I'm Behind the Screen
 

It's unfortunate, but maybe some people feel like: I'm behind this computer screen so I can say what I want because what are "they" going to do to me? You know what I mean? Now, if a certain thread gets closed b/c people were being nasty, that doesn't mean the question or comment the author posted was inappropriate, it just means that some responses/answers were inappropriate. If someone wants to open up another thread regarding a similar question I don't see anything wrong with it. It is a free country. BUT, there should be no mention of the negative comments that were in the other thread. Sometimes there are some really good questions, and people ruin it for others by causing crap. You'd think we were on some U.S. Political Debate Forum with some of the arguing that goes on here. We're on here to talk about our little babies, I don't see the need to get snippy with one another. I'm afraid to open a new thread regarding the snippyness of people because I don't want to get "snipped" at for bringing it up! :lol tears

I agree with you...I am very nosey too. :animal36

Censorship is never ok. NEVER! Enlightenment is however ok, but if you don't trust people to be able to handle nasty threads, you don't give a chance to cope with it.
Some parts of life are nasty, that's why we have friends and family.

I had a thread deleted because I tried to share my joy that a Danish girl had started a Danish Yorkieforum and I linked to it to show you (even though you wouldn't be able to read one sentence), because as the admin said "They had problems with people promoting other forums before".

Well, if you start deleting threads based on what has given problems in the past, people will never learn to handle things.
And of course the danger is as in my example, that you start deleting threads that are entirely undangerous...
Censorship is never ok! Freedom of speech is one of the amendments and we should hold on to that all over the world, also on YT!

With my experience, some of my posts have moved to more appropriate forum... I kinda got upset temporary because I thought it was deleted but I have found it at other place... That happens too!

I think admin and moderator have to do what they have to do... and I really like who the site is maintained... IMO

I think those who jump on the freedom of speech soapbox too often carry it to a ridiculous extreme. Censorship is never OK?
So slander IS OK?
Libel IS OK?
Tell that to the judge when you ruin someone's reputation by saying something that can't be proven true.
I think admin -- which in some cases can be held liable for the content of its bulletin board -- does a remarkable job keeping these threads about Yorkies.

Nicely put! :thumbup: Wow!! You hit every angle with that post!! :thumbup:

Very nicely put! There are many many threads that get closed because some people simply cannot remain civil and respectful of others differing viewpoints. Does that mean that the ones with the differing viewpoints should shut up and not post? No, they should feel free to post and those others should learn to handle different opinions from their own in a nice and responsible way.

And Kewtee...I loved what you said because I too hate censorship... it is so totally against what our contry stands for and defamation is not protected under "Freedom of Speech" so preventing defamation is not censorship and should be allowed without question.

Silencing those with different and controversial points of view because some people cannot behave like adults when they don't agree with what is written is not right. That is censorship.

I think that the deletion of some posts is necessary (personal attacks, spam)
but I would personally rather see most threads being locked than deleted. It does not show the whole mood or story to the new posters and I'm sure some wonder and can't understand why threads turn ugly or why people feel so strong about issues. Its like joining a family and not understanding why everyones fighting because all their dirty secrets are locked behind closed doors. Just my two cents. :)

Ok, maybe I should have added:
Freedom of speech, but the law above all. That is obvious to me, but of course you couldn't read my mind...
It's not ok, to have a radiostadion that promotes killing of non-whites for example - we just have a radiostation closed in Denmark because they did that. That is sick and is of course not ok. But that is not censorship, that is protecting the citizens. I know it's a thin line, but still...

I agree with both sides of this issue.

The bottom line is that Admin has the sole responsibility to not let things get out of hand and to keep messages where they belong.

LOL !!! Nice and short AND right to the point......I totally agree

OMG I hate when people talk about freedom of speech and free country, too.

"Congrss shall make no law..." not "YT ADMIN shall make no law". Private industry can do whatever the hell it wants.

I couldn't agree with you more! :thumbup: If I am not mistaken, like every other forum on the internet, this one has admin that will delete and ban as they see fit. I believe that was stated in the forum rules that everyone should have read when they signed up. This is the way it is...if you don't like it, leave. Better question, why did you join in the first place. There are alot of things that go on on this board I don't like or agree with, but I suck it up and don't whine because I'm a big girl. If it gets to the point that I lose sleep over it, I know I can always leave. :)

We do accept donations to help run the forum, but YorkieTalk is privately owned. Being a Donating Member does not give you any "ownership" of YT or preferential treatment, but it does have its own benefits.

Only the government is prohibited from restricting speech. Because YT is privately owned, speech can be restricted in any way that YT sees fit. If someone posts something inflammatory or negative towards YT or any member, we can delete it as we own YT, the server it resides on, and the database. We try not to restrict speech, but there are times that it is unavoidable. Threads may be closed or deleted by moderators or admins for any reason. Usually they are closed or deleted because it goes against YT rules or some other kind of problem. Threads are never closed or deleted for no reason. If there is a thread that is beneficial to Yorkie owners and is crucial that all Yorkie owners read it, we would not delete that thread, just as we haven't in the past. The threads that are deleted are usually ones that end up with many personal attacks.

YT tries to be as neutral as possible and we do not close threads because we have a particular opinion on a subject. If we see 5 new (or active) threads on the same subject, we may close 4 of the threads as we try to avoid redundancy and so all discussion will be focused on the one remaining thread.

Yes, there are other Yorkie sites and forums. No one is forcing you to stay at YorkieTalk. However, there are some other forums which cause us problems and we thus will not allow any Yorkie forum free publicity or discussion. There have been serious issues and problems with other Yorkie forums in the past, which is why we do not allow any links or discussions about other Yorkie forums here on YT.

As this is a community site, we want to keep the atmosphere friendly, and often times, heated threads turn into huge arguments and name-calling, which leads to suspensions and or banned users, which we try to avoid. We have tried in the past to keep hotly-debated threads open, but it never works. It always turns out ugly. So threads may be closed before that happens.

It makes YT members and YT itself look bad when someone that is a new (a new member or potential new member) is on YorkieTalk for the first time sees a bunch of name-calling and childish behavior. This is what we are trying to avoid as we want to make this as friendly and welcoming a community as possible, though undoubtedly problems will still happen at times.

I posted this on another thread from Oct:

Donating a couple bucks to a site doesn't make you an owner. It helps keep the site working AND working quickly. I don't understand what is so hard to grasp about that. Its not selling stock in YorkieTalk. I think that everyone should do a little research into how much new servers cost to hold thousands of Yorkie Lovers and realize that the donations aren't paying even HALF of the cost. I know that's what I did and I thought "wow. If every single person donated a dollar, that still woudln't pay the bills! server upgrades are expensive!"
Why shouldn't things that Admin doesn't like get locked or bleeped out?

To me, YorkieTalk is like Admin's HOME and whatever or whomever Admin doesn't want in his HOME can be deleted or asked to leave. If someone was writing a bunch of crap or saying a bunch of crap in your HOME that you didn't like, wouldn't you reserve every right to "delete" the crap or them all together? I believe so.

and I agree with Chachi about the "cliques". Of course people who post 4500 times in a short time they've been on YorkieTalk will have comrardery and commentary about everything. Also, little nicknames or inside jokes brought over from other threads. Its natural and its FUN!