Freedom of speech on this forum

Freedom of speech. It's an important part of this forum. I find it difficult to comprehend then that no less than 13 posts have been deleted from a recent thread I started and then the thread has been closed. I didn't write the posts by the way. The posts related to someones past and on the face of it they weren't particularly relevant to the discussion. However they weren't insulting, derogatory nor talking about new information. The person subject of the posts had submitted a long post in 2001 about what had occurred so if they didn't want it brought up again then I'm not sure why they would have written the post. Anyway, freedom of speech is a basic human right in a free country. I understand rules apply to forums to keep them running smoothly. We are extremely fortunate to have this forum however its viability and legitimacy is shaky when posts are deleted that inform, educate and provide information that will assist investors make decisions. Someone's opinion on what is irrelevant or inappropriate is just that, their opinion. It does not mean they are right though. Closing the thread in the middle of an informative discussion is disappointing for all those who contribute and read in this forum.

One thing is freedom of speech, and another is off topic & personal in what is a real estate forum.
I'll go toe 2 toe with MY in any and every detail regarding RE and investing as this is and investment forum.
Anything about personal histories and I'm the first to lodge a complaint (and yes I did) requesting deletion.
This is not the place.

Though I strongly do not believe the thread should be closed, as that is censoring a very important and relevant RE discussion imo.

doozer said:

Anyway, freedom of speech is a basic human right in a free country.

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Then campaign to change the Australian Constitution as it does not grant it, nor personal privacy.

All society function based on rules and regulations, without these things it just becomes a mess that no-one wants to know about. Seriously, the rules and regulations for posting in the SS forums are clearly displayed for all to read, if people chose to go against these rules then the consequences are also clearly laid out. People do have to choice to speak freely and openly about topics - they just need to follow the rules. If they want to talk about something off topic, they should start a new thread in an appropriate forum.

Hi all,

I can understand why the off topic comments were deleted, however I do not understand why the thread was closed as well. There were still legitimate questions and discussion happening.

bye

I agree that the post that has been closed was very interesting and raised some relevant and interesting points.

I do not know the reasons for the deleted off topic posts, but if the posts were defamtory (not saying that they were as I don't know what the posts said), then it was a good idea to close the whole tread down to stop the defamtory action and send a message that that kind of behaviour is unacceptable.

Hi Doozer,

I am curious to know whether your views would be the same if the said forum was funded by an individual (not taxpayers etc) - would you say that the funder/owner of the forum would ultimately get the final say on what gets posted on the forum?

The Y-man

SS also needs to consider its liability should some form of repeat incident occur and someone may have taken reasonable precautions had the posts not been deleted?

Bill.L said:

Hi all,

I can understand why the off topic comments were deleted, however I do not understand why the thread was closed as well. There were still legitimate questions and discussion happening.

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pickle pickle said:

I agree that the post that has been closed was very interesting and raised some relevant and interesting points.

I do not know the reasons for the deleted off topic posts, but if the posts were defamtory (not saying that they were as I don't know what the posts said), then it was a good idea to close the whole tread down to stop the defamtory action and send a message that that kind of behaviour is unacceptable.

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It can be reopened - but the question in the mod team's collective minds are on how much monitoring a particular thread will require to stop it going off track again - and at the end of the day, how readable it would be with a stack of deleted posts in there.

Cheers,

The Y-man

Some of the posts that were deleted did not deserve to be. I agree some were off topic and did not add to the discussion but to have the whole thread closed defies comprehension. Whilst freedom of speech is not legislated in the Constitution (but it should be) despite one government website saying freedom of speech is a fundamental right of every Australian:

http://www.immi.gov.au/living-in-australia/choose-australia/about-australia/five-freedoms.htm

I don't think a thread should be closed right in the middle of a topical and informative discussion. Deleting posts is one thing closing a thread is another.

doozer said:

Freedom of speech. It's an important part of this forum.

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Where did you read that?

This forum is owned and run by individuals not the State.

The moderators have the ability to delete posts and do a great job in my eyes. You should see all the stuff they quickly remove. Spam is very frequent. Things like trolls, spam etc really ruin a forum.

I think the bottom line is that if you want a forum where "anything goes" then this probably isn't it.

I like this place because it is well moderated.

Cheers,

The Y-man said:

It can be reopened - but the question in the mod team's collective minds are on how much monitoring a particular thread will require to stop it going off track again - and at the end of the day, how readable it would be with a stack of deleted posts in there.
The Y-man

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I have to assume that it will be topic of discussion, but if that's the case (to much time) why have a forum at all?
Anyone can sign up and post all sorts of abuse etc and it will be there until it's deleted.
It is perfectly readable and the concepts of the thread are all there 100% intact.
And it will likely be reopen soon, I hope.

To me it has nothing to with legalities, FOS, etc.
I'm not concerned about anyone's private life and/or history, and I the only reason I come here to discuss, and read about RE and investing.

doozer said:

Some of the posts that were deleted did not deserve to be. I agree some were off topic and did not add to the discussion but to have the whole thread closed defies comprehension. Whilst freedom of speech is not legislated in the Constitution (but it should be) despite one government website saying freedom of speech is a fundamental right of every Australian:

http://www.immi.gov.au/living-in-australia/choose-australia/about-australia/five-freedoms.htm

I don't think a thread should be closed right in the middle of a topical and informative discussion. Deleting posts is one thing closing a thread is another.

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I don't think simply deleting posts gets the message across that the posts are unacceptable behaviour. The whole thread needs to be closed off to make the point that there are rules in posting.

I wouldn't of noticed that there was an issue about deleted posts, however I have noticed there's an issue as now the thread has been closed.

That which is on the public record is obviously fair comment. But hey! I've been around for a while and this was news to me, and frankly I have a right to know!

It's not surprising that I was unaware because I don't take property sprukers seriously. I generally prefer to take advice from people with the highest integrity and as I have never been to one of his seminars it is quite possible that that I could overlook the past and accept his claims of that integrity should I meet him.

I just think I have the right to be forewarned.

Sunfish said:

That which is on the public record is obviously fair comment. But hey! I've been around for a while and this was news to me, and frankly I have a right to know!

It's not surprising that I was unaware because I don't take property sprukers seriously. I generally prefer to take advice from people with the highest integrity and as I have never been to one of his seminars it is quite possible that that I could overlook the past and accept his claims of that integrity should I meet him.

I just think I have the right to be forewarned.

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If we over analyis everyone on this forum, we can find that everyone has a vested interested in something.

I couldn't care less if someone has a vested interested in making there arguments. I'm still interested in hearing them.

Sunfish said:

That which is on the public record is obviously fair comment. But hey! I've been around for a while and this was news to me, and frankly I have a right to know!

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lol I think you should lead a protest march with flags and banners and fight for your rights. Viva la revolucion!

Though it had nothing to with RE investing and it was'nt about vested interests.

pickle pickle said:

Doozer,
You won. The post has been reopened.

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As for "doozer winning", I would bet I was the first to request deletion of a few posts, followed with a few compliments and niceties (that are better not printed) for closing the thread.
Pretty much risking being banned , for yet another infraction, sticking up for someone whom in terms of RE investment I hardly ever agree with.

i find the freedom of speech issue laughable in the first post mentioned....

if you dont own the site then stfu...its that simple....

a site owner can pull any post they want or give authority to pull any post that they feel falls under anything they want

i have my say and get posts pulled, so what!

move on princess and harden up a bit!

lifes too short you know.............

doozer said:

Anyway, freedom of speech is a basic human right in a free country.

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I agree with that statement, however Australia isn't one of them.

Actually I don't think these magical 'free' countries actually exist in real life.

csc2 said:

a site owner can pull any post they want or give authority to pull any post that they feel falls under anything they want

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Yes, but depending on what they do they will lose credibility.
And given that someone's name is attached to this forum, that may not be a positive outcome.
And even though it's a free forum, it's not exempt from the "laws of the land" even though it's a .com as the owners & mods are known.

Sunfish said:

That which is on the public record is obviously fair comment. But hey! I've been around for a while and this was news to me, and frankly I have a right to know!

It's not surprising that I was unaware because I don't take property sprukers seriously. I generally prefer to take advice from people with the highest integrity and as I have never been to one of his seminars it is quite possible that that I could overlook the past and accept his claims of that integrity should I meet him.

I just think I have the right to be forewarned.

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Hi Sunfish

I don't know about your "right to know"- after all this is a public forum, not a family- though sometimes it appears that way However in this day and age of information technology it's not hard to google people if you want to find out more about them. MY has been open on this forum before about what happened back in 1999 and I think his response on this very forum back in 2001 is probably still in the archives somewhere - here it is http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1800&highlight=michael+yardney+doctor

Googling people can actually be quite revealing, as I've discovered in my industry. I've also stumbled across old acquaintances and school mates, which wouldn't have been possible in the pre-net days. It's such a small world, really