So Ive been seeing a lot of peoples posts being taken down on here that have no business being removed. It seems as those posts are being censored simply because people do not agree with the views being expressed, or they supposedly dont relate to the topic at hand. Last time I checked, we had the freedom of speech, allowing us to express our thoughts as long as it does not cross the line of harassment or break any laws.
This thread can be about anything. I dont care if you get off topic in here. I say this as ive seen posts removed because they stray from the topic of the article. I hope this doesnt get taken down, as I am simply expressing an opinion that I have generated from surfing these forums for the past few weeks.
What are your thoughts everyone!

Originally Posted by Chris23

So Ive been seeing a lot of peoples posts being taken down on here that have no business being removed.

"no business"? I think its up to the owner and creator of the website to decide that. MI has become a really large community and pretty well known at Mac, so its good to have some moderation, we wouldn't want MI to get a bad reputation.

Also you do have freedom of speech, but just like any other website there are rules, if you want to say whatever you want go make a blog or pay for your own server for a website.

I dont think the "censorship" has gotten out of hand.

Originally Posted by Chris23

Last time I checked, we had the freedom of speech, allowing us to express our thoughts as long as it does not cross the line of harassment or break any laws.

Taken from the MacInsiders Terms of Service:

5. Conduct on our Site

[...]

Freedom of speech
You understand that although the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights guarantees freedom of public speech for citizens of their states and countries, this website is not a UN country, and the behaviors and activities of members of this privately owned website are governed by our Code of Conduct and this Terms Of Service agreement.

Yeah, I would agree with Chris. And from what he posts, I don't agree with much that he says. But it is wierd that the censorship process is extremely selective here. A discussion shouldn't be locked simply because the discussion gets a bit heated... or maybe we should all just talk about gumdrops and fairies?

And chad, sure you've already outlined that this forum has the right to remove what ever it disagrees with, but what does that say about the forum's integrity if it's willing to censor people? I do think that certain posts which aren't offensive, or stray off topic are taken down a lot... maybe more transparency and maybe telling us why a certain post was removed would help?

Originally Posted by Amardeep_S

Yeah, I would agree with Chris. And from what he posts, I don't agree with much that he says. But it is wierd that the censorship process is extremely selective here. A discussion shouldn't be locked simply because the discussion gets a bit heated... or maybe we should all just talk about gumdrops and fairies?

And chad, sure you've already outlined that this forum has the right to remove what ever it disagrees with, but what does that say about the forum's integrity if it's willing to censor people? I do think that certain posts which aren't offensive, or stray off topic are taken down a lot... maybe more transparency and maybe telling us why a certain post was removed would help?

Most posts that are taken down are because users start to verbally assault and insult each other or have excessive vulgarity which is not needed (Like every 3 words is a vulgar word).

Posts which stray off-topic aren't always taken down. Posts that are well off-topic are often taken down. The reason is because a thread isn't like a normal conversation, the time between posts are much longer than a normal conversation which means when a thread goes off-topic it's very hard to remember what the thread was originally about and if the thread wasn't answered then it defeats the purpose of a forum. Users have the option of creating a new thread instead of derailing a thread.

Oh look at the time, it's 1984 already.

Originally Posted by jhan523

Most posts that are taken down are because users start to verbally assault and insult each other or have excessive vulgarity which is not needed (Like every 3 words is a vulgar word).

Posts which stray off-topic aren't always taken down. Posts that are well off-topic are often taken down. The reason is because a thread isn't like a normal conversation, the time between posts are much longer than a normal conversation which means when a thread goes off-topic it's very hard to remember what the thread was originally about and if the thread wasn't answered then it defeats the purpose of a forum. Users have the option of creating a new thread instead of derailing a thread.

That's fine I get that if there are personal attacks you'll take the post off. Except there have been a few comments that I've seen removed that did not have any person attacks or were off topic. They were removed seemingly because the conversation was a little heated.

But you ignored my point. Perhaps a more transparent system where an explanation for the removal of a comment would help?

And for off topic posts, I didn't comment on those and I agree that they should perhaps be removed depending on how off topic they are.

'Censorship' has gotten worse for every mod that has been hired.. I don't necessarily disagree with the closing of the threads, but its making this place boring as shit to actually watch and participate in discussion about interesting topics. Guess there are other places for that.

Originally Posted by Amardeep_S

That's fine I get that if there are personal attacks you'll take the post off. Except there have been a few comments that I've seen removed that did not have any person attacks or were off topic. They were removed seemingly because the conversation was a little heated.

But you ignored my point. Perhaps a more transparent system where an explanation for the removal of a comment would help?

And for off topic posts, I didn't comment on those and I agree that they should perhaps be removed depending on how off topic they are.

The transparency of the system would have to be done by Chad (The site owner, not the moderator above). I know that when we do delete posts we put reasons why they were deleted but I'm fairly certain they aren't publicly seen. It seems like it would be possible to have this show up in lieu of the deleted post instead of nothing appearing, but Chad is the only one who knows for sure and can actually implement that feature.

I have been really happy with the moderation, since when I first started using MI there were a lot of little arguements that turned into 15 post flame wars. Now those comments are flagged right away, and it does keep things much more on topic than they used to.

Especially tech questions, those are more censored since they got stupid really fast as people fought over which OS was better and turned into a flame war

Originally Posted by Chris23

So Ive been seeing a lot of peoples posts being taken down on here that have no business being removed. It seems as those posts are being censored simply because people do not agree with the views being expressed, or they supposedly dont relate to the topic at hand. Last time I checked, we had the freedom of speech, allowing us to express our thoughts as long as it does not cross the line of harassment or break any laws.

This line right here is based on a very, very fine line. What may not cross the line of harassment is completely different depending on the person. For instance, you may say something that will seem harmless to you, but depending on another person's reading of said post, they could take grave offence to it. Because of that, I feel like this is a rather slippery-slope-type argument that doesn't exactly hold a lot of credence.
In terms of censorship though, I do agree that, this being an online forum, opinions will be expressed that others won't like. Some of the posts/threads that are being censored/closed may seem to be a bit ridiculous, but ultimately it is up to the operators to decide what is valid for discussion and what isn't. After all, this forum wouldn't exist with them, so I'm fine with whatever they choose to do.

Originally Posted by Snowman

I have been really happy with the moderation, since when I first started using MI there were a lot of little arguements that turned into 15 post flame wars. Now those comments are flagged right away, and it does keep things much more on topic than they used to.

Especially tech questions, those are more censored since they got stupid really fast as people fought over which OS was better and turned into a flame war

What is wrong with a heated debate? If people are passionate about their opinions, let them debate it. If you are willing to put your opinion on an online forum, you do so knowing fully that there will be those opposing your opinion, and that you may get a response that you dont like.

"Remember when macinsiders was good?"
"macinsiders was never good."

Originally Posted by Chris23

What is wrong with a heated debate? If people are passionate about their opinions, let them debate it. If you are willing to put your opinion on an online forum, you do so knowing fully that there will be those opposing your opinion, and that you may get a response that you dont like.

Can someone make a new link on the homepage for debate forums only? Then when a thread gets heated instead of closing it down you can just kick it to the debate forum page.

And then anyone who goes in there can go in with guns-a-blazin

Originally Posted by Melanieee

Can someone make a new link on the homepage for debate forums only? Then when a thread gets heated instead of closing it down you can just kick it to the debate forum page.

And then anyone who goes in there can go in with guns-a-blazin

YESSSS. And if your afraid of someone ripping you a new whole, STAY THE **** AWAY
Great idea Melanieee!