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I learned at the age of 12 that you do -NOT- have freedom of speech on the internet. I was on some internet forum causing a ruckus and one of the moderators tol
by ben_jones 10y ago
I learned at the age of 12 that you do -NOT- have freedom of speech on the internet. I was on some internet forum causing a ruckus and one of the moderators told me to stop posting or whatever. I countered with "free speech!" and got banned off the forum.
Most of the internet we choose to use is a collection of walled gardens. People can kick you out of their garden, that's how it works.
- x1798DE 10y agoJust because someone doesn't have to give it to you doesn't mean it's a good idea for those people to restrict it.
- MOARDONGZPLZ 10y agoI don't think anyone on here was saying or implying that that's NOT how it should work. In fact, at least one commenter stated that they wouldn't have it any other way. We're discussing a normative conclusion that even though "people can kick you out of their garden, that's now it works", perhaps people shouldn't choose to kick others out of their "garden" because of disagreements and free speech issues (though they're always welcome to do so).
- ry_ry 10y agoI know it's frowned upon to discuss downvotes, but I think it's relevant to the conversation. Godwin-evoking private forum moderators exercising their right to police their turf aside, I always find self-moderating upvote/karma systems on forums interesting. Ostensibly the point is to allow users to control the tone of the site, and promote interesting, relevant content. In practice it is used to bury unpopular opinions and register distain. Some comments are justifiably downvoted for being of spectacularly low quality, whilst many others are hit for not reflecting prevailing opinion - essentially we (internet commentators in general, not specifically HN, although it's hardly exempt) actively squash Free Speech on a daily basis.