I'm sitting here thinking "What the fuck", after I got banned for 2 weeks, for my first offense, telling a mod to "Fuck off, seriously" after he took on what I perceived to be quite a narky tone; "WE DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL SHIT" when I was trying to explain some background information as to why it was pretty urgent that I find a particular kind of broadband. In general, I was bitching about the terrible internet we have in Ireland, sharing my experience of it. So it REALLY set me off that he said that.
This made me think of two things. Firstly that I'm sick of the pretentious "Anti-emo" attitude where nobody gives a shit about anyone yet somehow we expect to have a working community; and secondly, fuck, the internet is strict.
On the second offense, I will be permanently banned. On that forum, I was a key player in getting a radio programme shed some light on a broadband company who weren't offering the service they advertising. I was contributing. But they still treat me like some stupid little kid.
I have Aspergers Syndrome and my particular form of it tends to manifest itself in extreme difficulty with online communications; getting overly aggressive at not being able to get a point across. It's difficult to help this. Since the internet is rule based and not logic based - it refuses to take this into account; refuses to acknowledge that it's not fair to hold me to the same standards. I do have ISSUES. But those issues wouldn't be so big if it wasn't for the bigger issue - OTHER PEOPLE. Other people are jackasses.
They mindlessly support an institution because they really believe that someone can "own" a gathering of people. But that's bullshit.
Not to mention - let's say an admin of a forum bans someone unfairly; it's "his forum" after all, so most would argue it isn't unfair at all(since they are jackasses with microscopic logic centers). But then; imagine another, alternate universe admin, who DOESN'T get an erection from imagining himself becoming Judge Dredd for a day. Now, there is an issue here. This alt-admin is a much fairer guy. He made a better decision.
Suddenly, we remember what "right" and "wrong" are and realise that "private property" doesn't matter as much as we've been brainwashed to believe.
At least... in theory. But that doesn't happen.
The reason why "private property" doesn't work is that, take this Broadband forum. Now, it is the centre of broadband discussion in Ireland. There is no other place I can go to be a productive member of issues relating to broadband, really. People aren't going to join a forum just because "some banned member wants us too" - most people are sheep, and don't see a problem, even when the strictness is still affecting their freedom of expression. It is NOT easy to set up a forum - it tends to be down to luck, or just plain mimicking the BS that already goes on so people will stick to what their used to, just somewhere else. This isn't "free speech" - it's luck of the draw.
So this decision remains to be unfair. It's ethically a WRONG decision. It becomes an issue of Might. Vs. Right.
These guys are obviously wrong; but who's going to tell them otherwise? The members? Higher up mods? That's not going to happen.
At least Judge Dredd tends to judge people who actually do things wrong. Opposing the institution, whether it be "official" of a set of clique-ish notions, even aggressively, is not "wrong". Yet it will get you banned FAR more often than genuine, malicious trolling(which most of these forums deserve, directed towards the mods). Even if someone claims they can do what they like with their property, that's still WRONG and it should be DISCOURAGED.
I think a lot of this has to do with a bit of a conservative backlash; mindlessly upholding "Amerikan" values over all logic.
I just wish I knew how to get people to understand.
