Rants and Raves from a proud card-carrying, unilateralist and simplistic American member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Oh, and full-time Emperor and Ruler of All the Known Universe and Every Last Organism in it as well.




Comments?
Suggestions?
Questions?
Ask Mr. Misha

[Email policy: The content of any and all emails sent to the above address will become the property of the owner of this website and eligible for publication, with the exception of personal details. Such details will not be published unless specific permission is given by the sender.]

 

"Squashing of Dissent" at Kumbaya HQ?

Question for today, or something.

I was alerted a while ago to the fact that a faithful reader and fellow Anti-Idiotarian of mine who goes by the handle "Infidel" seemingly had his posts deleted at Kumbaya HQ, one of the most notorious Fisking Pools™ on the web.

At first I didn't think all that much of it. Kumbaya HQ, after all, has the same commenting system that I do, "Haloscan", and they were having some problems which caused posts to disappear and re-appear pretty much like the al-BoreBot's political views or lack thereof, so I honestly thought that that was the explanation.

I did make a mental note of it, however, and, once Haloscan's trouble were over, "Infidel"'s posts continued to disappear for no good reason at all.

"Infidel" inquired about this with the Kumbaya head honchos and they assured him that they'd never resort to a thing as vile as that, but the fact remains: His posts are disappearing. Thus I was left with the following logical possibilities:

1. They were lying through their teeth when they denied "censoring" his posts.
   
   Why they would be is a mystery to me. For one thing, it's their website and they most certainly have every right in the book to edit and/or delete any posts they want to. I still reserve that right myself. I haven't yet seen anybody push the envelope far enough to convince me that I should (and it would take some doing) and I hope I never will. I don't mind people disagreeing with me, in fact I welcome it, and I certainly don't mind people using the invective that I'm so fond of using myself against me. But it's still their right, as it is mine, and I would definitely tell people if I did use that right.
   
   Another thing is: If they're really "censoring" his posts, then how come I'm not being "censored" too, not to mention the horde of other commentors publically Fisking™ them on a public basis?
   
   That leaves me with option



2. They are not "censoring" anybody, but someone is. In that case, I'd suggest that they look into who that might be.

After all, it's not exactly helpful for a site that keeps yammering about "squashing of dissent" if it looks like they're doing just that themselves.
posted by Misha at 9/27/2002 08:47:00 PM