It's not about censorship, it's about following the rules. If the rules of a forum state you can't talk about subject A and then you do, it's only natural that the thread gets locked. The OP didn't have any bad intentions, I'm sure of it, but the subject of the thread could indeed be seen as a political topic, which can't be discussed on these forums.

Just noticed something. I know that political threads are not allowed anymore (for quite some time). And I agree with this (because these only lead to bad blood in the past).
But the folum rules haven't been updated yet! It still says the following:

Quote:
Religious or political discussion specifically should be kept within the general discussion areas.

Or did I miss something?

Quoting Srehtims:

Quote:
Censorship
So sweet!
Bye!

Do you allow people to come into your home and say anything they want?  I know I don't.  As an example, people can't spout racist remarks in my house.  Is that censorship?  It is the same for these forums.  They belong to Ken and he can decide, and enforce through his moderators, what is and isn't allowed.

Well said there Martian.  So many people seem to think they have freedom of speech here.  But that's just not true.  This is Ken's playground and he gets to make the rules.  If he says we can't talk about something, then we can't.  We have no more freedoms here than in my house or yours.  Anyone who feels differently (and I just saw an example in the last couple days elsewhere on this site), needs to do a little research before going off about censorship.

Once again, The Martian says exactly what I would have said if I had been here much sooner.


Personally, I got sick and tired of the "OMG! It's censorship! This place needs to be shut down right Now!1@!!111!!" argument a looooong time ago.

Censorship is a nation-by-nation concept, not a worldwide one around which the whole planet is supposed to follow the exact same rules. Even many Internet-based issues can be illegal in one country but not in another yet the sites remain in tact. Why people think that they have the absolute right to say anything anywhere that they want is beyond me.

Why does every guest book, blog, forum, and social site have delete and lock buttons if all site owners were required to let anyone say anything that they wanted at anytime without "punishment?" Obviously, there doesn't even have to be a rule about it (though in that case there clearly was one already in place). If a mod wants to delete something, protesting is pointless. By the definition of censorship, not even vulgar spam should be deleted; you are censoring their right to say what they want, and what they want to say is an advertisement.

Quoting Taro:

Quote:
It's not about censorship, it's about following the rules.

For me, it's the same. Censorship is "suppression of speech or other communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body."

In the case here, Invelos decided to censor all political discussions. Ken has the right to do that, and it is not a problem for me. But strictly speaking, it is censorship, in strict meaning of the word.

Quoting FilmAlba:

Quote:
The moment they fully allow political discussions on this forum the lovely doevy dog and cat posting picture posting atmosphere would be lost. I remember on here there was a thread going way back where a lot pepole (you never guess where they where from) expressed a lot of homophobic views.

By keeping some topics out of bounds in ensures the community works together.

Judging from your previous statements in other threads, I would presume that you are referring to the US.

Do you actually believe that crap, or are you just trying to get a rise.  I really feel sorry  for you, if you  judge a large population by the actions of a few or from how a very left sided media portrays a certain political sect.  If you believe the media, anybody that is conservative (about half the population)  hates the poor, is racist and is anti gay.  This could not be further from the truth, but by the media portraying this, they keep the emotions running high.  You fall into the same trap that 1/4 the population in the US fall into.

I know a lot of people.  The number is probably more than the people that you get your information from.  My job allows me to interact with more people everyday.  Even with all the people that I come in contact with, I would still not judge a population of more than 300 million.

So I would ask you to get of your high horse, and quit throwing the insinuations around about how you think the USA is so backwoods oriented, and allow that narrow mind to expand and understand that there are other societies in the world that do not fall into your narrow societal perspective. 

Charlie

Somebody sent me a private message so I just had to check it out. I'm amused.

The opening by Grendell of the forum string I was referring to was about governmental control of the internet.

Not politics.

It is you people that turned it into a political debacle. Check it out. Some of you think everything is about you. Some of you people seem to think the sun rises and falls on your.... sorry it doesn't. Some of you read what ever you want into anything and everything and not what is written.

Why do some of you have so much trouble with the rules, because you want them to say what you want and some of you aren't even consistent about that.

All most anything can be viewed as political! Sure I want child porn and like controlled. Hell we've had pedophiles in the highest positions of business and government and seldom is anything is ever done about them. Did you know Interpol has or at least had a cleaner squad that goes into countries that will not prosecute or extradite pedophiles. I'm all for it. Some of our largest businesses are or have been into porn. GE comes to ind, when they bought the NBC package, I think there were some porn sites included. Jack what's his name CEO of GE could hold his own with any godfather. Isn't it amazing once he retired what great man he was. You think I would have said this back when I was working for GE.

My opening reference was not about politics, but about governmental control and government cover up.

If you think I care about what Ken does with his forum or the program you are wrong, I was happy with the original program. Hell I didn't even read the forum at the old site but a couple of times. All I use the profiler for is to keep track of my DVDs. And I still have a couple of duplicate DVDs, horse pucky. I watch my DVDs.

And if you think I care about your little red arrows they just amuse me.

You people have been rant and whinnying for pages and pages in this forum, Now it's my turn.

After WWII all the powers mainly USSR and USA rushed it get all the NAZI scientists they could.
Giving them a clean bill of health that they were not involved in war crimes. Will the documents have finally surfaced that was all a cover up. Now they have decided to prosecute them, all denounced their citizenship and scurried off like cockroaches. Like didn't everybody know that anyway.

After all if you are head of anything you want absolute control, that is until you get caught doing    something wrong, then want some else to take the fall. That is why if you are lower management you better keep good records. Every bit information that comes out of government is controlled. I'm amused when journalists think they got something hot. Like journalists are that smart. Almost every government organization has their own goon squad, IRS, FDA, etc. Hey people are killed for a pair of shoes everyday. Everybody looks at the budget and says woe is me, but have you ever seen the government financial statement and what our government owns a piece of.

Now the internet is the last place where one can get information about anything and everything. Pro and con. Sure each individual has to weigh the information for himself or herself. People take the Wikipedia as gospel, they admit they don't check anything.

The control of the internet has been planned for a long time. You think somebody in power wants you to know everything. It is like the putting a frog in boiling water, he jumps out, but if you put him in warm water and slowly turn up the heat he is boiled before he knows it. Ring a bell? If you want to take over something you don't advertise it. Little by little and pretty soon some of the things you used have access to are no longer available. Google is already collecting data for the government, NSA, what ever.

Most of the laws that control what important are written by the lawyers for big business.  Your average congressman is over his with the comics.

You know the salary of the average government worker with befits is over $140,000.00 per year.

And if you worked on as many government contracts that I have, well you'd know how useless most of them are. I had one tasking officer that bragged that he didn't know anything about computers and had never even seen one. And how cheap it was to take his family of four to Spain for two weeks through the government travel office in the Pentagon. Hell, I can't spend a weekend in Ajo for that. Don't stand in the entry to the Pentagon at quitting time Friday evening. You'll get run down.

Everything in nature is addictive, repetitive, that is if it works it is repeated until it doesn't work and you change, that is if you want to survive. Encase you haven't noticed we are not the top of the food chain, viruses and bacteria are. Viruses and bacteria are constantly adapting and can adapt faster than we can to control their survival. One day I was reading Science News, one scientist reported he had created or found a dirt eating bacteria and surmised that they could be used to keep our clothes clean. A few pages following that article I read of a scientist's study of how bacteria will adapt and eat anything if their chosen meal is not available. Thought boy that first scientist better make sure his clothes are dirty out his dirt eating bacteria will eat him.

Our food, drugs illegal or prescribed, sleep, sex and all most our every activity is addictive. Humans don't like change. It is hard to change, I've got in the habit of watching DVD until four in the morning and can't get out of it.  And control if have it, is most addictive. There is nothing more an animal likes to than have than control. After all, if you have control you can get all the rest.

When I worked for a newspaper, the Kansas City Star, it was company owned, that is to own stock you had to work there. I made our financial report everyday for the treasurer for the daily meeting of company leaders. Are any large newspapers today company owned? When I first came to Phoenix in 1964 , all the television and radio stations were privately owned. Not today. After the local news all you get is gossip. Sure you know who the all the starlets are sleeping with. The media is controlled by big business.

The original framers of our government thought the news media and an educated populace would hold the government in check. They didn't plan on large corporations owning everything. But if you control the money you control it all. That is what our current crises is about. To widen the gap between the haves and the have-knots.

An other thing, Social Security, all you hear is how much trouble it is in. No wonder, they take money you pay in and put it in the general funds and spend it on everything else. Oh, they never put any of it back. When I went to sign up for Social Security. while waiting my turn I walked around the room and all the other people waiting were young women with various numbers of children  and I didn't hear a word of English spoken. And I was the only person of retirement age. when it was my turn, I found out if I brought my military discharge papers in I could get a few bucks more (very few). The next day the same type of people waiting, and again I was the only person of retirement age.

A friend told me his grandson and a sister by a previous marriage get almost $900.00 a month because his absent father is disabled. In a couple of years his sister will be of age the kid will get it all. That is almost as much I get and and paid into it since I was 14. And you people blame all us old farts for living too long and for Social Security for going broke. We're the the ones that paid for it.

As I said earlier you people read what you want to into everything and believe what you want to..

Our education standards to get into college have lowered since my day, you got math and English for dummies and 101 science courses. For several decades I interviewed engineers and programmers. When I wanted somebody for my group I wrote the requirements and ads myself. And management could not figure out why or how I got the best people. I told them I wasn't afraid to hire somebody smarter than myself  and that since they, management, were not to bright that is why the didn't get the best people.

Management just loves me, example at USAF, SAC when I did the war games computer the colonel in charge stopped one day. He looked at my badge, a visitor's badge, and said you still got a visitors badge and we have been trusting you all this time. I said, MF you better keep on trusting me because I'm the only SOB that knows how this carp works. I dudn't tell him I kept the visitors badge because I could park at the front door. You think I wanted to walk 2 blocks when the chill factor is 35 below.

I read our average IQ is several points lower than a few decades ago, it figures.

So wimp and whine all you want I don't give a BRA.