I see this debate come up often in forums. A member will say something, the admin will delete it or whatever, and then the member will complain because he/she can say whatever he/she wants because of freedom of speech.

ADMINS: This is NOT true at all, and you should all know how to respond to it. The free speech rule applies to public gatherings, places, buildings, etc. Since your forums are privately owned and operated your members are NOT entitled to free speech. Many members do not know this and neither do many admins. It's important that you understand what free speech applies to and what it does not apply to.

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I have never had this happen to me mostly because I know all my members personally like they are my friends and they know each other and all.. but that was with my old forum, but now I just got a new forum and I have members and only 1 I referred, so I don't know the rest but they are really nice and write long things in the intros and all.

I have seen in other forums when the members are posting topics in the lets say questions and suggestions and comments etc. and they are like THIS FORUM SUCKS!!! if I was the admin of that board I would 1. warn the member 2. suspend him 3. ban him, but that depends on what he is saying, like if he's bashing a staff member I would suspend him, if he is saying how we should ban a member I would warn him, and if he was saying that the forums were really dumb and stupid and saying all the members and staff were stupid I would ban him because why would you want a member that acts like that?

Like Cadence said <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE[/center]<div class='quotemain'>your forums are privately owned and operated your members are NOT entitled to free speech.[/b][/quote] that is totally correct if you own the board and are Root Admin you can do whatever and enforce whatever (well at least on the board nothing like go kill your self [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img])

So yeah I went on long enough.... some if it may not make any sense but yeah lol

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Will Stumpf - TalkNikon
Submit your sites -> Quality Link Directory

In simple terms, a community site is not a democracy the rules are there for a reason

I've seen this come up ad nauseum over at a large site I once belonged actively to. What people who want to insult, harass and spew racist remarks refuse to understand is that internet use isn't a "right" its a priviledge, and if you can't abide by the terms of service, then you should be removed along with your offensive posts.

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No different than a brick and mortar business, you can't discriminate but you can set reasonable rules and enforce them.

You wouldn't allow someone to stand in your front office and scream obscenities at your clients, you would call the cops or boot them out. no cops on the internet but it's real easy to boot them out.

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I agree with what you all have said..and some excellent examples. Furthermore when registering many boards show thier TOS..and for vB there is a statement which says that any offending posts can be removed, and members agree to it. If legal jargon is forced..admins usually have full right to enforce their legal responsibily and rights on them Further, even in democracies there is a limit of freedom of speech that it does not infringe rights of others Like hate..in Canada freedom of speech is compromised when hate of other religions/cultures is presented

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Should add, if removing posts/threads always tell the member why. Don't get into an arguement over it ... you're the boss after all.