be plenty more, anyway...
 
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