Rattle wrote:
] Elonka wrote:
] ] Sorry, but can we please avoid headlines that include
] ] profanity on Memestreams? I'm trying to get certain friends
] ] and family members to join the discussions here, but if they
] ] come in and see swear words, it's going to be an instant
] ] deal-breaker.
]
] I just don't know how to approach this problem right now. Any
] way I can think of to enforce some type of "proper conduct
] code" goes against every belief I have in the way open
] communication systems should work. A technical approach could
] work, but we are not in a position at this time to implement
] one. I wouldn't know where to start. When the site internals
] are more mature, it will likely be a different story.
]
] I don't expect the community to police itsself, in terms of
] its language, and nor should it. This is a free place. You
] can express whatever you want to express, however you want to
] express it, and you will be judged based upon it in the same
] way as in the real world. If someone curses all the time, and
] you don't like that, don't recommend their links or click thru
] them. They will not show up in the agent for you.
]

] Telling people on the system not to curse would be to start
] down a very slippery slope, at the bottom is censorship. I
] will not take that first step. I see your point of view, but
] I can't stray from my principles.

I hear you. :) And I agree, I wouldn't want to institute a policy of censorship or "moderators must approve threads" on Memestreams.

At the same time though, I don't think I'm out of line to ask that profanity cease. Just as with free speech giving someone the right to curse, at the same time, with free speech, I believe I have the right to speak up and say, "Cut it out!" :)

One possible technical solution (and yes, I heard you when you said that resources are tight), is to add a "squelch" option. So instead of simply trying to drop someone out of my sight by not recommending their posts (which would work but would take a *long* time), I could hasten the "output to /dev/null" process by clicking on a button that said, "I do not wish the reputation agent to show me any further links from this user." That would allow the choice to be mine as to what I did or didn't want to see. Right now though, I sometimes feel captive, like if I pull up the Agent and see a really offensive headline, I have no way to remove it from my screen -- my only options are to either endure it for a couple days until it eventually scrolls off, or else to simply avoid the Memestreams Agent entirely so as not to see them. With a "squelch" option though, the problem would be addressed (and I could always unsquelch people later). Another option would be to say "Squelch" post, meaning I didn't want to necessarily squelch everything that a particular user said, but that having seen the post once in my Agent, I was done with it, and didn't want the Agent to show it to me again.

I think this would be a good option to implement in *any* case, not just for the situations of, "I don't agree with what this person is saying," but also for the inevitable future of some Memestreams users using Memestreams as a forum to spew curses at the world (or to issue spam posts). I feel strongly that there needs to be a way to empower other Memestreams users to avoid those Memestreams members that they just plain don't want to hear from.

RE: Same Shit Different Asshole