Censorship arrives at My Mountain Town

HEARTLESS wrote: SC, since this was directed at me, please perform a Search and my user name and TDS, T.D.S., tds or Trump D... Syndrome and look at all the posts. What you will see is verifiable proof that it exists and is so overwhelming it blinds the person to the truth. I also previously challenged another poster to show my posts that were misogynistic, etc. Wow look at all the posts, none. Is it that I'm Christian or conservative that so bothers those on the Left? All of my posts are intended to show people what is really going on in this world. If the videos are not to your liking, don't watch them. I've stated more than once, you must choose what you believe.

Heartless, I'm not saying that TDS doesn't exist. I'm saying that calling another member that here is an insult, it does not contribute to productive, civil discussions, and it's not allowed per the rules of this Forum. Calling someone deranged (or deplorable, if you will) is not conducive to enlightening someone. If you want to insult someone, feel free to have at it in The Ring. No one's stopping you there whatsoever.

Challenging someone to explain why they think your posts are misogynistic is acceptable, they should do that or their point is invalidated. Again, it's that fine line of calling your posts misogynistic, not you. If you feel that you personally are being called that, please feel free to click the Report Post button so that the moderators can review the post. We don't catch everything that is posted as we all have duties that take us away from the Forums for stretches of time.

Your religion does not bother me at all, as I'm sure it doesn't bother most others; frankly, unless you state it specifically yourself, how would anyone know that you are Christian and be able to hold that assumption against you? I'm happy for whatever you choose to believe that brings you joy/comfort/peace. We do not discriminate here based on religion, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual preference, orientation, age, political affiliation, or identity.

HEARTLESS wrote: Maybe you can answer this. Since the definition of spamming normally involves commercial advertising, how am I or anyone else gaining monetarily from this? Granted I have insulted others, normally after I've been attacked, please show where that isn't the case.

"Spamming is the use of messaging systems to send an unsolicited message (spam) to large numbers of recipients for the purpose of commercial advertising, for the purpose of non-commercial proselytizing, or for any prohibited purpose (especially the fraudulent purpose of phishing)."

I've told you upfront that I think Q is a cult that spews conspiracy theory garbage. I've honestly wrestled with the dilemma of allowing it to remain in the Courthouse given the larger issue of how prevalent fake news, propaganda, and conspiracies like that, which are pushed by trolls, anti-vaxxers, climate denialists, far-left, far-right, or enemy cyber terrorists (from Iran, China, Russia), are harming the citizens of our country. The social media giants' piss-poor handling of it, allowing it to infect and overtake their platforms and their users with multitudes of bots to artificially amplify, troll and drive away decent people, has contributed immensely to the devastating partisan divide, bitter rhetoric, and dangerous ramp up of violence by fellow citizens on one another.

This is a private business and, no, you do not have freedom of speech protection here, as much as you protest otherwise. That said, promoting one-sided discussion and/or allowing non-stop attacks destroys conversation and destroys boards. I have always welcomed any viewpoint and have run this site based on my personal belief summed up in these quotes:
Respect... is appreciation of the separateness of the other person, of the ways in which he or she is unique. ~Annie Gottlieb

“If you resist reading what you disagree with, how will you ever acquire deeper insights into what you believe? The things most worth reading are precisely those that challenge our convictions.” – Anonymous

I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power. ~Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Charles Jarvis, September 28, 1820

The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out. ~James Baldwin, Nothing Personal

If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen. ~Ronald Reagan

Patriotism is love of country. But you can't love your country without loving your countrymen and countrywomen. We don't always have to agree, but we must empower each other, we must find the common ground, we must build bridges across our differences to pursue the common good. ~Cory Booker

I have said time and time again that no one side can solve all of our problems. Vilifying, diminishing, ridiculing, ostracizing, "canceling" those with whom we disagree does not cure our ills, it exacerbates them. The only correction, as Jefferson put it, is to listen, seek to understand, empower one another, and compromise. Squashing discussion, deleting comments, locking threads, and removing members is not the way to go about that; however, there does also come a point when a member is acting in bad faith, refusing to follow terms of service despite repeated requests to do so, or taking advantage of the platform to advance a personal agenda (as one of our more infamous trolls had done in the past) which is harmful to the site, unfair to other members, and should not/will not be tolerated.

”The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of the people and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion...” — A. Hamilton


It's a fine line. I will tell you honestly Heartless that I prefer to see you discuss what message you take away from the videos that you post (because I can tell you right now that the majority of people are not going to watch anything longer than 3 minutes) rather than simply posting the videos themselves. Posting multiple videos without any commentary is weak sauce. The point is to have a discussion about the topic not simply vomit others' opinions (which is what those videos are, not "truth") all over the board, and you should expect push back on your opinions because that's the point of the Forums - to debate. Posting video after video is the definition of proselytizing, which is a form of spam, it doesn't matter if you aren't making money on it. VL used to comment on several threads all in a row, which was a form of spam in hijacking the forum with that many comments in a short span of time.

Be better. Treat each other better. This is a community site for us neighbors to connect, share information, learn from one another, enlighten one another. It can be done without being an ass about it. Lord knows I used to be back when I first started posting, but I've worked hard to be better. Pony Soldier, I appreciate your comment in that regards, thank you. Truly.

The other option is we can all go to The Ring and let loose. All I'm saying is that we're going to adhere to the standards that are set for each Forum or this site becomes no better than 4chan and I'll shut it all down before it gets there.

ScienceChic wrote:

HEARTLESS wrote: Maybe you can answer this. Since the definition of spamming normally involves commercial advertising, how am I or anyone else gaining monetarily from this? Granted I have insulted others, normally after I've been attacked, please show where that isn't the case.

"Spamming is the use of messaging systems to send an unsolicited message (spam) to large numbers of recipients for the purpose of commercial advertising, for the purpose of non-commercial proselytizing, or for any prohibited purpose (especially the fraudulent purpose of phishing)."

Posting video after video is the definition of proselytizing, which is a form of spam, it doesn't matter if you aren't making money on it. VL used to comment on several threads all in a row, which was a form of spam in hijacking the forum with that many comments in a short span of time.

Edit to add:
My Mountain Town Privacy Policy and Terms of Service

My Mountain Town Terms of Service - Updated January 2018

You agree to the terms and conditions outlined in this Terms of Use Agreement (“Agreement”) with respect to My Mountain Town (the “Site”). This Agreement constitutes the entire and only agreement between us and you, and supersedes all prior or contemporaneous agreements, representations, warranties and understandings with respect to the Site, the content, products or services provided by or through the Site, and the subject matter of this Agreement. This Agreement may be amended at any time by us from time to time without specific notice to you. The latest Agreement will be posted on the Site, and you should review this Agreement prior to using the Site.

1. Posts are moderated for personal identifiable information, spam, or any other material that may violate any applicable laws.

7. We do not allow 'review my site' type posts as those are considered spam.

"Review my site" and "Watch this video" are equivalent.

I was referring to Rick's post that got moved for saying another member suffered TDS, not any of yours. My apologies if I caused any confusion there.

Regarding the accusation of misogyny, I did a search and this is the post that came up: Hillfarmer said, and I quote, "The bullshit misogyny and bigotry in this thread is disgusting. It drives My Mountain Town to a new low. But then, that is what you aim for, isn’t it Heartless?"

Hillfarmer did not say you were misogynist or bigoted, he said what was typed in the comments was, and accused you of postings things that create a low on the board. Again, it's splitting hairs, but that's where we've drawn the line of it being a personal attack or not. You are welcome to disagree, and report any posts like that anytime so we can review it more closely.

Thank you Rick, I appreciate it.

Here's where I see the difference, telling someone they suffer from a "derangement syndrome" is different than asking someone if their name is some public figure without qualifying what traits about that public figure the OP meant. We can assume what was inferred, but try not to moderate based on assumptions, and the person to whom it was directed did not report the post themselves so it's possible they took no offense.

It's another one of those fine lines, this time between an absolute insult and an implied one. Again, we encourage people to report these kinds of posts, particularly the member to whom it was directed if they are upset by it, so we can review it more closely. If you want us to get more stringent on moderating, we can certainly do that, but keep that in mind when posts like this one accusing us of "censoring" come up yet again. Every time we've had these discussions on moderating, it usually ends that members prefer more hands off, but as I've always repeated, we take under strong consideration how our members would like this to be run as well and will modify our policy accordingly.