Lets clairify free speach once and for all.

Classic Toy Trains Forum
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Reading some of the other posts here, people are compaining about censorship over and over again. It made me wonder so i went to the original owners manual for this country. Here it is in its entirity.

Amendment I - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Now i am no constitutional scholar, but it appears to me that this is a private forum, hosted by a business, and there for does not fall under the “freedom of speach” clause of the constitution. Plain and simple, the GOVERMENT shall not restrict your free speach, says nothing about a private individual or company. WE have a decision to make as consumers as to whether or not we will support censorship. WE vote with our wallet.
I support free speach in all its forms, but in todays litigious society i understand a business need to regualte something that exerts so much influence on what people buy. THe negative posts about MTH have caused me to not buy their products. THat is a powerful tool since i spent well over 6000.00 last year on this hobby. However i have also noticed that when i post a fair review of an item, good and bad, it is never deleted.
Thanks for listening. Bill

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well said Bill!

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Very well put Bill!!! Many people see CYBERSPACE as a free range, where they can do anything and say anything. First amendment and all that. You are right, it’s not that way!

We are guests of the businesses that sponsor web sites, and they have rules. What makes THIS site so great and powerful is that with only a few exceptions anything can be discussed.

I realize that the other topic has taken a rather political tone, but there ARE issuses beyond the trains on our layouts that effect us as hobbyists, and in all honesty I don’t know where else they can be discussed among an audience as large and diverse as this one here.

See why THIS forum is so great???

4

Bill

I agree you are not a constitutional scholar.

Free speech applies even to private enterprise. A company you work for can not deprive you of your basic civil rights, if you think otherwise you need to read more on civil rights case law.

A private business “operating publicly” can not do as it pleases in this country even though it is not our GOVERNMENT doing the activity. For examples: a private concern can not : discriminate, kill, have slavery, refuse to deal with minorities, and of course redefine and moderate free speech. We the people have to let them do this to us by participating.

The forums I have seen, do not constitute limited private clubs as the internet is public and availiable to all.

Federal supremacy clause of the constitution say Feds rules over states who rule over cities who rule over businesses and individuals.

So are you free to deprive freedom to others? … well NO.

Alan

5

I think we can agree that forums provided by a company don’t exactly fall under the constitutional definition of “free speech:” companies voluntarily provide the forums, for whatever motivation and business purpose, and we contribute to them, for whatever motivation and personal reasons. We all derive some benefit and, perhaps, so does the hobby.

Any of us that have followed these forums for a while have seen topics get out of hand, sometimes to the point of potentially being detrimental to our relationships, or the fourm itself. Some moderation is useful. When and how is a difficult judgement.

The OGR fourm seems to respond quickly, and by deleting posts or topics.

CTT, however, takes, I think, a better approach with a cautionary post, like Bob Keller’s recent post on the "OGR, MTH, Kalmbach, and US for … " topic. Entirely appropriate, and I don’t think anyone got too offended: Bob simply made a post, just like anyone else could. I am not aware of any posts being deleted unjustly, although I only follow the toy trains forum, so could be missing some examples.

It might be worthy of note that OGR tags their forum as “Our On-Line Discussion Forum is for anything O Gauge!” while CTT’s is “Toy train operating and collecting.
Ask questions, offer tips, post a topic here about toy trains.”

The key wording in both is a discussion related to trains.

There has been an implication that OGR polices its forum as a service to its advertisers, deleting anything that may be detrimental to products or company image. If so, then OGR is not following its “anything O-Gauge” promise. I don’t think this can be exactly true, however, as any diligence towards this end would ruin the usefulness of a forum, to participants, OGR, and its advertisers. I would hope that vendors to this hobby derive some benefit from these forums as well.

We users of a forum might note that every screen has the forum provider’s name and logo at the

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AlanHN : You are correct in saying that a company cannot limit your free speach, however they can curb it substantially. I cannot say many things to a person due to race, gender, physical appearence or other.
That being said, your argument hold very little water. The internet is not free, by almost any defintion of the word. It costs money to get on, it costs money to maintain, it is not run by the goverment so therefore it is not protected by the same free speech clauses. Try to sue the OGR forum for censorship and you would be laughed out of court. THere is no inherient right ot say what you want in a business, be it a brick and mortar or a website. I cannot go into a wallmarts and proclaimat the top of my lungs that they suck, i will be arrested for trespassing. Again private property. However i have every right to picket outside the store and say whatever i want. That is protected free speech.
I am not a constitutional scholar, however i am willing to admit that i do not know everything. I have never passed myself off as a expert on anything on this forum or in life. However Alan’s opening line tells me that he is a person who would like to be known as a expert, though i doubt he is either. So in the future Alan, keep the snide comments to yourself. Or you will soon find yourself banished from another forum.
Bill

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Alan, I understand that you have had some very bad experiences in the past regarding censorship. I think that you have seen that Kalmbach is able to give you a lot more of the “freedom” that you seek, and my hat’s off to them for that. This may be as good as it gets in CYBERSPACE!!!

ENJOY IT!!! and use it to do good for the hobby!!! I ALWAYS TRY TO!!! [swg]

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I couldn’t agree more and he’s not alone–check out the following excerpts from these other forum rules: (the emphasis is mine)

Atlas O

…Any user who finds material posted by another user objectionable is encouraged to contact us via email. We are authorized by you to remove or modify any data submitted by you to these forums for any reason we feel constitutes a violation of our policies, whether stated, implied or not.

…In your use of these forums, you agree that you will not post any information which is vulgar, harassing, hateful, threatening, invading of others privacy, politically, religiously, or sexually oriented, or violates any laws.

OGRR

…Any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact us immediately by email. We have the ability to remove objectionable messages and we will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable time frame, if we determine that removal is necessary.

…You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use the O Gauge Railroading On-Line Forum to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person’s privacy, or otherwise violative of any law.

…OGR Publis

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You are absolutely correct about the rights reserved by the various forum sponsors, and thank you for posting the side by side comparison. The key here is in how the different sponsors choose to exersise those rights. I don’t think anyone here really wants to abuse them or even test them. Some hosts are simply more tolerant than others, and I for one recognize and appreciate that fact.

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That’s very Good Dennis B! Every one should read and reread your above post.

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YAPPITY-YAP-YAP

all i’m getting is clicks and buzzes folks…

are we still talking about trains?

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Alan,

A company can’t regulate free speech?! Puh-leeze! Try doing what I do for a living!

Not only is my speech “limited”, it’s recorded, dissected, critiqued, and dissected again! And then they time it, to make sure I’m not talking too much. Believe you me, if I exercised my “free speech” rights here in Burlington, Vermont…and said what I really think…not only would I get fired, but the tattooed, long-haired, birkenstock wearing, dope smoking morons who run this city would set fire to the building!

Point is, there are times when we as individuals and as corporate entities should keep our yaps shut.

As the host of a morning radio show, I’m very much like a board moderator. Only I have full and immediate control over every call to the station during my show. Some make it on, and some just go away…either because they’re inane, poorly spoken, or are taking the show where I don’t want it to go.

Please don’t confuse free speech with the right to be heard. No where in the constitution does it say ANYBODY has to listen to you!

Jon [8D]

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If you right an article or book, is there any law that says that a publishing company has to accept it? If you write a letter to a newspaper, is there a law that says it has to be published?

View posts on any forum like an article, and you will see that the forum host has every right to accept or reject any of those “articles” without giving you a reason for rejection.

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Woodsy, I’m afraid that just shouting stop on a “housekeeping” topic like this doesn’t have much effect. This stuff needs to be said and played out in order for it to end. That is the goal!

Train related topics are always available, and you can always create one if you don’t see one you like.[swg]

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Does the term “Common Sense” mean anything anymore?
I don’t believe so when you see the lawsuits that go to court.
P.S. Guess who has a summons for jury duty next week …

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No, the term Common Sense does NOT mean anything anymore. That’s why it says “Caution: HOT” on your coffe cup. :slight_smile:

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i suppose big boy 4005 is correct, and i am known for acting first and thinking second in my family…

it just makes me twitch a little (like the chief inspestor in the pink panther) to hear all the constitutional yammering on a toy train forum. i visit 5~6 train forums most weeks and they are ALL talking about OGR and free speech/censorship. nobody has any rights here, INCLUDING ME, except those allowed by the forum masters/owners. the forum is free. not our speech or typing… not here anyway. (or in any web forum) you waived your rights when you agreed to the forum terms (yes, even if you didn’t read them)

if the saying “there is no such thing as bad press” is true. OGR did the right thing i think.
i’m gonna keep visiting lots of forums looking for people talking about choo-choos. and next time i promise i’ll try harder to talk about trains instead of whatever it is i’m talking about here…

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Thanks Woodsy, I too want to get through this issue, and it looks like it’s winding down. While we wait for the rest of the gang to view this, there is a little time for humor.

Back to Doug and Dan’s remarks about common sense, at least it doesn’t say “open other end” on the bottom of pop cans (YET)[swg]

19

Okay

Let’s make this clear, contracts you agree to that violate public policy are unenforceable. You can’t be held to an agreement to violate the law

It doesn’t matter what they say OR what you “agree to” by word or deed in using a forum you can never agree to be deprived of your civil rights. A forum can state anything it chooses, it doesnt make it meaningful.

If the forum says "we reserve the right(what right was that) to kill any users that use the letter “q’ without a “u” in a thread, if you use our service.” How many think that that contract is any more enforceable than the ridiculous dribble from the forums posted?

Alan

20

And another thing

A thread on OGRR posted(not by me) had a link to one of my posts on this forum;

Guess What… that CTT link was deleted…

How is that action covered by the dribble from OGRR above.??? i guess Melvin felt it was one of the following:

knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person’s privacy, or otherwise violative of any law.

Do you agree? Or do you think it wa$ about $omething el$e!

Alan