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'm not saying that we should be
] Disney-qualified, but I would like to maintain a minimum level
] of civility.
]
] Or do other Memestreams members disagree? I'm willing to go
] with the will of the community on this, so if most of
] Memestreams feels that profanity is okay in headlines under an
] "we're all adults here, deal with it", then I'll switch my own
] course accordingly, in terms of what types of people that I
] try to invite into the community.

I don't know what to tell you. I can't stop people from cursing, I don't think its likely a culture that dosen't accept cursing will form, and I can't think of a reasonable way to code filtering abilities into MemeStreams that will not totally throw off our development roadmap. I don't know how to approach this problem.

In the future, we will likely provide the ability to apply filters to what content you see, giving you the ability to censor what you take in. Any filters would be determined by you, for you, and only apply to you. This is not currently on our roadmap. There are many things we have to do before we start working on features like that.

I refuse to type a single line of code that amounts to the implementation of censorship, but I have no problem doing things that allow people to censor what they see. As long as you are making those decisions for youself, and someone else is not making them for you, its fine. You get to decide how you want to raise your kids, I'm not going to tell you how to do it. If you want to censor what they see, fine. You want to censor what you see, fine. Its your right.

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. As far as the main page goes, anything that makes it up there is, in theory, a reflection of the community. We have no way to directly influence the behavior of the community, nor should we.

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.

Decius may have different views on this, and the buck stops with him when it comes to system policy. I just code. And my code treats all people, ideas, and forms of expression as equal.

In terms of my role as a MemeStreams staffer, I'm not going to tell people what they can and cannot say, otherwise I would be a hypocrite and betray my own principles. In terms of me personally, I'm an opinionated loudmouth and I'll say what I want. If I want to retain the right to be an opinionated loudmouth, I need to protect everyone else's right to do the same.

I want this system to be appealing to the widest possible audience, but not at the cost of limiting or regulating speech. That will not happen here. If the cost of unregulated speech is the loss of some users, then so be it. Even if my country told me I had to regulate or limit speech on this system, I would disobey, even at the cost of my freedom. That _is_ the cost of freedom.

Sorry. There is nothing I can do.

RE: Same Shit Different Asshole