Post deletion

[Tara]

epaddy and Duff (and anyone else who's interested in the topic), I was intrigued by some of your posts on this topic and thought I'd start a separate thread to discuss it - to save the mods the trouble of having to split one of my threads and to avoid getting dragged into the quagmire of personal attacks in some of the other threads.

There have been a few posts suggesting that the mods owe us more of an explanation when it comes to deleting posts, but I don't agree with that position. It seems to be predicated on a belief that people have a right of freedom of speech. While it's true that free speech rights are protected under Irish law, they're not qualified and most importantly they are rights which are exercisable against the State, rather than against private individuals. In contrast, the right to a good name is a right you can exercise against private individuals. So the moderators don't actually owe any of us a right to free speech, but they have to be careful not to expose themselves legally, if someone abuses the privilege afforded to them on here and libels someone, or bullies someone, or harasses someone. So I would not be so quick to judge them for deleting posts. And as for the suggestion that they should justify every post deletion - again they have to be careful. If they say, "I deleted that post because you libelled someone" and actually it wasn't a libellous post, or they had misconstrued it, then they've actually libelled the poster. So they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. In the circumstances, I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt. I'm all for healthy debate, but I think it helps to consider things from their perspective before criticising their actions.

[Duff Paddy]

but I think it helps to consider things from their perspective before labelling them Nazis.

Tara it is really really annoying that a woman of your intelligence cannot even be bothered to read the actual posts before throwing out lines like this. Nobody has labelled Limey or any of the mods "nazis". Below is a direct cut and paste of what was said:

As I said I think this is a good site run well. I enjoy reading most posts here but find it a bit hard to take when people slag off the Mods.

Again my point stands, If you dont like the site leave. If you want to use the site maybe lay off the mods.

to which I replied...

what the hell is this place - 1930's Germany?...

Now if you read that and thought that I was calling Limey or any of the mods a Nazi then I give up because I was clearly replying directly to Leo's (I even quoted him in my reply) comment saying that "if you don't like the site, then leave".

[Tara]

Apologies - there I go disregarding the very concerns my post was raising. I didn't mean to imply that you had called anyone a Nazi. I'm fairly certain epaddy used the term tho. I'll go and do a search and if I can't find it, I'll come back and apologise to him too.

[Duff Paddy]

Right sorry, didn't see him using the term but I thought you were referring to 1930's Germany comment.

[Duff Paddy]

... he didn't say that in the "polite request" thread at least

[Tara]

Agreed but I thought he'd said it elsewhere. Just did a search and this is a I could find:

http://forum.leinsterfans.com/viewtopic ... 838#113838

So epaddy apologies to you too! Clearly at some subliminal level I think the mods are Nazis.

I'll amend my original post and then I'm off out to get drunk which may improve my coherence later.

[epaddy]

Tara, I have called the mods Nazis before, but it must have been deleted.

[Tara]

Groan. Does that mean I have to apologise for apologising?

Whatever, my incredibly poorly made point remains - moderation is a legal minefield and a little understanding is called for.